1st International Conference on Microwave, Antennas & Circuits (ICMAC 2021)
2021-12-21 09:00 - 2021-12-22 09:00 (Asia/Karachi) | RIMMS, NUST H-12 Campus, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan, Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, 44000
The First International Conference on Microwave, Antennas & Circuits (ICMAC 2021) was held at NUST, Islamabad on Dec 21-22. 2021. The conference was organized by NUST Research Institute of Microwave & Millimeter-Wave Studies (RIMMS) and the National Institute of Electronics (NIE) Islamabad.

The closing ceremony was graced by the President of Pakistan, His Excellency Dr Arif Alvi. He appreciated the efforts of NUST in taking a lead role in specialized areas of Chip Design and Radio-Frequency Technologies. He asserted that the unprecedented growth in global markets of cellular phones, IoT, Defense Electronics and Industry 4.0 necessitates the need of developing trained human resources that could contribute to meeting the domestic requirements of the country. Citing the US-China trade war revolving around semiconductors, the president emphasized the need to develop the end-to-end eco-system for ensuring the nation’s digital sovereignty and attaining a share in the burgeoning 500 Billion dollar semiconductor market. He commended the efforts of NUST-RIMMS for their strenuous efforts in arranging the conference and bringing together world-renowned professors, academicians, and researchers on a single platform.

Rector NUST, Engr Javed Mahmood Bukhari, in his address, highlighted the importance of conferences as an avenue for academic and scientific discourse. Furthermore, he added that such platforms are essential for bridging the gap between industry-academia collaborations. He mentioned that NUST has always focused on specialized scientific fields that provide indigenous solutions for local technology requirements and save foreign exchequer. He also shared the efforts underway to promote chip design R&D at NUST, including the introduction of focused academic programs, research on digital and analog ICs and the plans for a fabless chip design centre at NUST premises.
The conference general chair & Principal RIMMS, Dr Hammad M. Cheema, while presenting the conference summary, informed that more than 120 research papers from 22 countries were submitted to the conference covering the domains of antennas, microwave components, IC design and others. He emphasized the need for a national-level policy discourse to set the direction of the chip design eco-system in Pakistan. Being the first-ever conference to be held on these specialized topics in Pakistan, Dr Cheema lauded the excellent participation of over 600 students, researchers and industry representatives from the public and private sector.

ICMAC 2021 included keynote talks by renowned International Researchers of the field, including Professor Ke Wu from the University of Montreal Canada, Professor Behzad Razavi and Professor Mona Jarrahi from the University of California Los Angeles USA and Professor Tie Jun from Southeast University China. Professor Atif Shamim from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia delivered the inaugural talk. A panel discussion was also organized on "Challenges and opportunities in Radio Frequency (RF) and Integrated Circuit (IC) Design in Pakistan," along with an industrial exhibit by the leading OEMs and private companies. The conference included a talk on Active Electronically Steered Array (AESA) Radar by Keysight technologies, who were also the conference's platinum sponsor. A panel discussion on "Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Microwave Engineering and role of young professionals for the betterment of the community" was also conducted in which female professionals from four different countries shared their experiences.

RIMMS, NUST H-12 Campus, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan, Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, 44000
