The Three Worlds: Physical, Conceptual and Formal
We live in a physical world in which things and happenings are too complicated to understand. We and other animals have a simplified mental picture of things and happenings so as to make sense of the world. Human progress, however, has been made possible by another, more precise, formal world in which our informal mental concepts are represented by abstract but precise objects which follow clear rules of logic. In this talk, Dr. Mukhtar Ullah will explain the nature of the three worlds: the real world, the conceptual world, and the formal world. He will also explain how does the transition between them take place. Understanding the nature of the three worlds can empower one with a new way of formulating and solving problems in science and engineering.
About the speaker
Dr. Mukhtar Ullah graduated from UET Peshawar in 1999 with a BS in Electrical Engineering with Distinction. He worked as Assistant Manager (Electronics) at National Development Complex, Islamabad during 2000-2001 before he won the prestigious TROSS award that led him to complete an MS in Advanced Control & Systems Engineering with Distinction from the University of Manchester. In 2003, he then moved to the University of Rostock as a Research Scientific Officer where he completed his PhD is Systems Biology in 2009 and continued as post-doctoral researcher till 2013. He moved back to Pakistan in 2013 and joined FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences where he is, currently, a Professor and Head of Department of Electrical Engineering.
His PhD research was an application of Stochastic Models of uncertainty in Systems Biology and Bioinformatics. He has published a springer text book, and numerous publications in international journals and conferences in interdisciplinary fields including computational biology, control systems, signal processing, power systems, automation, telemetry, remote sensing, agriculture, and engineering education. while most of his course work at MS level and BS was in Controls, Signal Processing and Electronics. He has supervised 8 MS students, 2 PhD student and is currently supervising 4 PhD students. He has supervised more than 15 undergraduate final year projects in Electrical Engineering. He is collaborating with NESCOM, University of Rostock (Germany), University of Hull (UK), and National University of Singapore in wide ranging topics.
Dr. Mukhar Ullah is actively involved in evaluations of university programs and research proposals with Pakistan Engineering Council, Higher Education Commission and Pakistan Science Foundation. He is contributing to development of curriculum and assessments in many local universities.
