Students present Apps for SDGs

Teams of Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), and FAST University on Sunday clinched excellence awards for designing best Apps to give technical solutions to the challenges pertaining to United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which Pakistan and other countries of the world have to accomplish by 2030.

According to a press release, three-day event titled Hack Fest 2022 in this regard was organized at IBA City Campus Karachi by Google Developers Students Club (GDSC) in collaboration with bytecorp, Sastaticket.p and TPS wherein teams of 10 universities, including University of Karachi and Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) and IBA, belonging to Google Developer Student Club received training from experts and designed Apps for finding solution to issues like climate change, poverty, inequality and farming.

Speaking on the occasion, participants stated that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership.

They said that these goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth - all the while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. GDSC Team Lead at University of Karachi Rafia Manzoor said that to reduce temperature in the city, transport should be electrified besides solarising industries, generators, hotels and homes.

There is also need to raise forests in Karachi and other parts of the world to keep environment cool, clean and green, Rafia concluded. GDSC Lead Usman Institute of Technology University's Filza Manzoor said that students and professors of Usman Institute of Technology University had created Pakistan's first open source microprocessor chip which had been approved by Google.

SMIU GDSC Lead Danella Patrick informed the gathering that SSUET team had achieved first award of Rs50,000 for showing best performance pertaining to UN goals challenges while FAST got two awards - one each worth Rs30,000 and Rs20,000 that is innovative performance of the university. She applauded the teams of SSUET and FAST. Ammar Shahid of SSUET GDSC Lead, said that their team had developed an App on urban farming.

He said that the App would help plant saplings and tree, particularly fruit and vegetables plants in houses, schools, colleges and universities. This will not only benefit economically but also environmentally, he added.

The universities which took part in the program were University of Karachi, SMIU, SSUET, Salim Habib University, Usman Institute of Technology, IBA, DHA Suffa University, NED University and FAST. The judges include GDSC Global's Manager Hufsa Munawar, Adeel Rizwi, Fariha Farooq, Dr Umari Riaz and Saif. The three day proceedings of the program were conducted by Danella Patrick (SMIU), Azhar Ali Naqvi (SMIU), Nabeel Ahmed (IBA), Rohail (Suffa) and Eman Ahmed (Salim Habib University.