- Software gala attracts 700 student participants
A nationwide 2-day software extravaganza SoftExpo 2017, involving various student competitions in computing research, programming, gaming, and software development, started at Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) on Saturday.
PHEC Chairman Prof Dr Nizamuddin and University of Punjab Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zaffar Mueen inaugurated the event at the PUCIT Old Campus. The event was broadcast live on Facebook.
The PUCIT ACM Student Chapter and the local tech industry have jointly organised the mega event.
Over 700 students from 46 universities from across the nation are participating in the event. 25 experts from tech companies and 16 from academia are adjudicators of the various events. Over 6000 people visited the tech festival on the first day.
Teams from various academic institutions, including PUCIT, UET, GCU, COMSATS, LUMS, NUST, FAST, UCP, VU, and FC College University, are participating in the event. The Ebryx, Careerz360.pk, Dockit, SoftHof, and Percentip are sponsoring the event.
Competitions in final year software projects, speed programming, online gaming, intelligent software agents (code bots), and graduate research are the key features of the expo.
In the code bots competition, the teams wrote intelligent agents in real time. In the Graduate Research Conference (GRC), students showcased their MPhil/PhD research work through three-minute thesis presentations.
Discussion on the ‘Secrets of Successful Entrepreneur’ which was moderated by Sadeeqa Riaz Khan and the CEOs and founders of five technology companies took part in the discussion.
The speed programming competition, The Clash of Coders, finished on Saturday. The PUCIT teams won the first and third positions, and a team from LUMS stood second.
SoftExpo is a venue that had a professional look and vibe, and is an example for other academic units at PU to follow, said Dr Zaffar Mueen Nasar on the occasion.
He reiterated his resolve to promote quality education and research at the varsity.
PUCIT Principal Dr Syed Mansoor Sarwar congratulated the organisers led by Dr Waqar Jaffrey and Anzar Ahmad.
The closing ceremony of the event will be held at the PU Senate Hall at 6:00 pm on Sunday (today). Punjab Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani is scheduled to be the chief guest.