EMEnents shine at ITU

Emenents keep the Pakistani flag raised @ ITU with pride!

Aneeqa Ishaq wins the 2009 ITU Cybersecurity and ICT Applications Essay Competition!

Great news! Aneeqa Ishaq, alumna of College of E&ME from Degree-27, participated in 2009 ITU Cyber-security and ICT Applications Essay Competition and was selected as one of the winners.  She has been offered a consultancy contract within the ITU Development Sector’s ICT Applications and Cyber-security Division in Geneva, Switzerland.  Aneeqa has recently graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the College of E. & M. E., National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan where she was one of the co-founders and president of the ICT and Entrepreneurship club.  While at university; she represented Pakistan at the 2008 ITU Telecom Youth Forum Asia in Bangkok, where she was elected as one of the co-chairs.

The purpose of the competition was to increase awareness of cyber-security and the potential of ICT Applications, and give young people, especially from developing countries, exposure to main issues related to these topics and to ITU’s ongoing work in this area. The competition was open to students from all over the world.

Congratulations Aneeqa! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Hamza Zaidi represents Pakistan at Telecom World Youth Forum 2009 Geneva

Youth

Two students, Syed Hamza Zaidi (De- 28 EE) and Maleeha Rizwan from CEME [NUST] and LUMS respectively, represented Pakistan in the ITU Telecom World 2009 Youth Forum held in Geneva, Switzerland from October 05-09 this year. For the participant selection phase, the ITU headquarters invited applications from the youth of each member country of the world and selected two students, one male and one female through a highly competitive process.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the leading UN agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), which organizes major events for the world’s telecommunication community. These events provide a unique global networking platform where great minds, companies and new technologies connect.

By bringing together over 300 youth fellows from across 150 countries spanning the globe, the forum presented the participants with a number of new perspectives on global communications and interconnectedness alongside the privilege of benefitting from the valuable comments and remarks delivered by globally revered personalities such as Mr Ban Ki Moon [UN Sec Gen], Mr Nelson Mandela [ex-Pres of South Africa], Mr Hamadoun Toure [ITU Sec Gen], the President of Rwanda, the Chancellor of the Canton of Geneva and many others throughout the tenure of their stay.

CERN LHC

Towards the close, a committee was formed, which drafted the Youth Forum Declaration, which is an effective means to convey the youth’s message to the ITU officials, other

telecommunication stakeholders and the world in general. Due to outstanding participation and effective representation of youth, in the final elections Hamza Zaidi made it to the last five nominees for the mail chair.

A part from sightseeing in the beautiful Geneva suburbs, Hamza, along with other youth, got a rare chance to visit Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN Labs ( in picture above and below) in France.

Its a matter of great honor and pride for CEME [NUST] to represent Pakistan at this august forum twice in a row.

NUST shines at Shell Eco-Marathon in Germany‏

Youths display true spirit of

Pakistan at Euro-speedway

By Danial Kublai Khan Monday, 18 May, 2009 DAWN.com

 ‘Pakistan is not about terrorism, we may not be ready to beat the best, but to show our true spirit in the event was enough.’ 

These were the feelings of 22-year-old Mansoor Ahmed, a student of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), after his team got nominated for the ‘Best Team Spirit’ in the Shell Eco-Marathon at Euro-speedway, Lausitz, a Formula One racetrack in Germany.
 
It was like a carnival; the speedway was filled with over 200 stalls set up for the participating teams. They were actually makeshift workshops for assembling their cars. The three-day mega event would become memorable for the participants, especially for the Pakistani teams that took part in the event for the very first time.
 
 ‘This was one of the best ways of learning about latest technology. Everyone reads books but after experiencing this event we have realised that practical is way better than theory,’ said Khurram from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Sciences and Technology (GIKI).

The event is designed for the next generation of designers and engineers to come up with such vehicles that are environment-friendly and at the same time consume lesser fuel to cover maximum distance.

 

It also becomes a platform for the younger generation to meet, interact and learn about various cultures of the world as it is open to all countries. Every night after the race ended, there was a party in which all teams had their cultural shows.

 

The NUST team managed to pull off a great performance in all the three days that resulted in it being nominated for the best team spirit. ‘People here were surprised to see that Pakistanis could also sing and dance because initially they thought we would have beards and be like barbarians,’ said Umair owais from Nust.

 

The team from GIKI, on the other hand, got nominated for best communication skills. 

 

Every year, thousands of students participate in the marathon and come from universities, colleges, technical institutes and high schools from around the world.

 

‘Pakistani children are no less designers compared to students of international universities, our young generation has an abundant amount of talent, they just need a proper focus and exposure to such international events, and in a few years time, they can prove to be assets for our country,’ said Abid Ibrahim, general manager, External Affairs of Shell Pakistan.

 

It was surely an unforgettable experience for the local teams, as they say, ‘nothing comes without a price’. There were many hurdles set on the way to the speed track, the first one being our very own customs department — the shipment of our cars for Germany. At the eleventh hour we were told to provide an amount of Rs0.5 million to the customs duty, only then we could get a clearance,’ said Mohammad Arsalan from NUST.

 

The foreign participating teams had invested thousands of dollars on their cars whereas the local teams had managed to put their vehicles together at a meagre amount of Rs250,000..

 

‘It is surprising to know that a terrorist state could come up with four vehicles, and the cherry on top is that they made their cars in such a little amount of money.’ This comment was not just from one team but many others.

 

It was funny in a sad way to see other teams that had more than a 100 members, including their faculty and technicians, whereas on the flip side, the only encouragement the Pakistani teams had were the prayers of their families and no support from the government. ‘When we went to get sponsors, we were laughed at, and people said we should do better things. They did not believe in us, they thought we could never make it,’ Mohammad Tashfeen, a student of NUST, said. Pakistan may be a developing country, but the amount of talent we have in our young generation is always underestimated, which is resulting in ‘brain drain’. If these children are not given proper focus in due time, it will not only have a negative effect on their individuality, but will also be a huge loss for Pakistan as a rising nation.

 

 

Complete article at:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/sport/16-youths-display-true-spirit-of-pakistan-at-euro-speedway-hs-05