Tag: Habib University

Karachi, August 03, 2022 (PPI-OT):We live in a world where efforts made to address global issues through a dialogue are worth pursuing. I have always been keen on finding ways through which I could play my part in bringing about a positive change and help address complex global issues. One such opportunity that caught my eye was the Youth Peace Forum Turkey 2022. Organized by the Alliance for Humanity, a Swedish NGO, the forum brought together 150 participants from around the world under one umbrella from July 16 to 19, 2022. It was indeed an honour for me to be the only person selected from Pakistan which meant that not only was I representing Habib University but also Pakistan.

Advocacy Through Peace and Diplomacy

This year’s theme for the Forum was “Peace and Diplomacy” and provided a unique platform for allowing young change-makers to explore various challenges faced by youth today. The focus was on equipping youth with the requisite skills and knowledge to lay the foundation for a more peaceful and stable future.

The keynotes delivered at the Forum highlighted innumerable issues prevailing globally such as economic instability, global warming, gender inequality and much more. The young policy makers at the Forum inspired me to comprehend how policy frameworks are implemented in different countries and how enthusiastically they are working towards change for a better future.

Networking, Experiencing Cultures and Identifying Issues

I was able to interact and network with diplomats of different countries and experience their culture and the problems they face. It was really inspiring to learn how the youth of different nations are doing humanitarian work and bringing about a noticeable change in their countries.

For me, this was yet another platform to take forward Habib’s legacy of initiating dialogue on socially critical aspects. My training through Habib’s interdisciplinary approach based on the liberal core played a vital role in allowing me to explore the various challenges put forth at the forum through multiple perspectives. I was able to present my work and create contacts for future opportunities to collaborate with people for the betterment of not only Pakistan, but also other countries globally.

Exploring the Streets of Antalya, Turkey

Alongside the productive sessions, in my free time, I explored the streets, mesmerizing architecture and famous food of the city of Antalya, Turkey.

I am really grateful to Office of Global Engagement at Habib University for sharing such a life-changing opportunity. I look forward to attending more forums of such nature to network with people from a variety of ethnicities and learn new avenues of knowledge. I would really encourage the youth to participate in such activities and broaden their horizons by travelling and meeting new people from all walks of life.

For more information, contact:
Habib University
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-34301051-55
Email: marketing@habib.edu.pk
Website: www.habib.edu.pk

Karachi, July 29, 2022 (PPI-OT):Habib University’s Career Curation Program (HU CCP) is an initiative to develop symbiotic relationships with the industry leading to provide meaningful industry experience to students and market insights to HU while providing industry an access to future talent pool. Summer Career Academy – a foundational component of the Career Curation Program plays an integral role in introducing students to the elementary skills and knowledge required to excel in their professional career, build sustainable networks within their relevant career fields and develop a multidisciplinary approach towards exploring their future prospects.

The extensive and enriching experience of Habib University’s Summer Career Academy 2022, that ran from 6th June 2022 till 23rd June 2022, was a three-week journey where the participants were taken through the fundamentals of self-development and professional curation for their career aspirations.

Through three basic components of Skill Development Workshops, FutureYou Seminars and Industry Visits, students aimed to prepare the participants for a smooth transition from campus to careers through thoughtfully crafted interactions and experiences.

Enriching the Young Minds with Leading Examples: FutureYouSeries

With an excited group of 40 rising sophomores, HU’s First Summer Career Academy was launched with an insightful panel discussion with the industry experts talking to our students about their inspiring journeys and exploring dynamic career trajectories. The extensive and enriching experience of Habib University’s Summer Career Academy is a three-week journey where selected students of Class of 2025 are taken step by step through the fundamentals of self-development and professional curation for their career aspirations. The FutureYou Panel featured distinguished leaders from diverse walks of life: Mr. Parvez Ghias (CEO, Habib University Foundation), Mr. Jawwad Farid (Director, Chief Executive, Alchemy Technologies) and Ms. Khushbakht Jillani (Founder and CEO, Adal aur Sehat)

Throughout the three weeks, our FutureYou Seminars featured Key Professional Leaders such as Ms. Farwah Tapal, Co-Founder and COO of Oraan who shared key insights on self-branding through her 12 years of entrepreneurial experience. The insights span from trial-and-error processes to staying authentic. The participants also got the chance to ask intriguing questions from Mr. Aadil Saleh, GM Talent Strategy Lead and Head Talent Acquisition at Habib Bank Limited (HBL), who shared his career exploration experience, from being an architecture student to being a prominent figure in the finance sector now.

Sharpening the Saw: Skill Building and Career Development

This skill-based component of the Summer Career Academy focuses on strengthening relevant competencies of undergraduate students to facilitate their transition to a highly competitive and dynamic industry market. A balanced blend of technical and creative skills along with highly demanding soft and transferable skills enables students to excel in their interpersonal and professional goals as a long-term learning. These blended programs of Skill Development and Training included:

A series of workshops on UI/UX where students developed prototypes of their own applications!

One day Excel Workshop with Master Trainer Irfan Bakaly helping students build an organizational dashboard at the end

Photoshop classes enhancing the aesthetic and creative development of students

Crucial to Career Development, interactive segments on pivotal soft skills that included Networking and Relationship Building, Personal Branding, Negotiation and Resilience and Storytelling with Data

At the end of Summer Career Academy, students presented their Ravish (write it in Urdu) where they interviewed and presented exceptional career journeys of professional leaders like Ms. Khushbakht Shah Jillani, Hasan Habib, Babar Khan and Azima Dhanjee!

Pehla Qadam: Envisioning the Ambitions and Aspirations:

A distinctive feature of HU Summer Career Academy was “Pehla Qadam” – the stepping stone for the undergraduate students to observe industries and their dynamic work up close with an aim to start understanding them. Students are provided with an opportunity to interact with the senior leadership of the organizations/corporates and explore the emerging diverse interdisciplinary roles in a conventional industry as well as the relevant skillsets that will help them thrive as an ideal employee via tools like informational interview. Throughout these three weeks, participants of SCA visited four distinguished and diverse industries and met their executive teams and employees:

At IAL Saatchi and Saatchi, students learnt about the Economic impact of Advertising in Pakistan.

At Designist, students from all majors explored how human centered design can influence and impact products and services.

During the Industry Expo visit to HBL, our students benefitted from the rare opportunity to engage with the higher management of HBL’s various functions.

The also enjoyed the buffet networking lunch.

The students got the platform to be inquisitive about FinTech

directly with the leadership of one of the biggest and growing banking networks of Pakistan.

Visiting the leading start-up Qistbazaar helped students gain hands-on learning experience from the inspiring stories of a struggling startup to a full-time running business with more than 50 employees and their expansion into multiple facilitation centers is a testament to effective leadership, teamwork and entrepreneurial spirit at QistBazaar.

Summer Career Academy, in these three weeks, provided a holistic experience to the participants where they mapped out their professional journeys with engaging and thrilling activities, networking with exceptional minds and making countless memories with their peers inculcated with insightful learnings and fun!

For more information, contact:
Habib University
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-34301051-55
Email: marketing@habib.edu.pk
Website: www.habib.edu.pk

Karachi, July 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):Karachi Water Project (KWP) is an interdisciplinary research project that seeks to develop innovative and indigenous solutions to Karachi’s water problems. This project is headed by Dr. Hasaan F. Khan, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences at Habib University.

This research initiative is currently funded through the largest external research grant received by Habib University (PKR 18.2 million) from the Higher Education Commission, as part of HEC’s National Research Program for Universities (NRPU) funding call for 2020.

KWP’s diverse research team includes Water Scientists, Electrical Engineers, Economists, Urban Planners, Sociologists and Computer Scientists. Additionally, the project has collaborations with researchers from other universities, most notably IBA and LUMS.

KWP is currently engaged in four ongoing studies to address Karachi’s water challenges. The first study focuses on household water demands for which researchers are indigenously designing and developing a cost-effective smart device that is able to measure and transmit water use information in real time.

The second study aims to understand the economics of water in Karachi through field surveys and interviews across the city to quantify the ability and willingness of households to pay for water services.

The third study seeks to quantify factors that limit the ability of residents to access water even when water might be available. For this study we are using Lyari as a case-study where there are huge disparities in people’s access to water due to socioeconomic factors.

All these studies are closely linked together, and their combined outputs aim to inform water supply investments into Karachi’s water infrastructure and help the city’s water utility improve water services in a sustainable manner.

Researchers at Habib University have recently published an innovative study on household water access in Lyari Township in the prestigious Journal of Hydrology, titled beyond water scarcity: Water (in) security and social justice in Karachi. This work was conducted as part of the Karachi Water Project (KWP).

The article, authored by Dr. Hasaan F. Khan, Director of the Karachi Water Project, and Syed Ali Arshad (SDP alumni 2020) quantifies factors that contribute to household water insecurity beyond just a “shortage” of water which tends to hijack almost all discourse on water in Karachi.

This study focuses on the low-income and multi-ethnic settlement of Lyari situated at the tail-end of the water supply network.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the researchers conducted a total of 465 household surveys supplemented with participant observation and stakeholder interviews. All the field work for this study was done by Habib University’s undergraduate researchers.

The study finds that weak water governance in Lyari pushes vulnerable sections of the population further to the margins. The intermittent piped water supply in Lyari is inadequate, unsafe, unreliable, and inconvenient.

This forces many households to resort to additional costlier and inconvenient sources of water and leads to severe inequities in water access. Lower-Income populations are especially affected and pay disproportionately higher amounts for a much lower water consumption.

The study argues that Lyari’s water problems, and those of similar settlements across Karachi, cannot be resolved by simply increasing water supply. While more piped water will help, results suggest that even with supply augmentations, Lyari and other similar settlements need institutional structures and policies to ensure equitable and more than just access to the water network.

For more information, contact:
Habib University
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-34301051-55
Email: marketing@habib.edu.pk
Website: www.habib.edu.pk

Karachi, June 29, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Habib University Foundation US (HUFUS) started its series of small community engagement events this June, with an event titled “A Legacy of Giving” to acknowledge the long-standing association of the Pakistani diaspora in the US, with the Habib community. The support of donors from the US community has been foundational in the inception of Habib University. Legacy spaces like the Dhanani School of Science and Engineering strengthened the institution’s image in its formative years.

Leading the philanthropic front of Habib University in the United States, that hosts a large population of immigrants from Pakistani descent, is Mr. Shoukat Dhanani, who is the face of the movement there. An embodiment of an accomplished entrepreneurial journey and philanthropic endeavours, the Dhananis have had a special association with the Habib community since a little after its inception. Their generous grant in the name of the Dhanani School of Science and Engineering houses the University’s center of pedagogy and innovation in the STEM fields, along with concentrations in the Liberal Core curriculum.

This year, Habib University extended its call for support to Sugarland, Texas, where again a large population of Pakistani descent responded with their support. Introduced as a series of events titled “A Legacy of Giving”, these small community engagement events are targeted to be spearheaded by the community members themselves, in order to transfer independent ownership of the cause to them.

The Sugarland event, held on June 16th, 2022, hosted by the Meghani Family, who have been ardent supporters of furthering higher education in Pakistan. The MoC, Ms. Afsheen Bhamani, CEO of Carporium, opened the event with acknowledgements for the hosts, keynote speakers and the audience to bring the event to fruition.

The welcome note was delivered by Arman Meghani, CEO of Meghani Insurance Group, who was introduced as a Global Youth Ambassador for Habib University. In his speech, Arman stated how Habib University has helped rekindle his distant connection with the home of his ancestors-“If I were to speak on behalf of my own generation, our connection with the home of our ancestors is quite distant. Habib University has come out as one institution that has helped us reconnect with our roots, to the land our families left decades ago, and humbly become part of a legacy of what is already the most generous institution of higher learning, in the world.”

Mr. Ali Rizvi, Global Head of Business Development, Enverus, USA was the keynote speaker for the evening, cementing his association with the cause, having been vocal about his support for a long time- “the [Habib] University, under the visionary leadership of Wasif Rizvi, the founding president, has successfully broken the shackles of the traditional vocational approach by introducing a liberal arts model of higher education.”

Ms. Aqsa Junejo, Assistant Director, Marketing and Communications at Habib University thanked the audience on behalf of Mr. Wasif Rizvi, founding President of Habib University, for coming out in support of their cause, yet again. Dr. Amber Zulfiqar, Geriatric Medicine Specialist, HCA, and a Global Ambassador of Habib University, spoke to the gathering about her continued association with the University, and what has inspired such a large community of benefactors in the US, to support it.

Mr. Javed Meghani, Chairman and CEO, Mega Energy Holdings, LLC expressed his thoughts as one of the custodians of the campaign in the States, on why it was important to support Habib University as an American of Pakistani origin, and what personally moved him towards it. “Pakistani diaspora in the U.S.A. are armed with a unique dual insight as they have an understanding of institutional philanthropy and a strong cultural affinity to ancestral home (Pakistan). They should support higher-education and particularly Habib University in Pakistan because it provides world-class quality education with an achievable endowment target.”

Linking the country’s development to investment in higher education, Nisha Meghani, Senior Vice President, Mega Energy Holdings, LLC, stated “I believe that given the right opportunities in the form of quality higher education at Habib University, there are very few boundaries that can hold back the talented youth of Pakistan in contributing to Pakistan’s development.”

The event drew to a close with Dr. Asim Shah, Executive Vice Chair, Menninger Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Chair of the Host Committee for the Habib University Annual Gala and a Habib University Global Ambassador delivering his Vote of Thanks. Dr. Shah is the Chair of the Host Committee for the Habib University Annual Gala in Houston and remains of its oldest and staunch supporters. Dr. Shah, in his address, mobilized the audience towards contributing to Habib University, through a variety of options, introducing the Small Giving App for recurring donations.

“I am convinced that there is no better contribution that we can make then to the cause of higher education being championed by Habib University. This can be a legacy that we can proudly call our own, one which contributes directly to the betterment of Pakistan’s youth.”

Charged with the spirit to serve their homeland, the audience responded with great zeal to the institution’s call for support. What was the first in a series of recurring community engagement events in the US to engage more benefactors, it was endearing to witness a successful start with the community itself at the helm of affairs, to take this cause forward and augment the higher education landscape of Pakistan.

For more information, contact:
Habib University
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-34301051-55
Email: marketing@habib.edu.pk
Website: www.habib.edu.pk

Karachi, June 18, 2022 (PPI-OT):On June 4, 2022, Habib University celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2022. It was the first on-campus convocation after Covid and saw 200 students from the University’s two schools, Dhanani School of Science and Engineering (DSSE) and the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) receive their degrees.

From the DSSE, 97 students were awarded degrees out of which 29 students received Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and 68 students Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science. From AHSS, 103 students were awarded degrees, of which 56 students received a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in Social Development and Policy, and 47 students received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in Communication and Design.

The event was attended by the Chancellor Rafiq M. Habib, Members of the Board of Governors of Habib University, Members of the Board of Directors of Habib University Foundation, parents of the graduates, members of the Faculty, Deans, President Habib University, Wasif Rizvi and the Interim Vice President Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, Dr. Aamir Hasan.

Addressing the audience, Hiba Shoaib, a Social Development and Policy major and the Valedictorian of the Class of 2022 said, “It’s a privilege to represent a class that has demonstrated strength and resilience in the face of the global pandemic, and against all odds, emerged fairly unscathed.” She thanked the faculty and remembered Late Asif Aslam Farrukhi, a core faculty member of Habib University who passed away in June 2020 and had a pivotal role to play in developing the university’s flagship liberal core curriculum, “Let us also remember our very own late Dr Asif Farrukhi, a literary giant who always encouraged us to believe in our dreams, no matter how big.”

She also stressed the importance of the values taught at Habib, saying “The world itself is an elective for us now, so let us embark upon it and make history. And I really hope that as we do that, we all live a life rooted in the values and teachings taught to us at Habib, and that we carve out solutions for this ailing world, solutions that are fair, eco-friendly and inclusive.”

Legendary artist, director, and television broadcaster, Zia Mohyeddin, delivered the keynote address. Speaking on the occasion, he highlighted the difficult time that we’re living in and advised, “I can hold onto my own belief that work is life and there’s no point to life, other than work.” Mohyeddin congratulated the graduates and advised them to dedicate their energies to solving the problems of the country.

President Habib University, Wasif Rizvi, also congratulated the graduates and praised the university leadership for helping the faculty, the families of the graduates, and the students. “Class of 2022,” he said, “in these four years you have acquired frighteningly powerful skills to excel in this pandemic. But more importantly, you have sharpened your critical insight to understand and navigate it. Your ability to prevent from becoming another victim to this infodemic will crucially depend on this insight and awareness.”

The University Chancellor, Rafiq M Habib, addressed the graduates and wished them all the success. “Dear Class of 2022, congratulations on your achievements. Despite many challenges, you adopted to the changing circumstances. I leave you with some guidance, principles and advice. Always live your life with truth. There is never a right time to tell a lie and there is never a wrong time to give the truth. Go out and make your mark in the world.”

The Chancellor’s Yohsin Medal, the most prestigious award at the convocation, was awarded to Muhammad Asher Khan, a Social Development Policy major. The event was covered by Express Tribune, Thug Maza, EdgeandTaken, AsianThinkTank, 123hindinews, International News, Geo TV, SuchTV and AzaadPakistani.

For more information, contact:
Habib University
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-34301051-55
Email: marketing@habib.edu.pk
Website: www.habib.edu.pk

Karachi, June 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Capstone project of our Electrical Engineering graduates from the Class of 2022, Ahsan Ali, Niha Faisal, and Zohaib Zia, titled: Bidirectional DC-DC Converter Controlled via FPGA-in-Loop (FIL) for Electric Vehicle Applications gets accepted at The IEEE 13th International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) Conference in Kiel, Germany.

For our Capstone project titled: Bidirectional DC-DC Converter Controlled via FPGA-in-Loop (FIL) for Electric Vehicle Applications, we performed Rapid Prototyping Hardware-in-loop (HIL) technique to control the Bidirectional DC-DC Converter power flow in Electric Vehicles for the purpose of motoring and regenerative braking using a FPGA-based controller interfaced MATLAB Simulink, under the supervision of Dr. Ishtiyaq Makda, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Ahmad Usman, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The results and analysis from the project were accepted at The IEEE 13th International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) Conference in Kiel, Germany. Additionally, the research in this project was recognized by the university as the “Best Undergraduate Research in Electrical Engineering” and honoured by the Dhanani School of Science and Engineering (DSSE), which highlights the intense technical research work produced at the undergraduate level.

The success of this project is accredited to the extraordinarily supportive and intellectually engaging insights from our advisors which helped us orient and direct our project to execute substantially technical work, identified as novel enough to be accepted in one of the top-tier IEEE flagship conferences. Additionally, Habib University’s lab infrastructure and guidance from academic staff also played a key role in directing the Capstone projects to reach the threshold where they can produce academically credible research, recognizable by the international scientific community around the world.

All this was only possible because of the cutting-edge Electrical Engineering program at Habib University which has provided us with the opportunity to be a part of one of the most structurally oriented technical degrees. Additionally, we had the opportunity to study a variety of courses from the humanities and social sciences as part of the Habib Liberal Core allowing us to broaden our perspectives and to dissect and analyze complex engineering problems through the lens of social, political, cultural and economic constraints and catalysts.

The program not only offers a wide range of specialization through substantial electives but also provides a framework of intensive lab-integrated research experience to allow students to explore outside the curriculum. This program concludes with the Capstone Design Project for its final year which is an independent project incorporating cumulative knowledge of the foundational, breadth, and elective courses to be exercised in designing a prototype solution to engineering problems under the supervision of highly competitive and skilled faculty and staff.

For more information, contact:
Habib University
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-34301051-55
Email: marketing@habib.edu.pk
Website: www.habib.edu.pk