UET Techno Fest event,2011

While working at MORE, I had a pleasure of covering an educational event at UET- University of Engineering and Technology Lahore. Here is the article, which i had been wanting to share with you people for a very long time. It was published in the MORE IT magazine in the issue of June,2011( I was horribly annoyed to see that instead of printing my name they credited it to the whole team though it was FULLY written by me. This was one of the reason that why I resigned from MORE")

University of Engineering and Technology Lahore is the oldest engineering instititution of Pakistan which was established in 1921. UET produces more than 30,000 engineering graduates per year and is ranked 281 in world’s best engineering universities. In Asian engineering universities UET is prestigious enough to enjoy 90^th position.

UET for the first time organized a four day mega “Techno Fest Event 2011” from May 18^th, 2011 to May 21^st, 2011.The event was organized in collaboration with the Technical Societies from the faculties of Electrical, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering at University of Engineering and Technology Lahore (IEEE-UET, IET-UET, EC, WIE-UET, ACM-UET and ASME-UET). Different signature events of all the collaborating societies were featured including:

·        Wide variety of competitions,

·         Awareness conferences, and seminars on non-technical topics,

·        Women forum,

·        Job fair and improvement.

 The theme behind this mega event was to:

·         Foster the engineering students in both technical and non-technical fields by providing them with the opportunities of showing their engineering skills to the world in the form of competitions.

·        Pave ways to enhance the learning abilities of students by organizing student awareness seminars, workshops and by interacting with professionals from the industry.

Awareness seminars and conferences were aimed at providing guidance to the fresh graduates that how they can avail the best opportunities to grab the business niche at the right time. Assistance to those students who wish to continue higher education from foreign universities was also provided.

Event was officially inaugurated with the speeches of different speakers. While speaking to the audience, Dr.Hameed Ullah Mughal, chairman of energy technologies development, emphasized on the role of technologies in our daily lives. He said that today’s easy life has become possible because of the vibrant role of technologists who struggle hard to develop innovative products and e-devices for us. He was of the view that association with the challenging problems, we are to face with is necessary, in order to overcome them successfully.

 He exclaimed that Pakistan is suffering from serious crisis of energy shortfall; if we do not own this problem and integrate it with the resources available then we will never be able to survive in this challenging arena. Pakistan is blessed with wind power and other renewable resources, we only need to work together for the development of our country, he added.

Dr. Hameedullah also gave briefing on his “Energy alternate Project” which was capable of producing energy from solar heat directly, without converting it into electrical energy. The equipment consists of four batteries and a large sized dish which was made of aluminum strips. It can produce sufficient energy to run four energy savers, lights, fans and even TV. He explained further that the equipment must be installed in open-air surroundings whereas no other special care or requirements are necessary. His solar panel does not need to be charged separately, since it gets charged and consume energy side by side. There are no special maintenance charges while the total cost is only PKR 150,000. Foreign companies are offering the similar project in PKR 10, 00000.

He expressed his agitation that Pakistan is one of the rich states of the world. Being blessed with the treasure of Thar coal mines is another opportunity to beat the energy crisis. But unfortunately, Pakistan does not want to be benefitted from the available resources. “We do not have proper infrastructure to work on such mega projects”, he said. 

Professor Ali Hammad from the department of Computer sciences and Engineering department also shared his views. He highlighted the activities of his department and informed about various workshops and events which are organized by the department of computer sciences and engineering. He also told that different celebrities keep paying visits to UET and interact with students in order to boost up their mettle.

“There is a need to create a synergic effect of our efforts to help and develop original research in Pakistan”, he focused. 

Dr. Waqar Mahmood from AL-Khuwarzmi research Institute of UET mentioned that various IT labs have been established under Al-Khuwarzmi research Institute. Dedicated labs equipped with DSL, broadband, WiFi and WiMAX are working fully only by the efforts of Al-Khuwarzmi institute.

 He also informed that UET from Pakistan won Research grant from Nokia by defeating all other Asian countries. This makes the news as once again talented students from Pakistan managed to fetch the honor for their motherland.  This achievement led World Bank delegation to physically visit UET Lahore.

He said that various institutes are assisting with funds including ICT, HEC and funds from international platforms such as, Sysco, Huawei and World Bank funds.

Dr. Waqar told that they have also established a centre for Language engineering whose sphere spreads around the languages of Srilanka, India, Nepal etc.

“Research and Development is not as famous in Pakistan, as it should be. We have taken some initiatives and arranged conferences to involve students as they put lots of energy in everything”, he said.

Ahmed Saleem Khawaja was the soul of the Techno fest event as he really had some news to break, at which every Pakistan can feel proud. Moreover, he sponsored this mega event and provided a platform to both academia and industry to get to know about each other in a productive way.

He informed the audience that he owns Asia’s second largest social games industry i.e “Game View studios”.

·         Game view Studios is a leading publisher of free-to-play games for iOS, Android and other mobile platforms.

·         It was founded in 2010; Game view develops high-quality games that are social, engaging and fun for audiences of all ages.

·         It was bought by Japanese firm DeNA, one of the world’s most successful mobile Internet companies with games and community products that reach 100 million consumers spanning mobile and PC platforms.

·         Some famous and appreciated games developed under Gameview studios are Tap Fish and Tap Ranch franchises, Tap Birds, Tap Town, Tap Mall and Titans vs Olympians.     

Game View develops real estate social business games that are equally interesting for all age groups. For the children of young age group, such games are responsible:

·         To enhance their learning skills.

·        These games do not have only entertaining value, but they also possess a value of infotainment in them.

·         Games such as “Virtual retailer system, Diary farm, Tap fish and Tap birds” create a sense of responsibility in young children.

·        These games should be a part of children’s routine life as they can play their role in an excellent character- building process.

He told that Gameview studio was started by just two persons, now they are working with 300 experienced and qualified developers.

“Talent in Pakistan is not less than any other country”. “Despite of all negativity, one should not lose hope, things get better by time”, he said. According to him Game View has 35 million customers worldwide. He informed the audience during a presentation that his company’s game “Tap fish” is ranked number two in Google’s Android whereas it has acquired top most position in the gaming industry for iphones. “Top five games for android and iphone belong to “game studios”, he told.

Not only this, Mr. Ali Saleem Khwaja needs to be more appreciated as he is also a part of producing trained engineers for Pakistan. A program “electrical phoenix” has also been initiated, which train students within a time period of three weeks. It does not charge any fees to student. This program solely aims at Pakistan’s future without any considerations of “money-making agenda”.  Gameview has also opened 1000 vacancies for software engineers. According to him, top five students from UET, FAST, etc become the part of “game studios” per year. It also organizes free workshops in UET, NUST and FAST.

He opines that game studio has huge potential to bring revenues in Pakistan as one game has approximately 10 million customers from US who generate US$250 per month. “Game view studio is the only company of Pakistan which is processing all works itself from character conceptualization to the final product”, he told.

“We want to make gaming industry, the best industry of Pakistan”. “To counter the lead in IT, which India has taken, is our top most agenda”. He emphasized.

In UET Techno fest event, various competitions for the young engineers were also arranged. “Control the controller was one of the competitions arranged for young engineers, in which they were assigned to program a microcontroller chip according to their needs. It is a readymade chip but one needs to program it himself as per his needs. Therefore, the one who would program it in the most efficient way was supposed to win the competition. 

According to Waseem Ashar, one of the judges of the competition, Micro controller chip is an important device. If there was, no microcontroller chip, there would be no electrical devices invented today. Microcontrollers are used in automatically controlled products and devices, such as automobile engine control systems, implantable medical devices, remote controls, office machines, appliances, power tools, and toys.

There were three prizes for the competition. First prize was Rs 5000, whereas RS 3000 and RS 2000 for second and third respectively. Moreover, there were certificates for all the participants of the competition.

Some of the other competitions were Hunt for the punt, step from 2D to 3D, extreme coding software exhibition etc.

The success of this mega event suggests that our students are fully equipped with talent and all the skills required. The only thing they need is a platform where they could showcase their abilities to the whole world. Pakistan sends the best of its students to foreign countries and calls it “EXPORT”. Instead, these students should be encouraged to stay in Pakistan and work for Pakistan. Nothing in this world is unachievable. Khwaja Saleem, owner of Game studios, who preferred to work for Pakistan, is one of the best examples for the up-coming students of Pakistan.

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