A Pakistani scientist, Dr. Nozair Khawaja, led breakthrough research on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which got published in the Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society and Oxford Academic. Dr. Khawaja is a Wazir-Abad based planetary scientist working at Free University Berlin. The research Co-led by Dr.Frank Postbrg and Mr. Fabian Kllener.
Dr. Khawaja at a conference at IST Islamabad
Abstract
Enceladus is one of the most exciting objects in the Solar System. It has a subsurface liquid water ocean, which is in contact with its water-percolated hot rocky core. It emits the ocean material from the depths of its subsurface ocean into the outer space in the form of plumes of water vapor and ice grains. Last year, a team of international scientists, co-lead by Dr. Nozair Khawaja and Prof. Dr. Frank Postberg, discovered highly complex and large organic compounds that emerged from Enceladus hydrothermal core [1]. It was the very first time that such large and complex organic molecules were found in any of the extraterrestrial ocean worlds.
Now a team of scientists, under the supervision of Dr. Nozair Khawaja of Free University Berlin, has found small, soluble and reactive oxygen and nitrogen-bearing organic compounds that also emerged from the depths of Enceladus hydrothermal vent and detected in the ice grains ejected out from Enceladus. The significance of this reactive oxygen and nitrogen-bearing compounds is that such organics are known precursors/ingredients to synthesis biologically-relevant organic compounds, like amino acids, in Earth’s hydrothermal system. Here, it should be noted that no amino acids in Enceladus Ocean were found yet, but finding ingredients of biologically-relevant organic compounds has once again proven Enceladus a potentially habitable world.
Scientists previously found a large quantity of molecular hydrogen emerging from Enceladus
Who is Dr. Nozair Khawaja?
Dr. Nozair Khawaja was born in Wazirabad and completed his Master’s degree in Astronomy and Space Sciences from the Punjab University. Later on, he did Ph.D. in Geosciences from Heidelberg University, Germany. He also worked as a postdoc scholar at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University and is currently working in Free University, Berlin.
Dr. Khawaja did his research on life beyond Earth and has now become a leading researcher on many space exploring programs within our solar system. In 2019, he got Group Achievement Award for Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
He is a recipient of the first prize of the Horneck-Brack Award, at the European Astrobiology Network Association in 2018. He has also received the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM-2010) Grant from European Cooperation in Science and Technology, ECOST – action chemical cosmos. His work has appeared in highly cited peer review journals like Nature, Journal of Royal Astronomical Society, and Science.
Enceladus – Saturn’s Ocean World
Five mid-sized Saturn’s moons Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea orbit within Saturn’s E ring, beyond the main ring system. These are nearly spherical moons and have relatively low density and high albedo. The interiors of these moons are made up of water ice surrounding a small silicate core, whereas the surfaces are composed mainly of water ice.
All surfaces of moons in the E ring, except Enceladus, are dominated by impact craters and have been considered as geologically inactive for billions of years. The high albedo and relatively young un cratered geology of wide areas on Enceladus was discovered during Voyager Saturn flybys. In 2004-05 Cassini performed a number of flybys of Saturn’s icy satellites.
Clearly, the most spectacular discovery was the geological activity near Enceladus’ South Pole. An anomaly in the magnetic field near Enceladus observed by the Cassini Magnetometer in February 2005, led to a closer flyby to investigate the phenomenon. On 14 July 2005 Cassini performed a flyby of Enceladus with the closest approach of ~ 168 km from the moon’s surface. The onboard Cassini’s Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) acquired images of Enceladus’ South Polar Terrain (SPT) and discovered jets of icy particles emitting from 135 km long fractures, situated at ~ 55°S latitude. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) aboard Cassini pointed out endogenic activity from SPT. The CIRS instruments detected 3 to 7 gigawatts of thermal emission from the SPT centered on the four linear stripes, the so-called “tiger stripes”.
Note
This is a press release from the Astrobiology Network of Pakistan (ABNP). Dr. Nozair Khawaja is the Founder of ABNP and has been working on NASA’s historic space Cassini Mission. Dr. Khawaja is involved in the Japanese future space mission, Destiny Plus and is also associated with NASA’s exciting Astrobiological space mission – Europa Clipper.
David Pokora, a Canadian mastermind hacker, was arrested on March 28, 2014, by the American services for the theft of trade secrets. He was the first foreigner to ever be sentenced by the American services for stealing secret information through hacking. What makes his case so special; David’s extraordinary hacking skills, his luck or negligence of American intelligence service? Let us explore his story for answers.
Childhood
David Pokara fell in love with video games as early as 1995, when he was only three. He started playing first-person shooters and became mesmerized by the magical control he was able to exercise. He was titled as a “born programmer” later on.
He started coding in elementary school, but only wholly mastered and fell in love with it when he was on a trip to Poland with his family. He carried his laptop there, a place without Wi-Fi and taught himself the Visual Basic .NET programming language. This was the kick-start of his career in programming as well as hacking.
Xbox is a popular gaming console
As he became more and more enamored with tech, he finally received his first XBOX. He became deeply invested in it, playing games like Halo for hours. It was then that he found a group of hackers who tweaked the Xbox, changing its functionality. Upon opening the case of the console, the hackers found a lot of what Bruce Schneier (a cryptography expert) calls “kindergarten security mistakes.” Using this, hackers were able to tinker the Xbox to do all sorts of new things, even playing music.
Using this information, Pokora was able to hack his family Xbox and began changing his favorite game of Halo. He began to change the physics of the game, allowing players to change the landscapes, making blue skies rain or digitizing water.
However, this was pulled to a stop when Microsoft released their Xbox 2, which didn’t have the same security mistakes. There was only one way frustrated hackers could continue, which was through the Xbox 360 development kit, known as “dev kits.” These were machines that Microsoft engineers used to create the Xbox, which may look like ordinary consoles but were necessary for game development. Therefore, a hacker with this kit would be able to program the Xbox, similar to an authorized code. But, Microsoft only sent bags to proper, licensed game development companies. Sometime during the mid-2000s, bankrupt companies would be dumping these kits in haste.
In 2006, Rowdy Van Cleave, a 38-year-old Xbox enthusiast, found a pile of dev kits in his local recycling center. Ecstatic, he made a deal with the center, which allowed him to buy the Xbox equipment for lower prices. Though he kept some for himself, and gifted others, he was willing to sell them secretly to desperate buyers. David Pokora stumbled upon this at the age of 16 and helped peddle Xbox kits to other hackers for high prices and made friends along the way.
Now secure with his kit, he began to seriously tinker the game of Halo. He would hack for hours, disregarding high school grades and would continue working until he crashed at around 3 or 4 am. Pokora would then post his work on online platforms, on which he happened to meet Anthony Clark. He and Clark bonded, working together on coding projects in which they changed the Xbox Halo 2 game, endowing the main character with unique abilities. They uploaded their work online and received only compliments and congratulations from engineers at Microsoft and Bungle. But the gray area they were in only seemed to get darker.
Emboldened by the praise they received, they began to steal new unreleased gaming software with ‘PartnerNet,’ including a Halo 3 map that they shared generously with friends. The next time they entered, they noticed a message left by Microsoft and Bungle engineers which said; “Winners Don’t Break Into PartnerNet.” But, far too attached, the hackers took the warning lightly and ignored it.
The Money
In 2009, Pokora and Clark found an opportunity to earn money. The almost flawless Xbox 360 had a vulnerability- a trick called “JTAG.” When a specific ‘modchip’ was added to the console’s motherboard, the Xbox 360’s defenses could be broken. When news of this leaked, players hurried to get their Xbox Is JTAGed. Clark and Pokora used this time to create “modded lobbies” in Call of Duty. For about $100 per 30 minutes, players could fight a battle to the death, with extra abilities or ‘superpowers.’
Pokora and his hacker team found an opportunity to earn money
Pokora also offered “infections” in which players could sabotage their opponents in standard games which were not hacked. This allowed players to keep their superpowers in non-hacked games. Though it was unethical when money started coming, it was too much to refuse. In fact, on good days they earned about $8000!
In 2010, a boy known as Dylan Wheeler was fortunately given a list of passwords for public forums by Epic Games. After searching for a while, he found the personal password of Epic Games account, of an employee. Excited, Wheeler searched for someone skillful enough to help accompany him, so he messaged Pokora. Wheeler wanted to access the private information of a company which was secured. It would be by far the most illegal thing Pokora had done yet,
but curiosity prevailed, and Pokora agreed.
Forming a hacker group, Pokora added another one, Sanadodeh Nesheiwa, who downloaded all private information of the video games from Epic Games onto the disc which he then parceled to Pokora. The hackers began to call themselves “Xbox Underground.” Pokora shared this with friends, which resulted in it appearing on online sites. This resulted in an FBI investigation. However, the hackers remained unscathed as the investigators were unable to locate them. Empowered by their success, the hackers carelessly continued. Through their access to Epic Games, they were able to find other companies, including Zombie Studios, creators of the video game Spec Ops. As they continued, Pokora became more and more obsessed, going deeper and deeper and refusing to heed the warnings of his friends. He kept stealing secret software, including an early copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Hacking
As time passed, Pokora became more deeply involved in the dark and grew more and more careless about his illegal actions. He befriended Justin May, a guy who had previously been arrested, to help him pedal pre-released games to buyers for hundreds of dollars.
As time passed, Pokora became more careless about his illegal actions
The hackers added two more skilled players in their group and then began scavenging the Zombie Studios servers. It was there that they happened upon an army server which contained a simulator for the AH-64D Apache helicopter that Zombie was developing on a Pentagon contract. They also began to steal Microsoft documents for the latest designs of the new Xbox, now known as Xbox One. After taking the hardware designs, they began shipping materials to create their consoles and sell them for as high as $5000. Some members even disappeared when one of the purchases didn’t come through, rumors circulating that the FBI had taken him away.
Arrested
Pokora continued his work, becoming more and more independent after a falling out with Clark. Soon other members of his hacker group had brushes with the law, some getting caught. Unaware that law enforcement was waiting to arrest their gang, Pokara continued. He found a burglar at the Microsoft campus, willing to steal a real Durango prototype in exchange for money and passwords. Pokora agreed, and he and his friend bought the prototypes.
Knowing how dangerous this was, Pokora was hesitant, calling Arman the burglar “crazy.” The thief was caught, putting him in fear for the first time.
In March 2014, Pokora, along with his father, went a trip to the U.S. for buying a missing piece from his car. He stopped at the border, and the border officials recognized his username. Realizing that they had the long-sought illegal hacker, he was detained at U.S. Customs and Borders, until finally arrested and sent to jail after a court proceeding.
Quantum computing holds great importance for the next wave of the information revolution. A number of physical platforms are available to realize quantum bits (qubits), including those based on nuclear magnetic resonance, trapped ions, superconductors, half-spin particles, and single photons. Qubits based on photons are readily accessible at room temperature and hence can be used to perform experiments in the undergraduate laboratory.
The “Single Photon Quantum” initiative was an effort to develop a laboratory incorporating modern, cost-effective versions of some of the experiments that have shaped our modern understanding of quantum physics. These experiments include quantitative demonstrations of the existence of single photons, tests of Bell’s inequalities, single-photon interference, quantum eraser, and quantum state tomography.
Dr. Sabieh Anwer with Hamza Waseem and Faizan e Illahi
Hamza Waseem and Faizan-e-Elahi, two students of electrical engineering in UET Lahore, converted their deep sense of deprivation of formal education in physics to a craving for experimenting with single photons. After a year and a half of dedicated effort, struggling between coursework at their parent institution and the tough challenges, this group of students working in LUMS Physics lab managed to complete a suite of nine fundamental experiments.
Dr. Sabieh Anwer, Associate Professor of Physics at LUMS, who supervise these to students in this brilliant project said that ” For many years I had dreamed of making a laboratory for our students that could demonstrate fundamental facets of quantum physics, quan- information and quan -computing. Though our students do work with SQUIDs, Franck-Hertz tubes and lasers, I was looking for ideas that were more “grainy”, counter-intuitive and quantitative and that could directly relate to quantum interference, entanglement, density matrices, nonlocality and reveal the eerie aspects of quantum physics. Fortunately, I came across two students, Hamza Waseem and Faizan-e-Elahi and after the hard work of more than one year, we successfully completed this project.
Transhumanists believe that we should augment our bodies with new technology.
In the last two to three decades, Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized our lives and the world around us with its astounding perks and impacts. Now, AI making its way out to produce a combination of our body and metal that will enhance our strength, intelligence, and life span, that eradicates the concept of aging as a cause of death.
Scientists are aiming to eradicate the concept of natural selection where it takes hundreds of years for one species as we found them nowadays. Technology has been used for the benefit of humankind for a long but transhumanism is replacing the concept of Biotechnology. In the past, scientists modeled devices like corrective lenses, false teeth to aid human, whereas transhumanism is based on the concept of replacing the damaged body organs completely with an enhanced one to overcome the biological deficit or to augment senses of human so that they can detect things they are not built to sense.
Transhumanism involves the evolution of three basic pillars of humanity: our body, our thoughts, and behavior.
Our Bodies will be augmented
scientists are planning to escort such body augmentations that will enable humans to be more strong, smart-having enhanced life span; a near embodiment of God. We can expect the arrival of contact lenses that can take pictures or video, universal language translator earbuds that allow us to communicate anywhere in the world, and powered clothing that mimics the biomechanics of the human body and increase user’s physical strength with the help of Transhuman.
Implants will be used to improve cognition, ranging from brain microchips to prosthetic cyber-brains and subdermal RFID chips. Our senses will be augmented with the help of implants so we can detect infrared or ultraviolet radiation. Cochlear, optic implants, bionic limbs, and artificial organs will be used to overcome biological damage, though these techniques are already in use.
Robotic exoskeletons such as this one can help people who have suffered spinal injuries. Photograph Credit: Alamy
The most powerful of all will be the biological augmentation, that will enable humans to select the most intelligent embryo using IVF technology. We will also be able to eliminate all heritable diseases using the powerful CRISPR gene-editing technology.
All these advancements will enable humans to live a longer and healthier life. When the old concept of treating aging as an inevitable cause of death will be replaced by taking it as a pathology, we will be able to treat and prevent it. People will get older slowly and will progress towards longer life spans than expected.
We will brainstorm at a faster pace
Implantable brain-machine interfaces, in the process of development, will alter the way of our communication. BMIs will surpass the barrier of speed with which humans deal while communicating. Humans will communicate at the speed of their thought in its full, unfiltered state.
Mark Zuckerberg has described this scenario as: Today, when we share our vacation experiences, we upload photos and videos. With BMIs, I can share my full sensory and emotional vacation experience with my friends and family.
Transhumans would raise a host of ethical problems and dilemmas
Advocates of Transhumanism believe that going beyond the natural barriers of an ordinary human being, will remarkably revolutionize the world but not everyone agrees with the idea.
In the modern world, technological advancements are not merely used by patients or sick people, healthy people are also using them to boost their powers. The drug erythropoietin (EPO) that was used by the patients of anemia to increase their red blood cell production, is now in the use of athletes to improve their bloodstream’s ability to carry oxygen to their muscles.
Blay Whitby, an artificial intelligence expert at Sussex University says“We are now approaching the time when, for some kinds of track sports such as the 100-metre sprint, athletes who run on carbon-fibre blades will be able outperform those who run on natural legs,”
Scientists think there will come a point when athletes with carbon blades will be able to out-run able-bodied rivals. Photograph: Alexandre Loureiro/Getty Images
The debates give rise some critical questions such as if ethically justified for a surgeon to replace the normal limbs with the carbon-fire blades just so they can win the race? Who will own it: wearer or NHS? Who will be responsible if any of this technology is used to carry a crime? These issues need to be debated before it’s too late.
According to Cybernetics expert Kevin Warwick, “What is wrong with replacing imperfect bits of your body with artificial parts that will allow you to perform better – or which might allow you to live longer?”
The position is also summed up by Whitby in the words,
“History is littered with the evil consequences of one group of humans believing they are superior to another group of humans,” he said. “Unfortunately in the case of enhanced humans, they will be genuinely superior. We need to think about the implications before it is too late.”
Future of Transhuman
Transhumanism, the burgeoning field of science, is aiming for a future of more developed human beings with extraordinary minds, ageless bodies having immense physical strength. It is paving its way to a world where terminologies like “disabled” and handicap” would be obsolete. Aging will lose its “virtue of necessity” aspect and life span expected to be enhanced to 120.
Not everyone is an advocate of transhuman, as it has raised certain issues both in an ethical and evolutionary phase. Many are afraid that advancements in technology will supersede the need for humans in the future.
Now, the time has come, scientists have to decide the dimensions, where they exactly want to drag humanity? Transhuman may be superior but will they possess emotions, empathy, and ethical values, we do need to live a happier and healthier life?
Artificial Intelligence is a very interesting aspect of technology which enables machine or computer systems to perform tasks which require human thinking and intellect, like visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and interpretation of different languages. Besides these learning, reasoning and self-correction are also some awesome features of AI machines.
It is a matter of fact that health care covers a wide chunk of fields like medicine, biotechnology, pharmacy, psychology, genetics, and bioinformatics and AI is interrogated into each in one way or the other.
In health care, AI is rudimentary for managing and analyzing data, making decisions and conversations and thus providing a great helping arm for practitioners in general.
History
Before we dig deeper into the role of AI in healthcare though, let’s drive together on the road of history to see where it all started. In the 1960s, extensive research bore the fruit of making the first problem-solving program, Dendral. Its basic purpose was to evaluate hypothesis formation and it was to be used by pioneers of organic chemistry to identify unknown samples via their mass spectra and properties. A team of highly creative research associates at Stanford University wore the badge of honor for introducing and using this software.
Several systems then derived from this primary one, like MYCIN, which was also developed at Stanford and was capable of applying AI to identify infectious bacteria and the respective dosage of antibiotics required to erase them.
These early events catalyzed the further development of AI in healthcare, applying algorithms to accommodate sparse data and conquer new levels of assessment techniques required in healthcare.
Improvements over this half-century period
Better computer performance yielding speedy data collection and processing.
Growth of genomic sequencing databases
Improved natural language processing computer vision and ability to mimic human processes.
Precise robot-assisted surgery.
Availability of large amounts of data from healthcare devices.
These are just a few of the ameliorations that the field of healthcare has experienced on behalf of AI.
Current Research
Various fields of medicine have inculcated AI into their procedures and achieved improvement.
Radiology this field has grasped the most popular so far, having acquired the adeptness to interpret imaging results and detecting minute changes which could otherwise be easily missed by the human eye. Algorithms with higher resolution have been implemented to detect diseases like pneumonia with better accuracy.
Imaging recent development has allowed AI to evaluate corrective jaw surgery and other facial aspects regarding an attractive appearance
Telehealth or Telemedicine has provided immense ease and convenience. It involves the distribution of health-related services and information through electronic and telecommunication technologies. It bridges the gap when rural areas, lacking transport, immobility or less staff pose as a barrier. AI comes in handy one wears a monitoring device constantly to assess levels of chemicals in his body.
Electronic health records It is important for permanent saving and security of data, but equally problematic for users due to cognitive overload, hacking issues or burnout. HER data can also be used to predict individual treatment response with a 72 percent accuracy.
Industry the use of AI in healthcare industry section could be another article altogether, such vast and detailed are the applications. The main focus of AI in the health sector is in the clinical decision support systems, several industrial Giants are widely in use of these systems.
Microsoft’s Hanover project, in partnership with Oregon Health and Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute, analyzed medical research to predict the most effective cancer drug treatment options for patients.
Google’s DeepMind is being used by the UK National Health Service to detect certain health risks through data collected with the use of a mobile app.
Apple Iphone’s health app keeps track of users’ activities and he can check and analyze his lifestyle, monitoring heart rate Pulse, and steps taken in a day.
Benefits of AI in Healthcare
Used a diagnostic tool
Can identify stages of cancer
Drug discovery
Assessing the effectiveness of chemotherapy in cancer patients
Keeping doctors up-to-date in clinical research
Data management
Optimizing schedules of patients and doctors.
Future of AI in Healthcare
AI’s transformative power is reverberating across numerous industries but has reached stardom in the health industry particularly.
The total public and private sector investment in health care AI is stunning; All told, it is expected to reach 6.6 billion dollars by 2021. Even more staggering, it is predicted that the top AI applications may result in annual savings of 150 billion dollars by 2026.
AI has the potential to solve the dilemma of the “iron triangle”, which includes three interlocking factors: access, affordability, and effectiveness.
Other future uses include Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to help affected patients to move and speak. Virtual nursing assistants are predicted to become common, answering patient queries and decreasing tedious hospital visits.
Another positive aspect which is visible with the increased use of AI is more healthcare availability to developing nations, where there are fewer doctors and staff.
In short, AI in healthcare is predicted to decrease medical costs and improve the quality of medical services.
From early ages, we have been reading stories of ancient forest fires which were devastating enough to eradicate entire populations dependent on them. Also, we have witnessed a good number of forest fires which have had no substantial initiation cause. But now a recent scientific study conducted by an international team of researchers led by Elisabeth Dietze provides surprising answers.
Amazon forest fire devastation
Organized forestry
According to that research team, after the end of the 18th century, the number of forest fires were reported higher than ever with a variation in organized forestry. Organized forestry depicts that monoculture trees (trees of the same species) were planted in those forests during their restoring. For instance, in a region of northeastern Poland, the research team presented scientific data pointing out that the frequency of forest fires had increased by two-thirds of its original ratio.
Forest regimes
Scientifically every landscape has its own probability of how fire behaves there. This phenomenon is better known as “fire regime”. Fire regimes are directly influenced by an area’s climatic conditions, vegetative patterns, and landscape orientation. Any impactful interference of humans with any of these parameters can result in disruption of the forest regime of that area. In their research, the researcher observed a temperate forest landscape around Lake Czechowskie in the bory tucholskie (English: tuchola forest) located in northeastern Poland.
They made an effort to identify the extent to which forest management influenced the fire regime of that area. Molecular fire makers which include pieces of charcoal, molecules formed during biomass combustion, particulate matter (specifically sulfur contents). A majority of these molecular entities originated from drilling cores of lake sediments.
Lake Czechowskie
A rehab for the forests:
In their research, the team of scientists mentioned that human activities have caused two major changes in the fire regimes of the 19th and 20th century. One, the amount of biomass combustion increased unintendedly during the mid-19th century. In the process, forests were restructured with huge addition of flammable pine tree monocultures crucial for industrialization.
At the end of the 19th century, polish ministry of forestry took serious notice of the “burning” issue and issued a fire protection strategy. Included in this strategy preview was a plantation of a wide variety of tree species, building of a denser network of paths, availability of extremely mobile emergency fire brigade service designation near major risk sites. These methods proved worthwhile in the process of safekeeping of forests. But later on, history saw a rather odd change when the Soviet Union was shattered. At that time, there was an enormous need for rapid industrialization as a lot of independent state’s future was at stake if the current energy demands would not be met. This, in turn, led to a greater plantation of pine trees in the forests. This resulted in a greater forest area of that region. And since then an estimated 14 major forest fires have been reported in and around Soviet Union forest regimes.
In conclusion of their research, Elisabeth Dietze commented “In the course of climate change with its temperature rise and more frequent dry summers a new adjustment of forestry is necessary. Fires should be suppressed more effectively in the future and the forest should be restructured — towards a more diverse and less flammable tree and shrub species. This is our most important result for forestry.”
Today’s digitalized world is characterized by the connectivity provided by internet, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and smart glasses. While on one hand, this connectivity has opened a plethora of innovations such as the Internet of things (IoT), whereby everything can be controlled from within the touch of fingertips, it eventually gives rise to the big threats such as National and global security. Increasing incidents of cyber-attacks, cyber-theft and bullying point to nowhere but an imminent threat of regional or global cyberwar.
While it is a general misperception that Pakistan does not have any contributions in the field of Science and Technology and that women are discouraged from education, let alone pursue STEM, Dr, Fauzia Idrees Abroo, Pakistan’s first female cyber-security analyst, is a pleasant surprise for many science enthusiasts.
Dr. Abro started her educational career when she obtained her Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Jamshoro. She hails from rural Sindh and despite all the hurdles against the education of women, she pursued her passion and obtained masters in Cryptology from NUST. This was just a beginning in her career which took her to pursue a Ph.D. in Cyber Security from City, University of London.
Her research interests are malware analysis, detection and prevention, mobile security, VoIP, network security, machine learning, IoT and Artificial Intelligence, most of them have been published in various academic journals and conference proceedings. She serves on several editorial boards and program committees of international journals and conferences.
Currently, she is working on the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). This scribe had a chance to interact with Dr. Abro, who is Pakistan’s first female with a doctorate in Cyber Security from a foreign University, the first female Ph.D. of Pakistan Armed Forces (Tri-services) as well.
Following are the excerpts from my conversations with Dr. Abro.
Let us know
about your childhood and who inspired you most during your academics?
I belong to a remote area of Sindh. Life was quite hard, getting an education was extremely difficult due to social and cultural problems. I used to study a lot because I always dreamed of becoming an outstanding professional. I was lucky to get an unending support from my family. Today, I have everything one can dream for and I’m content that all is earned through sheer hard work. During my studies in Pakistan, I was inspired by my mentor Professor Bhawani Shankar who has been supporting and helping out many students of Pakistan to excel through their education. I’m also inspired by Professor Rahman Aziz of City University London who has never stopped supporting thousands of students from all over the world.
Do you encounter obstacles in
your life and career? How do you manage and what will you suggest for working
ladies in Pakistan?
Yes, I do, especially in my career. I opted for Engineering and Military, both being male-dominated fields and especially in third world countries like Pakistan, there are people who do not support women in male-dominated fields. There is a big list of obstacles from gender discriminations to biases against working women and mothers of young children. I have two children and before each of them, I had to go through miscarriages due to non-conducive working conditions.
I knew that I had to be strong, communicative and competent to survive in order to see my dreams turn into reality. I had to give extra time to my work to fill the gaps created during my absence due to maternity leaves. I was able to manage the circumstances with selfless support from my husband. I would not be where I am today without his support after my marriage. I would suggest to the working ladies, work hard and keep a balance between family and work life. There is no peace without a peaceful family life and there is no happiness without. Don’t isolate yourself in workplaces, be active, inclusive and participate in activities positively. Try to minimize the communication gap between you and the people you work with.
You have diverse academic experience from being an electrical engineer to cryptologist. What were the factors which led you to pursue these fields?
I joined Pakistan Air Force as an Electronics Engineer and was trained to work on avionics systems besides networks, IT and electronics equipment. I had an interest in security and luckily PAF selected me for Masters in Cryptology/information security to fulfill its cryptology and cyber security requirements. After my masters, I assigned to work in information/network security which further increased my interest in cyber security. Eventually, I was selected for European Union scholarship for Ph.D. from the UK. My work experience in PAF Cyber security setup and my Ph.D. in Information security have contributed to my career choice. Now it has become my hobby, career and something I’m passionate about.
We should realize that each smart gadget is not very smart against cyber threats and each social media application is accruing our personal information from our gadgets.
The concept of security has evolved from the traditional security dilemma of a state to the vulnerabilities faced by individuals. What are the threats and challenges faced by individuals and states in the context of cyber security?
With the ever-increasing role of internet in almost everything we do, we’re more and more vulnerable to cyber threats. Anyone using the internet for anything is exposed, hence awareness about requisite security measures is extremely essential for each individual. It’s an ever-evolving field which requires persistence and continuous focus of both the developers and end-users. Although, every organization is conscious of the threat and ensures regular measures but still we see so many breaches all over the world very frequently. This implies that the importance of cyber security will always remain extremely critical for both individuals and organizations all over the globe.
The emergence of cyberspace has opened new battlegrounds. How will future developments in cyberspace and new technologies shape any future warfare?
Almost all contemporary and future concepts of warfare have a very heavy dependence on cyberspace. With the emergence of super computational technologies and rapid developments in associate gadgetry, each segment of cyberspace is being exploited as an essential tool of warfare. A paradigm shift in warfare is that cyber warfare is now an everlasting activity which would only intensify in times to come.
Dr.Abro recently awarded sixth global Cyberjustu award
What can be done at an individual
level to get secured from cyber threats?
First of all, each individual should get himself acquainted with the potentials and impact of cyber threats on our daily life. Usage of social media is increasing and so are the chances of cyber threats for the users. We need to educate especially our children to be careful while sharing their personal information on social media. We should realize that each smart gadget is not very smart against cyber threats and each social media application is accruing our personal information from our gadgets.
We must know that Cameras, Mics and our files in our gadgets are accessible to cyber attackers. We need to be careful about what are we sharing on social media, storing on our smart devices and how are we accessing the internet. Use strong passwords for online services accounts, install good anti-virus programs and update the software regularly.
Are there any global efforts done by the international society and bodies to overcome the threats of cyberwar between states or any cyber-attack by a group or individual?
There are international bodies that are monitoring the hackers and cyber activities but we must know that all international intelligence agencies are intensely involved in cyber monitoring and are using individual’s data for their covert activities. There are on-going global efforts by UN, Council on foreign relations and some other international organizations and think tanks for regulating the cyberspace especially in terms of cyber-attacks and cyber warfare.
Pakistan drafted its cyber security
policy in April 2019. Is this policy comprehensive enough to tackle the
challenges faced by Pakistani users and state?
As per my knowledge, some work was kick-started to formulate the cyber security policy guidelines but it’s not complete yet. Cyber security policy is a subject which needs to be reviewed very frequently and should be formulated by competent professionals with the involvement of different stakeholders of the state.
Dr.Abro is a proud Mom of two kidsand believes that there is no peace without a peaceful family life
You are currently working on IoT (Internet of Things). Let us know about the latest developments and challenges in this technology?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly growing network of connected smart sensors/devices. It is becoming the foundation of many services such as smart homes, smart cities, health monitoring, agriculture system, smart environment, and smart water control systems. IoT will bring the next Industrial Revolution because it’s changing the way people live, work and communicate.
In 2017,
around 29% of organizations had already installed IoT technology (Vodafone IoT
Barometer, 2017-18). According to research by management consulting firm Bain,
the IoT market is set to grow to around £397 billion by 2021, more than double
the £179 billion that was spent in 2017. It is envisaged that by 2020, the
number of connected devices will rise to 20.4 billion worldwide (Gartner report
2017) and the global IoT devices market is expected to reach around USD 158,140
million in 2024 (Zion report 2018).
As IoT continues to expand, the number of challenges the emerging technology faces is also on increase. The main concern is the availability of connectivity, data integrity, big data, security and privacy of connected devices, cloud and network.
You got several awards including the Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto lifetime achievement award. What are your future targets to achieve and your future research plans?
I always try to motivate and encourage our young students especially the females to opt for STEM studies. I would also like to work on drone security. I have started an organization for women: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (WiSTEM) to help and support the women working or studying STEM. I’ll continue working for the empowerment of women. I’ll be using the WiSTEM platform to work for equal opportunities for women. As for as my research is concerned, I will be working on IoT security especially the intrusion detection system for IoT connected devices.
What is next for you? Your
message for womenfolk in Pakistan?
I try to remain abreast with the latest research and development in the domains of cyber security. I see myself as a leading cyber security entrepreneur in the next five years providing its products and services worldwide. I’m an enthusiast to provide a flexible and conducive working platform for women in cyber security and STEM.
My message to women of Pakistan is to work hard and know their potentials. Only courage can lead to success and motivate others who struggle to survive in very challenging environments. To get something extra you need to do extra.
The premise is a simple one – a robot gains sentience deems its human masters inferior and sounds a binary war cry, overthrowing mankind’s yoke. It is a story that has been told umpteen times in all manner of sci-fi, born, perhaps, from the kernel that was Frankenstein or even Lucifer – the creation challenging its creator. But whatever issues we, as a species, maybe dealing with by telling these stories, the advent of a robot insurrection still largely seems like a whole lot of science fiction or is it?
A Western Street AI has changes our Lifestyle at all
With computers the size of our palms now our constant companions, technology on a whole only stands to get smarter and our lives, well, our lives are going to get a lot more complicated. This may seem counterintuitive at first but bare with me.
The rise of the machines, if you will, is two-pronged for on the one hand you have the technological singularity of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) being ‘born’ and on the other, you have less fanciful, more tangible applications of smarter machines.
The latter is something that has been within our midst since the industrial revolution and so warrants our attention first. Ever since an object other than our own two hands were used to perform a task, we immediately forged a double-edged sword – something that would aid us but also have the potential to harm. Increasing mechanization and automation have built the modern world but as byproducts of all these mod cons, we have compromised the natural world, leading to a future where the climate may strike before the robots get a chance. But forecasts of doom aside, a ‘smart’ world is all but assured, with glimpses of it now heralding the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In the next 20 years, technological feats that may appear mere fancy will be with us – in our homes, at work, maybe even in our bodies. Drones, for example, are already (painfully) among us and this technology will only ‘improve’ with greater autonomy and miniaturization leading to such applications as drone swarms and smaller, more personalized drones capable of more than just buzzing around. Amazon has been testing drone delivery for a while now while passenger-carrying drones have been tested in the skies above Dubai.
The drone’s cousin, autonomous cars are already in their beta phase and they too will see rapid advancement with Tesla and Waymo clocking millions of driverless miles slowly getting us to the point where your next uber will be driverless.
Your home, of course, is the most obvious place where robots and AI are going to make their presence felt and in concert with the Internet of Things, homes of the future may be autonomously run with domestic units taking care of the daily chores while a basic AI will be managing these as well as the house’s utilities.
Of course, the robots of the next two decades aren’t just going to be basic geometric shapes, puttering about your living room, cleaning up after you, no, they are going to be the workhorses of the future, robotic assistants that will be both brain and brawn. Every couple of months or so, Boston Dynamics, the famed American robotics company manages to scare humanity into an existential crisis with videos of their creations running ‘amok’. But their robots, perhaps the most advanced out there (or at least that DARPA is willing to share) are exactly the kind we’ll be seeing more of – replacing animals or even humans in many roles. Their US military experiment – BigDog, was the equivalent of a robotic mule – an all-terrain vehicle with legs. Of course, being ‘too loud for the battlefield’ meant that BigDog went the way of the Dodo but its successor; the eerily lifelike Spot has all the makings of a personal assistant, more Jeeves than a pet.
Of course, these are but a taste of things to come with countless other areas such as health, biotech, and communications all benefitting from automation and the greater use of robots. But is there a downside to all of this or even a dark side?
A question that preys on the minds of industry owner, worker, and analyst alike, do more technology mean fewer jobs?
Technologists and futurists are both of the thinking that the very nature of the industry will be dominated by robots, with Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired saying “Most of the things that are going to be produced are going to be made by robots and automation.” According to projections by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) even if automation is conservatively adopted, 15% of the global workforce, or around 400 million workers, will out of jobs by 2030. But in the same breath, the projections also state that said automation will create entirely new jobs, with around 8 – 9% of the workforce engaged in these new fields. So again, a double-edged sword but one that will not see mass employment as once feared but mass displacement. Your average blue-collar worker may no longer be needed on the assembly line but they will be needed to manage the assembly line.
What is becoming clearer now is that while automation will continuously increase, no matter how sophisticated, the robots will nonetheless be smarter hammers and tongs; they are far from possessing the creativity, the judgment to say design haute couture, make a gourmet meal, argue the law and vice versa. These are skills that require training, talent, ambition, dedication – all qualities that are perhaps singular to human beings. But this begs the questions, for how long?
Thanks to the likes of Elon Musk, Stephen Hawkings, and a host of experts from the field, the story now goes that the single, gravest threat that we as a species will face is AI. Musk has gone on record numerous times to sound the alarm, to bring attention to humanity’s “biggest existential threat”. But is this a case of needless alarmism or as some put it, ‘technological pessimism’?
The futurist Ray Kurzweil had predicted that at some point within the next two to three decades a computer will pass the Turing Test, meaning that it will exhibit intelligent behaviour ‘equivalent to’ or ‘indistinguishable’ from humans.
Even though AI is one of the hottest properties out there, with everyone trying to cash in on the field, it is still largely shrouded in maybes. Google, one of the major players in the field, has developed some human confounding AIs like AlphaGo for example but its victory over Go master Ke Jie taught us a nuance about the possible nature of AIs ‘thought process’. Our idea of a computer ‘thinking’ as we may traditionally define the word was in the case of AlphaGo, a combination of machine learning and neural networks – in lay terms, learning from experience. This meant that the AI got better over time by learning from each game is played as opposed to an instinctual or intuitive flair for the game that players or masters have. And Go is a game, governed by seemingly straightforward principles – what about something less cerebral? Something that is influenced by numerous factors and requires a combination of skills? How will AIs fare then? Researchers in the autonomous automobile industry, the very same that has logged millions of driverless miles, are still scratching their heads for while driving may seem simple enough, AIs would flat out fail a driving a test. They may have gotten a hang of the mechanics of it but we all know that’s half the battle. Autonomous cars have a problem interacting with the human element on the road, which is all they will encounter. In 2018, an autonomous car hit and killed a pedestrian. While this does not mean that machines may not be capable of higher brain functions one day, separating right from wrong, managing the daily commute, it certainly does point to a complete puzzlement as to the state of AI and its possible future. But that does not mean that the concern that Musk et al express isn’t well-founded, returning to the argument of a double-edged sword.
This concern is not a typical sci-fi one – the AI deeming us inferior, marking us for extinction. It is much simpler than that. Max Tegmark, a physics professor at MIT, said in an interview, “When we got fire and messed up with it, we invented the fire extinguisher. When we got cars and messed up, we invented the seat belt, airbag, and traffic light. But with nuclear weapons and A.I., we don’t want to learn from our mistakes. We want to plan.”
In 1983, malfunctioning computers twice issued warnings to Soviet early-warning satellites that the US had launched a preemptive missile strike. If not for the intervention of Stanislav Petrov, a Russian air defence colonel, who insisted that the computers were in error, we would have been living in a very different world right now. The computers, in this case, were quite simple compared to the home PCs of today but imagine if they had AIs on board, similarly malfunctioning. It could be assumed that even if wrong, the AI would not recognize it as such or would be resistant to human intervention or entreaties – what then?
It is, as they say, better to err on the side of caution and if industry leaders are saying that it is paramount to approach AI with as much caution as possible, – to study, regulate, and even democratize it, then it’s a fair bet to listen loud and clear.
It has been a few days since the news about India’s spacecraft losing contact with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began doing the rounds. While Isro has managed to locate the spacecraft, it hasn’t been able to establish contact again. Will India accomplish this mission? It might. But what is the status of our own forays into this area and can Pakistan make its first manned space mission a reality?
Dr. Yarjan Abdul Samad thinks so.
Photo Credit: ESA
Following a series of talks he held in Quetta recently, I had the chance to interact with Dr. Samad, who holds the distinction of being the first Pakistani space scientist to be working at the University of Cambridge.
Dr. Samad hails from Buleda, a small town in Balochistan’s Kech region, but was able to rise above all difficulties, forging for himself an offbeat career as a satellite and space scientist at Cambridge.
Dr. Samad received his early education at an Urdu medium school in Karachi’s Lyari area. Despite his humble beginnings, he went on to graduate from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) — arguably one of the best engineering institutes in the country — with two gold medals under his belt. The university nominated him in 2009 for the Pakistan Engineering Council Best Graduate Engineer of the Year award.
After pursuing a Ph.D. program, Dr. Samad started working at Cambridge as a postdoctoral research associate. Later on, he was hired by the university as a senior research scientist and teaching fellow.
In 2016, he joined the Cambridge Graphene Centre as a research associate and since then his work has been focused on space-based technologies.
His career came into the spotlight when the European Space Agency (ESA) hired him to work on a solution for a problem they were having with their spacecraft. His team was the first to perform an experiment with graphene (a form of carbon) under zero-gravity conditions.
Here, I provide some excerpts from my conversations with Dr. Samad.
Hailing from a small village in Balochistan, you made your way out to one of the best universities in the world, the University of Cambridge. What can you tell us about your struggles in getting there?
I spent my childhood in Buleda, a town near Turbat. The only school we had access to was a public school, which in those days — the late 80s and early 90s — was a taat school (small makeshift school in which students used to sit on gunny bags called taat). We used to write on a loh (wooden board) with a homemade qalam (bamboo pen). All our studies were in Urdu but, ironically, we weren’t able to speak the language.
Dr. Samad with colleagues at the European Space Agency (ESA). — Photo courtesy: ESA
My father used to work on his agricultural lands. He started doing some agricultural work at Hub in Balochistan, on the outskirts of Karachi. As a result, we moved to Karachi’s Lyari neighborhood and I started going to a small Urdu medium school there, named Al-Karim.
I was in the 6th grade when I started thinking that learning English was inevitable if one had to progress. Consequently, I, along with my father, visited a reputed school in Clifton, Karachi, for admission. Due to my disadvantaged educational background and inability to speak in English, the principal told me, “These studies aren’t for you. You’ve got to work in the fields.”
We made several failed attempts to secure admission in so-called esteemed schools. Eventually, I got admission at the newly built White Rose Grammar School in Lyari and was in their first batch of students. This school was also as small as Al-Karim but the medium of instruction was English.
When I reached 9th grade, I found out that every student in Lyari was making use of the widely available ‘help’ in board examinations as a way to clear the exams. I shared the scenario with my father and his words stayed with me forever: “You cannot copy someone else’s dreams.”
Seeing everyone using the ‘help’, it was a tough decision for me at the time but I made a rule for myself: Jo Karna hai khud Karna hai (Whatever I will do, I will do on my own).
I scored fairly well and secured admission at Karachi’s DJ Science College, one of the best public colleges in Karachi, where some of my teachers, especially Shehzad Muslim Khan and Kamil Sher, inspired me to pursue engineering.
I graduated in 2009 from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI), arguably one of Pakistan’s leading engineering institutes, with two gold medals. The university also nominated me for the Pakistan Engineering Council Best Graduate Engineer of the Year 2009 award.
My teacher, mentor, and coach at GIKI, Prof Fazal A. Khalid, was an eminent name in nanotechnology research. He helped and mentored me for a career in research. After graduation, I worked at Engro for about a year while preparing for the next step in my academic journey.
Later on, I pursued a Ph.D. from Khalifa University, UAE, in collaboration with MIT and the University of Tokyo which I completed in 2016. That same year I started working at the University of Cambridge as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and was later hired as a Senior Research Scientist and Teaching Fellow.
How did you start thinking of this unconventional career in satellites and space devices?
It was never planned. I got a degree in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering from GIKI and went on to pursue a Masters and a Ph.D. in developing materials and devices for energy and environmental applications. It wasn’t until 2016 when I joined the Cambridge Graphene Centre as a research associate after my Ph.D. that I started working on space-based technologies.
Dr. Samad experimenting under zero-gravity conditions. — Photo courtesy: ESA
The University of Cambridge collaborates with several agencies and companies for research work. The ESA and some other space organizations and research centers approached Cambridge Graphene Centre to provide a solution to a problem they were having with their spacecraft. I proposed a solution and was, therefore, roped in for the project.
I have since been working on such projects with many partners across Europe. Our team was the first to test a material called graphene in zero gravity. We have performed experiments in several zero-gravity flights arranged for us by the ESA and have also launched a sounding rocket that went as far high as approximately 150,000km above the earth.
Some other spacecraft such as Space RIDER (Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) will also be used in the future and we plan on taking some of our experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).
I was recently promoted to a senior scientist position by the university to work on these projects.
You have the privilege to work at the Cambridge Graphene Centre which runs in collaboration with the ESA and other research institutions. What is it like to work there?
The University of Cambridge carries a legacy of excellence in research and so does the Cambridge Graphene Centre for the kind of work I am doing. The environment, with all sorts of research facilities as well as great colleagues and seasoned scientists, is favorable for high-quality research.
One is challenged daily to think out of the box and develop interdisciplinary skills to tackle today’s scientific challenges. Partnerships with industry, government organizations, and other academic institutions also enrich the experience and prepare researchers to solve real and interdisciplinary scientific problems.
What are some of the expectations from you coming in as the first Pakistani space scientist at Cambridge University? What do you think the next big thing should be for Space and Upper and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) to promote space sciences in Pakistan?
There are a lot of things that I feel responsible for delivering on, and that’s a driving force and a source of motivation. It reminds me that I need to work hard to better myself as a scientist who is able to face the fiercest of challenges.
In my opinion, the first thing that Suparco needs to do is engage with local institutions in research projects, which are of strategic importance to the country. There are a lot of beautiful minds out there in our academic institutions that need to be tapped into for important projects rather than engaging them in a useless race of writing low quality and impractical scientific papers.
I am in talks with a few organizations here to develop a microsatellite in partnership with an academic institution in Pakistan. This will be announced in due course. Projects like this need to be a routine and Suparco will have to take such initiatives.
Behind every space mission, there is a huge team of engineers, scientists, and researchers to make the discovery happen. Can we do it here in Pakistan with our fewer resources? Make our first manned space mission a reality?
There are challenges, of course, when it comes to resources as well as the right leadership. However, there is no doubt in my mind that a manned vehicle can be launched whenever Pakistan determines to do so.
Launching man into outer space is not a new thing. To make such missions fruitful, for the country and for our economy, we need to utilize them for research that has never been done elsewhere.
What do you think about the importance of STEM education for Pakistani youngsters?
During my visit to different universities, I was most impressed by the passion of students to learn and grow. Students from Balochistan, especially, demonstrate a great thirst for knowledge. This presents a great opportunity for the country to step up and further develop such talent for a better and brighter future. In this era of knowledge-based economies, the most precious resources are such intrigued and enthusiastic minds.
What led you to develop an interest in the field of space sciences?
Dr. Samad with renowned ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy. — Photo courtesy: ESA
Scientific problems that are interdisciplinary and are challenging for the scientific community around the globe intrigue me. As a researcher working on the development of materials and devices, I developed an interest to look into making materials and devices for space applications.
The project that we got at the University of Cambridge, in which ESA and many other EU organizations were involved, manifested itself to be the platform where I could put my knowledge and skills to use in the field of space technology. I then started working proactively on other such projects.
What challenges did you face in building devices specifically for use in space-bound satellites?
The space environment is still not fully understood. When it comes to making devices for space, one needs to have a comprehensive understanding of the space environment and its effects on spacecraft, on devices inside them, and on human life.
The biggest challenge for us is that we design materials and devices on Earth and then test them in zero gravity. Therefore, sometimes we meet surprises and challenges that we need to tackle there and then within a short period.
Tell us about the future of space devices that can run without consuming energy and electricity.
Although the space environment poses a plethora of challenges, there are several unending resources in space that can be harnessed to make things function out there. For example, the space environment is an infinite heat sink, which enables us to design devices that do not need any electricity to function.
In the future, we believe that we can develop devices that not only run without electricity but will also use the abundantly available radiation and the infinite heat sink to generate energy as well.
What space destinations are you still most excited about? What is the future of space travel with more sophisticated technologies like nanotechnology coming into the mainstream?
The destinations favored by me are not devoted to space and space missions alone. In fact, I aspire to work with many persistent scientific challenges close to my areas of expertise and interests — space is but one of them.
Nano and quantum technologies augmented with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are going to be indispensable parts of all future technologies including space-based technologies.
I foresee the launch of micro and nanorobots performing several tasks, in outer space and on other planets, such as investigating the environment, exploiting resources there to produce water and oxygen, and growing plants. All of this is pertinent before human beings can consider habitation there.
What is next for you? Would you like to coordinate with Suparco?
I would love to coordinate and collaborate with Suparco and contribute to their efforts as much as I can. I have kept my connection with several academic institutions in Pakistan and have been quietly playing my part in constructive activities. I am also trying to get a microsatellite project completed by students in Pakistan, which we hope can be launched into space on their behalf.
The Interview is originally Published at DAWN.com and reposted here with the prior permission of author and publication.
Science relates to our daily life and everything that happens around is according to the laws, whether of physics, chemistry, biology or other branches of science. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the transport we use, and the ways we communicate today, all are outcomes of science and technology.
Unfortunately, here in Pakistan, a majority of students have a hard time with science subjects due to lack of skilled science teachers and an appropriate way of teaching. Here, the majority of science teachers are inexperienced and try to explain science concepts in a manner that makes them hard to comprehend. More often than not the school projects assigned to the students hardly meet the criteria of scientific research.
Our educational system emphasizes only on covering the syllabus and hence completely fails to build curiosity of learning in our kids. However, science activities unleash the creativity of the kids, encourage them to think outside the box, solve problems, explain their ideas, and bring out the results. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) focuses on the overall development of the kid’s mind in every sphere of knowledge.
Conceptually, a science project is something very straightforward, in which a student chooses a scientific question he or she is curious about. Then, library and internet research gives the student the background information about that question that students need to formulate a hypothesis and design an experiment. Later they investigate, draw a conclusion, and display their result with confidence.
Science fair is a popular form of STEM activity which provides a genuine platform where students display their research ideas, models, and projects and get a chance to unveil their hidden talent in front of their friends, teachers, parents, and the general public who visit the fair. At the same time, it contributes to the social and mental development of students and breeds healthy competition among the students of different schools. The science fair is a source of great inspiration and encouragement toward making science easy, interesting, useful, and popular for the layman.
Khwarizmi Science Society is a non-profit volunteer organization, aiming to promote practical and theoretical science in an easy and accessible manner to all, whether kids, youngsters or adults. This society has conducted around 400 science events around the country which include two consecutive science fairs in 2017 and 2018 in Lahore. These events got an overwhelming response of the public and were widely covered by national and international media.
In 2019, Lahore Science Mela is coming up with a thematically sectioned festival with active exhibitions will be focused on the wonders of chemistry including elements, minerals, compounds, mining, and major industrial processes. The other sets of exhibits will be divided into several parts such as life sciences, wildlife flora and fauna, AI and electronics, mineral and agricultural resources and space sciences,
Lahore Science Mela 2019
As 2019 is declared as the International Year of the Periodic Table, a special focus on materials, chemistry, and the elements are drawn. The ultimate aim of the event is to welcome the people of Lahore and beyond to explore the scientific discoveries and milestones in Pakistan. Many budding scientists and youngsters from various schools of the city and outside are going to exhibit their models, projects, active science shows and demonstrations at the event. Come and join the most exciting science event of the year on 12-13th October 2019 at Ali Institute of Education, Ferozepur Road, Lahore.
One Day science Workshop
A one-day school science mentorship workshop in collaboration of School Education Department (SED), Punjab, held on 16 Sep, at National Museum of Science and Technology, to ensure the participation of schools from all districts of Punjab in the upcoming Lahore Science Mela 2019. A total of 36 teams of young scientists and science teachers are being supervised by the science mentors of KSS under this science mentorship program.
In the workshop, the participants briefed on science communication techniques, experimentation, and presentation to the public by Dr. Hira Khalid, Lalah Rukh of Science Fuse and Dr. Mustafa. It was a brilliant, informative and motivating day for the participants going to perform in the upcoming Lahore Science Mela on 12-13 October.
