ASU partners to advance energy research in Pakistan

Last week Arizona State University announced that it is helping to launch the U.S.-Pakistan Centers for Advanced Studies, a $127 million investment from the United States building partnerships in higher education and research.

12 News reported on the initiative, which is a set of partnerships between world-class U.S. and Pakistani universities that will harness applied research to find innovative and practical solutions for Pakistan's energy, water, agriculture and food security challenges.

ASU will partner with both the National University of Sciences and Technology and the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, to create two centers for energy research. The five-year project will aim to boost energy production where as much as 80 percent of the population does not have a steady supply of electricity.

"This strategic alliance with two of Pakistan's leading universities is aligned with ASU's mission of helping solve global challenges, in this case promoting economic opportunities in Pakistan through education, training and research in energy," said Sethuraman Panchanathan, senior vice president for Knowledge Enterprise Development at ASU.

"This is the largest USAID project to date awarded to Arizona State University, and we are pleased to partner with these two universities to demonstrate a new model that focuses on using an innovative approach for societal advancement."