Meeting Summary
2008 Alumni Convention in Hartford
1. 2008 Convention Report and Convention souvenirs were presented to the VC.
NEDAA VP, Moin Ahmed meeting with VC & his Faculty
2. Apologized to the VC that we could not play the VC's Welcome Speech during the 2008 Alumni Convention due to technical difficulties. Informed him that it has now been posted on the NEDNEC website. [The VC Speech CD was specially hand delivered by Prof. Rafeeqi for the 2008 Convention.]Accreditation
The main drawback that NEDUET faces in the accreditation process is that their graduates lack the 20-25 % Humanities credits that foreign Institutions require at graduation. Introduction of new Humanities courses to increase the Humanities vs. Tech portion to 20-25% will certainly help with the accreditation process. Most undergraduate US schools require about 28-32 Humanities credits out of a total of 128-140 credits required to graduate. By offering increased number of Humanities Courses favorable results from the accreditation agencies can be expected. Furthermore, similar to the Mathematics Department NEDUET may want to look into establishing additional Departments that deal with Humanities subjects. For example a Dept. of Language Studies, a Dept. of Religious Studies, Dept. of History, Dept of Design and Graphics etc. From these Humanities Departments the students can chose whatever Humanities courses they were interested in. All students may not end up taking the same Humanities courses as long as they meet the 28-32 credit requirement.
1. Some subjects could also benefit by renaming them with little or no modification to the course content. For example English can be offered thru Dept of Languages as English Language or English Literature or English Writing. Islamiat can be offered thru Dept. of Religious Studies as Islam - the Religion of the World, or Islam in the 21st Century. Similarly, Technical Drawing can be offered as Graphics Design. Some effort can also be made to offer French and German Courses along with local languages such as Urdu, Sindhi, Pushto etc.
2. In conformance with the status of a University it would be beneficial for NEDUET to separate its Undergraduate programs from Graduate programs. Separate Undergraduate and Graduate Schools should be created. This separation will not only play a positive role in the accreditation process but will also lend great credibility to the MS and PhD courses.
3.. Result sheets and Transcripts can prove to more useful if both marks in percentage and GPA were indicated. Other than helping in the accreditation process this will greatly benefit students applying for studies abroad.
Ranking
NEDUET agreed to take part in all international ranking surveys.
TEPS (Technical Education Program Series)
1. Discussed the MOU that was signed between NEDUET and NEDAA to jointly host Seminars, workshops and lectures by distinguished alumni. It was agreed that changes need to be made to the MOU to allow NEDAA to facilitate in collaboration with the Local Associations to select Alumni desirous of participating in this Program
2. TEPS is a collaborative effort between the NEDUET and NEDAA to transfer technological and state of the art knowledge to the Pakistani Engineering community by NED Alumni residing and working in North America. Our Alumni will conduct lectures, workshops and Seminars during their visits to Karachi.
3. TEPS will also conduct workshops and seminars thru Video Conferencing. NED has developed brand new facilities for Video Conferencing that are to be utilized for this purpose.
NEDAN (NED Alumni Network)
1. NEDUET has created a new Alumni Website known as NEDAN. This was also announced in the 2008 Alumni Convention in Hartford by Dr. Shams, Pro VC.
2. NEDAA supports the formation of NEDAN Website and has already provided valuable input. This Website will be supported and managed by NEDUET with input from Faculty and Alumni.
3. The main purpose of NEDAN will be to authenticate Alumni status, offer a place for job postings, collect
4. All Alumni endowments to go thru NEDAN and will be deposited in the Endowment Account.
5. NEDAA to assist NEDAN in ironing out difficulties in the use of Credit Cards and Charge Cards.
Governing Body
1. All affairs of NEDAN including endowments to be managed by an advisory panel that will be known as the Governing Body.
2. The proposed Governing Body structure to be composed of 10 Faculty members, one to two Alumni from each of the five Regions of N. America and 10 Alumni from NEDAA Executive Council.
MS and PhD Program Status
1. Currently 400 students are enrolled in the MS program and 11 in the PhD.
2. To date 1600 students have received MS Degrees and 4 have received PhD degrees.
3. About 45 Faculty members are abroad and in the process of obtaining their PhD degrees.
Research
A great deal of research work is taking place at NEDUET. Here is a summary by Departments.
Civil Engineering including Architecture, Urban Planning and Environmental Department
1. Currently CE Department has a $1.4 million NSF grant to do research study on Earth quakes.
2. CE Department publishes two Journals per year
3. Old NED Campus located at Burns Rd is now known as the City Campus & is also the UNESCO Office for Architectural Restoration. Dr Noman who runs the City Campus works with UNESCO in identifying buildings that can be classified as Heritage Buildings and later works with various agencies in restoring these Buildings to their original glory. City Campus itself is currently undergoing historic restoration under this program.
CE Department is currently doing research on the following projects:
1. Earth Quakes
2. Construction Management
3. Intelligent Transportation Systems
4. Seismology
Mechanical Engineering Department
Following Research Projects are currently being pursued by the ME Department that is being headed by Dr. Nazim
1. Computational Fluid Dynamics
2. Desalination
3. Supply Chain Management
4. Wrinkle Free Printing for Textiles
5. Fuel Cells
6. Biodiesel
Computer Science Department
The following Research Projects are currently being pursued by the Computer Science Department.
1. OCR
2. Quantum Cryptography
3. Computer Vision
Electronics Department
Following Research Projects are currently being pursued by the Electronics Department :
1. Muti Core Multi Threading Parallel Processing
2. Chip Design
3. Zinc Oxide Photo Voltaic Cells for luminaries
Other Research Projects
1. Small scale De-Salination Plant already built and functioning on Campus
2. Campus wide Waste Water Treatment Plant already built and functioning on campus. Used for irrigation water for grass and trees on campus.
3. Solar Project already built and functioning on Campus. Used to supply hot water to Mosque.
Coordination with Local Industry
The University works closely with the Industry around the Karachi area. Most of the Undergraduate Projects come thru the Telecomm, Electronics Companies, factories and manufacturing sector.
Many of the undergrad students also receive Internships in the various industries around the Karachi area.
Curriculum
The curriculum and courses are thoroughly discussed with experts inside and outside Pakistan to ensure that they are at par with competitive Engineering schools worldwide. Discussion also takes place on the quality of the courses in the Academic Council and the Syndicate Meetings. The Syndicate is the equivalent of Campus Trustees.
Keynote Speaker for the Convocation
Suggestion was made to invite prominent academicians and personalities from neighboring countries like India, BD, Sri Lanka, HK, Singapore and other SE Asian Countries for the Keynote Speech during annual Convocations instead of from inside Pakistan. This will help spread the reputation of NEDUET in SE Asia and may attract foreign students to NEDUET. Distinguished Alumni in USA and Europe should also be considered.
NEDAA Recognized as the Central Body
1. NEDUET has recognized NEDAA as the umbrella organization that will be the liaison between NEDUET and other Alumni Associations. This will prevent all local Associations from individually bringing up the same issues to NEDUET.
2. NEDUET recognizes NEDAA as the National Association that will be providing coordination and guidance to all the local Alumni Associations in N. America.
Submitted by:
Moin Ahmed
NED Alumni Association
Clockwise from left, Moin Ahmed with VC, NED Admin Building, Prof. Rafeeqi and Moin Ahmed wiith portrait of founder of NED, Nadirshaw E. Dinshaw
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