ISLAMABAD, August 22, 2025 — The Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Centre (PASTIC) successfully hosted the 2025 Summer Research Week from August 18 to 22 at its headquarters in Islamabad. The five-day intensive training workshop focused on research design, academic writing, data analysis, and modern AI tools, drawing participation from over 25 researchers, faculty members, and postgraduate students from leading institutions including QAU, NUST, COMSATS, IIU, Bahria University, and Karachi University.
The workshop was designed to equip researchers from diverse academic backgrounds with essential skills in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, using industry-standard tools such as SPSS, NVivo, Mendeley, WEKA, and LaTeX.
The opening day featured sessions on academic research foundations, including effective literature review techniques and proposal writing strategies. Dr. Muhammad Usman delivered comprehensive insights on research types, paradigms, and methodologies, while Dr. Maryum Ibrar led a critical session on research ethics, plagiarism, and citation management using Mendeley.
Day two and three were devoted to quantitative data handling. Participants were introduced to data collection methods, questionnaire design, and hands-on sessions with SPSS software, covering descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Topics included data pre-processing, handling missing values, variable transformation, t-tests, and ANOVA. Ms. Rabia Zafar, a PASTIC alumna, co-facilitated key sessions and guided participants through advanced SPSS applications.
The fourth day transitioned into qualitative analysis, where Dr. Irfanullah Arfeen from QASM, QAU, delivered a specialized session on thematic coding using NVivo software.
The final day featured an overview of next-generation AI algorithms and real-world applications. Dr. Muhammad Usman discussed AI and data science fundamentals, with hands-on exercises using WEKA to explore classification, clustering, regression, and data visualization techniques. Dr. Usman also led a practical session on academic paper writing using LaTeX.
The event concluded with a formal closing ceremony and certificate distribution. Speaking at the closing session, participants expressed high appreciation for the initiative and urged for its continuation in the future. They praised PASTIC’s efforts in fostering a scientific and research-oriented culture across academic institutions in Pakistan.
The workshop was part of PASTIC’s ongoing mission to enhance national research capacity and promote the adoption of modern data science and AI tools across all disciplines.
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