UET Executive Committee coordinates its activities in the six regions of the USA and Canada by a conference call which is scheduled every month. The six regions cover the following areas:

• US Northeast
• US Midwest
• US South
• US West
• East Canada
• West Canada

Following is the summary of the activities of each region as reported by the regional vice presidents in February 11, 2009 conference call:

Activities of the US South Chapter

Dr. Tauseef Salma, Vice President, Southern Chapter reported that they held a planning meeting in Houston area on February 7, 2009. In this meeting, Ms Salma provided details of her recent visit, including meetings with the deans of chemical and electrical departments.

The meeting participants various ideas for the use of monetary contribution to UET from the Southern chapter were discussed. Contribution towards graduate theses, under-grad theses or mini-projects was discussed. It was finally decided that SW chapter will focus more on mini-projects. These mini-projects will be defined in such a way that they will foster spirit of responsibility and organization among the students. An example of such a project is to provide financial incentive to students to prepare an inventory/database of equipment and store it in an organized manner in different laboratories. The executive committees decided to the review the detailed proposal during the conference call on February 11, 2009, and prepare plans to implement it.

Other items of interest were an article by Aasim Waheed volunteered to be the secretary of the Southern Chapter, and Waqas Muneer has submitted an article titled, "Navigating New Channels – Perspective of a Fresh Graduate," for publication on UET website.

Activities of the East Canada Chapter

Professor Shamim Sheikh reported that nine members of the UET Alumni Association in Greater Toronto area (GTA) met on February 8, 2009 to plan the activities for the next few months. They formed three task groups.

Task Group 1: Organization of a social event for May 23 or 30

This event is planned for about 200 people with the purpose of introducing the Alumni Association to its members and start the process of networking among UET alumni members and among the engineering community in general. Additional details to be provided in the next few weeks at www.uetalumni.net

Task Group 2: Assistance to the new UET Alumni immigrants.

This group will look at ways to help the new immigrants find jobs and assist in their integration into the new environment. In collaboration with other Alumni Associations, such as NED, the Task Group will also hold seminars on codes of practice in Canada and introduction to various design codes.

Task Group 3: Identify needs of UET for lab equipment and other assistance

Emphasis will be placed on providing lab equipment to UET and offering services such as seminars and books for library. A targeted activity discussed deals with developing a self-contained unit consisting of solar panels to generate enough power to run a few lights and a TV on the pattern of one being worked on by some of the UET Alumni in GTA. A member of this group will be visiting UET in March and discuss this with people there. This item was discussed during the conference call on February 11, 2009, and it was agreed that Abdul Hai will provide additional information and contacts in the industry and at UET Shamim Sheikh to facilitate implementation of this project.

An East Canada chapter executive committee consisting of the Task Group Chairs and the VP will coordinate the activities of the task groups.

Activities of the US West Chapter

Moazzam Chaudry, vice president US West region informed the executive committee about the following activities in his region.

UETAA-NA Silicon Valley Chapter's Alumni will hold a dinner and musical evening on February 28, 2009 at Chandni Restaurant. This event is open to all UET alumni, their families, and friends. To register for this event, go to http://www.uetalumni.net

The US West chapter held its first UETAA-NA Leadership Program breakfast with Jalil Shaikh on February 3, 2009. Jalil Shaikh, a seasoned entrepreneur and former CEO & current Board Member of Validity Sensors. Jalil shared his background, professional experiences, and personal values that drive him and have made him successful over the last 25 years working in the Technology sector. For additional details see past event at http://www.uetalumni.net

Moazzam also informed the committee that they plan to have their second technical webinar some time in April 2009. In this webinar, subject matter expert in the Silicon Valley will deliver a lecture and interact with the students, alumni, and faculty at UET by video conference. UET has now state of the art facilities to host such an event. The first webinar held last year was a huge success. Additional details will be provided at http://www.uetalumni.net when they are available.

Activities of the US East Chapter

A first meeting and luncheon of the alumni in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut region will be held at a Subhaan restaurant in New Jersey on February 21, 2009. For details see http://www.uetalumni.net

The US East chapter is planning a seminar in the Washington DC area about how to tap into the huge infrastructure budget in the new stimulus package signed into law by president Obama. The seminar will identify resources and leads on how to get contracts or jobs in the infrastructure area. The seminar is in planning stage and expected to be held in April, 2009. Details will be provided at http://www.uetalumni.net

Irfan Malik and Amir Khawaja provided the status of web enhancements. Imran Akram is developing a website for OPEN DC chapter which will be completed in the next 3 weeks; after that he can transpose UET current website to this new platform in about 6-8 weeks (April 15, 2009). The new platform "Joomla" is based upon open source, and can be hosted of current servers. This would let us make changes/updates to website without help from webmaster; however, we may need some expert help from Imran's company if major development effort is needed. There may be $200 annual charges for subscribing to an email system that we will be using for communications. Another option pursued by Sadiq Bhatti is to partner with some local web hosting company for about $10-50 per month expense.

Irfan Malik is also investigating of providing a link at UETAlumni website to job portal "Rozee.PK". This will help alumni in job hunting and career advancement.

Activities of the West Canada Chapter

Sohaib Wasif reported that a social get-together of Calgary UETians was held on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at a local restaurant. See past events at http://www.uetalumni.net

Future plans for the chapter include seminars on starting up a business and Project Management Series.

Activities of the US Midwest Chapter

No activities to report in this period. Hafiz Malik could not join the conference call. We are looking for additional volunteers in Chicago and Michigan area to help jump start the activities. Please contact Abdul Hai Sheikh at abdulhaisheikh@yahoo.com

General Discussion

Saeed Rana stated that the World Bank has earmarked substantial funds for infrastructure projects around the world. He would like and help some of these funds be used for infrstrcuture development in Pakistan. Therefore, he requested names of contacts at UET in Pakistan who can help coordinate this effort and identify suitable projects.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the UET Alumni Association Executive Board is scheduled for March 11, 2009 at 9:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Abdul Hai Sheikh
Secretary
abdulhaisheikh@yahoo.com

In August 2008, the UET Alumni Association of North America elected following officers for the 2008-09.

• President: Engr. Saeed Rana
• Vice President USA East Region: Engr. Irfan Malik
• Vice President USA Midwest Region: Professor Hafiz Malik
• Vice President USA West Region: Moazzam Chaudry
• Vice President USA South Region: Dr. Tauseef Salma
• Vice President Canada East Region: Professor Shamim Sheikh
• Vice President Canada West Region: Engr. Sohaib Wasif
• Treasurer: Engr. Amir Khawaja
• Secretary: Engr. Abdul Hai Sheikh

As of October 19, 2008, UET Alumni Association of North America has 543 registered members. There has been a dramatic increase in the membership in the last one year. We had less than 60 members last year. Due to legal and other reasons, UET graduates who reside in North America are eligible to vote and elect the officers of the UET alumni association. However, UETians from other areas of the globe can register and keep informed about the association's activities.

UET Alumni Association held a dinner and musical evening in April 2008 in the suburbs of Washington DC. UET Alumnus Professor Adil Najam of Boston University was the keynote speaker. Professor Najam was part of Nobel Peace Prize team for 2007. His speech was followed by a standing ovation from the 190 attendees. Vice chancellor of UET also addressed the gathering by a prerecorded video message.

Silicon Valley, California chapter of the UET Alumni association under the leadership of Moazzam Chaudry arranged a lunch and social mixer in California on November 3, 2007. It was a great success and 72 persons (alumni, spouses, and family) attended the event. Silicon Valley has arranged a planning meeting at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at Chandni Restaurant in Newark, CA. Please contact Fahim Shafi at fahimshafi@hotmail.com for details.

UET Western Canada under the leadership of Sohaib Wasif has aggressively recruited members during the last four months. In this process, they have already held two meetings and social events in Calgary, Alberta during this period. Future plans include an open house that is likely to be sponsored by local business. In addition, plans are underway to arrange seminars and training courses, including PMP training during first quarter of 2009.

UET Eastern Canada under the leadership of Professor Shamim Sheikh with the help of Mazhar Shafiq held a luncheon for planning membership recruitment drive. They are planning for an event during the fall of 2008.

Dr. Tauseef Salma is actively recruiting UET alumni in Texas region and plans to hold an event soon.

On October 11, 2008, UET Eastern region under the leadership of Irfan Malik held a seminar about energy crisis in Pakistan. The speakers from World Bank, Academia, and Industry presented thought provoking ideas and effort in this area. Unfortunately, representative from the Pakistan's embassy was not able to attend the event due to other pressing engagements at the last minute.

Professor Mohammad Ilyas, Dean of engineering at a Florida Atlantic University is currently helping the UET staff for accreditation of UET degrees in the USA.

In August 2008, the UET alumni association officers met with Professor Noor Sheikh, Dean of Electrical Engineering at UET in Washington to exchange information and ideas about supporting the university and its students in its endeavors. In addition, Abdul Hai Sheikh made a visit to the UET in April 2008. He was able to meet vice chancellor, several deans and professors, and students and exchanged ideas to help the UET.

The UET Alumni association is actively pursuing with US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about being designated a tax-exempt organization. This will help the association in raising tax-exempt donations from the alumni to support UET and provide scholarships to deserving students.

Finally, the associations website www.uetalumni.net is going to have a facelift in the next few months to make it more user friendly. Amir Khawaja, Sharjeel Aziz, and Imran Akram are spearheading this task on a volunteer basis. We welcome advertisements for the website from different organizations who may want to reach the distinguished alumni. This will offset the cost of the website development in the future.

We welcome your feedback in the forum section of our website or at abdulhaisheikh@yahoo.com