islamabad - About 742 students of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) were awarded degrees yesterday after completion of their graduation and post-graduation during the 89th convocation held here at the Jinnah Convention Centre.
Out of 742 degrees awarded, 519 bachelors, 217 masters and six PhD degrees were conferred upon graduating students who were beaming with pride and joy on their accomplishment. Among the PhD recipients, two each were from the disciplines of biosciences, electrical engineering and physics.
Students with outstanding performance and highest cumulative grade point average (CGPA) bagged medals in 10 degree programmes. BS students who were awarded two gold medals each (institutional and campus) included: Zaima Tariq with a CGPA of 3.94; Shahrukh Malik with a CGPA of 3.91; and Shahrukh Khan with a CGPA of 3.84. Zoha Khan with a CGPA of 3.87 received the Institute Silver and Campus Gold medal. Mahnoor Ejaz received the Institute & Campus Silver medals.
Other Campus Gold Medallists included Sonia Nazakat, BS (business administration); Mansoor Ahmed (MBA); Syed Asad Abbas, BS (business studies); Mohsin Ali Butt, BS (electrical-computer-engineering); Maida Arshad, BS (physics); and Fatima Malik BS (electronics).
Among the recipients of the Campus Silver medal were: Kinza Amjad (BS-business administration);  Kiramat Ali (MBA); Ammara Sajjad (BS-electrical-computer-engineering); Hafiz Wajahat Ali (BS-computer science); Yusra Irshad (BS-bioinformatics); Maham Nazir (BS-electrical-telecommunications- engineering) Institute Bronze and Campus Silver Medal, Saba Anwar, Campus Bronze Medal, BS (business administration), Anum Asif BS (electrical computer engineering) Campus Bronze Medal, Hira Imran, Campus Bronze Medal, BS (bioinformatics), Maher un Nisa, BS electrical telecommunication engineering, Campus Bronze Medal, and Maria Akhter Abbasi, CGPA 3.83, BS (biosciences), Institute and Campus Bronze Medal.
Rector CIIT Dr SM Junaid Zaidi congratulated the graduating students. Emphasising the role of youth for becoming a source of strength for the country, he urged graduating students to work hard for the progress of Pakistan. In the present era only those nations that focused on developing their human resources would be able to compete internationally, he added.
Prof Dr Raheel Qamar, HoD biosciences department & dean of research, innovation and commercialisation (ORIC), highlighting varsity’s recent achievements said it’s a unique honour for CIIT of becoming Pakistan’s first (and only) university to publish 1,000 research papers in internationally recognised research journals in a single year (2015). He also informed that CIIT was ranked number two countrywide in terms of research productivity.
Federal Secretary for Science & Technology, Fazal Abbas Maken, Executive Director COMSATS and Chairman Board of Governors of CIIT, Dr Imtinan Elahi Qureshi, also graced the ceremony, in addition to CIIT campus directors, deans and heads of departments, students and their parents.