Microsoft Pakistan DX Community Blog

Imagine Cup 2018 Regional Final Winners - Pakistan

M. Sohaib Safdar — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 20:58:09 GMT

Dear Imagine Cup Participants We have had an amazing Imagine Cup 2018 – Regional Final stage, where most of you came to present your projects to our regional judges. There were a total of 110 projects that were judged across the 4 regions, and the top 25 teams have been selected. There were some brilliant ideas which could well have made it to the Finals, and we would like to congratulate all the participants of Imagine Cup – Pakistan Chapter, for taking an active part in the competition. We hope that you were able to learn from our judges remarks, and that you will only come back stronger next year! Few snaps from the event below. Without further ado, the 25 teams that will be proceeding to the National Finals are as follows:

Team Names
GenyMotion	CodeCloneFinder
Markhors	Team Hyper-Rec
NerdHerd	Humachines
Decoders & Encoders	SyedChaos
Team ILMS	TechyTeam
TechTor	Fe Amaan
IoT Solutions	Code 4 Life
Devil's Whisper	Addonexus
MAAS	CUSIT Data Warriors
E-Hanna	Lublin Pakistan
Queen Bees	The Amigos
Team MNS-UAM	CESTINO - Smart Waste Management
Marriam - GCWUF

The teams above will be contacted individually by Muhammad Sohaib (v-musoha@microsoft.com) over email, so that feedback and the judges’ comments can be shared with them and that they be able to work on their projects in the coming three weeks, to have a more complete and rounded solution for the National Final, which is scheduled for the 1^st week of May. National Final Submissions are now open, and will remain open till the 30^th of April, 2018, for students to re-submit their projects for National Evaluations.

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2018 - Regional Final Schedule

M. Sohaib Safdar — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 02:33:10 GMT

Dear Imagine Cup Participants Thank you for your submission. We have come up with a presentation schedule for teams who are interested in going to one of our 4 onsite locations to present their projects, in 15 min slots. Below you will find this schedule for every team that has registered. Please, if you find your team name mentioned in a region that is too far for you (you are from Islamabad or Lahore, and region assigned to you is Karachi for example) get in touch with Muhammad Sohaib (v-musoha@microsoft.com / 0343-3555716) ASAP so that you can be assigned a new location. Regional contact names for each region, the location for each region’s along with the regional host locations, and there details are also given below against each region. In case of any general queries or concerns, please reach out immediately to Muhammad Sohaib at contact details provided. For region specific queries, please reach out to regional contacts given below. Please note, these timings are for ONSITE presentations. If a team is not able to come for onsite presentation, their online submitted video and other deliverables will be judged and marked accordingly. Note: If you don't see your team listed below, that means your submission was incomplete. Please get in touch with Sohaib, we are looking at how we can entertain such teams at this point in time. Please, when you reach out, MAKE SURE YOU LET US KNOW WHICH REGION / UNIVERSITY you belong to. Contact Names & Host Locations: Karachi: Higher Education Regional Center Karachi – Muhammad Sohaib: 0343-3555716 / v-musoha@microsoft.com Lahore: Higher Education Regional Center Lahore – Sheikh Rizwan: 0312-5166755 / v-shrizw@microsoft.com Peshawar: Pearl Continental Hotel, Peshawar – Sheikh Rizwan: 0312-5166755 / v-shrizw@microsoft.com Quetta: Serena Hotel, Quetta – Muhammad Sohaib: 0343-3555716 / v-musoha@microsoft.com Team List & Schedule: Karachi:

Team Name	Regional Final Region	Timings	Date
3 Coders	Karachi	10:15am	29th March
Ali Ahmed	Karachi	10:30am	29th March
BEAMS	Karachi	10:45am	29th March
E-Henna	Karachi	11:00am	29th March
Faaiz-ul-Hassan	Karachi	11:15am	29th March
Factotum	Karachi	11:30am	29th March
Hammad ur Rehman, Sohaib Nadeem, Nazneen Kausar	Karachi	11:45am	29th March
imaginecodeR	Karachi	12:00pm	29th March
IoT Solutions	Karachi	12:15pm	29th March
ISU Robotics	Karachi	12:30pm	29th March
LimeLite	Karachi	12:45pm	29th March
MAAS	Karachi	1:00pm	29th March
Mars games	Karachi	1:15pm	29th March
ProRecruit	Karachi	2:30pm	29th March
Psycaria	Karachi	2:45pm	29th March
Reigning Tech(Order Booking System For Masses)	Karachi	3:00pm	29th March
Softaych	Karachi	3:15pm	29th March
Tabhouse	Karachi	3:30pm	29th March
Team atmotech	Karachi	3:45pm	29th March
TechyTeam	Karachi	10:15am	30th March
charming	Karachi	10:30am	30th March
DSU Game Developers	Karachi	10:45am	30th March
Team-HYPER-REC	Karachi	11:00am	30th March
Code Clone Finders	Karachi	11:15am	30th March
Mern Blazers	Karachi	11:30am	30th March
Team WSP	Karachi	11:45am	30th March
TechUnion	Karachi	12:00pm	30th March
Brain Busters	Karachi	12:15pm	30th March
Devil's Whisper	Karachi	12:30pm	30th March
Logical Processors	Karachi	2:00pm	30th March
NeuroSquad	Karachi	2:15pm	30th March
Pak Agile	Karachi	2:30pm	30th March
Team Ninja	Karachi	2:45pm	30th March
TechTor	Karachi	3:00pm	30th March
Fast track	Karachi	3:15pm	30th March
Humachines	Karachi	3:30pm	30th March

Lahore:

Team Name	Regional Final Region	Timings	Date
HNS	Lahore	11:00am	29th March
Syed Chaos	Lahore	11:15am	29th March
The MRI	Lahore	11:30am	29th March
Mehar's...	Lahore	11:45am	29th March
Queen Bees	Lahore	12:00pm	29th March
Star Girls	Lahore	12:15pm	29th March
The G Power	Lahore	12:30pm	29th March
Camelion	Lahore	12:45pm	29th March
Cyber Bullies	Lahore	1:00pm	29th March
cybertise	Lahore	1:15pm	29th March
Game Developers	Lahore	2:30pm	29th March
Garrisonian	Lahore	2:45pm	29th March
H & N	Lahore	3:00pm	29th March
hotel LGU	Lahore	3:15pm	29th March
LGU	Lahore	3:30pm	29th March
Lions Heart	Lahore	3:45pm	29th March
Power Puff	Lahore	4:00pm	29th March
SH	Lahore	11:00am	30th March
Spectrum Finders	Lahore	11:15am	30th March
Team Farhan	Lahore	11:30am	30th March
Team Girls	Lahore	11:45am	30th March
TMK	Lahore	12:00pm	30th March
Team MNS-UAM	Lahore	12:15pm	30th March
Team zee	Lahore	12:30pm	30th March
SPARTANS_NTU	Lahore	2:00pm	30th March
Tech ninjas	Lahore	2:15pm	30th March
The Amigos	Lahore	2:30pm	30th March
Gameplay2050	Lahore	2:45pm	30th March
CESTINO - Smart Waste Managment	Lahore	3:00pm	30th March
Chaser Express	Lahore	3:15pm	30th March
IT Bugs	Lahore	3:30pm	30th March
ITI Solutions	Lahore	3:45pm	30th March

Peshawar:

Team Name	Regional Final Region	Timings	Date
Addonexus	Peshawar	11:00am	2nd April
XTECH 10	Peshawar	11:15am	2nd April
Code 4 life	Peshawar	11:30am	2nd April
Cusit Data Warriors	Peshawar	11:45am	2nd April
IntrecX	Peshawar	12:00pm	2nd April
ALI AZIZ	Peshawar	12:15pm	2nd April
Civil Rocks 3	Peshawar	12:30pm	2nd April
Fe Amaan	Peshawar	12:45pm	2nd April
Lublin Pakistan	Peshawar	1:00pm	2nd April
SAINT-NUST	Peshawar	11:00am	3rd April
techwork	Peshawar	11:15am	3rd April
Usman nazir	Peshawar	11:30am	3rd April
CodeDetectives	Peshawar	11:45am	3rd April
alpha 10	Peshawar	12:00pm	3rd April
Wec Snake team	Peshawar	12:15pm	3rd April

Quetta:

Team Name	Regional Final Region	Timings	Date
Abdullah Sabir	Quetta	11:00am	2nd April
BUITEMS Computer Engineers	Quetta	11:15am	2nd April
ChildBook	Quetta	11:30am	2nd April
computer engineer	Quetta	11:45am	2nd April
CONE	Quetta	12:00pm	2nd April
crime maculation team	Quetta	12:15pm	2nd April
Genymotion	Quetta	12:30pm	2nd April
Markhors	Quetta	12:45pm	2nd April
Nerd Herd	Quetta	1:00pm	2nd April
Project cars	Quetta	11:00am	3rd April
Team ASB	Quetta	11:15am	3rd April
Zalmis	Quetta	11:30am	3rd April
Tehreem shfiq ,kinza ishfaq ,laraib ali	Quetta	11:45am	3rd April

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2018 - Pakistan Regional Finals Deadline Extension

M. Sohaib Safdar — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:43:04 GMT

The deadline for Regional Final submission for Imagine Cup Pakistan Chapter have now been increased, and set for 26th of March 2018. Students now have the chance to improve their submissions further and use the extra time to ensure their project submission can get them through to the national competition. Please find the roadmap for Imagine Cup 2018 for Pakistan, below: [caption id="attachment_6835" align="alignnone" width="969"] Please click here to get a document listing down steps on how to register for the Imagine Cup competition! Head over to Imagine Cup Pakistan page for further information, and to register yourself. [/caption] You can reach out to Muhammad Sohaib - v-musoha@microsoft.com for further information on the competition, or with your queries or concerns.

Uploading and creating a Custom Azure VM from .VHD

ShahidAziz — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 11:07:11 GMT

Creating a Custom VM from an Uploaded .VHD Creating a VM from a predefined Image on the azure portal is easy, but when creating a custom VM from an uploaded .VHD is concerned, it can be tricky. This post will help in resolving the issues that are faced during the process. I am going to create a VM in Hyper-V and will be taking the .VHD to azure Portal and would be creating a custom VM from the uploaded .VHD, so let’s get started. Step1: Open Hyper-V 2. Click on New > Virtual Machine 3. Click, Next. 4. Specify the Name of the Virtual Machine, in this case Windows Server 2012. Now when selecting generation, please keep in mind that Microsoft Azure only supports generation 1 VM, so make sure to select GENERATION 1, the difference can be seen here. 5. Select Generation 1, select Next. Specify Memory, 1024, 2048 or if you have More RAM in your system, choose your own size. 6. In the Configure Networking section, specify if the VM will use the Virtual Switch or Not Connected, I suggest to select virtual network switch to install Updates on the Operating system to make it compatible for Azure. 7. Click Next, select “Create a virtual hard Disk”, specify location and select size. I would suggest making it 32 GB so that it won’t take too long to upload the .VHD file. 8. Click Next, Select install operating system from a bootable device, select Image and specify the location of the Image on your system. 9. See the Summary and click Finish. 10. You will see the Machine in the list of Virtual Machines. 11. Important !, Now since the machine is created, the Disk on which the VM is created is in .VHDX format that is not supported on Azure, we need to convert .VHDX to .VHD, to do that select the desired VM, click Edit Disk from the right menu. 12. Click Next, 13. Specify the Location where the .VHDX is located, Click Next and click Convert. 14. Select VHD and click Next, 15. Click Fixed Size and click Next. 16. Specify the Location, give it a Reasonable name and Click Finish. 17. It is going to take some time depending upon the size of the disk, once done, go back to the Hyper-V and Select New > VM. Follow steps 2 to 7 and instead of using Create a Virtual Disk, select use an existing Virtual hard Disk that you have just Created. 18. specify the location of the converted .VHD file and click next, and Finish. Your VM with .VHD file is now created in the Hyper-V. 19. Right click the newly created from .VHD and click connect. 20. Go through the process of installing the OS. Once installation is complete, login into the Virtual machine and Run PowerShell with administrative privileges Use these PowerShell Commands:


netsh winhttp reset proxy
diskpart
san policy=onlineall
exit


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation' -name "RealTimeIsUniversal" 1 -Type DWord
Set-Service -Name w32time -StartupType Auto
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_MIN

Check the windows Services


Set-Service -Name bfe -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name dhcp -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name dnscache -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name IKEEXT -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name iphlpsvc -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name netlogon -StartupType Manual
Set-Service -Name netman -StartupType Manual
Set-Service -Name nsi -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name termService -StartupType Manual
Set-Service -Name MpsSvc -StartupType Auto
Set-Service -Name RemoteRegistry -StartupType Auto

Update remote Desktop Registry Settings


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server' -name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0 -Type DWord

The RDP port is setup correctly (3389)


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp' -name "PortNumber" 3389 -Type Dword

The listener is listening in every network interface


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp' -name "LanAdapter" 0 -Type Dword

Configure the netework level authentication mode for the RDP connections


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp' -name "UserAuthentication" 1 -Type DWord

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp' -name "SecurityLayer" 1 -Type DWord Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp' -name "fAllowSecProtocolNegotiation" 1 -Type Dword Set the Keep Alive Value


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -name "KeepAliveEnable" 1 -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -name "KeepAliveInterval" 1 -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp' -name "KeepAliveTimeout" 1 -Type DWord

Reconnect


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -name "fDisableAutoReconnect" 0 -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp' -name "fInheritReconnectSame" 1 -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp' -name "fReconnectSame" 0 -Type Dword

Limit the number of concurrent connections


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp' -name "MaxInstanceCount" 4294967295 -Type Dword

If there are any self-signing Certificates tied to the RDP listener, remove them

Remove-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp' -name "SSLCertificateSHA1Hash"

Configure Windows Firewall Rules


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\DomainProfile' -name "EnableFirewall" -Value 1 -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\PublicProfile' -name "EnableFirewall" -Value 1 -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\Standardprofile' -name "EnableFirewall" -Value 1 -Type Dword

Run the following command to allow WinRM through the three firewall profiles


Enable-PSRemoting -force
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule dir=in name="Windows Remote Management (HTTP-In)" new enable=yes
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule dir=in name="Windows Remote Management (HTTP-In)" new enable=yes

Enable the following firewall rules to allow RDP traffic


netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Desktop" new enable=yes

Enable to file and printer sharing rule so that the vm can respond to a ping command inside a virtual network.


netsh advfirewall firewall set rule dir=in name="File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)" new enable=yes

VERFIY THAT THE VM IS HEALTHY, SECURE AND ACCESSIBLE WITH RDP Chkdsk /f Make sure the report shows a clean and healthy disk. Set the BCD settings in elevated command prompt


bcdedit /set {bootmgr} integrityservices enable

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=C: bcdedit /set {default} integrityservices enable bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled Off bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=C: bcdedit /set {default} bootstatuspolicy IgnoreAllFailures Open Powershell again and set the following

winmgmt /verifyrepository

Make sure that any other service is not using port 3389

netstat -anob

COMPLETE RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATIONS Install the Azure VMs Agent. Then you can enable VM extensions. The VM extensions implement most of the critical functionality that you might want to use with your VMs such as resetting passwords, configuring RDP, and so on. Create Dump log files with Powershell commands


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl' -name "CrashDumpEnable" -Value "2" -Type Dword
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl' -name "DumpFile" -Value "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP"
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl' -name "AutoReboot" -Value 0 -Type Dword
New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps'
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps' -name "DumpFolder" -Value "c:\CrashDumps"
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps' -name "DumpCount" -Value 10 -Type Dword
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps' -name "DumpType" -Value 2 -Type Dword
Set-Service -Name WerSvc -StartupType Manual

If you receive errors in creating dump file commands, type in the following commands


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl' -name "CrashDumpEnable" -Value "2" -Type Dword

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl' -name "DumpFile" -Value "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP" Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps' -name "DumpFolder" -Value "c:\CrashDumps" Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps' -name "DumpCount" -Value 10 -Type Dword Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps' -name "DumpType" -Value 2 -Type Dword Set-Service -Name WerSvc -StartupType Manual After the VM is created in Azure, we recommend that you put the pagefile on the ”Temporal drive” volume to improve performance. You can set up this as follows:


Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management' -name "PagingFiles" -Value "D:\pagefile"

Once all the above steps are completed, goto settings in the VM and check online for updates and install any important updates, it is absolutely important to install all the updates before moving the VHD to Azure. Now it is time to Sysprep the VM to make is compatible for Azure. Run Command Prompt in elevated permissions. Navigate to System32 > Sysprep > Sysprep.exe Make sure to select Enter System out-of-Box Experience (OOBE), click Generalize and Shutdown and Press OK. Let the Wizard run and wait till the machine is shut down. Now, its time to head back to Azure and do the rest there. The first thing that needs to be done is to have PowerShell for Azure installed and configured on your machine. In order to install it, please navigate here. Once installed, Run PowerShell in elevated permissions and type in the Following command Login-AzureRmAccount This command is going to ask for the Credentials for your Azure subscription. Get-AzureRmSubscription This command will get all the subscription associated with your Credentials Select-AzureRmSubscription -SubscriptionId "" Select the desired subscription by replacing the SubscriptionID with your subscription ID Create a new resource Group or Use Existing New-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name myResourceGroup -Location "East US" Create a new storage account in the Resource Group that you just created

New-AzureRmStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup -Name mystorageaccount -Location "East US" -SkuName "Standard_LRS" -Kind "Storage"

Now you can either Upload the Blob from PowerShell or can Use Azure Storage Explorer. I am going to use Azure storage Explorer for the purpose. If you do not have storage explorer, you can download it from here. Install Storage Explorer and click Add Account button to add your desired subscription. Once done, head back to Toggle Explorer button to see your Storage Account under your subscription. At the Desired Container, click the Upload button on the top navigation. Click the Upload and head to where you have your VHD Created Above, Select the File, Make sure Page Blob check box is selected, click Upload. Depending upon the size of the .VHD file and the internet speed, the VHD will take some time to upload. Make sure it is 100% completed before proceeding to creating a VM from the VHD. Once the VHD is uploaded, it is time to create the VM. We will now create the Managed Image for the VHD, it is better to have the Managed image because you can later create as many VM's from this Managed Image through the Portal itself. Head back to PowerShell and use the Command.


$vmName = "myVM"
$computerName = "myComputer"
$vmSize = "Standard_DS1_v2"
$location = "East US"
$imageName = "yourImageName"
$urlOfUploadedImageVhd  = "Your VHD Location, this can be found in the Storage Explorer, by right clicking the VHD and select properties."

$imageConfig = New-AzureRmImageConfig -Location $location $imageConfig = Set-AzureRmImageOsDisk -Image $imageConfig -OsType Windows -OsState Generalized -BlobUri $urlOfUploadedImageVhd $image = New-AzureRmImage -ImageName $imageName -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Image $imageConfig Once the Command is successful, Head back to the portal and to your resource Group. You are going to see Image File for the above commands. Click on the desired Image and Click Create VM + Click on the desired Image and Click Create VM + The Next Steps are the same when you create a VM from the Azure Portal. Once Done, click create and wait for a while for the VM to be created. In my case it took 10 + minutes for the VM to be created, once created, click the connect button and download the .RDP file. Give it the Username and Password and there you are, in your own custom VHD VM running on Azure. Happy Azuring !

Call for Microsoft Student Partner for Academic Year 2017 - 2018

Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 08:16:43 GMT

This Ramadan, we’re back with the most anticipated news of the year; we’re hiring New Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs) for academic year 2017 – 2018 in Pakistan. However, this year under guidance of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, we’ve regulated the process of accepting applications only through the university focal persons (please find the list below). Therefore, interested applicants are advised to read the blog post thoroughly to understand criterion, timeline and submission process. MSP Application Pre-Requisite

Studying a full-time course at HEC recognized University
Bachelor’s Degree student enrolled in Computer Sciences or Computer Engineering discipline, ideally from 4^th – 6^th semester

MSP Application Submission Process We’ve already sent a communication to focal persons in universities across Pakistan with call for top MSP applicants resumes to be shared with us till 15^th June 2017 alongside the recommendation letter from University. The list of these focal persons can be found at the end of this blog post. Kindly note that since we’ll only be accepting the selected few applicant’s nomination from the university focal persons alone, the interested student applicants are advised to reach out to their university focal persons and go through any initial screening/filtering process the university may intend to carry out. To assert, we’ll not entertain individually forwarded resume and interested applicants are suggested to follow the above protocol. Evaluation Criteria We’ll evaluate the referred applicants based over following aspects,

Technical competencies
Passionate about software
Active and quick learner
Respected by peers
Community-building competencies
Enthusiastic about technology
High-level of social activity, both online & offline
Can organize University and city-level events
Fundamental competencies
Confident & outgoing
Good understanding with faculty
Willing to share knowledge & eager to uplift self and peers

List of University Focal Persons The list below contains the list of focal persons (and in some cases the designated post) from universities across Pakistan. If a university or focal person is missing in the list below, please report that by sending me an email at v-usrehm@microsoft.com. All students of whom university is not listed in the list below are requested to send their resumes directly to me at v-usrehm@microsoft.com

University	Focal Person
Lahore
Lahore College for Women University, Lahore	Humaira
Kinnaird College for Women University, Lahore	Ajmal Ijaz
Kinnaird College for Women University, Lahore	Kashif Aftab
Center for Excellence and Molecular Biology, Lahore	Aatif Anwar Mirza
Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore	Khubaib Nazir
University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore	Muhammad Iftikhar
University of Education, Lahore	Shahbaz Wasti
University of Education, Lahore	Suhail Ashfaq
University of Lahore, Lahore	Aamir Hussain
Government College University, Lahore	Faisal Saeed
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore	Naeem Akhtar
Lahore School of Economics, Lahore	Imran Daud
Beacon House National University, Lahore	Omer Khalid
Forman Christian College, Lahore	Sheraz Adnan
Forman Christian College, Lahore	Atif Alvi
Bahria University, Lahore	Muhammad Imran
University of Engineering & Technology (Faisalabad Campus), Lahore	Dr. Iftikhar
University of Health Sciences, Lahore	Faisal Amin
University of the Punjab (New Campus), Lahore	Imran Qureshi
University of the Punjab (Old Campus), Lahore	Imran Qureshi
National College of Arts, Lahore	Faheem
Virtual University, Lahore	Sajjad Cheema
University of Management Technology, Lahore	M. Rashid Ali Malik
Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design, Lahore	Shaista Vine
The Superior College, Lahore	Pirzada Samiullah Sabti
Punjab University, Lahore	Imran Qureshi
University of Punjab-GIS Center, Lahore	Imran Qureshi
University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore	Waqar Mehmood
Lahore Garrison University, Lahore	Sabahat Nisar
Information Technology University, Lahore	Shoaib Bhatti Mohammad
University of Sargodha, Lahore Campus	Noor ullah Khan (IT Manager)

Karachi
Institute of Business Administration, Karachi	Wajeeh Zaidhi
NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi	Danish Khan
Bahria University, Karachi	Muhammad Imran
Aga Khan University, Karachi	Muhammad Fahad
College of Physician & Surgeon Pakistan, Karachi	Shahzad Abid
University of Karachi, Karachi	Nadeem
University of Karachi, Karachi	Noman
Hamdard University, Karachi	Farhan Khan
Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi	Abdul Moid Khan
Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi	Kazi Salah ud din
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science & Technology, Karachi	Asif Kazi
The Institute of Chartered Accounts of Pakistan, Karachi	Faheem Siddiqui
Institute of Space Technology, Karachi Campus	Zulfiqar Ahmed
Zia Ud Din University, Karachi, Karachi	Muhammad Naveed Murtaza
Air War College, Karachi	Farhan Latif
Dawood University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi	Samreen Amir
Dawood University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi	Engr. Dr. Syed Izhar Hussain Zaidi
Dow University of Health Sciences, Ojha Campus, Karachi	Muhammad Faisal Laiq Siddiqui
Dow University of Health Sciences, Ojha Campus, Karachi	Shoaib Arain
Institute of Business Administration, City Campus, Karachi	Wajeeh Zaidi
Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi	Ilyas Abdullah
Institute of Business Management, Karachi	Asim Farooq
A.Q Khan Institute of Biotechnology & Genetics Engineering (KIBGE), Karachi	Najam Ali
A.Q Khan Institute of Biotechnology & Genetics Engineering (KIBGE), Karachi	Ahmed Buland Khan
Iqra University, Main Campus, Karachi	Hasan Adil
Iqra University, Gulshan Campus, Karachi	Dr. Noman Islam
Bahria University Medical & Dental College, Karachi	Muhammad Imran
Habib University Foundation, Karachi	Fateeha Kamal
Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi	M. Aurengzeb
Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University, Karachi	Musharraaf Kashif
Usman Institute of Technology, Karachi	Arsalan Pervez
HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi	M. Bano
DHA Suffa University, Karachi	Shahzad Ahmed
Greenwich University, Karachi	Saeed Mughal
Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology, Karachi	Shabbar Laiq
Sindh Madrassatul Islam, Karachi	SM Butt
Indus University, Karachi	Yasir Amin
Indus University, Karachi	Education Manager

Islamabad
Bahria University, Islamabad	Muhammad Imran
Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Islamabad	Shoaib
National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences (H-11), Islamabad	Dr. Shoaib Bhatti
National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences (H-11), Islamabad	Latif Virk
Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad	Muhammad Abid Hussain
Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad	Mahboob
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad	Aumair Qayyum
Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology, Islamabad	Rafaqat Khan
Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology, Islamabad	Faheem Ahmed
Institute of Space and Technology, Islamabad, Islamabad	Zulfiqar Ahmed
International Islamic University, Islamabad	Shahid Mehmood
National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad	Syed Ali Raza
National Center for Physics, Islamabad	Tanzeel Murtaza
National Center for Physics, Islamabad	Network Administrator
Iqra University, Islamabad	Arif
Riphah International University, Islamabad	Kashif Sohail
Riphah International University, Islamabad	Haroon Rashid Salfi
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (Virtual Campus), Islamabad	Bilal
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, Islamabad	Aman Swati
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, Islamabad	IT In-charge MIS
Preston University, Islamabad	Arsalan Hussain
COMSTECH, Islamabad	Usman
Isra University, Islamabad	Mustafa Minhas
Isra University, Islamabad	Mustafa Minhas
World Bank Group, Islamabad	Sajid Maqsood
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (H - 8), Islamabad	Aumair Qayyum
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad	Registrar
National University of Science & Technology (H-12), Islamabad	Waseem Murtaza
National Defense University, Islamabad	Akram
National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad	Syed Ali Raza
Air University, Islamabad	Muhammad Farooq Arshad
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad	Muhammad Safiruddin
Pakistan Navy War College, Islamabad	Nadir

Rawalpindi
University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi	Safdar Abbas Nasir
National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi	Brig. Awais ul Hudaa
Resource Center Murree, Rawalpindi	Imran Ijaz
Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi	Imran Ijaz

Peshawar
University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar	Dr. Sohail Sarwar
University of Peshawar, Peshawar	Irfanullah Khan
Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar	Dr. Raja Inayat
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar	Amanat Ullah Khalil
Khyber Medical University, Peshawar	Dr. Asif
NWFP Agriculture University, Peshawar	Gohar Rehman Khalil
University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar	Khizar Azam
Sarhad University of Science & Information Technology, Peshawar	Imran Habib
Islamia College, Peshawar	Syed Farid Ahmed
Khyber Medical University, Peshawar	Director IBMS

Taxila
University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila	Dr. Adeel Akram
University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila	Iqbal
University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila	Omer Masood
University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila	Khurram Mahmood
HITEC University, Taxila	Nabeela Shuja

Hazara
Hazara University, Hazara	Dr. Noor ul Amin
Hazara University, Hazara	Dr. Zakria Khalid
University of Haripur, Hazara	Zeeshan
University of Haripur, Hazara	Muhammad Junaid

Wah Cantt
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Wah Cantt	Waheed Ahmed Khan
Wah Engineering College, Wah Cantt	Afsheen Ishtiaq

Malakand
University of Malakand, Malakand	Khalid

Kohat
Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat	Rauf Khan

Sawabi
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering & Technology, Swabi	Farhad

Dera Ismail Khan
Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan	Zia ud Din

Gujrat
University of Gujrat, Gujrat	Muhammad Ali

Sahiwal
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Sahiwal	Muhammad Ishaq
Baha Ud Din Zakariya University, Sahiwal	Director Sahiwal

Faisalabad
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad	Qasim
Government College University, Faisalabad	Muhammad Moeen
National Textile University, Faisalabad	Muhammad Shahzad Arshad
The University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad	Tahir Chaudhary
The University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad	Asif Anjum

Mianwali
NAMAL College, Mianwali	Shahid Sultan
NAMAL College, Mianwali	Faizullah
NAMAL College, Mianwali	ITSC

Jamshoro
Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro	Asad Arain
Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro	Saleem Mamon
Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro	Abdul Rahim Shaikh
Centre of Excellence in Art and Design, Jamshoro	Mansoor Ali
Centre of Excellence in Art and Design, Jamshoro	Director
University of Sindh, Jamshoro	Dr. Kamran Brohi

Larkana
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana	Roshan
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana	Ghani Bhutto
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana	Zahid Hussain Dharejo
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana	Vice Chancellor

Sukkur
Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur	Samar Talpur
Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur	Zahid Hussain Dharejo
Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur	Fahad
Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur	Sohaib Ahmed Solangi

Tandojam
Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam	Suhrab Thaheem

Khairpur
Dow University of Health Sciences, Ojha Campus, Khairpur	Dr. Ghulam Ali Mallah
Mehran University College of Engineering & Technology, Khairpur	Waqas Ali Channa

Quetta
Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University, Quetta	Javed Iqbal
Baluchistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences, Quetta	M. Anwar Khan
University of Baluchistan, Quetta	M. Salal Khan
Command & Staff College, Quetta	Asad Ali Jaffari

Mirpur
Mirpur University of Science & Technology, Mirpur	Imtiaz

Muzaffarabad
University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Muzaffarabad	Muhammad Saghir

Bannu
University of Science & Technology, Bannu	Ashrafullah

Kahul
Pakistan Military Academy, Kahul	Zeeshan Jamil
Pakistan Military Academy, Kahul	Saqib Gilani
Pakistan Military Academy, Kahul	Owais Rasool
Pakistan Military Academy, Kahul	Ahmad Abbasi

Gilgit
Karakoram International University, Gilgit	Arif
Karakoram International University, Gilgit	Khalid Amin

Gujranwala
Rachna College of Engineering & Technology, Gujranwala	Kamran Rashid Khan
Rachna College of Engineering & Technology, Gujranwala	Administrator

Lasbela
Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water & Marine Sciences, Uthal, Lasbela	Zafar Iqbal

Multan
NFC Institute of Engineering & Technology, Multan	Syed Aun Ali
NFC Institute of Engineering & Technology, Multan	Omer Ali
NFC Institute of Engineering & Technology, Multan	Ahsan Shah
Bahauddin Zakria University, Multan	M. Muzaffar Hameed
Bahauddin Zakria University, Multan	Maruf Pasha
MNS University of Agriculture Multan, Multan	Taimur Babar

Sheringal
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Sheringal	Ali Zia

Karak
Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak	Farid Jalal
Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak	Muhammad Anwar
Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak	Muhammad inamul-Haq
Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak	Inam

Mardan
Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan	Mr. Shafiqullah Kakakhel

Sargodha
University of Sargodha, Sargodha	IT Manager or Treasurer
Sargodha Medical College, Sargodha	Ashraf Khan Niazi

Khuzdar
Baluchistan University of Engineering & Technology, Khuzdar	IT Manager

Nawabshah
Quaid-e-Awam University College of Engineering, Sciences & Technology, Nawabshah	PD Campus
Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Nawabshah	Registrar
Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science & Technology, Nawabshah	Atta Mohammad

Attock
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Attock	Zia Ur Rehman

Sialkot
Govt College Women University, Sialkot	IT Manager
Govt College Women University, Sialkot	Mudassar Mushtaq
Govt College Women University, Sialkot	Umair Sohail
Govt College Women University, Sialkot	Ashfaq

Swat
University of Swat, Swat	Muhammad Arif Shams

Bahawalpur
Islamia University, Bahawalpur	Muhammad Khalid Mehmood
Abbottabad
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad	Muhammad Shaukat

Contact Information In case of any concern or queries please directly reach me out at 0321.5048480 or email at v-usrehm@microsoft.com EDIT: 6^th June 2017 (12:10 AM) - All students of whom university is not listed are requested to route their resumes directly to me at v-usrehm@microsoft.com - Focal person for COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad added in the list - Introduced a new focal person for Forman Christian Collage & National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Islamabad EDIT: 4^th June 2017 (1:00 AM) - Some universities focal persons have been renamed to point to a personal rather than Director IT or PERN Executive. - The University of Bahawalpur has been introduced in the list. - We’re working on adding other reported missing universities and relative focal persons. Please be patient.

Sneak Peak into Microsoft Imagine Cup National Finals Evaluations [Pictures]

Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 10:36:19 GMT

We’re collaborating with Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for hosting the grand Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 National Finals Ceremony at HEC headquarters in Islamabad on Wednesday, 26^th April 2017. Keeping in consideration the grand ceremony that is to take place, the result of the winning team from Pakistan will be announced during the ceremony. You can Register for the ceremony by visiting this link. However, to refresh the memories of the amazing National Finals evaluations that took place on 13th & 14th April, here are the selective pictures of the competing teams with the judges. I hope they will also give a sneak peak of the diversity we witnessed during the National Finals Evaluations. The Judges Let us begin with an introduction of our judges for Imagine Cup National Finals Evaluations,


Dr. Adeel Akram from UET Taxila		Dr. Saad Rehman from NUST - EME

Mr. Qasim Ali from TeraData		Mr. Zulfiqar Bangash heading ICEPT department at Iqra University & M.D. Irtiqa Group

National Finals Competing Teams Team Ninja Project Title: Connor-Bring Him Back A 2D arcade game for mobile and web platform. The audience of this game are core, mid-core, and hardcore gamers, who love difficulty in games. We are trying to replicate the difficulty of PC/Console level games in mobile and web platform. Our arcade game consists of a ninja who is thrown into a parallel universe by a demon and now he has to return back. The game has 40 levels that can make grown men cry.

Explosion Project Title: HEE-A Perfect Trainer HEE, is a 3D Game which can improve your skills. The uniqueness of the game is that it is played by your major senses (Eyes, Ears, Hands). It has four different modes. In first mode, the main controls of the game are through your Eyes. In Second mode is through your ears, and in the third mode is by your Hands. In the last mode which is Expert mode (locked in the start), you can use your hands, eyes and ears at the same time. After playing this game your "Focus capability", "Decision making" and "Remembering power" skills are improved. The Game was made in Unity3d engine with C# scripting, and uses Microsoft Azure for Game progress report.

BreakingSilence Project Title: VOICE A sign language translator for deaf and mute people. An application that would translate sign language gestures to normal language words and speech that would be easily comprehensible by normal people and normal language words to sign language providing a two-way communication between normal and impaired people. This project is basically intended to bridge the communication gap for the Impaired people so that they may be able to play their role effectively in the society.

Peace Champs Project Title: Peace Champs A unique, interactive, cross platform mobile game app for developing kids to instill the concepts of love, friendship, and kindness, in-order-to bring peace to our overall world.

RSquare Project Title: Sales Around A mobile based Application that has two features. 1. Allow the user to add reminder using location services. 2. It will notify the user if there is any promotional offer or sale going on in nearby stores. As soon as a person enter a certain area, the location-based mobile app will ping at a custom-set radius reminding them of the sales from a location nearby.

Virtual Reality Defense Training System Project Title: Virtual Reality Defense Training System Postural training and indoor shooting by gun equipped with gyro-sensor is being provided and it is also simulated on MATLAB using fuzzy logic then implemented in virtual reality to enhance soldier training by lessening injury risk of real life shooting practices also VRSST (Virtual reality sniper shooting trainer system) is implemented for soldiers to train more efficient and promising results than in real time.

Brain Busters Project Title: Parkinson's disease Identification and Therapy Pakistan's first software based system for Parkinson's disease identification and therapy that works along with azure SQL database and Kinect V2 powered by Microsoft. Its accurate, efficient and less time consuming. All the Tests and Questions mentioned in this system are taken from UPDRS Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale that's globally being used for Parkinson's identification.

WonderTree Project Title: Wonder Tree WonderTree is using augmented reality to make educational and therapeutic games for children with special needs using augmented reality. By using technology and gamification WonderTree is making special education and therapy: cost effective, efficient and accessible to all.

Positive Zero Project Title: Speak to Code Project “Speak to Code” as the name suggests enables programmers/developers to write code or develop applications using their natural voice. This will innovate the mechanism of programming, as it’ll become “interactive programming” and will increase the productivity of programmers/developers.

Knack Nerds Project Title: AllertAlliance A portable device in the form of ring, locket or watch, through which you can get instant help from hospitals or police stations without any need of smart phone or Internet.

emonX Project Title: Emotion Recognition Framework Emonx framework aims to create a system which allows it's users to build their own data-gathering applications using any of the sensory frameworks provided. The system will be able to gather various types of data from an array of different mobile and desktop devices. Besides touch data, emonX will also use geo-position tracking to measure a user’s movements in the past 30 minutes (before they use the swipe-based interaction) in order to give some context to the user’s physical state. This, along with emotions elicited, gives us a good, distinctive dataset that can be used to elicit their moods and feelings.

InnovaTechs Project Title: SentiSense SentiSense is your friend that helps you buy what’s right so you don’t have to face buyer’s remorse. It will recommend you laptops based upon your preferences by providing you a rating for each feature of a laptop based upon user experience rather than expert reviews through ABSA (Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis). Furthermore, it helps marketers do the brand position and improve their product & most importantly know what their consumers think. Buying trends are changing users are more inclined towards online shopping and when it comes to shopping online, reviews have significant importance so SentiSence is need of the day.

CompareNshop Project Title: CompareNshop CompareNshop is an online solution that brings easy and smart shopping experience to their customers all over the Pakistan. Our ultimate goal is to bring the whole physical as well as online market of the country at everyone’s fingertips. All what the user have to do is just visit comparenshop.pk, enter the desired product and the system will tell that the product is available where and for what prices.

Thaheer Team Project Title: Thaheer Our Project is a music sharing website and android app which focuses on struggling artists. Our local artists and struggling artists don't have a platform where they can be listened and appreciated by their targeted audience. In Thaheer, as an artist you can give your buy link to the album and users will buy it from there. Artists also have the power to allow and disallow downloads to their songs. They will know the extended stats to their songs also.

Amicus Cube Project Title: Distributed Object Based Pollution Monitoring and recommendation system The Project is focused to improve the collection, processing and analysis of data for monitoring air pollution in different urban areas. This is research based Project intended to facilitate Citizens with recommendations system making travel advise. The Project intends to gather real Air pollution data with a module integrated with University vehicle, and then filtering and processing data to identify minimum and maximum values of different air pollutants during different times of the day. A recommendation system makes advice to the people/commuters through an android based application interface. The technical outcome of this project will be a working prototype (Hardware and software) to serve the prescribed purpose.

IoT friends Project Title: IOT Base Home Automation System To control light, fan and their intensity, temperature, movement and gas leakage notifications through Web Application.

Markhor Developers Project Title: Kinector Application for listening and speech impaired people using Microsoft Kinect sensor which works as an interpreter.

Victory United Project Title: Online OCR Based Attendance System Taking OCR based attendance means that you can mark the attendance from a picture by just scanning it through OCR based attendance system by inserting the image of the roll numbers with the status of the students from anyplace with an Internet connection - your home, office, or anywhere else.

RK Lions Project Title: Smart Wheelchair Control Through Android Phone This project Smart wheel chair controlled through Android Phone especially designed to control a wheelchair using the android device. The objective of this project is to facilitate the movement of people who are disabling or handicapped and elderly people who are not able to move well. The result of this design will allow certain people to live a life with less dependence on others. In the end, I want to Thank all the teams for exhibiting great energy and competitiveness during Imagine Cup 2017 National Finals Evaluations. You make us all proud. :) P.S. Note that a few of the National Finals competing teams didn't confirm or allow us to feature their projects or pictures so they are not found in above list.

The Karachi meetup for the 2017 Annual Global Azure Bootcamp

Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 16:32:28 GMT

As part of our global evangelism initiative we are organizing Azure Boot Camp on Saturday 22nd April 2017 from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm in collaboration with TPS at https://goo.gl/maps/gkC79rESuAp (TPS Head Office Karachi), where trainers from Microsoft along with other community speakers will be delivering sessions on Azure and its services. The event has been carefully tailored to the meet the needs of IT professionals, Application Developers and Data Scientists. The event will be comprised of three separate tracks namely, which will run parallel; 1. Azure Data Services

SQL Database - Sana Zehra
Document DB - Syed Faizan Hussain (Technical Evangelist)
Cortana Intelligence Suite - Hassan Raza (Technical Evangelist)

2. Azure App Services

Azure Web & API Apps - Naveed Tejani
Azure Logic & Function Apps - Hina Sohail (Technical Evangelist)
Xamarin backed by Azure Mobile Apps - Hina Sohail (Technical Evangelist)

3. Azure Infrastructure Services

Virtual Machines - Usman Ayub (Technology Solutions Professional)
Networking - Usman Ayub (Technology Solutions Professional)
Azure Storage - Usman Ayub (Technology Solutions Professional)
VM Scale Sets - Usman Ayub (Technology Solutions Professional)

Containers - Hassan Raza (Technical Evangelist) Participants can register for any one track at the arrival of the venue after registering for the event through meetup. Since we have a limited number of seats for each track therefore its registration is on First Come First Serve bases. Hi-Tea and Lunch will also be provided to all the participants. Plus top performing participants will also get a chance to win gifts. Parking is also available at the venue. The registration is mandatory for everyone, registrations will be completed by 11:00 am sharp, therefore no latecomers will be entertained. Kindly register yourself through the RSVP button on the top right corner on the link below and bring along your meetup confirmation email. Register Here!

National Finals Evaluation Schedule for Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 – Pakistan

Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 10:34:07 GMT

As Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has graciously accepted to host Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 National Finals Evaluations, I’m delighted to share with you the schedule of evaluation per team. Please take note of following,

The venue for 13^th April is, M&E Hall, HEC Headquarters, Sector H-9, East Service Road, Islamabad
The venue for 14^th April is, New Data Center - Lecture Hall, HEC Headquarters, Sector H-9, East Service Road, Islamabad
Each team is advised to reach the venue at prescribed date at-least 15 minutes prior to the allocated time (see table below).
If a team doesn’t show up during national finals evaluations either physically or via Skype, they’ll still be evaluated based over their submitted content on the Imagine Cup official website.
Each team member joining us is advised to bring his/her original CNIC to ensure proper security clearance.
Each team will be given fixed 18 minutes for presentation + demo and 7 minutes for Q&A.
Please bring your latest Imagine Cup deliverables (presentation, running software, video, etc.) in a laptop/machine that’s fully charged.
In case your project depends upon additional hardware (other resources), you must reach out to me prior for proper security clearance.
Visitors vehicle parking is not allowed inside the HEC building.
Travel & Expense alongside accommodation of participating teams is to be taken care by teams/mentors themselves and there will be no reimbursements.
If you intend to present via Skype, please add us at IC17_Pakistan@outlook.com, inform us prior and login on date/time given below.
For any queries regarding Nationals Finals Evaluation plan, please feel free to reach out to me via email at v-usrehm@microsoft.com or dial at +92 321 504 8480.

Team Name	Date	Time
Explosion	13^th April, 2017	10:00 AM – 10:25 AM
BreakingSilence	13^th April, 2017	10:30 AM – 10:55 AM
Peace Champs	13^th April, 2017	11:00 AM – 11:25 AM
Rcube	13^th April, 2017	11:30 AM – 11:55 AM
Virtual Reality Defence Training System	13^th April, 2017	12:00 PM – 12:25 PM
Brain Busters	13^th April, 2017	12:30 PM – 12:55 PM
WonderTree	13^th April, 2017	2:00 PM – 2:25 PM
RK Loin	13^th April, 2017	2:30 PM – 2:55 PM
Positive Zero	13^th April, 2017	3:00 PM – 3:25 PM
Knack Nerds	13^th April, 2017	3:30 PM – 3:55 PM
Team Ninja	13^th April, 2017	4:00 PM – 4:25 PM
TicTac	13^th April, 2017	4:30 PM – 4:55 PM

NUST-PNEC	14^th April, 2017	10:00 AM – 10:25 AM
emonX	14^th April, 2017	10:30 AM – 10:55 AM
InnovaTechs	14^th April, 2017	11:00 AM – 11:25 AM
AlphaSquad	14^th April, 2017	11:30 AM – 11:55 AM
compareNshop	14^th April, 2017	12:00 PM – 12:25 PM
Thaheer Team	14^th April, 2017	12:30 PM – 12:55 PM
Victory United	14^th April, 2017	2:00 PM – 2:25 PM
Amicus Cube	14^th April, 2017	2:30 PM – 2:55 PM
IoT friends	14^th April, 2017	3:00 PM – 3:25 PM
Markhor Developers	14^th April, 2017	3:30 PM – 3:55 PM

Please stay in-touch on this blog for any further changes. In case of any concern, please feel free to reach me out at v-usrehm@microsoft.com or dial at +92 321 504 8480.

Attention Imagine Cup 2017 National Finals Qualifying Teams from Pakistan: Please Validate Your Team Members

Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 12:36:49 GMT

The table below summarizes the team members that are logged in our backend system against each team. Please click on your team link and ensure that, a- All of your team members are listed on your team page. b- There are no pending invitations for any team member. c- Your team page and the table below reflects the same team members. At the time of National Finals evaluations, the team members will be locked and no additions will be entertained. If there are any pending invitations for any teams that the system is not accepting or there's any other information issue, they are advised to drop me an email with the concern along with all team member’s record at v-usrehm@microsoft.com no later than 10^th April midnight Pakistan Time.

*Team*	Member 1	Member 2	Member 3
BreakingSilence	Anum Khadija
Peace Champs	bisma majeed	Memoon Rafique	sarah ahmad
Rcube	rijja asif
Virtual Reality Defence Training System	danial butt	Muhammad Furqan Khan
InnovaTechs	Aima Tariq	amal sultan	Mehak Fatima
AlphaSquad	Asmaa Nadeem	Insia Mustafa	rimsha khan
emonX	Atayyab Owais	Sami Qureshi
Brain Busters	Areeba Aftab
WonderTree	Ahmed Hassan	Muhammad Usman	Muhammad Waqas
RK Loin	Kamran Akhter Ali	Mehar Ali	Rehman Khowaja
Positive Zero	Faraz Talpur	Muhammad Inzimam Abbasi	Rizwan Munir
Knack Nerds	Abdul Rahman	Superna Kumari
compareNshop	Hassaan Baig
Team Ninja	Asad Baloch	wajeeh shah
TicTac	Mubbasher Qureshi	Muhammad Taha
Explosion	zain farooqi
NUST-PNEC	Muhammad Zaid	Murad Abdullah	Syed Ali Roshan
Thaheer Team	Aurangzaib Muneer	Azam Baloch	Farooq Abbas
Victory United	Nagina Nizam	rehana gul	Wardah Ahmed
Amicus Cube	Abeera Habib	Hamza Rehan	Malik Usama
IoT friends	sohail ahmed
Markhor Developers	Haroon Khan	Mohammad Haroon Hassan	Zeeshan AhmedKhan

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 - Pakistan Regional Finals Results

Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 18:41:20 GMT

To provide proper context to our readers, on 4^th & 5^th April, we held Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 Regional Finals in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta & Peshawar with consent of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. A panel of skilled judges from academia and industry spent days in evaluating more than 130 competing teams from all-across Pakistan. After carefully going through scores given by judges and their comments, we now have visibility of the winning teams. However, before I declare the results of Regional Finals, it would be relevant to make a few important mentions. Most importantly, our team was absolutely thrilled to see teams competing from universities that are located at remote locations. Not only that we found many projects from these remote locations but also that the quality of those projects was impressive. A Review of our Judges Also, a Big Thanks to our judges from each region for taking time out of their busy schedule and evaluating the brainchild of every competing team from every possible prospect before giving final scores. Our judges panel was very diversified and this post would be incomplete without honoring them individually. Lahore


Imran Javed Zia - Consultant Software Engineer – Systems Ltd.		Ali Ayyaz - Team Lead at UET Game Studio

Kamran Shahid Butt - CTO - XGear		Talal Zahid - Ex-Imagine Cup Competitor

Karachi


Asad Memon - Technical Co-Founder Remote Interview		Adnan Ashraf - Senior Professor at MUET

Sumair Hamza Baloch - Director /Founder CIC HUB		Naveed Zafar - Production Head Digitonics

Peshawar


Shahzad Syed – Project Manager – HalfByte Studios		Zafar Iqbal – Projects Coordinator – Abasyn University

Laiq Hasan – Chairman of Computer engineering department – University of engineering and technology Peshawar		Farman Ali – CEO – Soft Chasers

Quetta


Dr. Muhammad Nadeem – Assistant Professor/Chairperson, Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of ICT, BUITEMS		Muhammad Ali – CEO Black Hat Technologies Pakistan (PVT Limited)

Junaid Khan – Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, BUITEMS		Dr. Junaid Baber, Professor, Computer Science Department, University of Baluchistan

Overall, we witnessed some crazy projects from websites to Augmented Reality based training simulators to HoloLens based games, Azure machine learning and Raspberry Pi integrations, new research based languages and development environments plugins. Covering 130 such projects is a tedious task so I intend to cover the details of the Regional Finals winning projects in a separate blog post. Here are few pictures of the Regional Finals evaluations from different cities.

A few important aspects need be considered relative to the declared results. The judges not only scored teams relative to the criterion and Q&A but also provided additional comments suggesting which teams or projects lag certain aspects or which areas make them considerable candidates. For example, a team didn’t have Microsoft Azure integrated as part of the system at the time of Regional evaluations but shown a proper integration plan till National Finals Evaluations that judges adhered to. Such observations were made by judges, additional questions were asked to clarify aspects and logged as part of their comments. Thus, the Regional Finals Winning teams are subject to judges given marks as well as remarks and do vary in count per region. Without further ado, here are the winning teams from each region. Lahore Regional Winners

*Team Name*	Members
BreakingSilence	Anum Khadija
Peace Champs	Sarah Ahmad, Bisma Majeed, Memoona Rafique
Rcube	Rida Ahmad, Rijja Asif, Rijjab
Virtual Reality Defence Training System	Danial Butt, Muhammad Furqan Khan
InnovaTechs	Aima Tariq, Amal Sultan, Mehak Fatima

Karachi Regional Winners

*Team Name*	Members
AlphaSquad	Asmaa nadeem, Rimsha khan, Insia mustafa
emonX	Sami Qureshi, Malik A Tayyab, M Ilyas
Brain Busters	Areeba Aftab, Mariyam Abdul latif
WonderTree	Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Waqas
RK Loin	Rehman, Kamran
Positive Zero	Faraz Talpur, Inzimam Abbasi, Rizwan Munir
Knack Nerds	Abdul Rahman, Superna Kumari
compareNshop	Hassan Baig, Farwa Batool, Saneeya Naqwi
Team Ninja	Asad
TicTac	Muhammad Taha, Mubbasher Ahmed

Peshawar Regional Winners

*Team Name*	Members
Explosion	Zain Farooqi
NUST-PNEC	Muhammad Zaid, Murad Abdullah, Syed Ali Roshan

Quetta Regional Winners

*Team Name*	Members
Thaheer Team	Azam Baloch
Victory United	Nagina Nizam, rehana gul, Wardah Ahmed
Amicus Cube	Abeera Habib, Hamxa Rehan, Malik Usama
IoT friends	Sohail Ahmed
Markhor Developers	Haroon Khan, Mohammad Haroon Hassan, Zeeshan AhmedKhan

Future Updates My heartiest Congratulations to every single team who made it to the National Finals. The Imagine Cup Portal will be updated for these teams from 7^th April till 12^th April midnight Pakistan Time to resubmit their deliverables before proceeding to National Finals evaluations. The teams are advised that during resubmission of deliverables, they take into consideration any feedback provided by judges after their pitches like improvement in communication skills or Microsoft Azure integration plan. The venue, date/time and process of National Finals evaluations will be posted on this very blog so it is strongly advised that teams frequently keep checking the blog for updates. In case of any concern, please feel free to reach me out at v-usrehm@microsoft.com or dial at +92 321 504 8480.