Volunteer Leadership Training Program 2016 by IEEE Karachi Section SAC Committee, Usman Institute of Technology, Karachi

Reported By: Eisha Bint Khalid

Volunteer Leadership Training 2016 was started with the recitation of Holy Quran.

Volunteers from student branches with in Karachi Section participated in the program. Student Branches at NED-UET, UIT, NUCES-FAST, HIT, DSU, NUST-PNEC, PAF-KIET, IIEE, ISRA University, MUET, IBA Sukkur and NHU are to name a few.

SSR Karachi Section, Mr. Ahsan Qamar Sheikh hosted the event. SAC Chair, Engr. Murtaza Hanif began the training by giving a welcome note. He told participants about various international and national activities in which IEEE Karachi section actively participates which includes PSYWC and other regional conferences and congresses. He also informed about the funding opportunities which IEEE volunteers are eligible to apply. He further guided participants how they can indulge in local IEEE activities and shared some social media platforms on which they can interact with other IEEE volunteers.

Proceeding with the program, Treasurer Karachi Section, Engr. Sarang Sheikh was invited to discuss the the strategies which student branch leadership can imply in order to revamp their student branch. He informed participants about various kinds of activities which student branches can organize under IEEE platform. He also discussed the strategies to increase or maintain membership count in a student branch.

After this interactive session, MD Chair Karachi Section, Engr. Ahsan Saeed was invited who briefly told participants about IEEE JOB Site, IEEE.tv and IEEE Academics. He also informed participants about various awards and IEEE Regional Student Paper Contests and encouraged the audience to apply for awards and research papers presentation.

Next, SSR, Ahsan Qamar Sheikh gave his presentation on how to file petition for any society. He told participants about various societies within IEEE. He informed participants about the IEEE regional and sectional Newsletter format and submission processes. He further encouraged the student branches to form their own websites. Proceeding, IEEE Newsletter (2015) team was presented with appreciation certificates.

Proceeding  further, SSR. Elect. 2017 and ambassador for MadC at Karachi Section Hesham Ali gave presentation on IEEE MadC, which is a global mobile application development contest open for all the IEEE student members across the globe. He added about IEEE Xtreme Programming Competition and IEEE Smarter Planet Challenge.

Continuing with the event, South Asia Young Professionals Coordinator Rabeet Sagri was invited to tell the audience about IEEE young professionals. He also guided participants about SPAC / SPAV / SPAA, which are student career development activities.

SSR Karachi Section was presented with token of appreciation for his contribution in the formation of new student branch at Nazeer Hussain University, Karachi. The token was presented by the newly formed student branch Leadership.

Lunch break was given at 1:15 pm. The Program resumed at 2:30 pm. After lunch Chairperson Karachi Section, Dr Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry addressed the participants and encouraged them to volunteer.    

After this motivational speech two parallel sessions started one was  IEEE Vtools workshop and other was Basic Designing on Photoshop. session were conducted by Engr. Murtaza Hanif and Amaad Soomro who is  Graphics Designer at Region 10 Young Professionals. For Vtools session, the chairperson and vice chairperson of student branches were taken in a separate room. Meanwhile, in the Auditorium, Amaad Soomro guided participants on basic designing on Photoshop. He discussed modern trends in Photoshop including color schemes and background aesthetics.

Engr. Hassam Mughal was then called to brief about IEEE Computer Society.

An activity session was also carried out in which two universities had to group up and plan a unique event. Proposed event should be in line with the vision of IEEE. It was announced that karachi section will give funds to the winner group for the execution of the proposed plan. Judges panel heard the representative of each group detailing their plans. The judges asked questions and marks were assigned based on creativity, scope and use. The group of HIET and IIEE were said to have the best score.

After this energetic session, Member SAC Karachi Section Ebad ur Rehman presented the last presentation about PES society.

The event was ended with thoughtful speech of Past chair and SIGHT coordinator of Karachi section, Engr. Parkash Lohana. His speech ignited participants with motivation to volunteer .  A photo session of all  the participants was held in the end.