ACM Orientation 2k15

ACM, engraving its roots deep inside NUST, hosted yet another splendid event on 12^th October 2015. The only SEECS society to hold an orientation for its general members. The best part? There were fun filled activities and food!

The orientation started with the recitation of Holy Quran at 1:00 PM in SEECS Seminar Hall where all the general members were seated. The host, Mana Tariq welcomed the members and started the not-so-formal ceremony. Faiza Faheem, General Secretary ACM Women Chapter was invited on stage and she explained the purpose of creation of the distinguished Women Chapter of ACM. She spoke freely about the need of women empowerment in our country.

Next up was the General Secretary Khawaja Usama Pervaiz. Welcomed by a round of applause, he gave a brief introduction of ACM and ASWAN. ASWAN is the part of ACM that works tirelessly towards social welfare and community service. ASWAN initiated the NUST Book Bank project which has helped hundreds of students get access to free books for a semester. In fact, this project is gaining momentum as more students are donating their old books increasing the circulation potential.

Umer Ahmed Mehtab, Vice President was next on stage called out by the crowd as the fun guy. He told the audience about many past events hosted by ACM such as the workshop seminar under the mighty Dr. Bebo White, the CS-Ed Week and the E-Gaming week. He livened up the situation showing photo collages of ACM activities and ACM team.

President ACM was invited on stage and he talked frankly, getting through to the general members. He encouraged participation in all rounds of events. He also appreciated the efforts of all general and executive members. He explained the working and hierarchy of the society while encouraging maximum people to take advantage of the opportunities that are laid ahead of them.

The fun part of the event began just after this, As Noor Nawab, Maryam Mehreen, Abeera Nazeer and Abdullah Afzal conducted some exciting games which included Act & React and People Bingo.

The games were a sure fast way to liven up the event, encourage the new members to participate and to help them feel comfortable in the new environment.

The audience was anxiously waiting for the promised food and refreshments for which proper arrangements were made. There was Pizza and an ACM customized cake. After the brunch, a photograph session of the new council was held which concluded the event.

Report By:

Saad Rafiq

ACM and ACM-W Welcomes the Batch of 2k15

This year, ACM and ACM-W kicked off their activities by organizing a very successful WOW event on Thursday, 10^th September, 2015. The theme for this year was none other than Lego – the building toys famous around the world. The grand event was marketed on social media with the genius tag line:

“LEGO of your fears;

Get in on the WOW cheers!”

The SEECS lobby was decorated with the ACM colours of blue and white. Registrations for General Membership were held from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm but the real fun was experienced from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm.

The main activities that were covered included:

• Nail Art – girls got their nails done and enhanced the beauty of their hands.
• Workout Challenge – this was the activity that attracted the boys of 2k15 the most, perhaps. They faced off against their friends in an epic workout challenge to prove that they could do more pushups.

• Charades – the classic activity which allowed the people to guess the movie their friend was acting out. Mess ups and impossible-to-act-out movie names surely made the activity fun!
• Sack Run – this was perhaps the most popular game. It was the source of laughs all around as people wore sacks and raced against each other while slipping and sliding and trying desperately to maintain their balance!
• Balloon pop relay – this was another popular activity. People raced to the finish line to pop a balloon without touching it with their hands. A lot of giggles were produced as people tried everything from sitting on the balloons to stepping on them with their feet!
• Photo booth – this year, staying true to the theme, the photo booth was decorated with the Lego design. Scores of friends posed for group pictures and many wanted solo pictures as well to keep as their new display pictures!
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The incentive for participating in the games was exclusive discounts and free pizza from Frankenstein Restaurant as well as free food vouchers from Tuscany Courtyard. Because after all, you can’t say no to delicious food!

Our sponsors helped us organize this successful event and they deserve a special mention. They were: 

• Frankenstein Restaurant – they were generous enough to bring pizza and offer exclusive student discounts of up to 40%!
•  ISIC – they set up their own desk and informed students about the benefits of applying for their own International Student Identity Cards including travel discounts and discounts on various goods.
• Tuscany Courtyard – food vouchers of this famous restaurant were given away as prizes to the participants of various activities.
• Codistan – 5 Tuscany Courtyard food vouchers on behalf of Codistan, the brilliantly successful startup, were up for grabs if people could achieve the high score in Fruitify, the addictive game, till Thursday.

All in all, it was surely a day that the batch of 2k15 will remember for years to come. The ACM and ACM-W Executive body had great fun in getting to know their juniors a bit better and we’re sure the juniors were fully entertained!

We wish the SEECS batch of 2k15 a great year ahead!

Report By:

Mariha Khan

C Workshop By ACM

On 12^th and 13^th of November, 2015 a highly interactive and helpful C Workshop was held by ACM’s own Muhammad Waseem Khan and Uzair Ghauri from BESE-3 who very kindly gave us some of his precious time in the Shirazi and Farabi Labs at SEECS UG Block.

The aim of the workshop was to help freshmen get a crash course sort of treatment for the fundamentals of procedural programming courses they are being taught in the semester. In the courses they study throughout the semester the main focus is the building of concepts that are the basis of core coding. The workshop intends to familiarize students with syntax and language constructs that are overlooked normally.

The great turnout was an indicator as to how much the help was appreciated. Students were open with asking questions and our instructors were quite helpful with the answers. Mr Waseem Khan being the Chair Person of ACM NUST Chapter did not hesitate to explain these special words we call code in the simplest of ways despite himself being in his final year of study in striving for a degree in Software Engineering. It was a pleasure to witness such an exchange of knowledge.

Uzair Ghauri began teaching with a very lecture-like approach by aid of very helpful presentation slides.

He explained different kinds of loops (for, while, do-while etc), selection statements and gave some tricks and tips to students to help them get these things on their fingertips. The students seemed a little overwhelmed with all the programming being sprung on them.  All this instilled nostalgia as to how we attended workshops like these in our first year.

Report By:

Dua Anjum