Science Stories Department Of Computer Science Page | SBASSE

Team from LUMS participating in International UAV Competition

An unlikely team – Muhammad Musa, Hamza Adnan, Ibrahim Arif, Ibrahim bin Yasir, Irtaza Tanveer, Jowii Willianto, Maida Aizaz, Malik Moaz, all headed by captain Suleman Mahmood - with big dreams, Team Robusta boasts determination and tenacity, and is poised to participate in the International Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Competition, organized by TUBITAK and the Turkish government, to be held in Turkey in September 2021. The team members hail from multiple countries throughout Asia - South Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia - and specialise in various fields, encompassing everything from Chemistry to Computer Science.

“We were shortlisted from amongst a pool of countless participants from all over the world for the next stage, wherein we have to bring our conceptual design to life by building the whole UAV from scratch.”, said Mr. Suleman Mahmood.

During this past year, the team (consisting of students from LUMS as well as three members from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) got its creative juices flowing, researching every aspect of UAVs and RC planes the best they could, given the limited time and pressing deadlines. One of the greatest hurdles they faced was conducting Zoom meetings, given the different timezones they were all in, as well as coordinating everything remotely.

While reflecting on the significance of the competition, Suleman said “In this high-profile global event, with undergraduate and graduate teams from every part of the world, we are proud to be representing our beloved country of Pakistan, and even more so, our honorable university, which is helping us shape our future and providing us with more opportunities than we can count to ensure that - this competition included. We want to make LUMS proud and help it stand out even more internationally, as Luminites part of a competition that is this far-reaching.”

“Thanks to LUMS and their generous support, both financial and moral, we were able to meet the requirements, and are currently flying towards our goal of building the UAV of our dreams.”, commented the team leader, Mr. Suleman Mahmood.

The students belong from the following cohorts of SBASSE LUMS:

Suleman Mahmood – CS Major
Muhammad Musa – CS Major
Malik Muhammad Moaz – CS Major
Hamza Adnan – EE Major
Ibrahim Suhail Arif – EE Major
Irtaza Tanveer – Physics Major

Above and Beyond – A conversation with Dr Haris Aziz

Recognised as one of the world’s best scientists, LUMS SBASSE alumnus, Dr Haris Aziz (BSc Class of 2003) and Scientia Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia, has recently been honoured by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) for his contribution to Game Theory and Artificial Intelligence (AI). We reached out to Dr Aziz for a candid interview, which he very kindly agreed to. We hope you enjoy his captivating journey and insight into his latest recognition.

Science Communication Cell (SCC): Please tell us about your place of birth and your initial schooling. How do you credit your schooling in where you are today?

Dr Haris Aziz (HA): I was born in Lahore. I had my schooling at Beaconhouse Public School (Defence Campus) and Aitchison College of which I have fond memories of a kaleidoscope of activities covering academics, sports and friendships. Obviously, the total schooling experience played a major role in shaping my development in those formative years for which I’m thankful to my teachers and mentors.

SCC: During your childhood, was there anything (an event or experience) that inspired and sparked your interest in science?

HA: Throughout school and university, I was inclined towards mathematical subjects for at least two reasons. Firstly, I had a natural aptitude for mathematics, so opting for such courses made less demands on my academic time and allowed me to indulge in my other passion i.e., sports, which led to many a wonderful evenings full of intense physical activity, competition and camaraderie.

Secondly, I had a growing appreciation of logical reasoning and mathematical proofs. Many people have a misconception and lack of appreciation for mathematics because, at school, mathematics is often equated with arithmetic which tends to be mechanical. Here, I would like to quote two of my favourite researchers David Gale and Lloyd Shapley, who wrote in an influential paper (that pioneered market design) that any argument which is carried out with sufficient precision is mathematical.

SCC: How do you remember your time at LUMS? Any fond memories or valuable experiences which you would like to share?

HA: I had a great time at LUMS. I enjoyed the liberal arts program with its varied subjects. It was also a time to make lasting friendships some of which formed when I played football and tennis for LUMS against other universities. The highlight of the year used to be our long bus ride to GIKI. I also have fond memories of working for two years as an instructor and mentoring National Outreach Program applicants.

In terms of developing mathematical maturity, lessons from Professors Ismet Beg, Wasiq Hussain, and Sarmad Abbasi were helpful. I especially want to honour the memory of the late Prof. Zaeem Jafri (may Almighty bless his soul), who took a personal interest in the welfare of students. I was deeply touched when he gave me a hand-written letter for my application to Oxford.

SCC: We understand that an ambitious and fulfilling path in life is never without its share of difficulties and rough patches. How do you recall such moments in your journey, and what life lessons have they delivered to you?

HA: I am hugely grateful that I have been blessed in my life with opportunities. Obviously, striving for higher degrees can have some challenges for overseas students. In particular, I recall doing various part-time on-campus jobs to supplement my income during my PhD. Also, at the time when there was peer pressure to opt for a more lucrative corporate life, I persevered in pursuing my intellectual interests and personal passions. I strongly believe that one’s life should be meaningful and well directed, where effort should be made to find time for the priorities to keep it balanced.

SCC: You have been listed among the world’s top 2% scientists in a study led by Stanford University researchers. Is there a specific set of skills that you think a researcher needs to hone, to achieve such level of success in their field?

HA: I strongly feel that the most important attribute for a researcher is to have an inquisitive and open mind. Asking good questions is as important as problem-solving. Researchers who have a critical mindset are able to build theoretical frameworks and pursue an independent research agenda. Another aspect that I feel is very useful is to have the ability to identify connections and synergies between apparently disparate research disciplines.

Finally, one piece of advice which I have followed is that being the smartest person in a room may not always be possible but being the most well-read person is always achievable. In research, good awareness of previous ideas can be really helpful to see how to utilize them for novel insights.

SCC: How do you think developing countries like Pakistan can benefit from investing in research for Decision Science and AI? Do you think it can be a potent tool in guiding policy, especially in the economy and healthcare sectors?

HA: Decision sciences and AI are key components of a shared economy. Many upcoming markets are inherently online and hence easier to scale up. Examples of Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber are in front of us. Decision Sciences and AI do not just affect the economy and health sector but just about every other sector as well. With overpopulation and stress on our infrastructure, it is even more important for a developing country to plan smartly and use the constrained resources in the most beneficial and effective manner. Unlike certain other engineering fields, Decisions Sciences and AI programs do not necessarily require huge infrastructure. So, investment in these fields provides excellent value for public money. Computer science, in general, is an outward-facing field that interacts with most disciplines.

SCC: Under the tutelage of AI, technology is poised to become even smarter. Some think the future is surely utopic, while others link advancements in AI with a dystopian future. What are your thoughts on this?

HA: The future is probably somewhere in the middle. For an in-depth discussion on this topic directed toward laypeople, I would recommend popular science books written by Toby Walsh, who is one of my mentors. In general, it is important to keep the perspective that technological advances should be geared toward improving quality of life and aiding decision making. They should not replace human values and expression. As a researcher working within the area, I am aware of the potential pitfalls of designing AI systems that overlook important concerns such as privacy, security, and fairness.

SCC: What message would you like to leave for students, faculty, and researchers at LUMS?

HA: Students who have a strong mathematical background and who are passionate about similar research topics are welcome to reach out to me to discuss research opportunities. On a final note, we, as members of the LUMS community, have been associated with a great institution. It is up to us to continue on this trajectory to greater horizons ahead.

Beaming the Future of Wireless Communication

We have graduated from a wired past to a wireless present. The importance of a good, secure and reliable wireless connection is in higher demand now than ever, especially with the ongoing global pandemic that has limited our facetime severely. A few years ago, the big thing was 4G LTE – we have since moved on to the next epoch of wireless communication – enter 5G!

It is surprising how much the mundaneness of life can help us visualize some complex physical processes. For example, if there are frequent traffic jams on a particular road, one way to solve the problem would be to widen the road, allowing for a smoother, less taxing journey back home. In this example, the width of the road can be thought of as the bandwidth of any wireless system and each car an end user. The greater the bandwidth, the better the flow of information and thus faster communication. However, the scientific enterprise has revealed a much greater network of complexity surrounding the advent of 5G, which needs to be analyzed and untangled. This is where Dr Atiqa Kayani’s story comes in.

Just recently, Dr Atiqa successfully defended her PhD thesis, proposing a new way of beam forming strategies for wireless systems that require massive inputs and massive outputs (MIMO). By closely studying many critical parameters like signal to noise ratio, antenna array geometry and energy and spectral efficiency, Dr Atiqa was able to develop closed form expressions for three-dimensional spatial correlation function (3D-SCF) between two arbitrary points in 3D space. The proposed closed-form expression is independent of the antenna array geometry and is applicable for arbitrary antenna gain pattern and scattering power angle distribution function. She also presented a unified framework for energy and spectral efficient (EE-SE) systems, which simultaneously employ techniques from array processing for massive MIMO at mmWave frequency band. Moreover, she developed different hybrid precoding algorithm designs for single user and multi-user scenarios.

We extend our heartiest congratulations to Dr Atiqa for successfully defending her PhD and are very happy to announce that she has been placed in Huawei R&D (in Gothenburg, Sweden), starting 1st July, 2021. She works there as a 5G Communication System Algorithm and Channel Modelling Expert. She has previously worked on a fellowship position at the Wireless Networks Division in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratory in Maryland USA.

SBARA Awards 2021

Enhanced Thermal and Moisture Stability of the Emerging PVs while using Discotic Liquid Crystals

Supervisor: Dr. Ammar Ahmed Khan at the Department of Physics

Energizing solar cell technology

How strange does ‘flowing crystals’ sound? It seems at the heart of key scientific discoveries lie nature’s most well-kept secrets, tied up nicely with a bow of non-intuition; such is the existence of DLC i.e., discotic liquid crystals. Supervised by Dr. Ammar Ahmed Khan, Ms. Qurat ul Ain has worked with a next generation of materials that are more potent in catching and harnessing light to be converted into electricity, compared to contemporary technology. This leap of faith can be summed up into three words: perovskite solar cells.

Investigating the Role of Proteins in Disease and their Treatment with Drugs

Supervisor: Dr. Safee Ullah Chaudhry at the Department of Biology

Uncovering protein structures

Trillions of cells need a multi-trillion economy of well-kept proteins, safe metabolic environments, and reliable understanding of their complex interactions with drugs. Ms. Kanzal Iman, under supervision of Dr. Safee Ullah Chaudhry, proposes to uncover the structure of these important proteins, through developing better computer programs that do the heavy lifting by bypassing less efficient ways current software applications have in place. In other words, her project aims to develop software that works smarter, rather than harder. This will potentially unlock ways in understanding disease prevalence and eventually the drug interactions involved in treatment.

Designing the Cellular Core for Ultra-Low Latency Communication-based Applications

Supervisor: Dr. Zafar Ayyub Qazi at the Department of Computer Science

Cellular without speed limits

Can research rid the world of lag in communication technology? Mukhtiar Ahmad may have an answer! Supervised by Dr. Zafar Ayyub Qazi, Mr. Mukhtiar is working on thinking about cellular network systems from the ground up that can provide extremely low latency, enabling wide scale prevalence of mind-blowing technologies that may have a groundbreaking impact on many fields, ranging from medical science to online gaming. These applications require higher reliability and ultra-low latency, in the order of 10 ms. Mr. Mukhtiar Ahmad aims to re-design the cellular networks to support low latency communication-based applications.

Noninvasive Blood Glucose Monitoring System using Single Wavelength NIR Spectrometry

Supervisor: Dr. Wala Saadeh at the Department of Electrical Engineering

The future of monitoring diabetes

Imagine measuring blood sugar levels without pricking any part of the skin. Ms. Aminah Hina’s project is all about developing a non-invasive blood glucose monitoring system. Although the product idea itself isn’t new. The market is saturated with portable gluco-meters and few companies even offer wireless blood glucose monitoring support. However, the caviat is their price – these devices are expensive! Ms. Aminah Hina, along with Dr. Wala Saadeh, propose a cheaper alternate. Pakistan is amongst the list of countries with highest prevalence of diabetes. Approximately 19 million Pakistanis have been diagnosed with diabetes in the year 2020. The research project of Ms. Aminah is poised to address this large fraction of Pakistani adults as well as some fraction of the Pakistani youth that suffers from both sub-types of the disease.

Evaluation of Protective Immune Response Induced by Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCV-10) in Individuals with Type 2 diabetes

Supervisor: Dr. Shaper Mirza at the Department of Biology

Easy breathing for diabetics

Diabetes is bad enough. Patients suffering this terrible illness have an additional risk of running into frequent respiratory tract infections. Since the immune response of the body is already attenuated in diabetics, the risk posed by additional infections is much greater than in healthy individuals. This is exactly where Mr. Izaz Ahmad’s proposal sprouts hope. Izaz Ahmad is studying the effects of a potent vaccine made for the bacterial culprit responsible for such respiratory disease – bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae. His study will measure impact of the body’s immune response to PCV10 (the vaccine under investigation) in individuals with type 2-diabetes and figure out whether these responses are comparable between individuals with and without type 2-diabetes. The study will be the first to demonstrate efficacy and immunogenicity of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in those with type 2-daibetes in Pakistani population.

Read more about these awards here: https://sbasse.lums.edu.pk/syed-babar-ali-research-awards-sbasse#link-d

A Win for Pakistan ~ Infuse Cutting-Edge Technology with an Ambition of Saving our Forests, and we have a Winner!

For the first time in the history of ‘Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Excellence Awards of 22nd European Conference on Knowledge Management’, a team from Pakistan was able to secure 3rd position among several case studies presented by the corporate sector, and mainly PhD students from different countries. The winning team consists of undergraduate students from the Department of Computer Science at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering. Our heartiest congratulations to the amazing team of Dilkasha Tarannum, Muhammad Waseem, and Shahrukh Nawaz. It must be noted that Dilkasha was the youngest participant in the competition.

The case study presented was titled, “Knowledge Data Engineering for Forest Management Information Systems,”, and reports the work the team conducted as part of their final-year project under the supervision of Dr. Mian Muhammad Awais. The proposal focuses on incredibly efficient yet simple tools for extracting valuable data from something as mundane as the width of a tree trunk. The technology is at the union of augmented reality, machine learning, digital image processing, data mining and big data analysis.

When asked to comment on the achievement, the three team members sent back interesting responses. Ms. Dilkasha commented, "I started from sketching innovative ideas. Perseverance then took me to this project that, I hope, will go a long way in contributing to the green environment mission [...] It was a moment of pride for me to present the paper while representing the Lahore University of Management Sciences, and my country at an international level.”

Muhammad Waseem summed up the achievement in a one-liner, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Shahrukh Nawaz expressed his renewed sense of motivation, "It doesn't get easier, you get stronger."

This coveted award only recognize the highest quality work in knowledge management and intellectual capital that can lead to considerable improvements in organizational efficiency and effectiveness. There were over 100 case studies presented by the corporate sector, and mainly PhD students from 25 countries.

Many congratulations to Dilkasha Tarannum, Muhammad Waseem, Shahrukh Nawaz and their supervisor Dr. Mian Muhammad Awais on winning this award!

For more information on the awards, please visit this link: https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/eckm/eckm-excellence-awards/

National Agricultural Robotics Lab (NARL), Forestry Research Cluster, Department of Computer Science, SBASSE

An Important Step in Women Empowerment

LUMS provides an unmatched environment to produce interdisciplinary collaboration and cross pollination of ideas across its many different schools and faculty members. One such flourishing collaborations is The Gender and Technology Research Cluster at LUMS, which under the direction of Drs. Hadia Majid and Maryam Mustafa is centered on advancing women’s economic empowerment. A key area of research and intervention is furthering women’s access to labour markets and their access to and use of digital technology. Funded by several grants, the Cluster’s work has largely been focused on low-literate, low-income women workers. The objective is to create networks for support, economic and social empowerment, training, and employment opportunities for women workers.

The onset of Covid-19 has highlighted the gaps and inequalities in women’s access to digital technologies, while their economic vulnerabilities, in particular, have been further exacerbated. Funded by Oxfam, this project looks at how domestic and home-based workers in Lahore and Kasur navigate home and workplaces. The team conduct detailed qualitative interviews with women workers themselves as well as workers at women and digital rights organizations. Through this, they unpacked women’s experiences of harassment and marginalization, their access to safe spaces and to technologies with a specific focus on the usage of mobile phones. The narratives also pinpoint incidents specific to hostile work environments, harassment, and difficulty of using technology at home as well as the constraints faced by organizations looking to improve their lives.

The team was able to draw on the rich discussion achieved during a workshop with several partner women’s rights organizations to set forth a detailed list of policy recommendations. These are ultimately aimed at helping domestic workers (DWs) and home-based workers (HBWs) increase their digital literacy with the end goal of them attaining economic empowerment while navigating through a patriarchal society. Dr. Hadia and Dr. Maryam worked to craft recommendations in order to help women expand their work digitally. Some of those recommendations are shared below:

I. Access to Mobile Phones/Technology

a. Cheaper data packages need to be made available so women with low incomes can make use of mobile phones for work purposes. These data packages should be made available exclusively for sims owned by women.

b. We need to build and leverage family support. Based on the existence of three different types of households, namely supportive, abusive and mediocre, different techniques need to be devised in order to cater to everyone’s needs.

c. We need to learn the kind of households they are and create pathways that can cater to their specific needs.

d. There is a need to deconstruct false information around technology. It is important to inform both men and women about the multiple uses of mobile phones to break the negative connotations around their usage.

e. There is a need to enlist support. Men need to be made aware of the importance of women using technology. Workshops with influential families of different communities can be organized to discuss the importance of women’s work in improving family income and the use of technology in helping them expand their work base. Ensuring the involvement of men is essential in improving women’s access to technology because men often act as gatekeepers.

II. Access to financial information

a. Setting up chambers of commerce that serve as facilitation centers where groups of women help home-based workers to manage their finances better. Similar chambers need to be set up on a wider scale.

b. Women also need access to information regarding organizations and/or institutions where they can acquire interest-free loans with easy return policies.

c. Organizing programs that upskill women. Women need specific taught skills regarding how to use money once they receive it. Many women do not know how to read and write enough to make budgets.

III. Gender specific Methods of Transaction

a. Alternate solutions to banking need to be devised. Women have the skill and knowledge on how to manage transactions due to their involvement in unofficial committees. But since there is no record of this, they are not able to show any credit to banks if they want to formalize their transactions through a bank.

b. Financial organizations with the help of the government need to adapt the gender lens when developing products and services that can facilitate women so we can close the gap in the financial service sector.

c. Women need safer channels to access money from their homes. Home-based workers face restrictions which makes it difficult for them to walk to shops for making easy paisa and jazz cash transactions. There are a handful of shops in small communities. In such settings, women do not have privacy. If they receive money regularly, the shop keepers will likely keep track of the money they receive and spread detrimental information regarding their earnings. Even if shopkeepers or service providers go door to door to complete transactions, their privacy will be at risk. Keeping this information in mind, it is necessary to devise a way for women to access money from their homes.

d. Financial services developers require gender sensitivity training so that professionals in the financial sector are actively involved in finding better methods of crediting money to women, especially home-based and domestic workers.

IV. Increased Awareness about laws and rights

a. Research findings of HomeNet Pakistan indicate a need for information packages communicating women's rights and helplines. Women who suffer from workplace harassment should have access to organizations and helplines that can register their complaints. Young women who have access to mobile phones do not know about government departments that can help them in their everyday struggles. They should have access to information regarding their employment rights, harassment helplines, and relevant government offices.

b. Cybercrime laws should be communicated. The mobile phone numbers of home-based workers are often leaked to the public leading to cases of cyber harassment.

V. Encouraging collective action and individual agency

a. Deconstructing the idea of agency and economic empowerment. Western concepts of such ideas differ from those in our local context. There are different performances of agency that need to be recognized for women to realize whether they actually have agency or not because at times even though they themselves proclaim to have zero agency; they actually do have some sort of agency. Because they only have a certain conception of agency in their mind, they disregard all other performances of the agency. It is important to have these conversations with all stakeholders within and outside the home.

b. Narrative building is very important when communicating with the government about the person you are going to help. It will really help push for inclusion in the digital space. Having partnerships is very important and an active effort needs to be made to include the government sector if anything substantial is to be achieved.

c. Unionizing gives women greater bargaining power. It is not just training that matters, but whether they have a voice. The latter is especially important when it comes to bringing change and negotiating with the subcontractor.

d. Collective action should be encouraged amongst women in their respective communities. There is a need to set up community-level women organizations that can be sustained in the long term. Women who have seen community-level involvement and action are more receptive to recommendations provided by rights organizations.

e. Policy changes require collective action to pressure the government into implementing effective policies. There is a need for the collective involvement of academia and media to build such pressure.

The cluster has already won several grants from Oxfam and IDRC. Drs. Hadia and Maryam look forward to setting up local and international collaborations with policy makers, academics and community organizations and work to make this a hub for gendered research in the region.

You can find more information on the cluster's website here.

An Important Step in Women Empowerment

LUMS provides an unmatched environment to produce interdisciplinary collaboration and cross pollination of ideas across…