National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences

May 2014 Newsletter Vol: 5 Issue: 9 Dr. Amir Muhammed receives Dr. Borlaug Lifetime Achievements Award

This is a moment of pride for us that billion people from starvation. Dr. Norman of the University of Agriculture, Dr. Amir Muhammed, Rector FAST-NU, Ernest Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914 from 1974 to 1977. has been awarded “Dr. Borlaug Lifetime and died on September 12, 2009. He was a Dr. Amir was a member of the prestigious Achievements Award” by the President of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and father of the Technical Advisory Committee of CGIAR. , His Excellency, Mamnoon Hussain Green Revolution. He was elected Chairman of the Board in an impressive ceremony organized to Dr. Amir Muhammed is a very dynamic of Trustees of ISNAR (The Hague, mark 50 years of Pakistan-US cooperation in agricultural professional with vast experience Netherlands) and was also a member of the agriculture and to celebrate hundred years of of institutionalizing agriculture in Pakistan BoT of ICARDA (Syria), IWMI (Sri Lanka), Dr. Norman Borlaug. including network of National Agricultural CIP (Peru) and IFDC (US). He is a Fellow Dr. Amir Muhammed has been given Research System. He is the founder and first of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS) this prestigious award in recognition of Chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research and was elected President of the Academy his lifelong contribution in the field of Council (PARC) and also established the from 1992 to 1996. Dr. Amir is also a Fellow agriculture research and development in Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Pakistan. (NIAB) in Faisalabad in 1970 and was its first Trieste, Italy and a member of the BoG of This is worth mentioning that Dr. Norman Director. He has also been a Consultant to ICIMOD based in Kathmandu. Borlaug was an American legendary several organizations including World Bank, Dr. Amir got his M.Sc (Honors with gold Scientist at International Maize and Wheat FAO, UNDP, IFAD and World Commission medal) from Punjab University and Ph.D Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) who on Dams (WCD). He served as Advisor for from Oxford University (UK) in 1959. He developed high-yielding, semi-dwarf wheat Food and Agriculture to the President of was awarded an honorary D.Sc. by the Punjab variety that is credited with saving over one Pakistan during 1977-78 and Vice Chancellor Agriculture University, Ludhiana, India. Business Idea Competition 2014 FAST Business Club at FAST School of Sufi and various other leading companies. technology, energy, agriculture, entertainment Management campus organized the Plan9 collaborated with FBC for an and services categories. A motivational fifth edition of Business Idea Competition entrepreneurship conference on the topic speaking session was also organized on (BIC) from April 11 to 12. More than 30 of “bringing out the entrepreneur in you.” the topic of youth empowerment by Saad teams from different parts of Pakistan The speakers of the conference included Rasool. The event was a great success in presented their business ideas to a panel of Director Plan9 Mr. Nabeel Qadeer and terms of national participation, diverse pool distinguished judges from the industry. The other entrepreneurs with thriving personal of judges and incubation of ideas from jury panel consisted of 26 judges, 10 out of ventures. different platforms. Lecturer FSM Ahmad which were CEOs of major companies and Prizes up to Rs. 100,000 were distributed to Qayyum along with other faculty members senior industry experts from Nestle, Telenor, the top three business ideas evolving from and students organized the event. Karachi campus thrives in IBA Probattle’14 The students of FAST-NU Karachi campus and Paras Kumar were the winners of speed got top positions in Speed Programming and programming competition with Rs. 15,000 Mobile Application Development Challenge cash prize. Silent Coders team comprising held at IBA Karachi from March 20 to 22. Abeer ur Rehman and Muhammad Noman Hatim Ameer Baloch was awarded the best came second in the competition. In brand ambassador award. Saqib Shahzad photography competition, team Black Storks Vohra and Zohair Mirza won the Toyota comprising Hadi Babul, Hamza Ali Siddiqui mobile application development challenge, and Ahmed Shah Badar got third position prize money of Rs. 75,000 and a chance after a close contest. Overall FAST-NU to work with Toyota Company. K-team Karachi got third position among all the comprising Vikash Lal Dodani, Vishal Kumar participating universities at IBA Probattle’14.

Blood donation camp at Islamabad campus Paper published in Following its tradition, FAST-NU Islamabad campus organized blood donation camp in international journal collaboration with Pakistan Red Crescent Dr. Kashif Zafar, Associate Professor Society, Islamabad. The camp was scheduled Computer Science at Lahore campus, has for two days on March 3 and 4. Around 170 got his research work titled “evolutionary students and staff members donated blood search in the space of rules for creation for a noble cause. The donated blood will of new two-player board games” be distributed through Red Crescent among published in International Journal on the needy and deserving patients of deadly Artificial Intelligence Tools (ISI-indexed diseases. Islamabad campus organizes blood with Impact Factor) in Vol. 23 and No. donation campaigns every year. 2, in April 2014. This research was in collaboration with Dr. Rauf Baig and Victory in football Dr. Zahid Halim. The football team of FAST-NU Raisani, Haris Ahmed, Sarib competed in Lahore School of Mahmood, Abu Bakar Ghumman, Economics Annual Sports Gala Ayman Saeed, Ayyaz Lone, Umer 2014 held recently. In the 4-day Mazhar, Hassaan Fayyaz, Abdus competition, FAST-NU team Sami, Muhammad Wahaj, Syed fought with LUMS, LSE, FC Faizan, Anwar Ch, Moeez Ali, College, LMDC, LGS and UMT Khurram Saeed, Muhammad Irtaza, teams. In the final, the team fought Harun Zafar and Ahmad Alauddin valiantly and won the trophy after acknowledged and thanked Sports beating LSE. Advisor Dr. Zahid Raza and The team comprising Muhammed Director Dr. Zafar Iqbal for their Abubakr (Captain), Ahmed Bilal, continuous support to promoting Moazzam Warraich, Shah Bakhsh sports activities among students.

FAST Literary Society (FLS) Islamabad Mir (EE), Head Newspaper Sara Tariq FLS launches newspaper campus successfully launched its first issue (FSM) and Azfar Imtiaz, Qabas Khan, Saad of newspaper “The FAST Panorama” Iskander, Vashma Abid (CS) as members of as a students’ engagement initiative. The editorial board. The content writers included FAST Panorama will enlighten its readers Moiz Hashmi, Shah Muhammad from EE about curricular, cross-curricular and extra- department, Nida-I-Zamir, Kanwal Tariq, curricular activities of FASTians. This is Areij Javed, Bisma Zia, Haris Bin Naeem, not just a newspaper; this is a symbol of M. Shariq Nazar, Kazim Hassan from CS creative capabilities the brilliant students of department, and Sareer Ahmad, Saad Sohail, the campus possess. The pioneering team Usra Zahid, Immara Aslam, Maryam Bashir comprised President FLS Adnan Shahjehan and Ehman Aijaz from FSM. 2 CFD campus wins photography competition Papers accepted Muaze Nakhez, Muhammad Hashim and interaction and learning not only from each Ahmed Tehsin from FAST-NU Chiniot- other but also from other great names in the at IEEE conference Faisalabad campus represented Fast field of photography, through workshops MS Computer Science students Ms. Photography Society at LUMS Annual and seminars. Nabiha Iqbal and Ms. Naila Sharif Photography Summit 2014 held at LUMS presented their papers in IEEE-iCREATE from March 28 to 29. Above 30 institutions 2014 conference held at NUST, Islamabad participated in the competition. FPS won the from April 22 to 24. This research work is light painting competition where participants supervised by Dr. Kashif Zafar and Prof. have to take innovative pictures while Waqas Zyad of Department of Computer drawing from light. Science at Lahore campus. The summit was an opportunity for students Ms. Nabiha Iqbal’s paper titled “multi- from all over Pakistan, who wished to learn objective optimization of test sequence and develop their photographic skills. The generation using multi-objective event proved to be a platform for networking, firefly algorithm (MOFA)”, while Ms. Naila Sharif presented “optimization of requirements prioritization using Carnival of Creative Arts’ 14 computational intelligence techniques.” FAST-NU Islamabad campus recently excellent managerial skills while maintaining Both the papers have been accepted in the organized a “carnival of creative arts” a perfect balance between their studies and conference. to highlight the cross-curricular talents the carnival. of the students. The week-long carnival encompassed variety of competitions including writing, poetry, debates, declamations (British Parliamentary & Pakistan National Assembly), elocution, graffiti, sketching, painting, singing, and stand-up comedy. M. Qabas Khan (CS) headed the team which not only displayed their commendable artistic skills, but also demonstrated their PYF ICT competition Tree plantation campaign held

trees. More than 25 kinds of plants including evergreen, shady and fruit-bearing plants were selected for plantation drive. A large number of students and faculty participated in the campaign with zeal and zest. Motivational banners were placed at A team of 13 individuals from Electrical the campus to highlight the importance of Engineering and Computer Science plantation. Senior management also avowed Departments, FAST-NU Islamabad, to organize such campaigns regularly in the under the supervision of Engineer future. Umair Hafeez, participated in exhibition FAST-NU Islamabad campus initiated a and competition of ICT Innovations and comprehensive plantation campaign from Student Projects at Punjab Youth Festival March 3 to March 15. More than twelve (PYF) 2014 recently held in Lahore. hundred plants were planted during the A total of six final year projects were campaign. Dr. Amir Muhammed, Rector, displayed in the event from both and Secretary General, FAST Rana Ghulam departments and were also nominated for the competition. The overall activity Shabbir planted a sapling at campus to was supported by the Faculty and Student formally inaugurate the campaign. Similarly Affairs Department. senior officials of the university and respective Departmental Heads also planted 3 FASTECH’14 held at Karachi campus Participation in test their technical expertise and skills. international workshop FASTECH’14 was organized on March 11. Students from all over Pakistan actively Mr. Farrukh Idrees, Manager QEC participated in the event. FASTECH’14 Islamabad Campus, conducted a training included seventeen well-planned workshop for Fiji Higher Education competitions for Computer Science, Commission (FHEC) and educational Engineering and Business Management institutions from April 8 to 16 in the students. These competitions helped capital city of Suva, Fiji. Dr. Richard participants polish their skills for working in Wah, Chairman FHEC inaugurated the IT, management and engineering industries. training workshop. About 20 participants The concluding session on “how to become from FHEC and academic institutions FASTECH is one of the most distinctive an entrepreneur” was arranged and the from across the country participated events organized by Think and Create (TnC), speaker was leading entrepreneur and in the workshop. Various models and a student society of FAST-NU Karachi politician Mr. Asad Umar. He motivated mechanisms of quality management in the campus, every year. It provides a platform the students to work hard to achieve their context of education management were for the entrants where they can compete and goals. discussed during the training sessions. Ph.D thesis defended IYS organizes seminar on Explore Pakistan Ms. Zareen Alamgir of Computer Science Idyllic Youth Society (IYS) at FAST-NU Department at Lahore Lahore campus recently organized a seminar campus defended on the topic “Explore Pakistan” and the publicly her Ph.D thesis importance of March 23. titled “Combinatorial Mr. Orya Maqbool Jan, senior analyst, Generation Algorithms and Dr. Rafique Ahmed, Vice Chairman for Subgraphs” on Nazarya Pakistan Trust and Member March 29. She happens to be the second Board of Governors FAST-NU, were the Ph.D in Computer Science from Lahore guests of honor. Prof. Dr. Zafar Iqbal, campus. She was supervised by Dr. S. M. Director Lahore campus, gave the vote of we were fortunate that we had gotten an Husnine. The foreign reviewers were Prof. thanks. independent country. Lynette van Zijl from South Africa and Mr. Orya Maqbool Jan emphasized on the President Idyllic Youth Society Ehtisham Ioan Tomescu from Romania, while the efforts Pakistan did after independence Khaliq in his welcome address said “youth local external examiners were Prof. Asim and also the future threats to our beloved is being derailed from its path. We should Karim from LUMS and Dr. Imran Farid country. He also said that the country focus on our responsibilities as a Pakistani from PUCIT Lahore. From her Ph.D was going far away from our traditions. and a Muslim.” The event was attended by a thesis, Zareen Alamgir has two publications Dr. Rafique Ahmed discussed the events large number of students. It ended with the in ISI Journals. leading towards making of Pakistan. He said National Anthem.

Danial Azam, Saad Zaidi, Shaheryar Baig, M. Torino, Italy on fully funded scholarship MEGA-IDEA competition Shahzeb and Wahaj Afzal. The title of their awarded by Higher Education Commission. Two projects from Electrical Engineering project was “Automation of Lathe Machines He received his BS (TE) degree from Department, FAST-NU Lahore achieved to Optimize Manufacturing.” FAST-NU Peshawar Campus in 2007 first and second prizes in MEGA-IDEA with distinction. He has six international competition at IEEE-WEEK, 2014. Welcome on board conference papers The first prize was given to the team and one book comprising Gohar Kibria Khan, Ahmed Dr. Inam Bari has joined FAST-NU Peshawar chapter to his credit. Saeed, Abdul-Moiz Waheed, Rafia Nadeem, campus on April 8 as Assistant Professor Dr. Inam Bari’s area Marium Tariq and Hummed Yousuf for their Electrical Engineering. He did Ph.D in of interest is optical project title “Low-Cost Voice Operated and Electronics and Communication Engineering communication. Mind-Controlled Wheelchair for Paraplegic.” in 2014 and MS in Communication We welcome him The second prize went to the team consisting Engineering in 2010 from Politecnico Di on board. Contact: Dr. M. Latif Virk, Registrar, National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, FAST House, Rohtas Road, G-9/4, Islamabad. Email: [email protected] Phone: 051-2264629, Edited & designed by: H.A. Minhas

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