Positive vibes Pakistan

[ghazi52]

This company founded by a Pakistani is valued at $1.6 billion

Afiniti uses AI to help companies become efficient by predicting interpersonal behaviour.

Afiniti, an artificial intelligence company, is based in Washington DC, but is rooted in Pakistan through its founder and CEO Zia Chishti.

Founded in 2006, Afiniti uses AI to help companies become efficient. They pair customers with employees by predicting interpersonal behaviour. The company recently came into the spotlight after it filed for an IPO. Previously, it lay low; instead of PR, it amassed customers.

According to VentureBeat, Afiniti is valued at $1.6 billion. When VentureBeat spoke to Chishti, he said he couldn’t comment on the company’s financials. According to sources, Afiniti will start making a profit in fiscal year-2018 and its revenues are said to be growing at a 100 per cent rate.

Chishti is an accomplished entrepreneur. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Align Technology, a company which is currently valued at almost $10 billion.

Afiniti’s board features veterans in the field. Chishti has gathered names like former Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenfeld, former US Treasury secretary John Snow, and fomer Spanish prime minister José Maria Aznar. The company has also raised more than $100 million in funding.

Afiniti claims companies that use their technology for revenue generation see an average revenue lift of four to six per cent. Afiniti’s confidence in their claims can be seen from the fact that they operate on margins – instead of paying a fixed fee, clients pay a percentage of additional revenue they make through Afiniti.

According to Afiniti’s website, T-Mobile has earned an additional $70 million in funding by using Afiniti’s pairing technology.

To make its pairings, Afiniti uses information from up to 100 databases. These databases include information such as income, demography and informational from social networks. So, when a customer calls into a call centre, their phone number is run through these databases. The call is then transferred to an agent who is determined to be most effective to handle calls from the customer with those characteristics.

“It’s a little overwhelming, sometimes scary, to know how much information can be accumulated about you,” said Larry Babbio, an Afiniti board member while speaking to The Wall Street Journal. But, he added, the trade-off is a better consumer experience.

In the near future, Afiniti wants to use its technology in the retail world. Chishti hopes the AI systems he is developing will help create jobs and not destroy them. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal he said: “We are one of the examples of AI tending to increase the efficiency of humans, and therefore increase the demand for human capital.”

Zia Chishti
Chairman of the Board, CEO
Zia serves as Chairman of the Board, and CEO of Afiniti. Prior to founding Afiniti, Zia was the founding Chairman and CEO of Align Technology, a medical device technology company that he led from startup to over a $1 billion valuation on the NASDAQ. Zia also served in the mergers and acquisitions department of Morgan Stanley & Company in New York and London, and briefly served as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in London.

Zia received his MBA from Stanford University and his BA from Columbia University where he majored in Economics and Computer Science and was a member of the varsity crew team. Zia is an avid skier and chess player.

 

[Lone Shooter]

Pakistan's Robin Hood

 

[Lone Shooter]

Pakistani Student Makes History By Becoming First Non-European President Of King’s College London

In the 144 years long history of the famous King’s College London (KCL), Momin Saqib is the only non-European national to become president of the student union for one year. Momin Saqib, who belongs to Lahore, is the first ever Pakistani student to achieve this position at KCL. After an intense competition with seven other contestants, Momin Saqib won the seat.

For details https://www.parhlo.com/meet-momin-saqib-the-pakistani-guy-who-became-kings-college-president/

 

[Lone Shooter]

Naseem Akhtar wins IBSF World Under-18 Snooker Championsip

Sahiwal's Naseem Akhtar has won the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) Under-18 Snooker World Championship after beating China's Peifan Lei in Beijing on Tuesday.

Akhtar won five frames against Lei's three in the Best of 9 Frames game although the Chinese cueist had taken an early 3-1 lead in the game.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1344664

 

[VCheng]

When APPNA held its Lobby Day on May 16th, 34 Pakistani doctors had been denied J-1 Visas and more than 50 doctors were stuck in Administrative Processing. Today, all clinical J-1 Visa denials have been reversed and all but two of the Administrative Processing cases have been favorably resolved.


The bottom line is that of the 84 plus Pakistani doctors who were in danger of losing their medical residency training in the U.S. as recently as May 16th, 81 have since been accepted due to APPNA's efforts. That's a nearly 97% success rate.


Because of these efforts, APPNA has not only helped the Pakistani doctors come to the U.S., but it has also built deep bipartisan awareness on Capitol Hill about its work. This foundation will play a crucial role in APPNA's efforts going forward, and should be leveraged into proactive activities to avoid similar visa problems in the future.


Here are some of the key actions that APPNA took from mid-May to mid-July


APPNA engaged in multiple activities, specifically focusing on the media, Congress, the State Department, and the Pakistani government to generate action:


1) Creating a Media Narrative: The Hill ran an OpEd by Dr. Piracha about the visa issue that framed it as an issue about American healthcare. A winning message.


2) Introducing Legislation: Bipartisan legislation was introduced- the Grant Residency for Additional Doctors Act of 2017 (H.R. 2466) - the GRAD Act - by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) to help foreign born doctors obtain visas. Passing this legislation should be a top priority, to ensure that next year does not see a repeat of the issues experienced this year.


3) Washington Lobby Day: APPNA Members met with bipartisan offices from the Senate and House, as well as with the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau:

• o 11 Members: Bera, Comstock, Demings, Fitzpatrick, Jackson Lee, Jayapal, Khanna, Krishnamoorthi, Suozzi, Thompson, and Wittman.

• o 17 Staffers: Banks, Cardin, Carson, Castro, Chu, Corker, Delaney, Donnelly, Green, Holding, Nelson, Roskam, Ruppersberger, Soto, Tiberi, Van Hollen, and Vela.

4) Grassroots Petition: APPNA generated a petition that was signed by more than 1,700 APPNA Members from 47 States. We then sent it to Secretary of State Tillerson as well as distributed it to 125 Congressional offices.


5) Engaging the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad: APPNA sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale about the visa issue. APPNA President Chaudhary then spoke with the U.S. Consul General in Islamabad about the visa issue.


6) Generating Public Pressure at a Congressional Hearing: Rep. Meng pressed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - at a public hearing about the State Department's budget in front of the House Appropriations Committee on Foreign Operations (HACFO) - to provide visas for foreign born doctors.


7) Engaging the Pakistani Government: APPNA's Advocacy Director Dr. Piracha met with Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Chaudhry to discuss the impact of the visa issue on U.S.-Pakistani relations.


8) Activating Congress: Key Congressional staff requested from APPNA a list of affected Pakistani doctors and shared this information with State, keeping the pressure on and ensuring that State would take the issue seriously.


Here's what APPNA did in the final intense stretch from mid-July to August 30


In the final stretch of the summer, with many of the doctors in extreme danger of losing their residencies, APPNA engaged in a very intense and ultimately successful effort aimed at Congress, seeking their direct help on behalf of the doctors. APPNA engaged the specific Congressional offices whose districts included hospitals where the Pakistani doctors were slated to train. Congress responded well, and this final push made a significant difference in the increasing level of visa approvals over recent weeks.

• Specifically, on July 21, 15 doctors were still being refused their visas and 19 were still stuck in Administrative Processing, for a total of 34 doctors waiting for visas.

• To fix this situation, APPNA reached out to 52 Chiefs of Staff in 44 Congressional offices (House and Senate), on a one-to-one basis, with detailed requests for help. APPNA then connected the specific Congressional offices to the Pakistani doctor, and the Congressional office reached out directly to the State Department on their behalf.

• APPNA also reached out directly to the Homeland Security Department to facilitate the approval of the remaining Administrative Processing cases.

We are quite happy that our collective efforts bore fruit. We are planning actively for next step and will keep you posted.

Sincerely,


Abul Rashid Piracha, MD

Chair, Committee of Advocacy.


Shahzad Iqbal, MD

Chair, Committee on Young Physicians.


Sajid Chaudhary, MD

President APPNA, 2017

 

[Lone Shooter]

Electric Honeycombs Form When Nature Gets Out of Balance

This visualization reveals fundamental principles about how electricity moves through fluids that engineers can use to develop technology for printing, heating or biomedicine. But it also reminds us that humans aren’t the only ones seeking stability in an unstable world. Even tiny, unconscious objects need balance. You can see similar patterns in wax honeycombs, fly’s eyes and soap bubbles.

Physicists knew of this phenomenon decades before Muhammad Shaheer Niazi, a 17-year-old high school student from Pakistan met the electric honeycomb. In 2016, as one of the first Pakistani participants in the International Young Physicists’ Tournament, he replicated the phenomenon and presented his work as any professional scientist would. But he also developed photographic evidence of charged ions creating the honeycomb, and published his work Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.


https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/...://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/pakistan

 

[Lone Shooter]

Pakistan passes landmark transgender rights law

Activists laud move by Pakistan's parliament as new law accords transgender citizens right to self-identify.

Pakistan's parliament has passed a law guaranteeing basic rights for transgender citizens and outlawing discrimination by both employers and private business owners, a move hailed by activists as "historic" for the conservative South Asian country.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...k-transgender-rights-law-180509095207950.html

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan female game designer on a mission for change

By Tabinda Kokab

Image captionSadia Bashir had to battle to follow her passion for video games
Gender roles are becoming more fluid than ever in Pakistan - but 29-year-old Sadia Bashir still stands out.

Although women have become more visible in sports and other areas in Pakistan, video gaming is still overwhelmingly for the boys.

Sadia was not put off, however. She started not just playing video games, but developing them as well - from the age of 13.

"My interest in computers began with video gaming, so I just continued to develop it," she told BBC Urdu.

At one point, she even persuaded her parents to change her school so she could study computing.

Deciding whether to continue her studies at university was also hard, as she knew her family might find it difficult to support her.

"Being a female in our society, people generally invest less in girls' education as compared to boys," she says.

'Mesmerised by CGI'
But the university decided to offer her a scholarship because of her ability and she completed her graduation.

Image captionPakistan does not have a tradition of game designing
She was mesmerised by the beauty of computer graphics.

"I started making video games from there. My final-year project was to make a game that helps with cancer treatment by mimicking the action of treatments attacking cancer cells in an affected person's body."

The idea was to visualise for cancer patients the therapy they are having to help them cope with their illness.

"Before that the video game was just a source of fun for me. But after this research project, I saw a different aspect to gaming and decided to further work in this field," she said.

Sadia worked in the gaming industry for a year and a half, but felt she wasn't able to achieve what she wanted to do.

There are no real centres specialising in video game-making in Pakistan, she says.

"I realised my dream was to learn how to make my own games. That's why I started my master's thesis and tried to know what mistakes are made and what is useful in making video games."

'Even a housewife can make games'

Sadia realised that whatever she had learned from education and research was not available to many young people.

She abandoned her job and started an institution named Pixel Art Academy, where she trains young people in how to make video games.

• 'Making video games isn't just for boys'
• The game sparking debate about arranged marriage
• The Pakistani women shamed for their lifestyle

"There is no game design concept in the gaming industry in Pakistan. People have great ideas - but how to turn those into good games is the skill they lack. This is what we teach our students."

Designing is not down to special education or skill, she believes.

"We tell people that this can be done by anyone. Whatever your education, even a school student or a housewife can make games."

 

[El Sidd]

Venice

 

[ghazi52]

 

[Dubious]

Two Pak women to attend youth forum in Norway

PESHAWAR: Two Pakistani women have been selected to participate in the sixth annual Telenor Youth Forum (TYF) to be held in Oslo, the capital of Norway, from December 8-11 next. The TYF, in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Centre, brings together a group of 16 young delegates from Asia and Europe and challenges these individuals to find ways to use digital technology to reduce inequalities and empower societies.

Maieda Janjua, 22, from Islamabad and Asma Akbar Ladak, 20, from Karachi were selected from the group to participate in the forum.

Maieda Janjua graduated from Dartmouth last year in Computer Science and currently interning in Telenor’s “Data as a Service” team. She was exploring the tech scene in the country and interested in using technology for social good. The idea pitched by her is to create an artificially intelligent chatbot to help address maternal mortality.

Asma Akbar Ladak is a medical student, who has developed a solar powered water bottle that purifies contaminated water (both microscopically and macroscopically) and condenses atmospheric water vapour to drinkable water.

In the last five seasons of TYF, there have been some outstanding individuals to represent Pakistan that include Saad Hamid, a digital evangelist, Fatima Rizwan, founder of Tech Juice.com, Haroon Yasin, founder of Orenda and receiver of Queen’s Young Leaders award and Sajawal Waseem, winner of TYF 2016-17.

Chief Executive Officer Irfan Wahab Khan hoped the two selectees would perform well in Oslo and make Pakistan proud. The TYF delegates would participate in a service design programme in Oslo to create a digital service, product or campaign that tackles a global social challenge. They will also explore the connection between digital technology and peace by participating in the Nobel Peace Prize festivities.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/358356-two-pak-women-to-attend-youth-forum-in-norway

 

[ghazi52]

US Consulate General Lahore

Yesterday at 9:00 AM ·
Meet Nergis Mavalvala – a Pakistani-American astrophysicist who won the MacArthur award in 2010 for her role in the first observation of gravitational waves. Nergis tells us her story of growing up in Karachi and how she chose her career path. She is currently the associate director of the physics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) . Nergis participated in a City42 documentary highlighting Pakistani women in the United States. Throughout the month of September, we will be sharing these inspiring stories.

https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Fatima Khan0007]

felt good to listen that

 

[ghazi52]

NASA engineer Hibah Rahmani encourages young Pakistani women to pursue space science careers


Girls must dream big and never give up, says Rahmani

Engineer Hibah Rahmani, a Pakistani-US national who is working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), USA, has urged girl students to pursue their career in space science as there are opportunities for talented girls to reach for the stars.

She was addressing a seminar at the Punjab University’s Institute of Social and Cultural Studies organised in collaboration with the US Consulate Lahore and the Lincoln Corners Pakistan on Friday.

ISCS Director Prof Dr Rubina Zakar, US Consulate Provincial Coordinator Alumni Affairs Jamal Ghazanfar, US Consulate Deputy Public Affairs Officer Elizabeth Lee, faculty members and students were present.

Hibah Rahmani discussed the current research being done in the field of space sciences at Nasa. She said it was a good omen that Pakistani girls were coming forward in various fields of science and engineering.

She said: “Problems and failures come but that could become an opportunity if the students continue to achieve their goals and work hard. Girls must dream big and never give up. Girl students should stay focused on their goals and dreams and eventually they will find success.”

She works on expendable launch vehicles and rockets. She provides technical expertise, follows launch vehicle testing, performs data reviews and provides technical assessments of engineering issues.

 

[ghazi52]

There is no shortage of talent even in our country

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