Last one month in Lahore and in Lums
If I remember correctly, it has been about 40 days before I last shared anything here on this blog. A lot has happened lately. I got admission in both LUMS and NUST university. But since LUMS had a high priority for me than NUST, I chosed it and am now in Lahore, studying Computer Science.
I got Hostel M1, Room #109 (ground floor). Me and my roommate are the only two MS (CS) students here. The other students are doing MBA. The hostel itself is quite big and spacious with two common rooms on 1st and 2nd floor, a kitchen and 2 bathrooms (each containing 5 shower rooms, 5 toilets and 6 sinks ) on each floor. During the dengue break of 10 days, I got to know many students here. We used to watch films together at night with each contributing for snacks during the film.
There were a few things I had to discover and explore before I could completely settle here. It has always been my routine in Karachi to get some hair trimming and shave at least once in a week from barber. Since there is no barber shop here in LUMS, I went and found a shop near Lalak chowk about 10 minutes walk from LUMS. They are not that professional as I expected, but for the time being and before I can find another I have to stick with them.
The second thing was laundry and iron services. Fortunately LUMS has employed Tip-Top laundry services, who take about 100 pieces for laundry each month per student and return them ironed. I am still going to bring my own iron from Karachi when I go back there for Eid-ul-Azha just in case I need to re-iron them.
Ahan food, the food here is actually a bit low in mirchi and salt. There are various eating places in LUMS, including Pepsi Dining Centre (PDC) which has the lowest prices, and there is Tia Maria, BFC, Super Store, Tuc Shop, Zakir Tikka and 2 - 3 more but they are all low in mirchi. The tikka and chicken roll at Tuc shop are probably better, and hot n spicy biryani is good too.
There are many students here from Karachi but they are all for undergraduate courses or for MBA. I haven't seen any student for MS (Computer Science or Computer Engineering) up-till now.
When I got here, I talked to my faculty advisor and said that I plan to do research in Computer Vision here. He told me to take Computer Vision course this semester but you can't do research this semester because no one knows you at the moment. You have to do much better in Computer Vision to get noticed. Probably then you can do research in next semester. During the dengue break, I got a job offer at oDesk freelancing website to make a prototype of an object detection and tracking project. I did make it and is uploaded at http://www.bit.ly/shahab-vision. The client was impressed by the accuracy but wanted tracking at 25 fps, mine does tracking at 5-7 fps. At the same time, a full time research assistant position was offered by Dr. Murtaza Taj in Computer Vision Lab. I applied it there, got an interview which luckily went well and was ultimately offered a part-time Research Assistant :) .
So my routine is now a bit tough here, not because of the load of courses (I have only three formal courses) but because I also have to give 20 hours / week to Research work, take an audit course related to Machine Vision which is supposed to help me in my research, assignments, quizzes preparation and I also have to manage my daily hostel routine activities.
Well I think that's just for now, I'll try to share my routine life as I did my office life for the future students coming to Lahore and in LUMS. I'll share some LUMS pics as well. Bye for now.
P.S: We did went at Dera restaurant with my MBA friends for my RA-ship treat in Lahore and ate chicken karhai, kat-a-kat, dera special chicken tawwa. We also drank cold drinks, lassi, got pan-mint sheesha, mughlai pan. When their Manager got to know that we were from LUMS he announced 15% discount for us and for all LUMS students that'll come in future. Also the Dera closes at 2:00 am but just for us he agreed to remain open till 3:30. We came back at 4.00 in the morning and I was impressed to see the peaceful law-and-order situation in Lahore. Atleast its way better than Karachi.
I got Hostel M1, Room #109 (ground floor). Me and my roommate are the only two MS (CS) students here. The other students are doing MBA. The hostel itself is quite big and spacious with two common rooms on 1st and 2nd floor, a kitchen and 2 bathrooms (each containing 5 shower rooms, 5 toilets and 6 sinks ) on each floor. During the dengue break of 10 days, I got to know many students here. We used to watch films together at night with each contributing for snacks during the film.
There were a few things I had to discover and explore before I could completely settle here. It has always been my routine in Karachi to get some hair trimming and shave at least once in a week from barber. Since there is no barber shop here in LUMS, I went and found a shop near Lalak chowk about 10 minutes walk from LUMS. They are not that professional as I expected, but for the time being and before I can find another I have to stick with them.
The second thing was laundry and iron services. Fortunately LUMS has employed Tip-Top laundry services, who take about 100 pieces for laundry each month per student and return them ironed. I am still going to bring my own iron from Karachi when I go back there for Eid-ul-Azha just in case I need to re-iron them.
Ahan food, the food here is actually a bit low in mirchi and salt. There are various eating places in LUMS, including Pepsi Dining Centre (PDC) which has the lowest prices, and there is Tia Maria, BFC, Super Store, Tuc Shop, Zakir Tikka and 2 - 3 more but they are all low in mirchi. The tikka and chicken roll at Tuc shop are probably better, and hot n spicy biryani is good too.
There are many students here from Karachi but they are all for undergraduate courses or for MBA. I haven't seen any student for MS (Computer Science or Computer Engineering) up-till now.
When I got here, I talked to my faculty advisor and said that I plan to do research in Computer Vision here. He told me to take Computer Vision course this semester but you can't do research this semester because no one knows you at the moment. You have to do much better in Computer Vision to get noticed. Probably then you can do research in next semester. During the dengue break, I got a job offer at oDesk freelancing website to make a prototype of an object detection and tracking project. I did make it and is uploaded at http://www.bit.ly/shahab-vision. The client was impressed by the accuracy but wanted tracking at 25 fps, mine does tracking at 5-7 fps. At the same time, a full time research assistant position was offered by Dr. Murtaza Taj in Computer Vision Lab. I applied it there, got an interview which luckily went well and was ultimately offered a part-time Research Assistant :) .
So my routine is now a bit tough here, not because of the load of courses (I have only three formal courses) but because I also have to give 20 hours / week to Research work, take an audit course related to Machine Vision which is supposed to help me in my research, assignments, quizzes preparation and I also have to manage my daily hostel routine activities.
Well I think that's just for now, I'll try to share my routine life as I did my office life for the future students coming to Lahore and in LUMS. I'll share some LUMS pics as well. Bye for now.
P.S: We did went at Dera restaurant with my MBA friends for my RA-ship treat in Lahore and ate chicken karhai, kat-a-kat, dera special chicken tawwa. We also drank cold drinks, lassi, got pan-mint sheesha, mughlai pan. When their Manager got to know that we were from LUMS he announced 15% discount for us and for all LUMS students that'll come in future. Also the Dera closes at 2:00 am but just for us he agreed to remain open till 3:30. We came back at 4.00 in the morning and I was impressed to see the peaceful law-and-order situation in Lahore. Atleast its way better than Karachi.
Comments
It depends on the type of elective subjects you take. If you have professional experience, you'll find Software Quality Assurance and Design Patterns easy. Some students want to do specialization so they take challenging courses. Most of the day scholars and hostelites are doing job along with studies or freelancing / product development by taking few courses in a semester so you won't feel a difference.