Pakistani students have made the nation proud by winning top two prizes in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Middle East 2021 competition, which was jointly organized by the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in partnership with Huawei Middle East.
The ICT Middle East competition was launched in 2017. More than 15,000 contestants from leading academic institutions in the Middle East participated in the 2021 edition of the competition. Pakistan has been given special representation by Huawei since the start of the competition.
This year, the final round of the competition witnessed participation of 13 teams from 10 countries.
“Pakistan team outclassed in every step of selection process and won the first and second prize in the grand final in Riyadh,” Dr. Faheem Yar Khuhawar, an associate professor at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology’s (MUET) Department of Telecommunication and one of the trainers, told Arab News.
“The competition is about ICT, such as routing and switching, security, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 5G and Wireless LAN,” Khuhawar said, adding that they provided training to students after their initial selection.
The trainers of both Pakistani teams received excellent tutor awards as well, he said.
The two teams were selected after a rigorous process where Huawei took multiple-stage exam to choose the best to represent the country.
Members of the Pakistani team that won the first prize included two MUET students, Satesh Kumar and Bhagchand Meghwar, and Syeda Iqra Fatima from Islamia University Bahawalpur.
In the final round, all teams had to undergo a written test and complete a lab task to solve network problems.
Fatima said it was a great moment for them to win the competition for Pakistan.
“Every team consists of three members and was given a task to demonstrate their skill in the lab,” she said. “We were assigned to make protocols to make Wi-Fi connection more secure. We completed it with the best security solutions and won first prize with $20,000 cash reward.”
Meghwar, who hails from a remote village in Sindh’s Tharparkar, said he succeeded in the competition after two consecutive failed attempts.
“I come from a village where there is no electricity and other basic facilities, so it is like a dream for me to win such a prestigious competition,” he told Arab News.
“I could not clear the national level in 2019 and 2020, but worked very hard to improve my skills for the whole time and finally succeeded.”
Hafiz Muhammad Rizwan, a member of the team that won the second prize, felt proud of winning the top two prizes out of students from 13 countries.
“We divided the task in three sections and each member had to complete one of them,” he said. “I completed data communication while others did wireless LAN, security and quality of service.”
In a Twitter post, the Pakistani embassy in Riyadh congratulated both the winning teams.
“Many Congratulations to Pakistani students for winning 1st and 2nd prizes in Huawei Competition for Communications & Information Technology Middle East 2021 held in Riyadh today, organized by the Ministry of Communications and IT, KSA in partnership with Huawei Middle East,” it said.
Source: Arab News
