AI innovations dominate job fair

Industry experts impressed by some, underwhelmed by most projects at the event

ISLAMABAD:

The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to pervade various facets of life, with even undergraduate students in Pakistan opting to explore AI in their final year projects (FYP), showcased at a recent job fair.

A premier science and engineering institution in the country organised its annual job fair, inviting industry stalwarts to evaluate students’ product prototypes, with AI emerging as a prevalent theme.

As the academic year concludes, universities like FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences host job fairs, offering a platform for industry experts to assess students’ FYPs, foster connections, and evaluate the talent pool entering the job market.

The FAST’s Job Fair 2024 featured over 200 student projects, predominantly centred on AI-driven solutions. Among the standout projects was ‘FASTrack’, an AI-powered Applicant Tracking System (ATS), drawing significant attention for its innovative approach. This initiative offers a unique, intelligent algorithmic system which is able to comb through a database of resumes and return tier-ranked lists of candidates in accordance with the specific requirements of an employer’s entered job description.

Designed by junior students, ‘FASTrack’ garnered interest from various companies like Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) and Transworld, with some expressing interest in the acquisition.

“This is the kind of project I would expect from students at a top engineering university in Pakistan,” said United SOL, HR manager, Saeed Yaqoob while engaging with FASTrack’s product.

Another project programmed an application that enables mobile phone cameras to read photoplethysmography (PPG), making it accessible for users to measure their vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure, heartbeat and more. Yet another, AI product, ‘LLM-Konnect’, also used natural language processing to offer companies and businesses easily implementable chatbots that also generated insightful data and analytical reports on demand.

From AI applications in the medical field and assisted learning to business solutions, the range of products showcased by students at the job fair demonstrated that young, aspiring engineers in Pakistan are keen on working with the latest technologies and contributing to their advancement.

However, several professionals visiting the fair, while recognising the students’ talents and ambitions, noted a shortfall in the kind of guidance they should be receiving at universities. As Zohaib Adnan from Antematter put it, “There remains a huge gap between what these students are taught, and what the industry is looking for. Integrating the industry with institutions is the only solution to this problem.”

While students’ projects were displayed in booths set up on the university’s grounds, a total of 176 companies were present on campus as well. Professionals who had been invited to set up their recruitment drives in the university’s classrooms included major companies such as Jazz, Afiniti, Quest Labs, the US Embassy, and many more.

FAST’s Job Fair 2024. PHOTO: EXPRESS

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2024.