This workshop aim to bring together researchers from the UK & Pakistan to share research expertise and develop collaborations relevant to enabling a sustainable energy transition in Pakistan.

Eligible candidates should have obtained their PhD no earlier than 2010. Participants must also have a research or academic position (a permanent post, research contract, or fellowship etc.) at a recognised research institution either in the UK or Pakistan. 

Apply before 23rd April, 2021

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3uZyqWL

Three members of the SBASSE faculty have been awarded the inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence! These awards mark a new beginning in our institutional culture.

Dr. Tariq's inspirational teaching in the lab and classroom, his courses on developmental biology and genetics are the perfect mix of insight, crystal clarity and futurism. For example, see this video in which he describes the marvelous richness of the fruitfly's eye.

Dr. Zubair's immaculate presentations on signal processing are evidenced by the teaching material he has made public for everyone's consumption. One example is his Machine Learning course. For example, see the candeur with which he describes the mathematically complex problem of duality, delving into its geometrical interpretation. 

Finally, Dr. Momin has broken new grounds in defining the EE100 milieu, a course that brings research problems in engineering right to the doorsteps of our freshmen, truly breaking temporal boundaries. His teaching of Signals and Systems bespeaks a solid grip of the student and pedagogical clarity.

On behalf of all students and Faculty, we’d like to extend congratulations to Drs. Muhammad Tariq, Momin Uppal and Zubair Khalid for their well-deserved recognition. 

Trapped inside a thin column of flowing water, a beam of crimson light appears to bend effortlessly, taking the path of water, as onlookers watch in fascination. We see light submitting to the laws of optics and water to the wishes of gravity – all combine to create a demonstration that has earned first position in the International Day of Light photography competition.

Ali Raza Mirza, who serves as the President of the SPIE Student Chapter at LUMS, has won the competition with this simple yet arresting demonstration. This competition was organized by the SPIE Student Chapter ITU and the OSA (Optical Society). The competition hosted two categories of submissions: photography and posters - with LUMS securing winning positions in both! The poster competition was aced by Mr. Shehzad Akhtar Ali, senior member of the SPIE Student Chapter LUMS.

We congratulation all winners and wish them continued success in all future endeavors.

Ascending to a new role in the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering, is Dr. Adam Zaman – the new Chair of the Physics Department. Congratulations!

Dr. Adam Zaman’s research interests lie in what are considered the backbone of quantum computers – open quantum systems. He is an avid teacher and is known for his ability to fuse passion and rigor in the classroom. Resorting to computational digressions to bring home complex ideas in mechanics, condensed matter physics, atomic-laser physics and quantum mechanics, he is popular and highly respected among many students. He has played an important role in maintaining the high quality of teaching and pedagogy that the Physics Department.

He picks up the mantle from Dr. Muhammad Faryad who has illustriously chaired the Department with his soft and forward-looking demeanor and made standout contributions in teaching excellence, research excellence and has led the Department from the front. The migration to the online realm and the many challenges which were presented, brought out the best from Dr. Faryad's skills in pedagogy and communion with our students at SBASSE. He has helped us rethink about our labs, introduced active learning modalities, engineered new courses in quantum engineering, and has helped his colleagues in building and conducting new experiments in the laboratory. Many things that happen in the Physics department are now unique in Pakistan.

We extend our heartiest congratulations to Dr. Adam Zaman and wish him the best of success in this newfound role.

Scientists at the PhysLab are busy untangling the mysteries of the quantum world. By isolating single photons, they attempt to understand how light behaves when influenced by magnetic fields. 

This show of magneto-optical properties is carefully observed by a team of researchers, including Dr. Ali Akbar, whose own PhD runs roots in the PhysLab, along with Ms Wardah Mahmood, a PhD student working to create materials that showcase magneto-optical phenomena. The PhysLab is a project lead by Dr. Sabieh Anwar, Professor of Physics, Ahmad Dawood Chair and Dean at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering.

Learn more about the Dr. Ali Akbar’s recent work here. 

Syed Babar Ali Research Awards Fellow, Dr. Adeem Aslam, worked on the development of novel techniques for the processing of signals defined on the sphere. With applications in astronomy, cosmology, acoustics, medical imaging, geophysics, and wireless communication, spherical signals are commonly represented in terms of spherical harmonic functions. In his dissertation, Dr. Adeem worked on signal estimation on the sphere in the presence of random anisotropic noise. He also worked on the use of Slepian basis functions (a localized basis representation) to support localized signal analysis on the sphere. Additionally, he worked on the use of Slepian basis functions for multiscale (multiresolution) analysis of spherical signals through hierarchical partitioning of the sphere into pixels of varying spatial extent. 
 
In this high-quality work, a total of five international journal publications have been published or accepted by Dr. Adeem together and his adviser. All the papers have been published in either IEEE Transaction on Signal Processing or IEEE Signal Processing Letters.  In addition, three international conference publications have also been published. 

You can learn more about his research here.

In the third instalment of our sneak peek into the PhysLab at SBASSE, we look at the student centric design of experiments. Listen to Azeem Iqbal, Kaneez Amna and Ali Hassan, as they describe the steps taken to ensure an easy, effective and enjoyable experience for the avid learner out there. 

The PhysLab is a project lead by Dr. Sabieh Anwar, Professor of Physics, Ahmad Dawood Chair and Dean at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering. 

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

Our latest PhysLab video byte glides through our Mechanical Workshop. Narrated by Hafiz Muhammad Rizwan, who is the Principal Lab Technician, the video provides a glimpse into the process that enables creation of a wide range of equipment, guided by the needs of the researcher. The Physlab workshop is equipped with manual lathe machines, CNC lathe machine, manual milling & drilling machine, PCB Machine, grinding Machine and multiple kinds of power tools to name a few. We routinely make heaters, wind solenoids and Helmholtz coils, build technical furniture and fixtures, design circuits and can manufacture PCBs. Industries are welcome to contact the PhysLab for computerized machining of industrial components.

Watch the video on our YouTube channel:

If you’d like to use selected facilities of the PhysLab, please feel free to apply here: https://physlab.org/forms/

Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering uses best in class safety protocols to make sure that our laboratories stay as safe as possible, all year round. Mr. Eaitsam Akram, our safety expert, takes us through some of the mechanisms and equipment in place throughout our school. In addition to OHS legal compliance, the safety team manages regular trainings and drills including fire safety, hazard spill safety workshops, regular safety inspections and reporting, as well as indoor air quality management.

In Physlab, we have dedicated staff members who look after safety protocols and ensure compliance to all safety regulations. Especially during COVID the laboratory has made all efforts to ensure compliance to COVID safety protocols. There is a dedicated website for safety systems in place at the PhysLab, which can be accessed here: https://physlab.org/lab-safety/

To learn more about our overall safety management system, please visit this link: https://sbasse.lums.edu.pk/sbasse-ohs-overview