A team from Pakistan participated in the RoboCup Iran Open, 2010, held from the 5th to the 9th of April, and successfully qualified for the RoboCup Finals, to be held in Singapore in June, 2010. The team consisted of students from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), and participated in the Real Rescue Robot League of the RoboCup. The competition was held in Tehran, Iran's capital city.
RoboCup is an international research and education initiative. It is an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined, as well as being used for integrated project-oriented education. It is the premier robotics event of its kind. RoboCup comprises of many leagues, including the Rescue league that focuses on Urban Search and Rescue.
RoboCup Iran Open 2010 is the first ever competition of its series that witnessed the participation of a Pakistani Rescue Robot, "SAVIOUR", designed and fabricated by a multidisciplinary team of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. The team was selected from hundreds of applicants. It is worth noting that in a highly mechanized world, very few Pakistani institutes are constructively working on autonomous, flexible and tele-operated robotic mechanisms. The same team has previously competed in the RoboCup Finals 2009, in Graz, Austria, adding to the rich history of success for the team.
More than 350 teams from 10 different countries were competing in different leagues.
SAVIOUR was designed and built by a team led by Muhammad Fahd Waseem. The rest of the team comprised of Muneeb Saleem, Arsalan Khalid, Saad Noor, Faisal Kalim, Farrukh Sohail and Waqar Chughtai. SAVIOUR means "Semi-Autonomous Vehicle for Identification, Observation and Ultimate Rescue". The robot completes its tasks using various sensors and is controlled via a wireless network for full remote mobility. The tasks involve the location and mapping of 'victims' in a simulated earthquake hit 'arena'.
Source: GIKI Website
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
MCB Mobile Money Service Nominated Best in World
Source: MCB Mobile Money Service Nominated Best in WorldMobile World Congress has nominated MCB Mobile, a service launched by the MCB Bank in 2009, as the best across the world. The nomination was an acknowledgment for the recently launched innovative mobile banking solution by the MCB Bank and GSM Association (GSMA), said a press release. Other mobile payment services nominated were from South Korea (t-cash), Philippines (Smart Money) and Kenya (m-paisa). MCB Mobile is the only bank-led mobile payments service nominated for this contest. The GSMA Awards are known as the “Oscars” of the mobile industry and it is a yearly event held in Barcelona. More than 2,400 members of the press attended the event, representing more than 1,500 media groups from 76 countries. MCB Bank Limited President and Chief Executive Officer Atif Bajwa said that the bank remains committed to broaden the access of financial services to a sizable population in Pakistan owning mobile phones and without bank accounts. “This nomination is a source of great pride not just for the MCB bank, but for the country, as well,” Bajwa said.
Kitabain.com Launched – A books marketplace
Source: Kitabain.com Launched – A books marketplaceKitabain.com is our latest initiative towards making books accessible to a wider audience in Pakistan. About 10 months or so ago we started out The Readers Club, Pakistan’s first online book rental service in Karachi (www.thereadersclub.com) with the overriding goal of promoting reading and books before any financial or commercial interests. It was the overwhelming response and support for The Readers Club, which motivated us to build kitabain.com. For us our success has only been due to the trust our members have placed in us and for that we are eternally grateful to many many people. Very often we get requests from members for the option to purchase books that they’d like to hold on to and also a way to give away books that might be lying around without much use. Well we’ve tried to put the two requests together along with other ideas to come up kitabain.com. Very happy to report that we already have a few bookstores on board who are just starting to catalog their entire inventories. We envision it as a platform to enable individual sellers or independent bookstores to instantly make their inventory available to a much wider audience than they can typically hope to with a geographically constrained brick and mortar establishment. For Buyers; Whether you are looking for the latest releases or something hard-to-find,we hope that you can find it at drastically reduced prices on kitabain.com. Basic details on how the system works can be found by visiting the FAQ page(or you can call us too anytime): http://www.kitabain.com/index.php?view=site_pages&id=3
We eagerly look forward to comments and suggestions from everyone so that we can keep refining the process as we go along. And since we are just starting out please feel absolutely free to report any bugs or omissions that you encounter. Looking forward to seeing with an account on Kitabain.com soon!
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