Jul
2
The Start of A.R.T. Inquilaab in Pakistan -Iftitah-e-Inquilaab
Filed Under Art, Entertainment, Entrepreneurism, Pakistan, Peace, education | 2 Comments
Salman Ahmad
In the history of nations, there comes a time, when the chasm between what its people deserve and what they are getting is so huge, that revolutionary changes are needed to restore the balance. I believe that time is now for the people of Pakistan. It does not take much to look around at statistics and news from nearly any perspective to see that the State and the existing mind set amongst the Pakistanis has moved astray from the vision of the founding fathers. I have received countless e-mails, calls and tweets from concerned Pakistanis who all want to see a fundamental change in the dangerous trajectory that Pakistan is on. Read more
Views: 1334Share
Jan
30
OPEN/MITEFP BAP:Innovation and Entrepreneurism in Pakistan
Filed Under Entrepreneurism, Technology, United States, education | 4 Comments
Imran H. Khan
President Obama’s state of the union focused on investments into education and innovation as the key engines for maintaining USA’s leadership position in the long term. The same is equally applicable for developing countries like Pakistan. OPEN has been facilitating entrepreneurs in America for over ten years. OPEN joined hands with MIT to conduct Business Acceleration Plans as a way to doing the same in Pakistan. It was felt that rather than focusing on start ups it would be socially more effective to take companies whose sales were $1M-$5M to the next level. This is the reason for naming it as an acceleration plan. BAP has impacted 120 companies over the last four years that it has been conducted. The four finalists of the BAP were in Boston today and interacted with OPEN’s New England Chapter members.
Oct
14
Jadoo2: A WorthWhile Entertainment and Educational Gadget
Filed Under Entertainment, Technology, education | 2 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
Jadoo2 is the latest offering from JadooTV which allows you to view multi media content streamed off the internet on your TV screen. I had written about the first Jadoo offering earlier under the title of “Connecting Diasporas with HomeLands” . I recently got the opportunity to experience Jadoo2 to see for myself what improvements have been made by the company since the last two years. I have tried to capture both the installation and the viewing experience of the product in this post, that could potentially help those trying to make a decision to buy, as well as show a few new features. It is an informational faucet for the mind and a source of pleasure for both the eyes and ears. Read more
Aug
9
Salman Ahmad’s Jihad
Filed Under India, Pakistan, Peace, US Policy, United States, World, education, religion | 1 Comment
by Imran H. Khan
Salman Ahmed is a well known musician out of Pakistan and South Asia. He is the founder of one of the most famous rock bands out of that region by the name of Junoon. He has recently written a book by the name of “Rock and Roll Jihad“. When I first heard about the book and the title it struck me as something odd. Rock and Roll and Jihad had until now not been said in the same sentence. Jihad in Arabic language means to strive. In the Islamic religious sense it means “striving in the cause of God”. Jihad has been classified either as al-jihād al-akbar (the greater jihad), the struggle against one’s soul (nafs), or al-jihād al-asghar (the lesser jihad), the external, physical effort, often implying fighting. Having had seen Salman grow from a cute little child to what he is now, it does not take much to understand how he has used his musical skills to achieve social activism in fighting injustices, bigotry, national animosities, disease, religious misunderstandings, religious radicalism and the list goes on.
Jul
24
Core Communications and Networks Laboratory @ NUST-SEECS
Filed Under Medicine, Pakistan, Software, Technology, education | Leave a Comment
by Shahzad Malik and Mehwish Nasim
The Core Communications and Networks Laboratory (CoNNekT Lab) at School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), is a newly established research lab under the guidance of Dr. Saad Qaisar, a Michigan State University alum. The lab currently focuses on a diverse set of areas ranging from efficient multimedia coding and communication for telecom networks to e-health monitoring solutions and medical devices. The lab’s focus is on both applied and theoretical research. For theoretical research, the emphasis is on multimedia communications over packet networks; compressed sensing; video coding and communications over the Internet and wireless networks; modeling and analysis of the stochastic behavior of communication networks, applied information theory and network optimization. For applied research, lab’s particular focus is to improve the quality of life for low-income households in developing world through the creation and implementation of low cost technologies.
Jun
12
Cancer Research at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital and Research Center
Filed Under Medicine, Pakistan, Research, Technology, education | 5 Comments
by Dr. Mariam Hassan
Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH & RC) is a state-of-the-art specialist cancer center dedicated to providing the best possible care to all patients, irrespective of their ability to pay. The hospital was the brain-child of Pakistan’s star cricketer Imran Khan, and was built in the memory of his late mother, Mrs Shaukat Khanum who suffered from cancer in the late 1980’s and eventually passed away. The shocking lack of cancer treatment in a developing country, like Pakistan and the resulting agony of millions became the inspiration for a global fundraising campaign by Imran Khan for a cancer care facility which would eventually become Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital. His shared this dream with millions of people and after a ground breaking ceremony in 1990 and, with an estimated project cost of US $ 24 million , the hospital was completed as promised in a span of four years. Read more
May
20
Rethinking Education in a Connected World
Filed Under Technology, World, education | 3 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
How we educate ourselves from childhood onwards is something that has evolved over the centuries, and the processes are deeply ingrained in our psyches. There are some very good evolutionary reasons for the existing educational system that seem to work just fine amongst the well to do in the developed countries. At the same time we have seen that application of technology has revolutionized a number of other human activities and the old systems of doing business have either crumbled or have had to rapidly evolve with the changing environment. They range from journalism, advertising, health delivery, travel, communications and so on. So it should be not surprising that technology also rock the education boat. When we typically think of the application of technology to education, the image that commonly comes to mind is that of students using computers and accessing internet. That may have been a start, but now there are a host of other capabilities that allow for our creativity to wander freely to explore. My goal here is to make you think about the new possibilities to restructuring how we educate the all humans that inhabit this planet. I would like you to be audacious with me for a while. Read more
Views: 1380ShareApr
3
Three Amazing Technology Entrepreneurs of Pakistan
Filed Under Entrepreneurism, Pakistan, Software, Technology, education | 5 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
I had the good fortune of meeting three amazing Pakistanis who are in the process of changing the Pakistani society. They are young in years but mature and savvy in technology, business and the art of managing dynamic organizations. They share traits that are common to global entrepreneurs of self drive, respect for time, global market awareness, getting quickly to the bottom of things and balancing priorities. All three of them got their education and training outside Pakistan and are now inculcating and mentoring Pakistanis with what they learned abroad. As it turns out they are spearheading in the three synergistic technological areas of education, research and industry. Sometimes the stars get aligned and the right opportunities are given to people with the right credentials and motivations. Read more
Mar
4
Accelerating High Tech/High Margin Industries in Pakistan
Filed Under China, Entrepreneurism, Pakistan, Technology, education | 2 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
Pakistan’s current export of engineering goods stands at around $243 million out of total exports of $19 Billion. If we are to also include $300 Million in defense oriented exports and $169 Million in Software products and services exports, the total high margin high tech industrial export is a meager $712 Million for last year.
Views: 5024ShareJan
15
Seminar on “Commercialization of Ideas” at NUST, Islamabad-Pakistan
Filed Under Entrepreneurism, Pakistan, Software, Technology, United States, education | 3 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
January 5th., 2010
National University of Science and Technology is a combination of many colleges that were setup to take care of defense needs, as well as some others. Its main sprawling campus occupies a complete Islamabad sector of H-12. I had the opportunity to visit the campus in my recent visit to Pakistan and had the privilege of speaking at a seminar titled “Commercialization of Ideas”. There is a growing sensitivity at NUST to translate research being done there into the commercial domain. The three main speakers covered the subject from different perspectives.
Views: 3965Share