NED University designs, fabricates commercial ventilator!

Although it cannot be the replacement of physical interaction, going online was the only option available for the universities in Pakistan, says Dr. Sarosh H Lodhi. NED University is running online classes successfully since the pandemic forced the institutions to stay home.
Dr Lodhi said they knew the issues associated with online classes such as connectivity and availability of electricity but still it was a successful process so far. NED has adopted a hybrid system for undergraduate classes and lectures are recorded coupled with live sessions. Our interaction with the students has been wonderful.
Since we are an engineering institution, we, of course, need laboratory support too. Thus we have allocated 5 weeks for practicals which we will either do in smaller groups keeping in view SOPs for the pandemic or go online again.
Moreover, examinations are also a challenge and we are experimenting with how to do it as we are examining the models being used around the world.
Keeping in view the financial crunch of the students, Dr Lodhi said the university had decided to reduce 20 percent in semester fees from the next semester. Also, we are reaching out to our alumni for more scholarships for the students. We have been targeting 1500 to 1600 students for scholarships which now we intend to increase to at least 3000.
Dr Sarosh Lodhi had another success to share with during the interview believing the university has played its due role in the context of the pandemic. He revealed that NED has designed the Sindh government’s COVID 19 database and is also managing it. The university did the modeling of that data as well.
He said the university also repaired damaged ventilators for the government and all that was free of cost.
Most importantly, he said Dr. Riazuddin of NED University designed and fabricated a commercial ventilator. All of its tests have been conducted except the clinical one. Now it will go for DRAP certification and, meanwhile, the PEC has asked to prepare for the manufacturing of the ventilator.
Yet another part that we played was designing of Sindh Assembly’s online session which was held recently for the new budget, reveals Dr Lodhi. This experience has developed our capacity which will be put in use in many respects.
As regards the Thar Campus of NED University, Dr Lodhi said the Sindh government has allotted 300 acres of land for constructing our building and a grant of Rs1.75. He expressed hope that they would start the construction by the third quarter of this year.