Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering
Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering
Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE) at LUMS is the first private research school of science and engineering in Pakistan. In higher education, the term research school refers to a model of teaching and scholarship practised by some of the best institutions in the world where the primary function of the university is to create and disseminate new knowledge. SBASSE has consciously modelled itself along the lines of the world’s top research schools and has a highly qualified faculty to accomplish its mission. The hallmark of SBASSE is its no-boundaries philosophy, which encourages cross-disciplinary collaborations not only between various disciplines at SBASSE but also those offered by other Schools at LUMS.
A Different Kind of
Science and Engineering School
in Pakistan
300,000
Square feet of lab and
classroom learning space
70+
Dedicated labs for research,
teaching and support
Accredited by
PEC and NCEAC
Choose your path
Science for Pakistan
Contribution in Science and Technology by the researchers at SBASSE has an impact on the future development of Science in Pakistan.
Meet our Faculty
At SBASSE our faculty members share the boundaries of their life experiences and interests that foster a dynamic learning environment on campus.
Research and Impact
لمز کی فزلیب میں بطور پی ایچ ڈی طالبِ علم خدمات انجام دیتے ہوے، مزمل شاہ نے اپنے…
Reference Department:Department of Physics
لمز کی فزلیب میں بطور پی ایچ ڈی طالبِ علم خدمات انجام دیتے ہوے، مزمل شاہ نے اپنے تحقیقی مقالے میں دو جہتی ٹوپولوجیکل مادے پر روشنی گرنے سے نت نئے بدلتے زاویوں کی تحقیق پیش کی۔ امید ہے کہ ایسی جانچ پڑتال سے بائیوسینسرز کے ارتقا میں جدت لائی جا سکے گی اور مقناطیسی قوت ناپنے والے آلات کو بھی مزید بہتر بنایا جا سکے گا۔
مزمل شاہ صاحب نے اپنی تحقیق میں اِن غیر معمولی مٹیریلز کا استعمال کیا جن کا ڈھانچہ تین پرتوں پر مشتمل ہوتا ہے۔ اس میں پہلی اور تیسری پرت، جس کو دو جہتی سطح تصور کیا جاتا ہے، نہایت باریک ہوتی (صرف ۵ تا ۱۰ نینومیٹرز موٹی) اور برقی اصالت کی خوبی رکھتی ہیں، جبکہ درمیانی تہہ غیر موصل ہوتی ہے۔ مزمل شاہ کی سیمولیشن میں اوپر اور نیچے والی دو جہتی سطح پر روشنی گرائی جاتی ہے جس کے انعکاس میں اہم معلومات چھپی ہوتی ہیں۔ مگر اس سیمولیشن میں مزمل صاحب نے ایک اور متغیر عنصر کا اضافہ کیا: یعنی مقناطیسی قوت۔ اس اضافی جز سے پیدا ہونے والی توانائی کو زیمین انرجی کہا جاتا ہے۔ پہلی اور تیسری پرتوں پر گرتی ہوئی روشنی مقناطیسی میدان میں اپنی تقطیب میں رد و بدل کرتی ہے۔ یہ گھومنے کا عمل دو طرح سے بیان کیا جاتا ہے۔ جب مادے پر روشنی گر کر واپس پلٹ جائے تو اس کو گردشِ کر، جبکہ یہی عمل اگر اس طرح واقع ہو کہ روشنی مادے میں سے آر پار گزر جائے، تو اس کو گردشِ فاراڈے کہتے ہیں۔
مزمل شاہ نے دریافت کیا کہ ۵ ٹیسلا کے مقناطیسی میدان میں حیرت کن حد تک بڑی گردشِ کر دیکھی گئی۔ جبکہ اس طرح کے تجربات میں عمومی طور پر دوسرے مادوں میں گردش محض ۵ یا ۶ ڈگری تک ہوتی ہے۔ اس سیمولیشن میں یہ بڑھ کر ۱۵ ڈگری تک ناپی گئی! امید ہے کہ یہ کھوج طبیعیات کے معروف مضمون کوانٹم تھیوری کے مزید کرشمات کو انسانی عقل و فہم کے قریب لانے میں مدد دے گی۔
یہ تحقیقی مقالہ ڈاکٹر صبیح انور، ڈاکٹر علی اکبر اور ڈاکٹر محمد ساجد کے تعاون سے مکمل کیا گیا۔ اس مقالے کی مکمل تفصیلات کے لیے درج ذیل لنک پر کلک کیجیے:
https://www.osapublishing.org/ome/fulltext.cfm?uri=ome-11-2-525&id=446949
M. Shah, A. Akbar, M. Sajid, and M. Sabieh Anwar, "Transitional Faraday and Kerr effect in hybridized topological insulator thin films," Opt. Mater. Express 11, 525-538 (2021).
Notorious not only for its recurrence but also for its idiosyncratic response towards…
Reference Department:Department of Biology
Notorious not only for its recurrence but also for its idiosyncratic response towards conventional treatment, cancer has held a diabolical status in the realm of health sciences for far too long. Rising up to the challenge of better understanding cancer at its biomolecular level, Dr. Safee Ullah Chaudhary was recently rewarded a grant worth Rs. 14 million, by the National Center in Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC), to get a panoramic understanding of how cancer works differently in different patients, by developing a cloud-based cancer modelling system along with a digital modelling library. The hope is to provide a one-of-its-kind personalized cancer treatment, that takes into account different parameters from both the disease as well as the patient.
Cancer databases comprising of gene, RNA and protein expressions will be combined with patient drug interaction information and patient profile using TISON (Theatre for In-Silico Systems Oncology), a powerful cancer modelling platform. This will be done for six clinical case study models i.e., Oral Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Neuroblastoma, Autophagy and Warburg Effect (a condition that leads to increase in the rate of glucose uptake and lactate production, even in the presence of oxygen).
Through this project, Dr. Safee Ullah intends to get a better understanding of biomolecular regulatory networks, that are rendered erroneous in the onset of cancer, and also create a model for cell responses to therapeutics. These models will then be integrated into decision circuits that can figure out the fate of each cell, leading to their import into cell lines. Eventually, a patient-specific therapeutic response can be catalogued and modelled that can help with better, more personal cancer treatments in the future.
Learn more about Dr. Safee's work here: Biomedical Informatics Research Laboratory (BIRL)
Our heartiest congratulations to Dr. Safee Ullah for getting this grant; we wish him success for this project.
Four faculty members, who also serve as Principal Investigators (PIs) from the Department of…
Reference Department:Department of Electrical Engineering
Four faculty members, who also serve as Principal Investigators (PIs) from the Department of Electrical Engineering, have each been awarded a grant each (for approximately US$100k) from all four National Centers established by the Higher Education Commission.
The National Centers are designed to create national capacity in key emerging areas that have received much attention and focus, in recent years across the globe and where a competitive advantage for Pakistan can be created among its international industrial competitors. The four PIs from SBASSE were awarded grants after the centers ran their internal grant cycle and a competitive national competition.
Congratulations to the Department of Electrical Engineering!
We’d like to recognise the names of the awardees and their research theme.
1. Nauman Zaffar (PI), Waqar Ahmed (CoPI from ITU)
Theme: Electric vehicles penetration by leveraging big data
Funding Entity: National Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC)
2. Zubair Khalid (PI), Muhammad Tahir, Momin Uppal
Theme: Catalyzing Industry 4.0 using Internet-of-Things testbeds
Funding Entity: National Center for Robotics & Automation (NCRA)
3. Awais bin Altaf (PI), Wala Sadeh
Theme: On-Chip Epilepsy Predictor
Funding Entity: National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI)
4. Muhammad Tahir (PI), Zubair Khalid, Momin Uppal
Theme: Protecting Physical Infrastructure against Cyber-Attacks
Funding Entity: National Center for Cyber-Security
For millennia, civilizations have found refuge around its meandering banks and in its wide basin…
For millennia, civilizations have found refuge around its meandering banks and in its wide basin and have sustained agriculture through its vitalizing deposits of silt and sand. Its waters have largely encouraged segregated nomadic groups to live together as a community, but the sands of time have pushed communities out and apart, creating borders and boundaries, which has not only left the Indus basin at the mercy of myopic policies but also mismanaged resource utilization, intense cultivation making the whole basin highly water stressed and lacking energy security.
Now, a team of researchers including Dr. Abubakr Muhammad from the Center for Water Informatics and Technology (WIT), SBASSE, has revealed in a paper published in ‘Nature Sustainability’, that cooperation across the borders is needed as a potential route to make sustainable development in the Indus basin possible. Using NEST, an integrated model for water-energy-land-climate systems, an analysis was done that revealed cooperation between Indus basin countries can reduce investment from US$10 billion per annum to US$2 billion per annum by the year 2050, a whopping 80% reduction in investment!
The study compared 3 models i.e., business-as-usual (BAU), sustainable development goals without transboundary cooperation (SDG) and SDG-coop, where transboundary cooperation is implemented. If no action were taken, the team discovered overexploitation of water resources in the Punjab (both Indian and Pakistani) and Sindh regions can reach a staggering 250% of the current situation, where these regions are already facing water scarcity. The team suggests optimal crop shift and increased irrigation efficiency for reduction in irrigation surface, and the shift of electrical generation from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The study hopes that Pakistan will be able to save US$5 billion per annum, if timely implementation on their model is exercised.
This study was published in Nature Sustainability and can be accessed here:
Vinca, A., Parkinson, S., Riahi, K. et al. Transboundary cooperation a potential route to sustainable development in the Indus basin. Nat Sustain (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00654-7
The model code updated to scenarios described in this study is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4037884
A video outlining the study can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gIBvFSBVs0
You must have heard parents teach their younger children that sharing is caring. Well, let’s…
You must have heard parents teach their younger children that sharing is caring. Well, let’s just modify this a little bit to make it more relevant to our story: dynamic sharing is caring! But what is this all about!? Read on to find out!
We’re sure you’ve heard from that one friend about how powerful their shiny new computer is. Terms like processor, cores and multicore serve all but one purpose; to indicate speed and power of the system. However, the flaunt of a powerful system on paper renders useless when the distress of underperformance ensues. This is where the focus and attention shift from cosmetics of a product to its underlying ‘tech underbelly’, where the balance between performance and energy efficiency is the name of the game. One of the challenges in a computing system is to manage its cache effectively, so as to minimize energy utilization without affecting too much performance. Under the guidance of Dr. Muhammad Adeel Pasha (PhD advisor),Dr. Saad Zia Sheikh’s work focuses on these underlying details of a computing system.
Dr. Saad’s work mainly deals with management of shared caches, specifically devising a holistic solution for cache-aware system-level energy minimization while ensuring the schedulability for periodic tasks. Additionally, his work proposes a dynamic cache-partition schedulability analysis for multicore partitioned scheduling. This work hopes to manage the shared cache problem while also optimizing the energy consumed by the entire system.
We extend our heartiest congratulations to Dr. Saad Zia and his PhD advisor, Dr. Muhammad Adeel Pasha for this work. The following is a list of Dr. Saad’s published work.
Journal Papers:
- S. Z. Sheikh and M. A. Pasha, "Energy-Efficient Multicore Scheduling for Hard RealTime Systems: A Survey," 2018, ACM Transactions in Embedded Computing Systems (TECS) 17, 6, Article 94, 26 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3291387
- S. Z. Sheikh and M. A. Pasha, " Energy-efficient Real-time Scheduling on Multicores: A Novel Approach to Model Cache Contention,” 2020, ACM Transactions in Embedded Computing Systems (TECS). 19, 4, Article 28 ,25 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3399413
- S. Z. Sheikh and M. A. Pasha, "Cache-Aware Energy-Efficient Scheduling on Heterogeneous Multicores" IEEE Transactions in Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS)
- [Under Review]
- S. Z. Sheikh and M. A. Pasha, "Dynamic Cache-Partition Schedulability Analysis for Partitioned Scheduling on Multicore Real-Time Systems. IEEE Letters of Computer Society (LOCS) [Early Access Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9162466]
Conference Papers:
- S. Z. Sheikh and M. A. Pasha, "An Improved Model for System-Level Energy Minimization on Real-Time Systems," 2019, IEEE 27th International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (MASCOTS), Rennes, FR, 2019, pp. 276-282. DOI: 10.1109/MASCOTS.2019.00039 [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8843101]
Graduate Theses
Name: Ubaid Ullah
Supervisor: Dr. Imran Cheema
Year: 2021
MS/PhD: PhD
Department: Electrical Engineering
Science Stories
Subtitle:
Posted Date:
MATHEMATICAL INTRODUCTION TO REINFORCEMENT LEARNING
Story:
Mathematical Introduction to Reinforcement Learning is a 3-Day Workshop which is taking place online from June 9 - 11, 2021, between 11:15 AM - 1:15 PM.
This workshop is being led by Jonathan Shock from the University of Cape Town and, Andreas Matt from Imaginary, Berlin.
To REGISTER and for more information, please follow the link: https://sites.google.com/view/lumsmlw/home
The workshop will cover the following topics:
- Mathematical cover for Data Analysis
- Machine learning
- Reinforcement Learning
- Neural Networks and Deep Learning
- RL History and Applications
- Dynamic programming
- Markov Decision Processes
- Bellman equation
- Model free methods
- TD-learning
- Q-Learning
- Eligibility Traces
- Deep Q-Learning
- Double DQN
- Actor Critic Methods
- Policy methods – Reinforce
Mathematical Introduction to Reinforcement Learning is a 3-Day Workshop which is taking place online from June 9 - 11, 2021, between 11:15 AM - 1:15 PM.
This workshop is being…
Seminars and Conferences
Date:
Registration Link:
Speaker: Professor Donna Strickland
Vanue: Zoom/Online
Reference Department:Department of Physics
Ushering In a New Era Using High Intensity Lasers
Abstract:
The Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering is honored to host Dr. Donna Strickland, Nobel Laureate in Physics (2018), as a speaker for the seventh Abdus Salam Annual Memorial Lecture.
Energizing light beyond the luminance of a candle not only cleared the way for explorers on land, sea and air, but also for the explorers inside the laboratory. It begat an era of optics, slewing passion laden explorers towards studying spectacular phenomena like spectroscopy.
Fast forward to the 1980s, a similar leap was in the making. Scaffolded by hard work and a drive to create a high intensity optical laser, Dr. Donna Strickland successfully invented the ‘chirped pulse amplification’ technique, ushering in a new era of research in optics that led to a new understanding of laser-matter interactions, development of new machining techniques that are now used in laser eye surgery and micromachining techniques used in the production of glass used in smartphones.
Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester.
Brief biography of Professor Strickland:
Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester.
Strickland earned a B.Eng. from McMaster University and a PhD in optics from the University of Rochester. Strickland was a research associate at the National Research Council Canada, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a member of technical staff at Princeton University. In 1997, she joined the University of Waterloo, where her ultrafast laser group develops high-intensity laser systems for nonlinear optics investigations. Strickland served as the president of the Optical Society (OSA) in 2013 and is a fellow of OSA, SPIE, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society. She is an honorary fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Physics and an international member of the US National Academy of Science. Strickland was named a Companion of the Order of Canada.
The lecture will be open to the public and will be zoomed live on the School's social media channels:
The Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering is honored to host Dr. Donna Strickland, Nobel Laureate in Physics (2018), as a speaker for the seventh Abdus Salam Annual Memorial Lecture.
Energizing light beyond the luminance of a candle not only cleared the way for explorers on…
Public Lecture Series
Date:
Registration Link:
Speaker: Dr. Sarah Qureshi, CEO/Founder Aero Engine Craft (Pvt.) Ltd.
Vanue: Auditorium 10-301, Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering, LUMS
Reference Department:Department of Electrical Engineering
Environment Friendly Aerospace Technologies for Pakistan
Abstract: Aero Engine Craft is developing contrail-free aero-engines for the reduction of global warming and to induce artificial rain during aircraft flight through on-board water recovery from fuel emissions; creating a vision of the future for the aviation industry whereby it can not only reduce aviation induced global warming but also adopt an approach to treat the fuel emissions as a resource. A revolutionary technology is employed that eliminates contrails at source and recovers water from fuel exhaust emissions as a net positive product. This is a true definition of a disruptive technology; a global first attempt to create water within the aero-engine from the exhaust plume during flight, carry it aboard and release it as rainfall prior to landing. Our product is a low cost alternative to aero-engine redesign, and offers revenue potential to the aviation industry while solving a crucial environmental challenge.
Biography:
Dr. Sarah Qureshi is working on contrail-free aero engines as the CEO and founding director of Aero Engine Craft (Pvt) Ltd. She is also a visiting fellow at the School of Aerospace at Cranfield University. Sarah has a PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cranfield University, UK. Her area of specialization is Propulsion whereby she worked on the development of a contrail-free aero-engine that has been derived from a novel patented technology. Sarah was actively involved with the invented technical outcome of the engine. The innovated engine has a tremendous potential in bringing about an environmental revolution in the context of aviation.
Dr. Sarah Qureshi , along with the inventor of technology Mr. Masood Latif Qureshi has now set up Aero Engine Craft (Private) Limited as Pakistan's first commercial engine and aircraft company to convert this patented technology into a full scale commercial application ready to be used by modern civil transport aircraft. During her PhD, Sarah supervised a number of MSc. students for their research projects on Jet Engine Technology. Prior to this, Sarah completed her master’s degree in the field of Aerospace Dynamics from Cranfield University, UK. Her research involved the design of a trajectory following controller inclusive of stability augmentation, attitude control system and outer loop autopilot for unmanned aircraft (UAVs) flying in close formation for the purpose of air to air refuelling. After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer from Pakistan, Sarah gained extensive experience of working in the local automotive and engineering industry.
Her bachelors' research project involved the development of a measurement and data logging system for the in-cylinder temperature and combustion of an internal combustion engine. Her prime technical interests are focused upon engine technology and aircraft design. Sarah holds a Private Pilot License (PPL) with 70 hours of Flying Experience. She has also learned acrobatic flying and several flight manoeuvres while at Cranfield.
Biography:
Dr. Sarah Qureshi is working on contrail-free aero engines as the CEO and founding director of Aero Engine Craft (Pvt) Ltd. She is also a visiting fellow at the School of Aerospace at Cranfield University. Sarah has a PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering from…
سائنس اور ٹیکنالوجی کی کہانیاں
متحرک آکسائیڈ آین، رواں بجلی
شدید گرمی اور حبس کے موسم میں باہر نکل کر کام کرنے کا دل چاہتا ہے؟ نہیں؟ آکسائڈ آئنز (oxide ions) کا بھی نہیں!
لیکن انسان اور آکسائڈ آئنز میں ایک بنیادی فرق ہے: جب ہم زیادہ چلتے ہیں تو تھک جاتے ہیں، جبکہ آکسائڈ آئنز حرکت میں آئیں تو بجلی بنا سکتے ہیں!!!
جی ہاں! سائنسدانوں نےآکسائڈ آئنز کی “چہل قدمی” کے لیے بہتر ماحول پیدا کر کے بجلی بنانے کا ایک ایسا طریقہ دریافت کیا جس میں صرف ہائیڈروجن، ہوا اور آکسائڈ آئنز کی روانی درکار ہے۔اس دریافت میں solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) کا مرکزی کردار ہے۔
یہ سارا عمل تین آسان اورمختصر نکات میں بھی بتایا جا سکتا ہے:
۱۔ ایک طرف ہائیڈروجن گیس کو توڑ کر ہائیڈروجن آئنز (H+) بنائیں۔
۲- دوسری طرف آکسیجن گیس کو توڑ کر آکسائڈ آئنز (O-2) بنائیں۔
۳- ان دونوں کو ایک دوسرے سے ملا کر بجلی حاصل کریں۔
اس سارےعمل کو بروئے کار لانے میں ایک بڑا چیلنج درپیش ہے۔ دراصل SOFCs سے بجلی بنانے کے عمل میں آکسائڈ آئنز کو ایک ٹھوس برق پاش (electrolyte) سے گزر کر ہائیڈروجن آئنز سے ملنا ہوتا ہے۔ روایتی طور پر اس برق پاش کو ۷۰۰ سینٹی گریڈ کے درجہ حرارت پر رکھا جاتا ہے تاکہ آکسائڈ آئنز کے لیے اس کی ایصالیت برقرار رہے۔ لیکن اتنے زیادہ درجہ حرارت کو طویل مدت کے لیے برقرار رکھنا SOFCs کے استعمال کو مشکل بنا دیتا ہے۔ اس مسئلے کو سلجھانے کے لیے ایک نئے قسم کے برق پاش پر تحقیق کی گئی جس میں آکسائڈ آئنز کی ایصالیت کم درجہ حرارت (۶۰۰ سینٹی گریڈ) پر بھی برقرار رکھی جا سکتی ہے۔
پیرووسکائیٹ (perovskite) سے اخذ کردہ کرسٹل (Ba3VWO8.5) کی برقی صلاحیتوں کا جائزہ لیا گیا اور معلوم ہوا کہ اس مٹیریل کو SOFCs میں بطور برق پاش استعمال کر کے مطلوبہ نتائج حاصل کیے جا سکتے ہیں۔ اس کرسٹل میں پائے جانے والی آکسیجن کی بے ترتیبی اس کی ایصالیت بڑھانے میں اہم کردار ادا کرتی ہے۔
اس تحقیق کی قیادت ڈاکٹر فلک شیر نے کی اور ان کی پی-ایچ-ڈی شاگرد اسماء گیلانی شریک مصنف ہیں۔ یہ تحقیق Journal of Materials Chemistry A میں شائع کی گئی۔
حوالہ:J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 16506-16514 (DOI: 10.1039/D0TA05581F)
لنک
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2020/ta/d0ta05581f
شدید گرمی اور حبس کے موسم میں باہر نکل کر کام کرنے کا دل چاہتا ہے؟ نہیں؟ آکسائڈ آئنز (oxide ions) کا بھی نہیں!
لیکن انسان اور آکسائڈ آئنز میں ایک بنیادی فرق ہے: جب ہم زیادہ چلتے ہیں تو تھک جاتے ہیں، جبکہ آکسائڈ آئنز حرکت میں آئیں تو بجلی بنا سکتے ہیں!!!
جی ہاں! سائنسدانوں…
