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IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum

MISSION STATEMENT

The IEEE Pakistan Women In Engineering Forum aims to integrate the Women In Engineering

Affinity Groups of Pakistan and provide them a platform where they could get recognized for their

contributions to IEEE and WIE. We intend to play our role in reducing the gap between the

industry and students through innovative programs and projects and strengthen the female

engineers of Pakistan socially, ethically and technically.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2011

Mehvish Zahoor - Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum

I had always dreamed of providing female engineers a platform where

they could show their talents &get acknowledged for their potentials &

working skills. Pakistan Women In Engineering Forum turned out to be

the perfect platform for me to implement my ideas and getting

connected with the women in engineering members across Pakistan.

Maryam Saeed -Secretary IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum –

Islamabad Section

I joined IEEE to connect with the smart brains around the world. It’s

surprising to meet new people every day and learn about the vast fields

that they have worked in. IEEE is the window to the world of science,

technology and innovation. My journey with the Pakistan WIE Forum

has indeed been a great learning experience for me.


Anum Javed - Treasurer IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum

Pakistan WIE Forum provided me a chance to implement my plans regarding

the Pakistan Mission to Progress Project. I expect the IEEE membership

growth to accelerate world wide as IEEE continues to develop new products

and services and as members continue to spread the word to their

professional colleagues.

Rabia Khalid - Newsletter Editor Pakistan WIE Forum

IEEE is one of the best things that has happened to me so far. As a part of this

organization, I feel like being connected to the entire world & now WIE

provided me the platform to reach out to the entire country. It’s like an arena

where you can reach out to everything of your own interest.

Sana Syed- Web Administrator Pakistan WIE Forum

When I became a part of this global network, IEEE, I found valuable

opportunities to see my career in the right direction& a great experience to

manage &organize information &events at professional levels.


PROJECTS by Pakistan WIE Forum

Since its inception, back in 2010, IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum has been struggling hard to achieve

the mission with which it was created. It has been playing its role very effectively for the

promotion of Women In Engineering Affinity Groups of Pakistan in Region 10. In a very short

period Pakistan WIE Forum has been working on various projects aiming membership growth,

surveys regarding females in the science and technology sectors, promotion and

acknowledgement of volunteering activities in Pakistan and membership retention programs.

Some major projects initiated by the IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum in the span of two years are:

Pakistan Mission to Progress Project

Discover WIE – Membership Drive

Biannual Newsletter

She In Technology

STAR Program

PAKISTAN MISSION TO

PROGRESS PROJECT Great difference lies in the rates of enrollment of boys, as compared to girls in academic

institutes of Pakistan. According to UNESCO statistics, primary school enrollment for girls

stands at 60 percent as compared to 84 percent for boys. The secondary school enrolment rate

stands at a lower rate of 32 per cent for females and 46 per cent males. This wind of gender

disparity also exists in engineering institutes of Pakistan but currently no statistics are available

in this regard yet. IEEE PAKISTAN WOMEN IN ENGINEERING FORUM initiated the project

named as “IEEE PAKISTAN MISSION TO PROGRESS” to provide gender equal opportunities

in science & society, to provide awareness about science, engineering & technology ,to

provide networking opportunities by connecting all Pakistan WIE affinity groups empowering

the hidden talent.

PAKISTAN MISSION TO PROGRESS Project was launched on May 19, 2011 at University of

Engineering & Technology Lahore, under the leadership of Anum Javed ,Treasurer IEEE

Pakistan WIE Forum.

Since its initiation, a number of socio-technical events have been conducted with mind blowing

success circumscribing PMP’s main agenda. The team of PMP is growing day by day covering


all areas of Pakistan.

The exclusive features of this project were designed as:

Survey of the current Gender-equality status through questionnaire.

Gender-Equality promotion in co-operation with rural areas.

Conduct Seminars in three different IEEE sections of Pakistan for change of mind set.

Pakistan Mission to Progress Team structure follows as:

Project Head:

Anum Javed [Treasurer IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum, Lahore]

Section Coordinators:

Ayesha Ansari [Chair IEEE WIE UIT,Karachi]

Javeria Habib [Secretary IEEE WIE UET,Lahore]

Rumsha Younus [Chair IEEE WIE BU,Islamabad]

Nafeesa Mazhar [Vice-Chair IEEE WIE GCUF,Faisalabad]

Project Facilitator:

Bilal M Zaki [IEEE PNEC Karachi Section]

Volunteers:

Islamabad Section

Hammad Shafqat [Chairman MAJU Student Branch, Islamabad]

Anum Riaz [NUST SEECS, Islamabad]

Sarwish [NUST SEECS, Islamabad]

Hijab Malik [CASE, Islamabad]

Karachi Section

Sara Rehman Memon [Dept of Electrical Engineering,MUET, Jamshoro]

Wahaba Hussain [Chair IEEE-WIE NED UET, Karachi]

Maria Rana [Department of Electrical Engineering, UIT Karachi]

Syeda Sundus Haider [ MAJU, Karachi]


Iqra Sajid [Vice-Chair WIE PNEC, Karachi]

Faria Ashfaq [SZABIST, Karachi]

Lahore Section

Aqdus Sadiq [Department of Electrical Engineering,NFC-IEFR,Faisalabad]

Ahmed Ali [Department of Electrical Engineering,COMSATS ,Lahore]

Faizan Quresh [Chair IEEE LUMS,Lahore]

Bilal Sheikh [Chair IEEE UMT,Lahore]

Fareeha Zafar [BNU,Lahore]

Azka Naseem [BNU,Lahore]

Dania Faraz [BNU,Lahore]

Fatima Yasmee [BNU,Lahore]

Other Volunteers

Sidra Bint-e-Saleem [Chair WIE IEEE NWFP-UET, Peshawar]

Sadaf Riaz [BUITEMS, Baluchistan]

The Pakistan Mission to Progress Project has been divided into two major phases. In phase one,

we visited different schools and colleges with the aim to create awareness among the young

females regarding the field of engineering. Through these efforts of the Pakistan Mission to

Progress Project team, we envision a brighter and better tomorrow where the young female

students are well aware of their role in their field of engineering and how they can bring about a

change in the world being an engineer.

Ms. Anum Javed, Pakistan Mission to Progress Project lead, has been carrying out this project

very smoothly. In doing so, she has been contacting all the student branches of Pakistan,

gathering their members’ data and encouraging volunteers to work for this cause. It was the

efforts of the Pakistan Mission to Progress team that a social network platform could be

established for all the IEEE Student Branches of Pakistan.

To carry out the targeted goals, the Pakistan Mission to Progress Project team visited different

schools and colleges and aspired the next generation of women in engineering.


IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum Trip to Government

Kindergarten School (GKS) Faisalabad

WIE members of Pakistan WIE Forum, and IEEE GCUF Student Branch visited Government

Kindergarten School (GKS) Faisalabad, with the aim to motivate sense of responsibility, to

enhance self-reliability and to increase the technical awareness among the young unacquainted

female students. This event was supervised by Ms. Mehvish Zahoor, Chairperson IEEE Pakistan

WIE Forum & Consultant IEEE WIE GCUF. With the support and permission of the respected

principal of Government Kindergarten School, Madam Sumera Mehtab, a complete layout of all

discrete activities to be conducted, was prepared by using Gtalk plugin. This event was

coordinated by Madam Sobia, a staff member of GKS. More than sixty Computer Science,

Mathematics & Biology female students of 9th

& 10th

standards were sitting in the class having

seats arranged in elevated steps.

After the team introduction and greetings, Ms Saliha Kiran, Chairperson IEEE WIE GCUF,

started the session’s first activity named as “Ice breaking activity”. The purpose of this activity

was to make all the students

familiar with one another.

She asked two questions

from each student i.e. their

names & adjective from last

alphabet of their names. It

proved an interesting

activity spanning thirty to

thirty five minutes for all of

them. This targeted not only

to get familiar with the students but it was to give a keen and soft impression of us to them so

that they could find us easy to talk to and be more interactive and responding towards us.

After this, Ms Nafeesa Mazhar, Vice-Chair IEEE WIE GCUF conducted the career counseling

session for those young emblems of the future. The major highlights of Ms Nafeesa’s session


were the necessary factors that are to be considered in field selection, confidence building & self-

reliability. She started off by asking a few questions relating to the previous icebreaking session

just to testify students’ attention. And then she continued with the most basic question of our

survey, “What you want become in your future?” Students enthusiastically replied to our

questions and the statistics were recorded as a result of the analysis. It became obvious that a

major percentage of the students, i.e. 34% as we recorded, literally did not have the idea of what

will they become on their future. Nafeesa interacted in a very ardent manner with those students

who had said that they do not know what to do in future. They have set no vision of their

academic era. She quoted journey of Albert Einstein’s & Isaac Newton’s failures in their student

lives to their unforgettable achievements in Physics. Moreover, to emphasize the importance of

teacher, she told them about Sir Winston’s Churchill story and his consistency mode of self-

belief. She ended with Gazi Muhammad Abdullah example, a 15 years old child from Karachi

city of Pakistan who has launched a project to eradicate pornography from Pakistan.

Miss Mehvish Zahoor conducted a special training session. Mehvish herself is an alumnus of the

Government Kindergarten School, studied there nine years ago. Mehvish initiated by telling her

story from her childhood to the reasons behind her today’s numerous international achievements.

She told them how she introduced the Women In Engineering Affinity Group in her university

and how she pain staked to achieve the “Best global WIE Affinity Group” award. Then, she took

another big initiative for

Pakistan’s female engineers by

initiating “IEEE Pakistan

Women in Engineering Forum”

in 2010 with the aim to

integrate all WIE affinity

groups of Pakistan in one unit.

Not only this, she was also

selected as Pakistan delegate to

go for IEEE R10

Student/GOLD/WIE Congress

Auckland 2011. And then she said them today I’m standing in front of you as a trainer in the

same classroom where I studied once and used to be an ordinary student like anyone else. She


continued with some very important social and ethical issues like cleanliness, correct usage of

electrical gadgets and technological awareness.

A “DREAM BALLOONS Activity” was conducted in which balloons of different colors were

given in each row and then girls were asked to write down their dreams one by one followed by

passing to next student within limited time. In parallel to the Dream Balloon activity, six to eight

volunteers were called on for a sketching competition. They were provided with all the stationary

stuff and they world told the sketching theme which was “Pakistan-a peaceful country”. A

maximum of ten minutes were given for sketching out the best idea for how can Pakistan be

represented as a peaceful country.

After this a sketching competition was terminated and

evaluation was made by Pakistan WIE Forum representatives

and the staff members. Then, we announced the results and

Ms. Mehvish Zahoor distributed gifts to the winner, first and

second runner ups.

Event is concluded by the recitation of the beloved National

Anthem of Pakistan by all the students and a group photo. The

young witty minds were filled in with a lot of knowledge and

motivational thoughts. We received an amazing feedback

which clearly reflected that the students loved this experience

and insisted to come again to ignite their talent engine.

Maximizing the message: Inspire the next

generation of engineers!

- Trip to PN Model School, Karachi

IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum, realizing the importance of creating awareness regarding the field of

engineering among the younger generations, along with the very active Women In Engineering

members of IEEE PNEC, arranged a trip to PN Model School Karachi, aiming to hold an


interactive session with the students of matriculation and above and brief them about the vast

field of

engineering,

various

engineering

universities of

Karachi and of

course, about

Women In

Engineering.

Our WIE

Volunteers,

along with other

girls of PNEC,

went to the school on 25 November 2011. We were accorded a very warm welcome by the

administration and faculty. MS Zenab Ali, the IEEE PNEC WIE Chairperson began the

proceedings with a presentation about the IEEE Women in Engineering, how women are making

a difference in Pakistan, and in the world alongside men in the field of engineering and most

importantly why is it essential for bright women to choose engineering and how those present at

the session are living proof that women in engineering is not a myth originated during the ancient

times.

This was followed by a

brief intro of the life of

female students at PNEC,

NUST by Ms Kinza

Shafique who told the

attendees about the life of

young women engineering

students at PNEC, how

their needs are catered to


and how they excel in both studies and extra-curricular activities at a prestigious college like

ours. We discussed the basic mindset of the girls in high-schools and that how they perceive the

idea of getting a job and what they expect from the professional world. We tried our best to

provide a fresh set of thoughts and give a new dimension to the ideas of the young women and

eliminate the stereotypes regarding females in engineering amongst the future generation of

professionals.

AWARENESS SESSION AT KHATOON-E-

PAKISTAN SCHOOL

IEEE-WIE-UIT conducted 1-Day awareness session of "WIE Pakistan mission to progress"

project of IEEE Pakistan

Women in Engineering

Forum [IEEE-PWF] at

KHATOON-E-PAKISTAN

GOVERNMENT GIRLS

SCHOOL KARACHI. The

theme of this session was:

"Rights of the Child and

Right to Education." The

session was conducted by

AISHA AMBREEN ANSARI (CHAIR WIE UIT) , HAFSA ASIF (V.CHAIR WIE UIT) and

MARIA RANA (GENERAL SECRETARY WIE UIT). Session started with an introduction

about IEEE, IEEE-WIE, and PAKISTAN WIE FORUM given by Aisha Ambreen Ansari with a

mission to increase awareness regarding the field of engineering among the younger generations.

We had interactive session with the students of matriculation and above and brief them about the

vast field of engineering. Importance of female engineers in the future was also a topic of long

debate.

As our main agenda was rights of the child and right to education we chooses khatoon-e-Pakistan


Gov. Girls school as the students of the school

were not well aware of the fields of engineering.

They also had an old mindset regarding females in

the Field of engineering. Hafsa Asif told them

about courses of engineering offered in Pakistan.

The students showed great interest in the field of

solar energy. Maria Rana told them about the live

projects going on in Pakistan regarding solar

energy. The three speakers told the young students

about their ongoing final year projects.

PHASE TWO OF PAKISTAN MISSION TO PROGRESS

PROJECT

Next, in phase two, for the purpose of survey of the current Gender-equality status, an online

questionnaire form is being filled through these steps:

1. Each co-coordinator will forward the link of form to her respective section

universities volunteers and ask them to fill it from the students of university (at least 6 forms

from each disciples of engineering).

2. Ask volunteer to collect the no of total students enrolled in their university in 2011 in each

department. (They can take this info from the admission cell of their university)

3. Then we will compile this list in the format which we have already built in excel.

4. Survey form data will be automatically filled in Google docs

5. If 6 form from each department is not already being filled then we will ask volunteer of

respective university to get hard copy of form and get it filled and send us the scanned copy then

we will manually fill the form results on Google doc excel sheet.

6. At the end of all data collection we will represent the results in the form of Charts and graphs

and draw some conclusion.


DISCOVER WIE

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Membership Drive with the title of Discover WIE, was initiated under the leadership of Maryam

Saeed (IEEE Islamabad Section) in May, 2011 with the aim to increase IEEE WIE memberships

in Pakistan.

This project was started off with the following agenda points:

Aim existing IEEE student branches and promote WIE memberships through these

Discover WIE membership drive sessions.

Promotion through presentation and videos about IEEE and WIE by a Pakistan WIE

Forum representative.

Pakistan WIE Forum representatives and other IEEE members talk to the audience

about their experiences in IEEE.

Promotion also includes an activity session to help engage students and help create an

idea of the IEEE environment.

On the spot, feedback forms will be filled for improvement in the Membership Drive

initiative.

DISCOVER WIE Episode 1

WIE IEEE NFC-IEFR Lahore Section, organized the membership drive Discover WIE on May

6th 2011 with the theme to create awareness among female students about the WIE network and

to increase the WIE population in the NFC

Student Branch.

The event was entitled as Techno-War day,

loaded with various technical events and

challenging activities for the attendees of

the event. Students from all over Lahore

Section participated in this auspicious

event including GCU Lhr , GCU Fsd, UET

Lhr, UET Fsd, UMT Lhr, USA Lhr & Dr.

A. Q Khan University. Mrs. Asma Adeel, Branch Counselor IEEE NFC-IEFR and Lahore


Section Coordinator Pakistan WIE Forum, opened the event with her welcome address. Mehvish

Zahoor, Chairperson Pakistan WIE Forum proceeded the ceremony by introducing WIE

&explaining its networking & membership benefits.

This was followed by an activity ‘Express Your Idea.’ 4 teams were given 25 minutes to plan

activities within a specific budget. The team with the most innovative ideas and planning was

declared the winner. This session was successful in helping female engineers interact and

discover the opportunities that come along an IEEE Membership.

DISCOVER WIE Episode 2 The second Episode of DISCOVER WIE –Membership Drive was conducted at the University

of Engineering and Technology Lahore on May 19, 2011, a one hour session conducted by

representatives of the Pakistan WIE Forum. The main purpose of the event was to create a better

understanding among the female students of UET of the benefits of IEEE and WIE membership.

The speaker for the event was Ms. Rabia Khalid,

Chairperson IEEE PNEC Student Branch and Executive

Member of the Pakistan WIE Forum. She started off her

presentation with the introduction to IEEE and

enlightened the attendees for how IEEE can be of use for

them at undergraduate level. She highlighted the

differences between Google an IEEE and explained them

how IEEE holds an upper hand over Google citing

60,000 patents where as Google having no consistent

standards of technical excellence displays random info to its users. She also explained the

networking of IEEE and how it can prove to you as a platform to realize your dreams and run


towards your goals. She emphasized

that we should focus on reasons why

females in the field of engineering

de-crease on every step. They lack

mentorship, job op-opportunities,

career guidance, contacts and

relations and an easy approach to all

of them is the network of WIE. WIE

offers you online resources for

women in computing, scholarships,

internships, projects grants,

informative publications and much more. She concluded the session by highlighting some

examples and facts that showed how the net-work of WIE helps you add stars to your career and

personality.


The Third Episode of DISCOVER WIE –Membership Drive was conducted at the UIT. It was a

two hour session conducted by representatives of the Pakistan WIE Forum. The speakers for the

event were Ms. Rabia Khalid, Chairperson IEEE PNEC Student Branch and Executive Member

of the Pakistan

WIE Forum

and Ms. Sana

Syed, Website

Development

Officer,

Pakistan WIE

Forum. They

started off the

session by

sharing their

experiences

and giving

reasons to why

we become

IEEE member,

what

advantages


have they been availing from their memberships. Then they moved on to the discussion of how

IEEE can serve as the missing piece of puzzle that you need to complete in order to get to your

goals. They talked about various IEEE platforms that can help us improve our networking,

personal and social skills. The session was concluded by an activity in which each student was

asked to write down their fears and failures on a piece of paper, then a paper plane was made out

if it and it was thrown away with as much force as possible. This was to make them realize that

throwing away your fears is really doable and makes you feel better. Chairman Karachi Section,

Engr. Parkash Lohana presided the session and awarded certificates to the speakers and

organizers of the event.


IEEE WIE Bahria University Islamabad

conducted “Discover WIE” session on Friday,

16th

March 2012 of their recently established

WIE affinity group. BUI is the first university

from Islamabad section to have conducted this

session becoming the first one with an active

WIE branch. The introductory WIE session

was followed by a CV writing workshop for

better interest of students.

The Chief Guest of the event was HOD EE

department Mr. Jehanzeb Ahmed. We were honored by the presence of the General Secretary of

PWF; Maryam Saeed , MS in Finance from university of Auckland; Mr. Ameer Hassan as guest

speaker for CV writing workshop , Ishba Shehzad from FAST and Miss. Sumbal from NUST.

The event started with WIE

introductory session. Students were

informed about the benefits of IEEE

WIE. All the necessary and possible

questions were tackled effectively in the

presentation by WIE Chairperson

Rumshaa Yunus. The main agenda of

the session also declared as WIE BUI’s

aim was that “Progress is proportional

to contribution and contribution is

incomplete without women’s share in

it.” After the presentation Miss.


Maryam was invited to share her experience with the students and to enlighten them about the

IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum. Maryam explained the students about the functioning of the Pakistan

WIE Forum and how this forum has effectively been playing its role in integrating the WIE

Affinity Groups of Pakistan. She highlighted various projects that are being carried out by the

IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum including Pakistan Mission to Progress and the Biannual Newsletter

and also talked about various volunteering opportunities offered by the Pakistan WIE Forum.

BIANNUAL NEWSLETTER

Project Head:

Rabia Khalid

Chairperson IEEE PNEC

Newsletter Editor IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum

Project Coordinators:

Hudaisa Afzal

IEEE Member, Pakistan Navy Engineering College – Karachi Coordinator

Fatma Faruq

IEEE Member, E & ME College – Islamabad Coordinator

Pakistan WIE Newsletter – Volume I

The Biannual Newsletter Project was initiated on the 9th March 2011 and the first Volume of the

Pakistan WIE Newsletter was released on 9th July 2011. With its release, a wide distribution of

the Pakistan WIE Newsletter took place in the Region 10 Students’ Congress 2011, Auckland, by

Ms. Mehvish Zahoor, Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum. A softcopy of the Pakistan WIE

Newsletter was distributed to IEEE/WIE members across Pakistan and in Region10 via email.


The newsletter reflected the hard work and dedication of the various WIE Affinity Groups of all

the IEEE Sections of Pakistan in organizing various technical and non-technical events. The first

edition of the Pakistan WIE Newsletter included reports from:

WIE AG NEDUET – Karachi Section

WIE AG PNEC – Karachi Section

WIE AG UET – Lahore Section

WIE AG GCUL – Lahore Section

WIE AG NFC IEFR – Karachi Section

It also included a brief introduction of the Executive Committee Pakistan WIE Forum. One most

eminent feature of this Newsletter Volume was an exclusive interview with Ms. Takako

Hashimoto, Region 10 Women In Engineering Coordinator.

The Newsletter also contained Remarks from honorable IEEE personals, Mr. Parkash Lohana

Chairman IEEE Karachi Section, Mr. Shafay Shumail Chairman IEEE Lahore Section along

with a note Ms. Durdana Habib, IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum Mentor and Chairperson WIE

Affinity Group Islamabad Section.

First edition of the biannual Pakistan WIE Newsletter can be viewed at:

http://sites.ieee.org/pakistan-wie-forum/pakistan-wie-forum-1st-newsletter/

Pakistan WIE Newsletter –Volume II

The second edition of the Pakistan WIE Newsletter had rather more of a formal theme. Released

as the spring volume, it contained the front news of the Pakistan Women In Engineering

representation at the R10 Students Congress where Ms Mehvish Zahoor represented WIE

Pakistan. It also included highlights of:

Pakistan WIE Forum Session at NEDUET Student Branch Karachi Section

Inaugural Ceremony – WIE UIT Affinity Group Karachi Section

Pakistan WIE Forum visit to Kindergarten School with WIE GCUF Lahore Section

Membership Drive; Discover WIE Episode III – WIE UIT Affinity Group Karachi

Section



Trip to PN Model School - WIE PNEC Affinity Group Karachi Section

Meeting of R10 Congress Pakistan Delegates with student members of IEEE Karachi

Section

IEEE Day Celebrations at IEEE WIE GCUF Lahore Section

This newsletter was a dedication to the young hero of Pakistan, Ms Arfa Karim (late). It included

an article about the life of Arfa Karim and how she has been a great value to Pakistan. Ms.

Mehvish Zahoor also added to the newsletter and welcomed Ms. Ammara Ghani, Peshawar Sub-

section representative to the Pakistan WIE Forum. She also talked about the project SiT (She in

Technology) proposed by Ms. Ammara Ghani and the idea behind this project.

One of the most prominent features of the spring volume was an exclusive interview with Ma’am

Ramaltha Marimuthu, Chairperson IEEE Women In Engineering. Ms, Hudaisa Afzal being the

interviewee, balanced the interview perfectly by asking Ramaltha questions about her personal,

volunteer and professional life, and what are her aims and vision for IEEE Women In

Engineering.

Takako Hashimoto also contributed to the newsletter and thanked Ms. Mehvish Zahoor for

representing the Women In Engineering of Pakistan and being a supportive delegate at the R10

Students Congress.

Towards the end, the newsletter contained a technology insight section where it contained

articles about techniques for 3D reconstruction, resource allocator and schedule management

system and analysis of gp41 antigenic epitopes of HIV etc.

This Newsletter volume also contained Remarks from honorable IEEE personals, Mr. Om

Parkash, R10 Student Representative (2011), who has always been a motivation for the Women

In Engineering Affinity Groups in Pakistan and for the Pakistan WIE Forum and Mr. Amir

Zahoor, Chairman IEEE GOLD Sweden Affinity Group, also one of the founders of the Pakistan

WIE Forum, who has been a great source of inspiration for the Pakistan WIE Forum. This

newsletter volume can be read and downloaded from: http://sites.ieee.org/pakistan-wie-

forum/pakistan-wie-forum-1st-newsletter/




SiT - She in Technology

By Ammara Ghani

“During my span of unemployment that i spent at home, I felt that there should be a platform or

an opportunity for females where they can polish there technical and communication skills and

they are able to do something while being at home”

SIT basically stands for She In Technology which aims to provide a platform connecting

professionals and students in the field of engineering and technology for a strong coordination

and bonding amongst females and to provide as much ease for the female students as possible so

that they can get internships and jobs easily.

SiT is aimed to be taken up with the collaboration of IOPWE. The IOPWE offers scholarships

for your educational degree with the conditions that the student signs a bond with IOPWE that

states that whenever possible in life, the student shall provide volunteering services for IOPWE.

Ammara Ghani, being a volunteer of IOPWE and the SiT Lead, is availing this opportunity to

take this project along with IOPWE and Pakistan WIE Forum.

SIT is in its early stages of team building and documentation. The SiT hierarchy will be as

follows:

Board Members

SiT Lead

o Internships Head

o Job Section Head

o Workshops Head

Three coordinators from all three IEEE Sections of Pakistan shall be working under the

committee heads as Section Coordinators.


WIE Ex-com Training Sessions

Members of the IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum are playing their role in training the WIE members of

various Affinity Groups of Pakistan. They, in their capacity, are doing their best in reaching out to

the Women In Engineering Affinity Groups of Student Branches of their respective IEEE

Sections, talk out to them, address their problems and suggest them with appropriate solutions.

Pakistan WIE Forum members are voluntarily carrying out this task and till now have covered a

number of Affinity Groups of Pakistan and trained many WIE members to become a competent,

leading and visionary female volunteer.

Some of the WIE Affinity Groups executive committee members that are trained and motivated

by the Pakistan WIE Forum members are:

University of Engineering & Technology Lahore

Usman Institute of Technology Karachi Government College University Faisalabad Bahria University Islamabad Pakistan Navy Engineering College Karachi NFC – IEFR, Faisalabad NED University of Engineering & Technology Karachi UMT, Lahore

Ex-Com training session at University of

Engineering & Technology Lahore

Mehvish Zahoor and Rabia Khalid conducted a very interactive and friendly training

session with the executive committee members of the IEEE WIE University of Engineering

and Technology, Lahore Section. Starting off with the basics of event reporting and team

building, Mehvish Zahoor talked about running a student branch effectively with

generating activities that would benefit the members and also attract new members while

Rabia Khalid encouraged them towards bringing professionalism to their working and

maintaining a proficient approach for all the happenings of the branch.


Ex-Com training session at Government College

University Faisalabad

Miss Mehvish Zahoor, Chairperson IEEE Pakistan Women In Engineering Forum was invited

for an executive committee training session of WIE GCUF members, on December 22, 2012,

after Feedback session of their "IEEE Day With GCUF". The basic idea behind this training

session was to enhance their managerial skills. It was key points to improve after the event

execution. Mehvish Zahoor presented the members different situations and asked them to tackle

according to their styles. She provided the necessary guidance to the branch members for their

future execution of events. The training session was ended with honorary lunch with IEEE

GCUF Team.

Ex-Com training session at Usman Institute of

Technology Karachi

Rabia Khalid and Sana Syed conducted an Executive Committee Training Session for WIE

Affinity Group Usman Institute of Technology Karachi. The reason behind this session was to

help the newly formed committee of UIT and to provide them the possible guidance for their

upcoming events. Rabia and Sana discussed with them some important issues related to

management of events & tactics for handling the timings for any activity/session and also

explained them how to divide up into teams and carry out the marketing of any activity in

different phases. The meeting was fruitful and the results of it were seen a few weeks later when

UIT WIE members organized a mega event for their inaugural session.


PAKISTAN WIE FORUM

REPRESENTATIVES - SPEAKERS

AT VARIOUS EVENTS

IEEE Membership Promotional

Seminar - by IEEE NFC Student

Branch Faisalabad

IEEE NFC-IEFR student branch organized a promotional seminar for the new incoming

batch of students to have a brief introduction about IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum. The

main objective was to bring new and more students to this field for exquisite results.

A function was organized including few fun activities and the presentations from

guests. Different presenters were invited for the presentations and to provide students

different information about IEEE WIE Forum.

IEEE membership

promotional seminar, as

the name shows refers

to promotional or

guideline something for

a fresh start. Every year

IEEE and WIE NFC-

IE&FR arrange

membership

promotional seminar for

the fresh students who

have just joined the

university and are new

to the setup of the

society. This year the

event was a bit different

and turned out to be a huge success. This is, Ms. Mehvish Zahoor, Chairperson IEEE


Pakistan WIE Forum was invited to speak over the occasion and enlighten the students

with the benefits of joining IEEE and WIE. She also highlighted the networking and

operational structure of the IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum and explained the students about

its various projects being implemented across Pakistan.


“Bringing Engineering to Life”

NEDUET Student Branch

A membership drive held by the IEEE and IEEE-WIE NED

University of Engineering and Technology (NEDUET) Student

Branch entitled “Bringing Engineering to Life” was held in

Karachi, Pakistan. The aim of the event was to inspire and

encourage, especially, female students, to be a part of the IEEE-

WIE community for empowerment of their engineering potential

over the globe.

Rabia Khalid was invited as the speaker for the event where she

spoke about the benefits of IEEE and IEEE-WIE membership,

being a female IEEE member and encouraged the female students

to join IEEE-WIE. She also explained why is it important to

volunteer and to maintain balance between your grades and co-

curricular activities. She also told the students about various

volunteering opportunities in Global Integrated Network of IEEE, Pakistan Women In Engineering

Forum and Graduates Of Last Decade Affinity Group.


UIT WIE Inaugural Session

The launching ceremony of IEEE Women In Engineering Affinity Group was a magnanimous

event. Many guest speakers were invited to motivate,

encourage and guide the newly launched affinity group.

The first speaker to address the audience was Dr. Manzoor

Ahmed who is the Chairman Usman Institute of Technology.

He welcomed the guests for coming to attend the session.

The next speaker was Mr. Wasim Akhtar, Director UIT. He

encouraged the women of the institute to take part in co-

curricular activities. Mr. Sibt-e-Ahmed Jafri, Vice President

IEEEP South Region discussed the importance of women in

imparting education, their professional ethics, research and

improvement in curricular and co-curricular activities. Engr.

Tahir Saleem, Chairman IEEEP Karachi Section shared the

history of IEEEP and talked about career guidance and counseling for female engineers.

The next speaker was Senator Rukhsana Zuberi who is the Chairperson Women in Energy

Pakistan. She pointed out the challenges faced by women in social networking, social interaction

and sharing of knowledge among societies and communities. She delivered the message of

encouragement to the female

engineers and told them to

be visible, be visionary and

be bold to face challenges.

Miss Rabia Khalid shared

her journey in WIE as

newsletter editor. She also

appreciated the efforts of

UIT in the launching

ceremony. She also gave

ideas through which we can improve the percentage of female engineers working in the field.


Membership Drive – WIE IEEE

PNEC Student Branch

IEEE PNEC Student Branch held its Membership Drive on 20th April 2012. IEEE PNEC has

always made an effort to blend in fun and technology well. This drive was conducted to let the

students know of the manifested benefit of joining IEEE and to encourage them to be a part of

this society. The one and a half hour session consisted of interactive sessions from Hassaan

Idrees – the GINI Representative of Region 10, Ms. Rabia Khalid –Pakistan WIE Forum

Chairperson and Student Representative for South Asia Gold Committee, IEEE PNEC and Mr.

Onib Nasir –Chairperson, IEEE PNEC.

Along with the presentations of Hassaan

Idrees, regarding the benefit of joining

IEEE, Mr.Onib Nasir, about the working of

IEEE PNEC, Rabia Khalid, who has served

as the Vice Chair WIE PNEC for the year

2010-2011, Chairperson IEEE for year

2011-2012, and is now the current

Chairperson of Pakistan WIE Forum, gave

a comprehensive review of Women In

Engineering. Being the WIE PNEC Vice Chair herself for the year 2010, she had ample

opportunities to portray her skills through this forum. WIE PNEC follows the universal motto of

encouraging women towards science and technology. Students, especially girls were encouraged

to be a part of this extensive network.

Rabia further elaborated the various other opportunities available to the girls by becoming a part

of WIE and how to promote women in engineering in this male dominated society. Having been

a part of WIE for the previous 3 years, she shared her success story and recounted her

experiences and the benefits that WIE has provided to her. The session ended with an interactive

game for the audience – the Pictionary. The audience was divided into two teams. One member


from each team was given a word which he had to explain by a drawing. The session was fun

and enjoyable. This drive was indeed an effort to create a better and clear vision of IEEE among

the students and to encourage them to be a part of this global organization.


WIE Women Entrepreneurship Conference`12

The first ever WIE Women Entrepreneurship Conference’12 in Pakistan was held on Saturday,

May 26, 2012, at UIT, Karachi, by the outgoing final year students of the Usman Institute of

technology in collaboration with Engineering & Industrial

Review (EIR), a large number of participants attended the

event which showed it to be one of the most successful event

held during recent days, especially to its relevancy.

The conference began with the recitation of Holy Quran.

Speakers at the sessions were Rohana Iqbal, Sadia Naz,

Sumrah Ahmed, Dr. Rubina Ghani, Rubina Iqbal, Lubna

Namazi, Kashif Qureshi, Fahim Ahmed, Dr. Salima Ahmed,

Rabia Khalid and Dr. Shireen Khanzada. After the welcome

address, IEEE Karachi Section Vice Chair, Engr. Parkash

Lohana addressed the audience.

Along with the other speakers, Ms. Rabia Khalid,

Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum spoke about

“Women’s ways of leadership.” By giving the examples of Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandler,

Oprah Winfrey, she explained the audience about how females are different from their male

coworkers as a team member and as a leader. She highlighted the different qualities of the

females which make them effective and successful leaders.

At the end shield was

presented to the

speakers and certificates

were also given out to

the WIE organizing

team.


Sessions & Events Conducted by


BELIEVE IN YOUR DREAMS

GCUF Lahore Section “Jus t Bel ieve in Your Dreams” was con -ducted on 6 th October’11 during the

celebrat ions of “ IEEE Day with GCUF ” with

col laborat ion of IEEE Pakis tan WIE Forum.

More than 75 people part icipated in this

event from four dif ferent univers i t i es of

Faisalabad. The event s tar ted off wi th the

name of Al lah and after that , an introduct ion

to the Pakis tan WIE Forum by Ms Mehvish

Zahoor , Chairperson IEEE PWF. She

proceeded with the video conferencing

session with Muhammad Saad on the topic of

“Making dreams come t rue” . Muhammad

Saad is pursu ing Masters in Communicat ions

Engineer ing and research at Universi ty of

Massachuset ts Amhers t USA and has

completed his under -grad in

telecommunicat ions from FAST NUCES

Karachi , associated with IEEE since 2007

and has served as SAC Chai r IEEE Karachi

sect ion for 2010-2011, having the honor of being the youngest SAC in IEEE

ever. He s tar ted wi th the concepts of dreams and asked everyone to wri te

the ir dreams on paper and visual ize your dreams. He explained thi s in s teps

l ike love what you do (s tep 1) , keep the f i re burning (s tep 2) , Trust in

ALLAH (step 3) and most importan t ly Say good bye to your negat ivi ty.

Muhammad Saad a lso inspi red the at tendees by shar ing his l i fe experience of


how he joined IEEE and how his dream to s tudy a t USA turned to real i t y. A

session was a lso conducted by Ms. Mehwish Khan on the topic of “Women

Inspi rat ion & Empowerment .”

Mehwish Khan i s current ly pursu ing her BTech degree in Elect ronics &

Communicat ion f rom Jamia Mil l ia Is lamia Uni -vers i t y, India. She i s WIE

Delhi Sect ion-Member, Execut ive Commit tee and PR and Communicat i ons

Team, GINI Provis ional Work ing Commit tee. She al so represented the

Engineer ing for Change at the Region 10 Student Congress in Auckland, New

Zealand, 2011. She explained about the miss ion and vi s ion of WIE. Her

presentat ion included some important s ta ts about WIE membership growth

which helped the at tendees to understand the ra t io of membership of WIE on

year ly basi s with

R10 having highest

number of female

members . She

further cont inued

by expla ining the

word “ Inspi ra t ion”

and ment ioned that

WIE has been her

insp irat ion . She

also ment ioned

some role models

of her l i fe in l i fe

inc luding Helen Kel ler ( the angel of the Bl ind), Mar ie Cur ie ( renowned

scient is t ) , Indi ra Gandhi (ex - PM, INDIA), Prof . Mi ni S . Thomas( Branch

Counselor IEEE JMI and Vice Chai r , MGA), Prof . Ramalatha Marimuthu

( IEEE WIE Chai r) and Pakis tan WIE Forum! She concluded the sess ion b y

present ing a brief int roduct ion about IEEE Humani tarian technology, some

successful s tories of i t , i t s most impor tan t S IGHT and how i t involves and

engages s tudents . She ended with a note “Think Global ly, Act Local ly” .


Pakistan WIE Forum Session at

NEDUET—Karachi Section

On June 27 2011, Pakistan WIE Forum held a session at NEDUET with the WIE

members of NED, Pakistan Navy Engineering College and Usman Institute of

Technology. Mehvish

Zahoor, Chairperson

Pakistan WIE Forum,

spoke about the

structure of the Pakistan

WIE Forum and the

vision with which it

was initiated. She

explained the WIE

members of the Kara-

chi Section how can

they be a part of the

Pakistan WIE Forum

and the nationwide

opportunities this forum

offers for the female

engineers of Pakistan.

She also discussed the various projects initiated by the Pakistan WIE Forum and their

progress. The event was concluded with small prizes given out to the winners of the

activities conducted during the session.

International Women’s Day

Celebrations IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum celebrated the international Women's Day on March 8

t h

2012. The idea behind this interviewing session was to conduct interview sessions

at different locations of Pakistan, from females belonging to different fields and

professions. The interviews can be read and downloaded from

http://sites.ieee.org/pakistan -wie-forum/womens-day-special/

http://sites.ieee.org/pakistan-wie-forum/womens-day-special/


Meetings Attended by the Members of

Pakistan WIE Forum

PAKISTAN WIE REPRESENTATION AT

R10 STUDENT/GOLD/WIE CONGRESS

Eight delegates from Pakistan at-tended the IEEE Region 10 Student/GOLD/WIE Congress that

was held from 7-10 July 2011 at the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. Pakistani

delegates proved to be among the most active participants of the congress, standing out with

nearly every delegate delivering presentations at this prestigious event. IEEE geographic and

GOLD/WIE Forums were held on the 2nd day i.e., Friday July 8th, 2011. The delegates were

divided into groups to hold discussions specific to their geographic areas. These discussions were

con-ducted by Takako Hashimoto, Professor Susmita Sur-Kolay, Dr.Rachana Garg, and Zuhaina.

There Ms Mehvish

Zahoor shared the

success story of

Pakistan WIE

Forum and

explained the

structure of this

forum to the WIE

members of R10.

Some projects

which are related to

WIE Activities in

Pakistan were also

shared. Employers

(and other parties)

presented stalls in

the atrium. R10

WIE had also

arranged a stall in

which Pakistan WIE Forum contributed through posters, videos displayed on the stall and Ms

Mehvish Zahoor, Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum presented WIE benefits to visitors as


well as distributed “Pakistan WIE Newsletter.” The Pakistan WIE Newsletter was printed out

with the support of Om Parkash Batra and Madam Takako and was distributed among all

congress delegates.

On 3rd Day 9th July 2011 Ms Mehvish Zahoor presented on the topic “Female Empowerment in

our Culture.” She explained that Pakistan WIE Forum, with its expanded network all over the

country, envisions conducting surveys in Pakistan, and working on the appropriate solutions to

those problems. She also said that we envisage changing the rigidity of our culture and

converting our country into a progressive nation. This can be replicated in many Asian countries

like India, Bangladesh etc. She explained the attendees that we've planned to establish three

operational networks on pre-university, university and professional level. Through the platform

of IEEE, Paki-stan WIE Forum will create links between students and the in-dustry. These

groups will provide guidance at that specific level and also educate the community about

opportunities and challenges will young female face. Not only this, these net-works will include

new potential and use them to work for the best solutions of the problems.


Annual General Meeting – Lahore Section

Mehvish zahoor attended the Annual General Meeting held at GC University on December 20,

2011 and presented an opportunity for interaction and exchange of information with fellow

members. The IEEE Lahore Section annual report was presented by the ChairmanDr Shafay

Shamail. Mehvish, Chair IEEE PWF, presented annual report 2010-11 to IEEE Lahore Section.

shee presented a summary of the events, activities, projects and achievements of PWF over the

past year. He also highlighted some activities planned for the future such as PMP and SIT.

IEEE GOLD CONGRESS 2011

This Congress was meant for the recent graduates and graduating persons to interact with

industry leaders and entrepreneurs. It included sessions on several themes such as innovation,

entrepreneurship, resume and career building. It featured talks and panel discussions by eminent

industry leaders as well as several team building, expertise sharing activities. All of the sessions

were very interactive and different strategies had been fruitfully implemented to maintain the

interest of the audience.

The University of Faisalabad in collaboration with IEEE GOLD Lahore section arranged this

congress for graduates in Faisalabad. The Congress was attended by many esteemed figures from

all over Pakistan:


HONOURS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

IEEE R10 Women in Engineering (WIE) is an international professional organization

dedicated to promoting women engineers and scientists The IEEE R10 WIE

Student/GOLD Volunteer Group 2012 was formed and Ms. Mehvish Zahoor,

Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum (2011) was appointed as a part of the group

along with other fellows from Region 10. The team comprises of:

Representative: Mehvish Zahoor

Webmaster: Swetha Sampath Bobba

Information Manager: Dr. Maheshi Dissanayake

Member: M Idham Habib

Volunteer: Ainun J

Member: Hassaan Idrees

Member: Ms. Alka Isac

The Region 10 South Asia GOLD Committee was formed in January 2012. Ms. Rabia

Khalid, Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum (2012) was selected as the Student

Representative for the South Asia GOLD Committee.

The Region 10 South Asia GOLD Committee was formed in January 2012 and Ms.

Mehvish Zahoor was appointed as the WIE Coordinator South Asia GOLD Committee

Ms. Mehvish Zahoor, on the basis of her outstanding achievements and dedication, was

also appointed as the Chairperson WIE Affinity Group Lahore Section.


The Handing-over

The IEEE Pakistan Women In Engineering Forum is continually striving to provide the WIE Affinity Groups

of Pakistan a platform that recognizes their contributions to IEEE and Women In Engineering. The

achievements of the Pakistan WIE Forum and struggle of the team prove that an energetic and strong

team can really make a difference and initiate a wave of change within the country. This does not end

here. We still have a long way to go. With the completion of the tenure of First Executive Committee,

the offices were handed over to the second executive committee on April 13, 2012. The second

executive committee of the IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum is already geared up and ready to take its position

and get working.

The Second Executive Committee is:

Chairperson IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum - Rabia Khalid, Karachi

Vice Chair – Aiman Rasheed, Peshawar

Secretary – Rumshaa Yunus, Islamabad

Treasurer – Mehak Akhlaq, Islamabad

Pakistan Mission to Progress Lead – Anum Javed, Lahore

She in Technology Project Lead – Ammara Ghani, Peshawar

Newsletter Editor – Farah Saleem, Karachi

Marketing and Communications Head – Javeria Habib, Lahore

Website Administrator – Sidra Farooq, Peshawar


END NOTE

The team of IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum is extremely thankful to Madam Ramalatha Marimuthu,

without whom the establishment of this forum wouldn’t have been possible. I thank Takako

Hashimoto, for always supporting us and encouraging us to step ahead and expand our network.

I would specially like to thank Mr. Shafay Shumail, Chairman Lahore Section (2010-11) for

playing a vital role in the recognition of this Forum and Mr. Parkash Lohana for always

supporting us with our activities.

Also I would like to thanks Mr. Om Parkash Batra, Mr. Ravendar Laal and Muhammad Saad for

motivating us to promote this network and helping us throughout. Thanks to Mr. Amir Zahoor,

SSR Lahore Section (2009-10) and Mr. Saad Zafar of IEEE GCUF Student Branch, who laid the

foundation of this project and provided us a platform where we can implement our ideas and

strive for them.

I thank Madam Durdana Habib for being our mentor and guiding us all the way through. Very

special thanks to Ms. Mehvish Zahoor, for taking up this project from the very scratch and

leading it to great heights. She has been a great leader and a teacher. Thanks to the Pakistan WIE

Forum Ad-hoc committee and the First Executive Committee, for their valuable contributions to

the Forum without which we would not have been able to carry on all the planned projects. I

would also thank Mr. Bilal Zaki, Mr. Onib Nasir and Mr. Hassaan Idrees of IEEE PNEC Student

Branch for always guiding me and helping me with the decisions of Pakistan WIE Forum and

encouraging me to bring innovations and put in my best.

Rabia Khalid

Chairperson

Pakistan WIE Forum (2012)

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