Competition to name the LUMS campus automation solution

The ERP implementation team was overwhelmed by the response to my last message.

After a short discussion by an ad-hoc committee, it was agreed that a poll be carried out to decide between the two top contenders.

The contenders:

Iris:

Rationale: A loose acronym for IntegRated lnformation Systems (or Information Retrieval and Integrated Services, etc.). In Greek mythology, Iris is the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. Iris also gives vision to our eye and is easy to remember.


Positives: Popular and logical;

Negatives: Is not particularly original (some software systems with this name already exist); not peculiarly sub-continental (lacks local context)



Zambeel:

Rationale: Zambeel's name was taken from an Indian fairy tale (Daastan-e-Amir Hamza) about a prince (Umro Ayaar, if I remember correctly) whose magical bag -- called a zambeel -- produced anything he needed at any given time. Has connotations about something that can positively surprise the users.


Positives: Original and Local

Negatives: Not really an acronym and we are not sure if all the stakeholders can relate to it


How do you vote for it?


Please send an email to CampusERP@lums.edu.pk

Just mention your choice (Iris or Zambeel) in the subject line Send the message.

In case the winning name has been recommended by more than one person, the eventual winner will be chosen by drawing from a lot; others will get some cash award.

The winner will be announced along with the launching of the ERP awareness website during the week beginning February 25.

parha likha LUMS

Couple of pictures taken around 2am near Khoka and Superstore @ LUMS. The trash bins around were not completely full, although more bins might help.

We all have a shared responsibility to keep this campus clean. Please make sure that you as an individual are doing your job!

Reference : Zartash Afzal Uzmi Mail

CS Faculty's Research Featured in Top Communications Magazine

October 16, 2007: - Professor Zartash Uzmi's work in the CS department, carried out with his student Faisal Aslam in LUMS' Networks and Communications Lab in collaboration with IETF CCAMP Chair Adrian Farrel, appeared in the October 2007 issue of the award-winning IEEE Communications Magazine, the most widely circulated journal of IEEE communications society.

According to the annual Journal Citation Report (2004 edition) published by the Institute for Scientific Information, this was the number three most-cited journal in telecommunications and the number eighteen most-cited journal in all electrical and electronics engineering. Read more

LUMS CS Department NEWS

CS Faculty Member’s Paper Nominated for Best Paper Award at PERCOM

Submitted on: December , 2007

A paper co-authored by Dr. Umar Saif and students and colleagues at MIT (based on their work from Project Oxygen) has been nominated for the best paper award at IEEE Percom'08! This award, called the Mark Weiser Award, is the highest recognition for a researcher in the field of Pervasive Computing.

Percom is ranked in the A+ category in the CORE list (widely used for ranking conferences in CS); as the premier conference in pervasive computing, percom had an acceptance rate of ~11% this year.

The system was also featured in the following BBC article: http://www.pervasive-cmi.csail.mit.edu/news/3583479.stm.html

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Poor Man's Broadband: CS Research Featured in New Scientist

Submitted on: November 17, 2007

The New Scientist magazine recently interviewed Dr. Umar Saif for his research on "Poor Man's Broadband". The article appeared in the 17th November 2007 issue of the New Scientist. Since 1956 New Scientist has been keeping its readers up to date with the latest science and technology news from around the world. With a network of correspondents and seven editorial offices worldwide they have a global reach that no other science magazine can match. We are lead to believe that this is the first time research done in Pakistan has been covered by a major international technology magazine such as New Scientist.

The "Poor Man's Broadband" project, funded by Microsoft Research's Digital Inclusion Grant, has resulted in a modified version of a p2p system (BitTorrent) designed to bypass the "bottleneck of the Internet" in the developing-world. The system employs direct point-to-point POTS connections to exchange data at the maximum speed afforded by a modem.

For more information regarding the project visit: http://newt.lums.edu.pk/index.php/projects/poor-mans-broadband

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Annual Faculty Awards Announced

Submitted on: October 25, 2007

Dr Arif Zaman, member of the Dean's Council, today announced the annual CS faculty awards for high achievement. Starting last year, these awards are announced annually to acknowledge the top-performing faculty members in the three areas of research, teaching and contribution to the department.

This year's Research Award was shared by Drs Zartash Uzmi and Nabil Mustafa. In an email to the faculty, Dr Zaman explained that the quality of research publications, funding and related contributions over the year were considered in deciding the winners.

The Teaching Award, based on teaching load and student evaluations, was shared by Drs Ashraf Iqbal and Sohaib Khan. The Contribution Award, which acknowledges overall contribution to the department and its impact, was awarded to Dr Shahid Masud.

"These awards are important to recognize the outstanding achievements and contributions of our faculty members", said Dr Shafay Shamail, Head of the CS Department. The committee which decided the awards consisted of the Vice Chancellor Dr Zahoor Hassan, Dr Arif Zaman and Dr Shafay Shamail.

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Third PhD defence in CS Department

Submitted on: October 18, 2007

Khalid Mahmood Aamir was declared successful in his PhD thesis defence titled "Efficient Spectral Analysis of Time Series". The PhD thesis defence was held on Thursday, October 18, 2007. Khalid Mahmood Aamir was advised by Dr Arif Zaman.

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