There is a good news for all those who have watched this video and are interested in such events and seminars, the 4th All Pakistan IT competition known as Techelite 2010 will be held at NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi , Pakistan.

I will keep you updated about the dates and details.

Thanks,

Omair Feroz Sheikh

Former President
TechELITE ‘09

TechELITE is a platform where students can display their talent and bring into the notice of the companies and the IT professionals what technologies students are working on and how cabale they are.
34 Companies sponsored TechELITE and helped us in making this event a HUGE success
TechELITE comprised of 4 different competitions:
1-Speed Programming Competition
2-Software Competition and Project Exhibition
3-Hardware Competition and Project Exhibition
4-Network Security Competition

Then we had lecture sessions form TPS , Kalsoft , TRG , Wavtec , Cybernet . Companies also offered jobs and Internship Programs.

We had Booth Area where 25 companies displayed their products and technologies that they are working on .

Secondly i would like to inform all the viewers that there were 100 IT professionals and HR people from different companies like TPS, Kalsoft,Cybernet Microsoft, Intel, Imation and many other companies that visited TechELITE.

It is an honour for us that because of TechELITE over 30 students are working in different internship programs.

If you people have any queries you cans surely contact me or visit our website at
http://www.techelite.org.pk

OMAIR FEROZ SHEIKH
President - TechELITE
0333-3257276
president@techelite.org.pk

I do think, however that the show this weeks makes a number of very valid points. The problem of the gap between the industry and the institutions is really much more serious than is portrayed by us. I don’t think the colleges even know how serious it is. I think the pressure of the studies taht is put on the students right now, is purely theoretical. At most, the students are required to arrange for a seminar as part of a course requirement, and more often than not, most of the people they invite, are either not interested in speaking or just the wrong kind of people. The biggest probelm here is caused because the unversities just don’t have the knowledge of the local industry, so how can they invite the right kind of speakers? Additionally, these seminars are really kept as mandatory, which is fine as an incentive to increase the attendance, but see - if you have good speakers, the attendance will automatically increase.

The tweaking aspect of these students was an interesting one made and I doubt this is something that any university is even focusing on. Presentation skills and what not… Very important. the fact is, however sad but true, that the image that these young graduates portray before they even open their mouths for an interview process, will be about 50% of the job itself.

Good show. Good job. Let’s work out solutions to make this “issue” a non-issue.

How can a teacher, a guru, a mentor, a person that guides hundreds of members of the future generations, guide a student to leave his roots and his country? Isn’t that shocking?

Secondly, I would like to point something out to you. Many of us do not even know what kinds of comapneis are working here in Pakistan. One of the students on your program mentioned selling his solution to Nokia or United Mobile. Do yo uthink this shows how much awareness we have about our own companies?

I think it is sad that we know companies like Tata and Wipro and Intel and Microsoft, but do not know any companies that are worth our students future. I was at the event closing ceremony and was shocked to see that none of the CEOs or Directors of companies even did not bother to come and spend time with us. I am not complaining. Corporate sponsorships are very important, but the time that corporates might invest with each student project, will be a much bigger investment that will last a longer time.

As a student who has spent 15 months developing my project, I do not want to explain my project to a sales or business development manager of a company. I want the attention of someone who is a mentor. a guru. If they cannot spend their time on me, then I don’t know if I want to spend my time building their company.

Thank you for portraying this issue. I hope it will help people to think.

What kind of support are they going to give us? Do they even know what our needs are? What our requirements are? As students we need all the support we can get.

Most of us do come from middle class families and it is not possible for us to pursue our research projects without any support. Even at the college level, we are unsure what the future is holding for us. If nobody bothers to mentor us, how can we expect to be producing any kind of results?

I wish I could have come and said hello to you and Sir Faisal Quereshi, but both of you seemed to be busy with the students. Thank you for coming to NED and spending a little bit of time there.