An Interview with Innovators..!

By: Junaid Ansari

Introduction

Zohaib Shoaib and Yusra Siddiqui are the students of NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi. They developed software named as Electrical Power Utilization Manager (EPUM) and they have won several students/IT related competitions on that software. Their biggest achievement till now is that they won the P@SHA ICT Awards 2011, as Runners-Up in Student Category. Reading magazines, playing games, Loves Horse Riding & playing chess, long drive are the activities which yusra and zohaib likes other than studies and software development. We took an interview with them to share the spirit of young achievers with our readers.

Q:            Being an undergraduate student, could you expect these achievements in this age?

Yusra & Zohaib: Never, if we didn’t win ITEC (Information Technology Exhibition & Competition) 2010 competition…. It was our first competition at student level. We participated there with very less hope of win because there was a lot of competition expected. The students of third & final year brought their projects in competition and we couldn’t expect a win there. At that time we only developed simulation software on C++ based on logic gates. Judges liked our idea and appreciated us a lot, and we won that event. After winning we used to Participate in different competition & now we believe that if you have guts, you should bring in front of the world. 

Q:            How the idea of electrical power utilization manager came into your mind?

Yusra & Zohaib: Basically that was the idea of our teacher; we just take the initiative to work on it. Our teacher, Sir Amjad guided us a lot in order to accomplish the goal of completing this application. He proved to be a best mentor and we successfully completed our software in his supervision.

Q:            What actually the software does? How it is beneficial for the public?

Yusra & Zohaib:            The software allows a consumer to keep track his electrical power utilization and even the billing cycle. Tariff has already uploaded in the software and it will be updated on daily basis. EPUM software is actually attached with a device that works in parallel with the electrical meter provided by the electric supply company. The software can be used at any place like home, company or any kind of industry. It is also helpful for the companies who want to cut their cost. The software is capable to give you the rates according the electricity usage and excessive use can be sent to the consumer mobile number through an SMS. Software also provides the graphs and charts according to the daily, monthly and even hourly basis.

Q:            Do your families help you in this cause?

Zohaib: Yes, our parents supported us very much. They helped me in determining the requirements, completing the analysis and funding extra than our pocket money on this software.

Yusra: I think every girl is curious about participating in such events, but being a female it is very difficult to manage the work, studies and families together with such extracurricular activities. I am thankful to my parents who allowed me to not only participate in such events but to build my personality by meeting the people from IT industry and work with them.

Q:            Whom do you acknowledge the most for your achievements?

Yusra & Zohaib: First of all our Teamwork, Mentors like Sir Amjad from NED & Jibran Jamshad from MIC (Microsoft) and specially our Parents. In addition to this we also acknowledge different people from the IT Industry, MIC Catalyst Program, and P@SHA who supported us in shaping our efforts in a sweet fruit.

Q:            Which event did you enjoy a lot?

Yusra & Zohaib: We have participated in many events and we enjoyed almost every event. In competitions, we compete not to win but to learn how to win. And we learned a lot by our mistakes and shaped our software that it would be able to compete with the final year projects of the students of several universities. We enjoyed MIC a lot and PASHA ICT Awards which gave us a good name. We have also put our project in ITCN Asia 2011 with the help of Microsoft. Thousands of people came there and acknowledge our application. We also enjoyed their valuable comments and feedbacks.

Q:            Is there any company who is supporting you in your project?

Yusra & Zohaib: Not Yet. We had discussions with different companies in different events like Nestle, KESC, Microsoft etc. But companies are afraid of supporting us as they think that our project is the direct competitor of KESC and has no business values. Through this interview we also want to communicate that our project is for the masses to empower them that they could control their electrical expenses.

Q:            You have 1 year in NED more, what are the future plans then?

Yusra & Zohaib: We are trying to achieve another goal in final year & that is to become an entrepreneur. We are working hard to commercialize our project but it requires a lot of efforts and support. Further we are planning to develop some more innovative and business oriented products so that we could achieve our goals.

The first thing we learn while starting to develop any software is to make its feasibility analysis. If the project is worthy then it should be started otherwise not. We have some more ideas to work upon them and we will try to complete them in our final year of bachelors.

Q:            Are these activities affecting your studies?

Yusra & Zohaib: Initially it seems like that but we became used to it. No our work and efforts not at all effects our studies. We are thankful to our teachers in this regard who helps us in making us understand the missing lectures and co-operate us in participating in several competitions.

Q:            What extra did you learn other than competition?

Yusra & Zohaib: Other than the competition we learnt many things like how to meet with corporate sector and how to present the ideas in front of hundreds of people. We have met with the tycoons of industry and we learnt many things from them. They guided us to further improve our software and make innovative changes in it.

Q:            Did any company offer the job?

Yusra & Zohaib: Usually people meet us and want to know about our software. Many companies have contacted us, but right now we are the students and we need to complete 1 more year in NED University. After completing our bachelors definitely the doors in the company will be expected to open for us. But our mindset is to be an entrepreneur rather than doing a salaried job. We would like to find out business opportunities because through this thing only we can bring up more innovative ideas to serve the people of Pakistan.

Q:            What do you want to say about Job Crisis and Recession?

Yusra & Zohaib: Recession comes in the economy when people leave all things upon the fate. Unfortunately our students and even our people are now becoming careless about their future.

Khuda ne Aaj tak us Qaoum ki Halat nahi badly,

Na ho jisko Khyaal aap apni halat badalny ka..!

We should always be in search of new opportunities. A person can be an entrepreneur while opening a computer shop in the market as well as he can be a bankrupt while having a company with him. That should be learnt by our people. All this recession and economic crisis will not affect our economy and country’s financial conditions, but it could be done collectively. Every individual have to think about it.

Q:            Comments on Current situation of Pakistan?

Yusra & Zohaib: Pakistan is the country which is full of the talented people. Unfortunately our talent is being wasted in negative deeds more than the positive one. Either it would be politics or any other field. You can see this in students too, who don’t pass the exams honestly. In our opinion Pakistan is facing such crisis because of us. If we are right then the system will automatically be corrected.

Q:            Any message you want to give to your generation?

Zohaib:   I would like to say other students like me; never be disheartened with the defeat. Always ready to compete, as if you don’t bring your things in front of the people then nobody will know you. You should tell people who you are. The talent in Pakistan cannot be easily defeated. The thing is to provide support and mentorship to such students so that they can also portray their ideas, product and services to the people.

Yusra:     I have learnt many things while participating in such competitions. And I noticed that now females are also participating with their complete efforts. All we need to do is to support them and their ideas. Although I have seen a discrimination aspect too but I wish that if you are in this field then you should learn to compete. Every student can bring a new thing to the environment and it will effect collectively on the society.