The Pinnacle

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

POLITICS PNEC!

May 2013

HAMZA SHAMS

TEDxPNEC

DHANAK

Editor’s Note Dear Readers,

Welcome to the best edition of The Pinnacle, yet. And well, I’m going to keep saying that for every edition, so you’d rather not believe this.

What you should believe is that PNEC is starting to make waves. And some major ones of those too. This month, for the first time in her history, the college hosted a mega -event in which most of the city’s major universities participated. It took fifty years and an Executive Dictator (oh, I mean Di-rector!) for us to do that, but hey, who’s complaining? The PNEC Olympiad went smoother than the Pinnacle could have hoped, with the social events providing just the right blend of fun and compe-tition.

And as if the grand performance that Strings gave that Monday night (Best night ever at PNEC, right? Me too) was not enough, Usman Riaz graced us with his presence at our very own TEDx event. Three celebrities coming to PNEC in the same semester? Alright, technically two. But still; Unbelievable!

Teams from the college are also carrying on PNEC’s legacy at various competitions around the globe. We took part and won accolades in various local competitions again this semester and will be returning to race at Silverstone and exhibit eco-friendly cars in Manila in the summer.

Not all of the waves that PNECians are making are entirely pleasant though. At least, not for the admin. The freshmen seem to have a knack of getting on the admin’s nerves, with regular dress -code infringements and other ‘unusual’ incidents that have been frowned upon by the college.

In this edition, we talk about some of these incidents, all of the major events and other places PNEC went to. We cover all the ‘healthy’ politics behind several society elections held last month and we discuss how the ‘creepy-nation’ at PNEC has a new platform to express their affection for their college-mates. We will also look at the legacy left behind by our ex-editor for the new one (that’d be me) to uphold as the reins at Pinnacle change hands.

A word of advice for the freshmen: go easy on the naughty stuff there, guys and gals. Or you’re going to make life at PNEC a lot harder for yourself, your new editor, and your seniors too! And you don’t want that, do you? You know how grumpy we can get if that happens.

Au Revoir, and Happy Reading!

2 The Pinnacle - May 2013

The Pinnacle - May 2013 3

News POLITICS AT PNEC? OH YES!

T he start of the spring semester is the bearer of bad news for different society officials at our college. Spring means election season at PNEC, and this year, as many as three societies dusted their ballot boxes and put them out for the members to cast their precious votes and change the office-bearers of these student bodies. The most hyped of these elections was ofcourse IEEE’s, as holding an office in this prestigious society is

an honor for any engineer-in-making. The AIR and ASHRAE elections were, however, contested equally fiercely. Once the nominations had been finalized and the dates for election-days announced, the contestants begin their campaigns with enthusiastic dexterity. The infamous hostelite lobby was called for by some as others used social media to appeal for votes. The campaigns even continued on to election-day, as nominees hung outside the election cells to encourage approaching voters to cast in their favor. What was good to see about the whole process was that there was minimal negative promo-tion against political opponents. The Pinnacle hopes that this trend of healthy politics continues at PNEC.

CEMENTING THE HERITAGE

A sizable contingent of thirteen teams from PNEC returned to

FAST’s PROCOM this year, with high expectations and lofty ambi-

tions. Being an event held annually without a break for the past

fourteen years, competing and winning at PROCOM holds much more

meaning than at other events around the city, and so PNECians compet-

ing at the event meant all business when it came down to the event day.

Competing in some of the major event categories, our diligent to-be

engineers managed to bag first positions in two categories. The Urdu

Creative Writing competition was aced by our IEEE chair, Iqra Sajid, a

junior-year student from the EE department. The sophomores from the

same department also secured the first position in the Circuit Designing

category of the event, proving that we are the best at what we do. Other

teams also did well in various categories. The Pinnacle is proud of the lot

who carried on PNEC’s legacy at the event and hopes that our dazzling

scholars will continue this worthy tradition the next year and after.

LEST WE NOT KILL OURSELVES

W ith a relentless set of rules, and an overly-competitive academ-ic atmosphere, PNEC is one of those places that can drive a very sane mind to the verge of lunacy. The visit of the Counsel-

ing and Career Advisory team (also known as C3A) from H-12 was a welcome news for the tightly wound students here. An encouraging number of students registered for the counseling, and the team had their work cut out when the counseling sessions begun. The aim of Team C3A was to offer the students ways to gain a new perspective on their behavior and emotions so as to alleviate anxiety and depression which they usually accumulate due to the stress-inducing environment at an engineering institute. The team suggested, to the students, means of addressing stress and anger in a way that would not be detrimental to them or anyone else. Although some students found the sessions ‘absolutely useless’, others reflected on the counseling and gained a lot of insight from it, which will surely help them get through the rest of their journey at PNEC with a more positive attitude.

ACO; ASSIGNMENT COMPLETION OPERATION

C onsidering the amount of workload PNECians usually have on their shoulders, it is not surprising that when assignment submission-dates are due, most of them usually try and get their hands on one of the theetas from the class. And well, everyone knows what to do after that. Copy. Paste. Submit. However, have you ever gone through a practice of a truly disciplined, purely indigenous and totally methodical assignment completion operation? No? Well, around 25 stu-

dents from the batch of ’16 went through this unique experience this February when they sat down and religiously copied the assignment from the whiteboard where it had to be written, in its entirety in three goes, by one generous classmate of theirs who had done it already. Seeing the discipline that the students maintained, a teacher decided to overlook the practice despite being a witness. Unfortunately, there was one mistake in the generous classmate’s, and hence, the whole class’ as-signment which led to a deduction in everybody’s scores. But then, we do have the relative system; which is swell, right?


GETTING ON THE WRONG NERVES

P NEC’s admin does not need a reason to tighten the knot around its ‘subjects’, so it is highly stupid of the said subjects if they start giving the

admin definite reasons to do so. Within the last couple of months, PNECians in general, and IME students in particular, have been getting under

the admin’s skin with a troublesome regularity. From climbing the long ladder near the café to take pictures atop the IME Department’s roof to

hitting shuttlecocks into inappropriate places while playing badminton, we have been practically begging the admin to reinstate the hellish morning

muster on our miserable souls again. The continuous blatant uniform infringements from the freshmen have not helped at all either. Even the nor-

mally boring hostelites have been at it, smuggling people into the dorms twice. Better watch it, my friends. We dare not cross the line. Or maybe, we

already have.

THE TEA-BAR THAT WAS!

T he Pinnacle is sad (or glad, whatever applies to you) to report that trekkers to the KK no longer have to endure the enticing wafts of fries, cheese samosas and what-not as the source of those heavenly smells, the IME Tea Bar, killed its engine this March. The bar, although not as lavish as KK, had its own charisma and was an adequate fuelling station for the IMEians, if

they did not feel like making the long journey to the café. It was, to them, a tidy corner filled with chatter, laughter and giggles, being a center of merriment for all. Be it the diverse snacks or the amazing Mocha Latte, every IMEian had a reason to be hoo ked to it. There were even students from other departments who preferred to visit the Tea Bar rather than KK, when they wanted to snack. Mostly, however, the closure of the Bar was received positively by non-IMEians, with one point being struck off the list of ‘departmental discrimination in favor of IME’. But the fact that there will be no more fries, cheese samosas or lattes to eit her con-sume or smell, is to be grieved by one at PNEC, and all.

HIDE-N-SEEK CONFESSIONS

C lick! Edit! Post it on facebook. Get likes. And comments. Count your followers and feel like a celebrity. Still not satisfied? Make a ‘Confessions and

Crushes’ page. PNEC-Confessions came into existence with similar

purposes, one should think. Because it provided an opportunity for the

ones waiting for their inner romantic to be heard, a part of PNEC’s population

welcomed it. Seeing that the new trend brought in an environment of over-

whelming disgust with it, other heads however, shook in disapproval. Moving

on from its reception, it would be factual to state that the page, unsurprising-

ly, soon became a platform to stealthily target fellow students, enjoy open

gossip sessions and take pleasure in insulting other people on the forum.

Some confessions ended up being so forward that they did all but name the

crusher and the crushee. Things got out of hand when the identity of the page

-admin was leaked out, and the page had to be shut down. Even though it is

back up now returning with all the scandal, it is still good to see that there is

plenty of opposition to something so unhealthy and creepy at our college.

News


DISCOVER NUST. DISCOVER PNEC.

N UST’s premier entrepreneurship challenge, Discover NUST,

came to PNEC last November, where the battle between vari-

ous elevator pitches’ was held and numerous mind-boggling

ideas were thrown up. The event comprised of three days and the

team from H-12 did not expect any of the volunteers to show up on

the days. It was to their surprise, then, that every single cataloged

volunteer not only showed up but also rendered their services whole-

heartedly to making the event a successful venture. Even though the

event in itself was serious stuff, and the organization team had some

moments of panic to go through, but the jovial freshmen who were

part of the Registrations Team had a Dunkins’ breakfast to drown it

all. Other organizers had to remain contented with the event menu,

which wasn’t bad itself. The fine food was an adequate reward for

the hard work of the coordinators who were also acknowledged by

the Discover team as the ‘most awesome organizers ever’!

NOT JUST ENGINEERS, BUT ENTREPRENEURS TOO

O ne of the more diverse competitions our aspiring engineers took part

in this year was the IBA Global Start-up Weekend, Karachi – a three

-day entrepreneurial business plan competition held at IBA, Karachi

last year in November. The multi-disciplinary delegation from PNEC pitched

multiple ideas, on the first day, of which a couple were shortlisted: a social-

entrepreneurship idea of online tutoring (a project called Fravel) by Sarim

Haq and his team from ME and an appalling idea of a foldable, motorized

skateboard called GFURS by the techno-geek trio of IME ‘freshies’ and their

team –with Ali Mujtaba as a mentor. The next day was spent fine-tuning the

ideas, making a business plan, and establishing an internet and social media

presence for the proposed product. On Day 3, the teams gave presentations

on their ideas. ‘Fravel’ was appreciated thoroughly as an excellent social

entrepreneurship venture, but failed to secure a winning position. GFURS

fared much better though, and the seemingly impossible idea of a foldable

skateboard scored third place at SW Karachi. Rumor has it that the team has

already been approached by independent investors, making them PNEC’s

youngest entrepreneurs.

PNEC HOSTELITES: LIVING ON THE EDGE

T here is no arguing the fact that PNEC Boys Hostel is the

breeding ground of many unusual incidents and scandals.

Most of these usually happen when the hostelites step over

the line drawn by our beloved warden, which he, ofcourse, doesn’t

like. Recently, two seniors were thrown out of the hostel, for bringing

a girl into the hostel. Yes, you read that right. A girl! The poor souls

thought that they had done a good job sneaking this lady into the

premises but they did not think of the ever-watchful surveillance

cameras. That was a critical mistake and, caught red-handed, they

were issued immediate suspension letters by the warden. Another

story which had a happier ending is from the earlier days of the

semester. Apparently, a freshmen hostelite filed a complaint with the

warden that he was being persistently bothered by seniors. The

warden took immediate notice and sent his ‘team’ on the hunt to look

for any suspicious activities going on in the hostel. In the resulting

vigil, a few seniors were caught and one was suspended but he for-

tunately managed to regain his room after a few days. Keep it com-

ing, you naughty mongrels!

News

6 The Pinnacle - Feb 2013

PNECIAN DIPLOMATS

T was the Season of the MUNs in PNEC this semester, as the students here took to the market their mathematical minds, to test their oratory

and diplomatic skills. Attuned with the tradition set by our MUNers who took part in SZABMUN last semester, the two delegations, participating

in MUN IBA Karachi (MUNIK) and NUST Int. MUN (NIMUN), were mostly sophomores. The MUNIK delegation comprising of Daim Ali, Danish

Haider, Sarah Zafar, Aftab Ali Hassan, Arsalan Jawed, Saadi Aziz, Abdullah Khalid and Wasiq Ghani represented South Korea and Austria, and suc-

ceeded to score the Best Position Paper Award. And, if monologue and legislature weren’t hectic enough, a few of them managed to debut their start-

up business even at MUNIK’s beach party –which sadly got relocated to a club on Sea View instead of the intended French Beach. A thousand miles

northwards, meanwhile, Azfar Wasim and Alamdar Raza represented PNEC at NUST International MUN. They fared better (in terms of awards that is)

as both the contenders managed to get an award each with Azfar getting an Outstanding Diplomacy Award and Alamdar, an honorary mention. The

Pinnacle extends a hearty congratulation to them all, and wish them best of luck with their future endeavors.

WHAT HAPPENS IN IME BLOCK...

I t is no t a co inc idence that the acronym for our co l lege ’s name, PNEC, is sometimes read as Party Never Ending

Co l lege , and The P innac le ho lds th is image to be true . You want proof? We wi l l show you the photos from a Dho lk i

(yes , a Dho lk i) tha t was held in the IME b lock in the bu i ld -up to the approaching wedding of a sen ior student from

the IME batch of ’ 13. Th is Dho lk i was a long t ime in the p ipe l ine and tha t was ev ident in the extravagant a t t i re of most

present a t the occas ion. Wi th a dho lak and a l is t of songs spec ia l ly sui ted to the moment , the merry-makers let free ,

the s ingers and dancers w i thin them. After the lad ies cou ld no t th ink of any more songs a long the l ines of ‘ la thay di

chadar’ , the lads p lugged in a des i p lay l is t and took center stage w i th a l l the bhangra and dance moves they cou ld mus-

ter . If the occas ion needed any more of the wedding fee l , i t was lent to i t by the p leasurab ly long photo-session that

fo l lowed the s ing ing and the danc ing. Another fo l low-up Dho lk i was in the p lans but unfortunate ly , The P innac le is s t i l l

wa i t ing for i t to happen.

News

MOCK INTERVIEW

A IR organized an event this April in which they held mock

interviews. Alumni , now working at different multi -

national companies were invited as interviewers, including

popular names such as Hassan Idrees (British Petroleum Ltd),

Syed Talib Haider (Suzuki Motors) and Hammad Khalid (Procter &

Gamble). The interviewees were judged on the basis of poise,

enthusiasm, intelligence, analytical skills, time management, self

-confidence, work ethics, creativity, interpersonal skills, team-

work, organizational skills and their command over their educa-

tion and training. One of the more popular questions asked by

the interviewers was ‘a scheme to kill someone’, which may

sound absurd but it evaluated the creative side to an individual’s

personality. The candidates were given individual assessment

reports and afterwards, a session was conducted by the alumni,

in which they highlighted the weaknesses and presented im-

portant guidelines for giving interviews, sharing their valuable

experience. AIR must be heartily commended for the event.


IEEE AGM ‘13

T he Annual General Meeting of IEEE-PNEC was held this February in the Jauhar Auditorium. The AGM is held every year to facilitate the transfer

of power to the new ex-com and appreciate the efforts of diligent society members. After Zohaib’s recitation of the Holy Quran, the new IEEE

mentor Mr. Umer Amir made his appearance on stage. He spoke about how instrumental IEEE was throughout the last year, as an autonomous

society. Next up, IEEE’s engagements were illus-

trated in a video followed by the ex-chair Onib

Nasir’s speech. Dr. Atta Ullah Memon then paid

tribute to IEEE’s dedication and consistent efforts,

followed by the distribution of awards to outstand-

ing members of the society. The transfer of power

then began as financial accounts and legal docu-

ments were exchanged, which preceded a formal

oath taking ceremony conducted by Dr. Faisal Amir.

From IEEE junior officer to the new Chair – Iqra’s

triumphant journey was delivered in a speech of

her own. The evening ended with the comman-

dant’s encouraging remarks before hi-tea (free

food!) was served for all guests.

News


W ell, folks. It had been a long time coming; but boy, was it worth the wait! This April, Pakistan Navy Engineering College hosted, for the first and hopefully not the last time, the NUST -PNEC Olympiad. The idea had been in the pipeline for quite some time, with the initiative taken by Herr Direcktor, Mr.

Azfar Wasim. After the approval for the event was finally granted by the admin, the road to establishing a legacy at PNEC began.

Slowly, and with a lot of bumps along the way: including dilemmas as huge as the state of sponsorships (or rather, the lack of them) to others as trivial as the fact that ‘Roshan kaam nahi karta’, the Olympiad’s mas-sive Organization Committee worked its way towards its goal under the guidance of Lt. Qaiser, the SPORTO. From making the official logo and the website to inviting all the major universities in the Karachi area; almost every department was catered for by the OC members divided adequately into the teams required. Registra-tions predictably poured in, and were supervised by the Registrations Team. The response was so overwhelm-ing that the deadline for registrations had to be extended. The Marketing Team also worked round the clock to ensure a stable cash flow for the event’s budget.

Through the course of preparations, there were, predictably, many conflicts of opinions about how things should be arranged, scheduled or set up. Fortunately, however, no one ended up with lasting sentiments, real-izing that all anybody was trying to do was contribute to the mega -event; except possibly Roshan, although he remained adamant that ‘sara kaam me kar raha hun!’.

NUST PNEC OLYMPIAD 2013


Gags apart, The Pinnacle is proud to report that remarkably prestigious institutes, such as AKU, IBA, Sindh Medical University, Iqra, FAST and SZABIST were amongst the lot that sent delegations to participate in the different sporting categories held over the three days of the event. These categories included Futsal, Cricket, Basketball, Chess, Volleyball, Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis and Throwball. Experienced Match Officials were hired from Karsaz so as to ensure that the sanctity of the event was not violated and that no team would raise the issue of bias towards the host teams.

When the day arrived, and the teams started showing up for the events, they were given a short tour of the campus and after a little ado, taken straight to action. Different matches took place over several venues which lay over the entire university. From Volleyball outside the Annexe building to Throwball in the Tennis Court, all matches continued simultaneously without any notable hitches, all thanks to the remarkable scheduling.

The matches even managed to attract audiences with ample supply of exciting events. In Futsal, AKU came from two goals down at half time to win 5-3 against Textile Institute of Pakistan. The IBA Throwball team showed they were above the competition by going through the entire tourney undefeated! The biggest highlight, however, was none other than the Basketball tourney’s final between Iqra and PNEC itself. With seconds to go on the clock and Iqra leading by a point, a moment of pure magic from Shehryar (IV -WE) bagged the winning points for Team PNEC. With the ball in his own D, and three opponent players bearing down on him, Shehryar let loose with an absolute stunner: a full-court shot which went swishing through the bucket, leaving the play-ers shellshocked, and the crowd in awe!

While the days of the Olympiad were full of sporting thrill and competitive buzz, night -time was where the party was at. The PNEC-NUST Olympiad featured three social events: a laugh-riot Comedy Night, a spring-welcoming Basant, and a Strings concert (don’t really need adjectives there now, do we?)

On the sixth, LOL Waalay, a troupe of improvisational comedians, performed in the Jauhar Auditorium, coming up with jokes that were both raunchy and classy at the same time. Featuring our very own PNEC passouts, Ak-bar and Kumail, the performers also made a lot of inside jokes, to which the PNECian segment of the audience responded with roars of laughter that could be heard all the way from the gate. Some of the more memorable jokes included a song that made fun of a certain hostelite known as barfi, or the ‘things that you can say about PNEC but not about your girlfriend’.

Next up was Basant, which was another memorable event with the black night -sky lit up with an array of lights and full of dozens of paper-sharks looking for prey. Seasoned kite-flyers took to the field and dueled with a flurry of sweeps, feeding the strings and then loosening them with lethal effect for their opponents. The playlist for the event was also tailored for the occasion as the pilots now turned their attention to dancing, with the focus remaining on bhangra and other desi moves.


The NUST-PNEC Olympiad ’13 closed up shop with a bang on the 8th: the Strings Concert. Thanks to the star -power of Bilal and Kapadia, a substantial crowd turned up for the concert even though it was a Monday night. The band had the crowd jumping, dancing and waving their neon -banded wrists to their greatest hits from the beginning. A filler drumming session raised the roof, and a cover of Pat Lal Meri sent the crowd into a frenzy. Strings performed into the night and finally wrapped things up with their iconic number ‘Hai Koi Hum Jaisa’.

It would not be erroneous to say that the Olympiad was a huge success and The Pinnacle hopes that the event has paved the way for future events to take place at our own PNEC NUST. The Pinnacle would like to extend its heartiest congratulations to both the OC and the admin on conducting an event of this magnitude and pulling it off with aplomb! Bravo!


PHOTO SPECIAL


Page of Fame NUST-PNEC OLYMPIAD ‘13

CATEGORY WINNER(S) RUNNER-UP Futsal Iqra University AgaKhan Cricket AgaKhan Altamash

Throwball (G)

Institute of Business Administration

SZABIST

Badminton (G)

SZABIST Institute of Business

Administration BasketBall

(B) PNEC Iqra University

Basketball (G)

AgaKhan Univesity Sindh Medical Uni-

versity Table-

Tennis (B) Iqra University PNEC

Table-Tennis (G)

Baqai Medical Univer-sity

Altamash

*Volleyball, Tennis and Chess results not submitted by Team Olympiad.


Page of Fame

INTER-DEPARTMENTAL DEBATE COMPETITION

CATEGORY POSITION WINNER

English (Favor) 1st Ayesha Farooq (II-IME) 2nd Marium Waris (II-EE) 3rd S/Lt Usman Qamar (IV-EL)

English (Against) 1st Ammarah Tanveer (IV-EL) 2nd Ayesha Tariq (II-IME) 3rd Muhammad Uzair (IV-ME)

Urdu 1st Jawad Ali (IV-IME) 2nd S/Lt Bashar Ilyas (IV-El) 3rd S/Lt Azhar Khan (IV-MIS)

PNECIANS AT INTER-UNIVERSITY EVENTS

EVENT CATEGORY TEAM MEMBERS POSITION

PROCOM (FAST-NU)

Urdu Creative Writing Iqra Sajid 1st

Circuit-Design Mansoor Alam

Shehryar Rahim Mohammad Zubair

1st

FASTTECH iQuiz Hajra Khan

Kiran Mehmood Farah Akram

2nd

Startup Weekend Business Plan

Farrukh Haider Bayan Mashrequi Daim Ali Shaikh Danish Haider

3rd

NIMUN Outstanding Diplomacy Azfar Wasim - Honorary Mention Alamdar Raza -

MUNIK Best Position Paper Saadi Aziz

Salman Tahir -


Features THE ENGINEER WHO TOOK THE INITIATIVE

H amza Shams is, probably, the only name that will be recognized by every student in PNEC regardless of their semester, department or residence. Why? Because this guy is leaving behind, a legacy for PNECians. Or rather, legacies. Be it MACS, FNR or the Entrepreneurship Club, there is no pie around, which Hamza Shams doesn’t have a finger in. It will indeed be a

sad day when Hamza departs PNEC and so, our reporter, Faizan Azhar, caught up with him to extract all his secrets that he could.

Faizan: Hello Hamza. How are you doing. Hamza: I’m doing good. What about you?

Faizan: I’me fine too, thank you. First and foremost, the MACS ques-tion! What were the reasons behind establishing PNEC’s best and most active society? Hamza: Boredom. Boredom. Boredom. I still remember my first se-mester: sitting alone on a table at the back listening to songs and contemplating on the idea as to why did I choose to come here. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? MACS was not just a result of that. It was a lifetime of experience. A year and a half actually, but hell, I love to brag. So while sitting and complaining as to how mean can IEEE PNEC actually get, me and Hammad [M. Abid] discussed the awesome idea k ‘boy kuch kartay hain’. Let's make something that brings fun -fairness back to this place. And that was the reason!

Faizan: How much help and opposition did you get or face from your seniors in this endeavor of yours? Hamza: I have never paid heed to the ‘fear-your-seniors' idea be-cause I feel it restricts people’s creativity and limits them as individuals. However, being as inexperienced as I was, I tri ed seeking help from my seniors and asked them to help me start something fun here. That, however, was pretty much to no avail, until the day I came across Hammad Shahid, courtesy of my school friend, Umair Wasim. Hammad appreciated my idea and de-cided to take it forth. After six months of rigorous paperwork, we finally managed something effective and fun. The objective was to come up with something that would be constitutionally powerful, structurally sound and something that slides into the system of PNEC instead of challenging it. And well I still remember 22nd September 2010, when we gave our presentation to Capt. Imran and got his approval to go ahead. Celebrations dawned as we had created a work of art, PNEC's most powerful soci-ety to date.

Faizan: What role did you envisage for MACS inside and outside PNEC? What would you say about the accomplishments of those goals during your time with the society? Hamza: In one simple word: Outreach. The plans I had for MACS were way beyond the models of regular student societies. I


envisioned it to take the stature of AIESEC in the future; something that has chapters, followers, a diverse cultural influx and that pretty much controls the flow of things in every University out there. Hence we started making collaborations with other societies during my tenure. A plan I'd like my future teams to look into. MACS gives you powers, use them well.

Faizan:You’ll be graduating in a few weeks leaving behind your legacy – what standards do you expect MACS to uphold? Hamza: I would personally like it to affect every individual’s life at PNEC. See, before MACS, people here had a totally different meaning of the word ‘entertaining events’ and mind you, you'd hate those events. MACS promised a standard that we reached and upheld during our time: in events, publications, communications and formation of teams. I'd like the future teams to foll ow that legacy since that serves as the foundation of improvement in the PNEC’s atmosphere that you have seen in recent times.

Faizan: Do you think you are leaving MACS in worthy hands? Hamza: It depends, actually. You can't control everything out there. My ideologies were different, and the people succeeding me might view things differently. Hence, the question of the right hands stands ambiguous. My only wish is for people to appreci-ate the idea we worked for and take it forward. And for the love of God, read the constitution once! It'll tell you what you can actually accomplish in your one-year tenure.

Faizan: I’ll tell them to, Hamza. Now, something besides MACS: you were involved in a multitude of other activities too. What was your motivation behind taking up all of those in the face of the rigorous academic requirements at PNEC? Hamza: Call it misleading and highly inappropriate, but my initial motivation has always revolved around something that I would not like to disclose here. Now though, it is only self -actualization. I decided on taking a new leap after understanding my po-tential, and realized that self-fulfillment was a much better reason to motivate yourself than the former. I would implore you people to keep the same in mind and set goals with this very same perspective.

Faizan: Tell us a little about some of the interesting activities you’ve been involved in. What have you learnt from these ex peri-ences? Hamza: Okay. I, personally, can never find a starting point to this question. Ever since I got involved in things, there was al-ways something more that I wanted to put my hands in. However, if I were asked for my most endearing projects, I suppose Youth Correspondent and Ramp Affair Castings have given me a new identity to live with and be proud of.

Faizan: Lastly some words of wisdom you would offer to your juniors regarding how to excel in the PNEC environment. Hamza: My 5 points of ultimate success. 1. Never challenge the system. Learn it and then use it against itself. 2. Don't act like retards and start fantasizing about your lame school life getting better. You're a NUSTian only if you work for it. 3. We know larkiyan nain hain, but don't make your life revolve around that issue. If you have been to as many internships as I've been, I'd say you won't meet better girls anywhere. You get home -made lunch boxes if you go with a girl. *chuckles* 4. Get involved in things as soon as you can. It'll help you get over the depressing phases. 5. Hostel ki awaam is amazing and fashionably generous, once you get to know them.

Features


Features FORMULA NUST RACING: The Legacy cont inues

Adeel Al i Khan

T here is just something about see ing s leek cars zooming at eccentr ic speeds that gets ever yone a l l worked up and exc i ted . It is therefore understandable that Formula rac ing tracks are one of the most thr i l l i ng s ights in the world . The educat ional vers ion of th is renowned motorspor t

compet i t ion is he ld annua l ly under the name of ‘Formula Student ’ by the Inst i tut ion of Mechanical En-gineers (ImechE) in co l laborat ion wi th Soc iety of Automot ive Engineers (SAE) .

Many of you must a lready be fami l i ar wi th the name ‘Formula NUST Racing’ (referred to as FNR in shorthand) . For those of you who haven’ t heard about i t yet , FNR is a team from NUST-PNEC that wi l l be repre-sent ing NUST in th is year ’s Formula Stu-

dent at the Si lverstone Circu i t , UK . Team FNR and the ir Formula sty le race car wi l l be compet ing against the creat ions of the greatest engineer ing minds from some of the best univers i t ies around the world .

At the Si lverstone , Team FNR wi l l be carr y ing on the legacy of PNEC’s a lumnae , who were a part of ‘Formula NUST’ , the f irst team ever to represent Pakistan in an FSAE event . Even though the team cou ld not make i t into the dynamic events due to some technica l g l i tches but what that l i t t le group of people accompl ished was nothing less than ex traordinar y. Even qua l ify ing to compete at the event was an achievement in i tse l f . Normal Formula Student teams can be of up to two dozen members div ided into specia l i zed teams that look af ter d i fferent aspects of the pro ject . So for a Pakistani team wi th only 7 members , bu i ld ing a race car and tak ing i t a l l the way to England seemed a feat unatta inab le . That team fought aga inst a l l odds though, and made i t possib le .

Present ly, Formula NUST has evo lved into Formula NUST Racing , a larger team with d i fferent d iv is ions hand l ing market ing , f inances , management and technica l issues . These teams are spending count less hours to ensure that ever ything goes according to p lan and schedu le . From developing ideas and de-signs , to bu i ld ing the machine and gather ing sponsors to ensure a stab le cash f low, the team is mak-ing sure that nothing goes wrong. What is astonishing is that FNR is the only student team from Paki-


Features stan par t ic ipat ing in the prest ig ious event .

The team has a couple of successfu l road-shows and a decent- looking l ist of sponsors to show for the ir hard work . Wi th just a few months remain ing , the pace and intens i ty of work has increased, and as the Race Day draws c loser , team FNR is gear ing up to h i t the ground running at the Si lverstone . The Pinnac le wishes them al l the best !


Features Changing Reigns: The Dawn Of A New Era

Ali Qamber

N obody ever dislikes getting good news. And if this news comes as a surprise, that is an absolute bonus. Your editor knows tha t because it was just a normal winter (or what we call winter in Karachi) day, when Rida Shazli, the Pinnacle editor -in-chief then, texted him asking if he would like to be her successor. It was unbelievable. It literally was. Ms. Shazli had to emphasize he r offer

a couple of times more before this ungrateful soul could stop taking it to be a sick attempt at humor.

The Pinnacle started out as an idea of course, like all good things do. An idea brought into action by a small group of peopl e. With Rida’s and Aqsa’s initiative, Zohaib’s diligence and Asim’s tech-skills*, the first e-issue of the Pinnacle was uploaded to a generally positive reception by students and faculty alike. Since its humble beginnings, The Pinnacle has gone through a lot of changes but what has remained invariable is the passionate team be-hind the newsletter. Faces and names may have changed, but the passion to portray the bright and healthy side of PNEC to its

inhabitants and to create a more congenial image of the college among the masses remains the same.

This issue is a bearer of the unseen transition that Team Pinnacle is going through this semester. With the experienced sopho mores already present to guide them, enthusiastic freshmen have joined the cause, and together, the two have managed to present som ething bigger and better than anything Team Pinnacle has brought to the scene before. With a new web -presence, The Pinnacle will also be much more accessible to its readers. This is also Pinnacle’s longest issue in its short history (thanks to the huge number of awesome events that we had this semester), and this editor-in-chief is indeed thankful that he had a whole team of willing workers to sh are his workload with.

In our reporters and authors, our designers and promoters, every person has contributed to bring this edition about. And as t he reins at Pinnacle change hands, the new Team hopes that that you, the readers, find our work as entertaining to read it as the team -before’s, as we hope to build on the good work of Rida and Co.


Features TEDxPNEC: Bringing The Creative Spark To PNEC

Ali Qamber

I EEE PNEC has always prided itself on being the most professional student society at the college. They did not do their image any harm when they came up with an event that brought PNEC shoulder-to-shoulder with the best institutes in Pakistan. Even though listening is not an activity this nation generally likes to do, the trend of TED conferences has gained a lot of momentum in our country.

It was therefore, with a lot of enthusiasm that IEEE members started preparations for TEDxPNEC. Calls were made, emails and texts were sent, and after a lot of inclusions and omissions, the prestigious speaker list for the event was finalized. The OC also laid a lot of importance on the adornment of the venue with the stage and the outer-area of the Jauhar Auditorium given special attention.

When the OC shifted the event two days forward due to some organizational glitches, they made the event coincide with the CNS’s visit to PNS Jauhar. That was just the start of the tribulations the OC had to face that day. From Usman Riaz’s MacBook’s rejection of the auditorium’s VGA cable, to the last-minute back-outs of the fashion designer YBQ and Kachee Goliyan’s Nofal Khan because of the blast at Maskan, nothing seemed to be going the or-ganizers’ way.

The show, nonetheless, had to begin. And so it did. Usman Riaz, the young musical sensation who is also a TED fellow, was first up. His presentation turned out fine eventually and his blockbuster performance with the strings set the tone for the rest of the event. Dr. Aziz Rab was next and he spoke on how a compass-driven career could prove pivotal to a man’s life and his achievements. Irfan Sayani followed that up with an atypical but remark-able talk on social media interactions. If the event needed a spark, it got one in the form of Saadi Makhdoom’s closing talk who weaved his usual magic through a brilliant use of words and pictures, advising the attendees to live silly, dream big and play wise.

If the drama that the OC experienced behind the backdrop can be ignored, TEDxPNEC went through smoothly enough for the people attending and speaking at it, who went home with full stomachs and in high spirits. The Pinnacle would like to applaud IEEE on bringing something so big to PNEC.


Features Shell Eco Marathon: Making Every Drop Count

Ayesha Tariq

A new year has arrived and the Shell Eco team is back at it again: Bolt and Ballista, the engineering marvels par

ticipating in this year’s Shell Eco Marathon, are having their screws tightened to grace this summer the tracks at Sepang, Ma laysia; to let a-flutter there –once more –the Green and White of Pakistan.

Shell Eco Marathon (SEM) provides a platform to the engineering students to design, build and run their own fuel efficient vehicles to partic-ipate in different categories depending on their fuel and design. At its core, it’s pretty straight forward: the vehicle that covers the greatest distance in one litre of fuel stands out as a winner. For Team PNEC, it all started back in 2009, when owing to the relentless labours of the pioneering SEM Team PNEC and Group Captain Shoaib Ahmed, the team participated in SEM Germany. And again in 2010, when an automated prototype, musingly named ‘BOLT’, first revved engines in SEM Asia.

After a respite in 2011, Team PNEC was at it again in 2012, as they challenged the Fates by deciding to participate in two categories: the traditional ‘Bolt’, in Urban Concept (Gasoline) and a new Prototype called ‘Ba llista’, to participate in Prototype (Gasoline). It took a year and a multi-disciplinary team of passionate PNECians, to fabricate these and actually take the cars to Sepang F1 International Circuit, Malaysia! But their strife paid off when the Crescent Flag finally waved in Malaysian skies on the 4th of July.

It wasn’t always ‘strife and struggle’, though; well, not on day two at least, when the traditional Pakistan v/s India rivalry perforated into the SEM Quiz competition: heart in throat, and eardrums ringing with Nur Jehan’s ‘Wattan key Sajeeley Jawano’, Team Pakistan answered every question as if a correct answer meant firing bullets into the enemy’s heart! And finally when they did win, it was as if noth ing else had mat-tered!

And the luck continued when all eyes were on Bolt and Ballista to complete the track runs: Bolt finished on the final attempt . It was an abso-lute delight for the team to hear that Bolt secured the 10th position and was chosen for the official Flag-off ceremony from Pakistan. The cherry on the cake, and a funny moment for the team was when Ali Akram Bhalli got a free IPad and had it taken away as he wasn’t an official part of the team.

All in all, Team PNEC’s SEM odyssey is not only about engineering: it is about our passion, creativity and our patriotism! Godspeed to the team for their daring endeavour this summer. Make PNEC proud!


Features DHANAK: A Spr ink le Of Co lor Among The Specia l

Ayesha Farooq

T he Educational and Community Service Society (ECSS-PNEC) is one of the younger societies in running at PNEC. They are, as their motto says, ‘a group of ordinary aspiring engineers who follow an ordinary track, with ordi-nary people around, to achieve milestones extra-ordinary’. With immaterial goals and self-giving aims, they hope

to bring smiles on the faces of those who are seldom remembered by us. The society launched its first project of the year, titled ‘Dhanak’, this April, which was a show put on by the physically and mentally handicapped children from the Rangoonwala Special Children School, Karsaz.

It was a beautiful morning when the lovely children were received at the Bahria Auditorium by ECSS-PNEC members. The event was initiated with the rec-itation of Holy Quran by a child, who you could not guess to be unsighted, in his soulful voice. A group of hearing-impaired children then performed won-derfully on a welcome song depicting a scene of rainfall. A glimpse of the difficulties that are faced by handicapped people in our society and the measures that can be taken to eradicate them using technological advancements, was given by means of a play named ‘Roshni ka Safar’ while the issue of social segregation was raised in the form of a skit called ‘Zindagi’. Another batch of disadvantaged children then mesmerized the audience with some melodious songs.

The audience, spellbound by the perseverance and the evident hard work that had been put into the performances by these very special children, clapped whole-heartedly as everyone gave a spectacular performance on stage. ECSS -PNEC also inaugurated the issuance of a ‘Health-Card’ which would help the underprivileged kids living in the slums to get free treatment and medicine once ECSS authorizes them.

The event was graced by the presence of prominent Pakistani writer, advertising executive, politician, intellectual and former information minister Mr. Javed Jabbar as the Chief Guest. The list of the guests of honor also included PNEC’s Commandant, Deputy Director of the National Special Education Centre and other government and NGO representatives. The guests expressed their immense gratitude upon being a part of the event and appreciated the efforts of the ECSS members in bringing awareness among the people about a forgotten social cause. Dhanak was indeed, a very unique experience for everyone who was a part of it, and the Pinnacle hopes that ECCS continues to spread joy and colors among the under-privileged.

Photo of the month

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away. - Hilary Cooper


Team Pinnacle Director Publ icat ions: M Akmal At taul lah

Ed i tor-in-chief : Syed Al i Qamber

Design and Layout : Asim Ahmed, Da im Al i Sha ikh , Yusra Shah

Content : Aad i l Khan , Adee l Al i , Ayesha farooq , Ayesha Tar iq , Fa izan Azhar

Ed i tors: Zoha ib Shahid, Umair Asif

Photo Cred i ts : Ablazed Stud ios - Adnan Shabbir , Ayesha Farooq

Spec ial Thanks: Hamza Shams, Kiran Mehmood

Your contributions, originalities and suggestions are more than welcome at [email protected]

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