The start-up competition saw students presenting before a panel of judges’, innovative ideas in technology that would solve a problem. One of the winning teams had two final year students from NUST School of Electrical Engineering, Hassaam Ali and Umair Aftab. Calling their project ‘Low Cost Extensible Computing’, they developed an electric board, the size of a wallet, which could connect to any kind of screen, be it a small television, a bulky monitor or any LCD screen and have a fully functioning computer that also allows internet access. Using this board, a person was able to use a computer for as low as Rs. 6,000.

‘The idea struck when I went to my village, just outside of Jhang, to visit my cousins. When we went to check out laptops at the market, I saw that each one had a huge mark-up, of about 50 to 60 per cent. And the hardware was not impressive either. In fact, I would call it obsolete,” said Aftab.

“There are so many people in Pakistan’s rural areas and small cities who need to own a computer and get the internet, but cheaply. We’re aiming to take this project forward and solve this problem,” added Ali.

It wasn’t all work at the Softcom. A movie night and a four-hour hiking trip in the morning at Tarbela were also part of the plan to make sure students had a great time. To keep them informed of the different activities taking place around the campus, GIKI used Pring for coordination. Alerts about the schedule and updates on interesting happenings around the campus were sent out through SMS to all students almost every half hour, keeping the whole affair organised.

The campus was brimming with students, while ideas and imagination flowed throughout the event. The Softcom had pulled together the sharpest young minds from around the country, proving that there is no dearth of brilliance and originality in Pakistan.