Scholarship / These courses will help me to move the tech-community in Pakistan a step closer towards digitization [5]

Studying in the UK Question

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I learned programming skills in bachelor degree due to studying some programming courses, such as developing websites, building Android applications. However, if I gain enough knowledge and skills, I will be able to build large-scale complex software systems and can help the tech-community in Pakistan to move a step closer towards digitization.

Based on the above, I have chosen three courses at three different universities in UK.

First is Computer Systems and Network Engineering at University of Greenwich. The reason I have chosen this course is because it is very pertinent to my previous education and current work experience. My undergraduate education background is Software Engineering, in which I studied courses of Networking, and currently, I'm working as an intern in a Telecom Organisation which requires me to provide hassle-free services to customers 24x7. I'm doing this internship without getting any salary just to learn about networking, which will help me in future. This course offers a great combination of next-generation networking techniques which will be helpful in my career. If I choose to go down this path in future. I will be able to suggest new techniques of networking to any organization and influence the top-tier to make the best use of my acquired knowledge which will help the public at large, thus improving their lives.

Secondly, I have chosen Software Engineering at the City University of London. I chose this course because it is industry-focused course is for Computer Science graduates and experienced professional programmers interested in developing high-quality, complex software systems, which I already mentioned as one of my long-term career goals. Background in software engineering and establishing myself as an entrepreneur to lead a team of five people to develop an android app, this course will improve my programming skills further and I will be able to develop high-end quality software systems using languages like the C++, Java programming languages and the UML modelling language, which this course offers.

Lastly, I have chosen Software Engineering at the Queen Mary University of London. I have chosen this course to improve my ability to build interactive systems design for websites and learn about Big Data Processing, this university offers these modules in this course which I want to learn. My advantage is that I already hold a bachelor degree in software engineering and having recently launched a non-profit website (Alpha Brains) with other colleagues, the modules like Semantic Web and Interactive design will help me a lot in building quality websites in future and it will be easy for me that I already studied basics of many modules this course offers.

These courses will accelerate my future career advancement in building mobile applications, websites and other quality software systems. After learning new knowledge and acquiring new skills, I believe I can make a difference, at least to the technological ecosystem of Pakistan.

Scholarship / To become a part of the society you need to communicate and form networks [2]

strengthen network with Chevening community

As they say, man is a social animal and to become a part of the society you need to communicate and form networks, for your own good and for the greater good of the people around you. I started making networks during my academic life by participating in different competitions and organizing events.

Earlier this year, I was looking for an investor for my Android app project, I contacted many ambassadors across different universities whom I have been in touch with after the Olympiad event, of which I was the organizer and became part of my network. Luckily one of them knew a foreign client of his, Ayoub Bougsid from Morocco and introduced me to Mr. Bougsid. I shared the idea and told him about the development model as well as the cost and the potential risk and why he must invest in this very project. As I have worked with several different clients from different countries on freelancing platforms, I had some clients in Morocco too, so I left no stone unturned to introduce them to Mr. Bougsid, as a result I gained the trust of a foreign investor which is hard to come by, and it became possible just because of my network and good relationship with those clients. The investor looked satisfied to meet some people from his home country whom he can rely on as doing business over a video call is too risky for someone to invest. It all became possible just because of my network and communication.

Recently, I had the chance of meeting some like-minded people who became friends of mine during their university's visit to our Olympiad. I told them about the idea of an online virtual think tank website where students from different universities and colleges can get their voices heard and can pen their thoughts about national and international politics and we will post them on our website, they liked it and we named it Alpha Brains. I restricted my position to CTO and a contributing editor, as I already have an Android application going on and have to manage a team of five people. The main problem was the non-profit nature of the website and finding students who can write on diversified topics voluntarily, as our website was in early phases, so I contacted my network across different universities and asked them if they can find some students and aspiring writers, to write for our website. This worked and now we have several students writing and blogging for the website and the cadre of writers is growing.

In the future, I would like to strengthen my network with Chevening community and try build quality software systems for the public and social welfare. As a Chevening awardee, it will be easy to for me to convince investors locally and globally to sponsor and fund the projects of social welfare in various sectors across my home country.

Scholarship / Suddenly something changed when I tried to do something new and said adieu to my comfort zone. [3]

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Leadership and influence question.... Chevening

Being someone from middle class I always looked up to other people around me while growing up and went with what the majority said, but suddenly something changed when I tried to do something new and said adieu to my comfort zone to experiment something new.

It all started during my school days when I led a team of three people to participate in a quiz competition and being junior it was difficult to manage my senior fellows but the ability to deal with situations covered it all and we won the quiz competition. I didn't stop there and led a team of forty people to another district-wise competition and returned victorious when I was in twelfth standard.

In third semester I decided to organize a three-day Inter-University Olympiad named "Cloud'15 Olympiad" in 2015, in which more than a dozen universities participated and around 400 students. The tough part of this was to persuade students from other universities to participate in this very olympiad and it was difficult to contact every student of the participating universities, so I used social media and gave a student the ambassador role for his/her university and then it was the ambassador's responsibility to persuade other students to participate in different competitions. The event had several different competitions. I couldn't have managed all by myself, so I decided to make different teams and assigned a team leader, and those team leaders were responsible for their team members. After this plan, I only have to manage few people and supervise them and then they have to report to me. I had to manage all these things with the university's coordinator who was a staffer.

After acquiring some knowledge about software development I have developed an android application and convinced a foreign investor and a team of five people to work with me, they were hesitant at first being in different time zone and the potential risk whether people will like the app or not. All meetings were over video calls but they liked my idea and especially, the development model. Now they are working as part of the team and the idea is no more an idea, its a reality and the application crossed the milestone of one million downloads recently, receiving 7K hits per day.

Alpha Brains is my new venture, with two friends and a small voluntary team that writes for the Alpha Brains' website, a non-profit organization which is Pakistan's First Virtual Think Tank, keeping an eye on World, particularly Middle East, South Asia, Defense & Nuclear Strategies. I am the CTO and contributing editor

As a leader, I'm passionate about my team and the goal to accomplish. I had fantastic opportunity at school, college and university level to polish my skills and I'm now ready to take challenges head-on as I've good accomplishments being a young leader and influencing skills, but to top that Chevening Scholarship will help me move forward by acquiring new knowledge, meeting new people and exchanging culture which I will bring back to my country to develop quality IT systems in various sectors, that will help my community as the world is going towards digitisation.