Dr. Amna Ijaz cares deeply about taking the waste out of wastewater. Her work examines how tiny particles released after burning of biomass from one part of the planet, travel through international airspace landing conveniently on some bright white snowy peaks of another part of the planet, can have a sinister effect in aiding downstream water pollution. Dr. Amna’s search for answers has led herself to land in multiple continents in trying to understand how developments in technology can lend a helping hand to solve the aerosol problem.

Dr. Amna received her MPhil in Environmental Biotechnology from National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) in Faisalabad, Pakistan, where she participated in the development a sustainable and cost-effective wastewater treatment technology that has since been extensively installed in wastewater stabilisation ponds/canals in Pakistan by her mentor at NIBGE, Dr. Muhammad Afzal's research group, for water quality restoration. She then went on to the USA through the Fulbright Foreign Student Grant to pursue a PhD at Michigan Technological University (MTU, where her research shifted to Atmospheric Chemistry.

Using state-of-the-art ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometric tools at MTU and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington, under the guidance of Dr Lynn Mazzoleni, Amna performed molecular-level characterisation of atmospheric aerosol collected downstream of wildfires, i.e., large-scale biomass burning events.

At SBASSE, Dr. Amna's teaching and research will primarily be focused on investigating chemical processes at the atmosphere (aerosol)-cryosphere (snow/ice) interface in high mountain areas of Pakistan and their impact on downstream water quality, along with an exploration of the current status of climate science and policy in Pakistan. 

We congratulate and welcome Dr. Amna Ijaz to the Afiniti Fellowship program at SBASSE, LUMS, and wish her success in her academic and research endeavors.

Like a pencil balanced upside-down, the brain is a conglomerate of finely balanced neurological jugglery that is sophisticated enough to stir fascination yet delicate enough to respond boisterously to the otherwise imperceptible fraction of an electrical impulse. To untangle some of the most gripping mysteries of the brain requires an academic arsenal of astronomical proportions. This is where Dr. Farzada Farkhooi’s research interest comes in. Dr. Farkhooi’s research agenda as an Afiniti fellow will be devoted to developing the theoretical tools necessary to address important questions in the physics of brain dynamics and functions.

Understanding our brain is interdisciplinary research and spans across physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. Dr. Farkhooi envisions extending and catalyzing her scientific knowledge and links with the vibrant local communities at the SBASSE and forming a new solid research and teaching area here.

Dr. Farzada Farkhooi received a bachelor's from Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran, and her master's from the University of Nottingham, UK. She completed her Ph.D. at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, in computational neuroscience in 2011. She was a postdoc fellow and visiting scholar at the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, USA, and CNRS, Paris, France. She established her independent line of research at the Institute for Mathematics at Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2015. Afterward, she moved to the Institute for Theoretical Biology at Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Germany. Her work is pursued in close collaboration with outstanding experimental and theoretical research groups around the world. She is building a strong publication record with articles in journals such as Physical Review Letters, Physical Review E, PLoS Computational Biology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Her life journey as a Muslim trans person, always moving, made her more resilient and resourceful in dismantling visible and invisible social barriers while doing cutting-edge research. “I quest to be on the path of conjoining myself with the active intellect, as al-Ghazālī phrases it in The Alchemy of Happiness (499 AH)— a process that, perhaps in our age, means creating a sacred space for liberating opportunities.”, says Dr. Farkhooi. Further expanding on her aspirations as an Afiniti fellow, Dr. Farkhooi said “I will contribute to the sensitization of the mentorship program to transform learning and research spaces for women and gender minorities so they can realize their full potential at SBASSE.” 

We congratulate and welcome Dr. Farzada Farkhooi to the Afiniti Fellowship program at SBASSE, LUMS, and wish her success in her academic and research endeavors. 

Communication has been at the heart of our survival. We itch to be heard, and to be understood. In modern times, the need to communicate has seen a reincarnation in that it is not only still part of our biological construct but also our civic and technological design altogether. Couple the fact that we can beam electronic signals through waves of energy and that the Earth is round, making it impossible for a beam of precious signals that inherently moves in a straight line, to follow the curves path of our world’s contours. We needed something better – we needed satellites!

In this work, Dr. Naveed ul Hassan and his co-authors worked out the energy efficiency of a satellite network coupled with ground infrastructure and compared it with the energy efficiencies of Traditional Terrestrial Heterogeneous (TTH) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks (in other words – older technology). For an increasing cell density, it was shown that the satellite-terrestrial network performs better in terms of energy efficiency as compared to the TTH and LTE networks. These results are promising and show that satellite networks can complement terrestrial networks for providing communication resources to the users.

Communication satellites have been in service for a long time. They are used to provide communication services to far off and difficult to reach places. Conventional satellites have been large-sized, expensive, and very difficult to deploy. They are also very far away, which introduces significant lag. With the recent uprise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless networks, the service requirements have changed. High data rates with low latency are required, and the current ground-based infrastructure is already overloaded. Due to these circumstances, a rise to the development of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, which have a lot less lag and better bandwidth availability. These satellites are deployed as Dense Small Satellite Networks (DSSN), across the globe, covering a large fraction of our planet at any given time.

These satellite networks have many advantages in telecommunications. Their most crucial benefit is extending coverage to areas that are otherwise difficult to cover with land infrastructure. They also provide low-latency transmission as compared to satellites in higher orbits. There is an exponential increase in the number of connected devices. Satellites can be deployed alongside ground infrastructure to support a massive number of devices. Satellite networks can provide the data rate and bandwidth requirements in areas where there is a sudden increase in network traffic and the ground infrastructure becomes loaded. Satellite networks also complement GPS systems to provide accurate locations for location-based services and can be used to cache data for reducing latency.

LEO satellites do not have a stationary footprint on the ground. Therefore, to use them in telecommunications, the satellite network infrastructure needs to be carefully planned. Satellites could form a constellation with identical satellites or clusters with non-identical satellites performing different functions. The orbital pattern of the satellites could be set as polar, rosette or hybrid. The inter-satellite communication could be based on radio frequency links, optical wireless communication links or visible light communication links. The satellite to ground contact could be either direct, could utilize a space or ground relay, or could be hybrid to utilize both types of relays.

Some technologies will aid the adoption of satellite networks in communications. Owing to the changing distances and positions between satellites, they should be fitted with intelligent, steerable, and high gain antennas. Multiple access techniques should be utilized for satellite networks where there should be provision to reuse frequency resources. Satellite networks are solar-powered, and their energy consumption characteristics are predictable because of known trajectories. Solar power optimization can be used to provide the required energy. To cater flexibility and advancement in network design and operation, satellites systems should be upgradeable to cater for new functionalities to be added remotely without changing the expensive hardware. Satellite network deployment should be optimized for resources such as capacity, power, latency and quality.

Reference:

N. U. Hassan, C. Huang, C. Yuen, A. Ahmad and Y. Zhang, "Dense Small Satellite Networks for Modern Terrestrial Communication Systems: Benefits, Infrastructure, and Technologies," in IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 96-103, October 2020, doi: 10.1109/MWC.001.1900394

پاکستان میں ایک منظر اکثر دیکھا جاتا ہے کہ کسی ویران سڑک پہ دو تین لوگ گاڑی کو دھکا لگا کے پٹرول سٹیشن تک لے  جا رہے ہوتے ہیں۔ عمومی طور پہ  ایسا پٹرول اسٹیشن کے دور ہونے کی وجہ سے ہوتا ہے۔  تاہم  غور طلب بات یہ ہے کہ   بظاہر بے ضرر نظر آنے والا یہ منظر کسی بھی ناخوشگوار واقعہ کا پیش خیمہ بن سکتا ہے۔ برقی توانائی کے حالیہ افراط سے وطنِ  عزیز  میں جہاں بجلی سے چلنے والی گاڑیوں کی آمد کی بازگشت ہے ، وہیں یہ تشویش بھی پائی جاتی ہے کہ  ان گاڑیوں کے چارجنگ اسٹیشن کہاں لگائے جائیں گے؟ 

لمز میں ڈاکٹر نوید ارشد اور انکی ٹیم  نے اس تشویش کو بروقت  زیرِ غور لانے کے بعد  اپنی ٹیم کو   ٹریفک انتظامیہ کے مختلف دفاتر میں بھیجا تاکہ وہاں سےٹریفک کے بہاؤ سمیت دیگر متعلقہ اعداد و شمار اکٹھے کیے جا سکیں۔ تمام اعداد و شمار کا تجزیہ، اور موٹر وے کا سروے کرنے کے بعد لمز کی ٹیم نے  کُل ۸۵ ایسے مقامات کا تعین کیا گیا جو ہر لحاظ سے چارجنگ اسٹیشن کے لیے موزوں  ثابت ہو سکیں گے۔ اعداد و شمار کے مطابق آغاز میں ان میں سے پندرہ کو ترجیحی بنیاد پر قائم کیا جانا چاہیے۔ تحقیق کے مطابق اگر ان  پندرہ مقامات پہ دس تیز رفتار چارجر لگائے جائیں تو وہ پاکستان کے بڑے شہروں تک رسائی کی بنیادی ضرورت کو پورا کر سکیں گے۔ 

لاہور- اسلام آباد موٹروے پرگاڑیوں کے  حالیہ بہاؤ، سالانہ اضافے کی شرح اور نقل و حرکت کو مدِ نظر رکھتے ہوئے پانچ مقامات پہ چارجنگ اسٹیشن بنانے کی تجویز دی گئی ہے جس سے لاہور تا اسلام آباد جانے والی برقی گاڑیوں کی چارجنگ ضروریات کو کماحقہ پورا کیا جا سکے گا۔ یہاں یہ امر بھی قابلِ ذکر ہے کہ دن بھر گاڑیوں کے بدلتے ہوئے بہاؤ  کے پیشِ نظر یہ تجویز دی گئی ہے کہ جن اوقات میں چارجنگ کی طلب بہت کم ہو تب   ایک محرک  چارجنگ سٹیشن  مطلوبہ مقام تک بھیجا بھی جا سکتا ہے۔ 

ان چارجنگ اسٹیشنز کا قیام تاجر برادری کے لیے توجہ کا مرکز بن سکتا ہے جیسا کہ پٹرول ا سٹیشنز کے قریب ہوٹل،دکانات اور دیگر تجارتی مراکز کو فروغ ملتا ہے۔ یہ بھی تجویز کیا گیا ہے کہ یہ تمام کاروبار اپنے منافع کا ایک طے شدہ   حصہ چارجنگ سٹیشن کو دیں جس سے  چارجنگ سٹیشن کے مجموعی منافع میں اضافہ ہو گا جو اسے ملک میں مزید پھیلاؤ کا موقع دے گا تاکہ زیادہ سے زیادہ صارفین کو کم فاصلے اور کم نرخ پہ چارجنگ کی سہولت میسر ہو۔

مکمل تحقیقی مقالہ:

N. Arshad, HOA Khan, M. M. Arslan, and M. A. Javed. Developing Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Across Highways and Motorways of Pakistan. LUMS Energy Institute – June 2021 | https://lei.lums.edu.pk/index.php/2021/06/04/developing-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-across-highways-and-motorways-of-pakistan-report-release/

Raaz Ahtesham is a Carl Sagan Write for Science intern and is an MS student at the Department of Electrical Engineering at SBASSE.