Workshop on iPhone Application Development (9th -10th May,2009)

NUST SEECS in collaboration with Jin Technologies conducted a two days hands on workshop on iPhone Application Development. Overall there were 30 participants.

Experience at SLAC

Experience at SLAC

By Shahryar Khan

Since my early childhood I had a keen interest in Communication and Technology. I got my first exposure to computers in 1996 and got fascinated with them. At that point in time I decided that I would pursue my carrier in this field. I joined NUST Institute of Information Technology in 2002 as an undergraduate student. NIIT has a very good research and learning environment which helped me build my research interests. During the final year of my project I started working on Measurement and Analysis of Global Grid and Internet End to End Performance measurement Project (MAGGIE), which is a collaborative research project between NIIT and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Based on the performance in this project I was invited to SLAC to work as a Visiting Scientist for one year.

As a fresh graduate I was really fortunate to get this opportunity. It is really an honor for me to work for US Department of Energy (DoE) affiliated lab. At SLAC I have the chance to interact and work with some of the smartest people in the world. My advisor Dr. Les Cottrell is really helpful and cooperative and I learned a lot from him. The work environment at SLAC is very conducive which helps me focus on my research. My area of research is “Digital Divide from an Internet point of View” – To understand and quantify the gap between the developed and developing countries of the world.

One of the benefits of working at SLAC is that it is very close to Stanford University. I live on Stanford campus and have the opportunity to interact with Stanford students. I am also an active member of Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN) at Stanford University and helped in organizing various events on campus. This is really helpful as it provided me the opportunity to interact with people from various cultures, nationalities and backgrounds. At Stanford University I also took a couple of graduate level courses - Computer Network Security and IPhone Application Programming.

Another advantage of working at SLAC is that it is located in the heart of Silicon Valley which is the world’s center for technology and innovation. Being that close to Silicon Valley helped me update my knowledge about the new trends in IT industry. There are many Venture Capitalists along the Sand Hill Road where I live. I also attended some of the lectures of Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs in North America (OPEN) which helped be brush up my entrepreneurial skills. I also worked for a Silicon Valley based Startup Company for six months back when I was in Pakistan.

In September 2007, my research findings were published in Computing in High Energy Physics Conference which was held in Victoria, Canada. There I met Ian Willers from CERN, Richard McClatchy from UWE University of West England) and Harvey Newman from Caltech. All of them were already involved in collaborative research work with NIIT and they appreciated my work.

Overall it is a life changing experience, and changed my perspective of looking at things. I am really thankful to Dr. Arshad Ali who mentored me, without his support all these achievements would not have been possible. Most important of all, I am thankful to my parents and family for guiding me throughout my life.