First of all, thanks for visiting my web page. Not many people do this! :). I'll try not to be too boring and will keep it as short as possible. May be you have better things to do than researching about me :).
I was born in Karachi, the biggest city and the metropolitan hub of Pakistan in 1979. By the way, the city is also known as the city of lights and is located in the province of Sind along the shore of the Arabian Sea. During my childhood, I have been living in other cites of Pakistan as well, like Lahore and Murree, before my family finally decided to permanently move from Lahore to Karachi in 1992. Not to forget, this was also the year when Pakistan won the cricketworld cup tournament :). That was awesome! So now, this tells you that I like cricket too ;). As a matter of fact, majority of Pakistanis does! I am available in multiple languages :), including, Urdu; my mother language, English; my official language, Punjabi; my regional language, and Basic German; my foreign language.
Schooling: Settling down in a new, big and too crowded city was initially difficult, as I used to miss my school friends and cousins back in Lahore. Later, Karachi started becoming THE city of my choice in Pakistan, when I got into the Habib Public School. In addition to academics, the school was popular for its sports facilities and huge covered area of more or less 18 acres. With a collection of a lot of memories I passed my matriculation (Secondary School Certificate) in 1997.
College: Few months later, I was ready to gather new memories as my intermediate (Higher Secondary Certificate) studies started at the D. J. Science College, Karachi. The two years at the college were exciting and tough and I passed out in 1999. This year Pakistan lost the cricket world cup after competing Australia in the finals :( ! Nevertheless, I was learning new things in life with the passage of time.
Undergraduate Studies: The same year I got into Mohammad Ali Jinnah University Karachi campus for the undergraduate degree; Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. During the bachelors, I worked as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for courses like computer programming and object oriented programming. Being a teacher (TA) for juniors and a student for professors at the same time was a unique experience. The year 2002 was the final year of my degree as I finished it in the month of August.
Graduate Studies: After having the bachelor degree, I worked in FUJI-NCB Corporation, Karachi for few months before I got admission in RWTH for the masters program in Media Informatics. After flying with Emirates Airlines, I took my first step on the land of Germany on September 10, 2003 at the Duesseldorf International Airport. This was the first time ever I flew out of Pakistan. Settling down in Germany was really tough! The study environment was very different from back home. 1.0 being the best grade in Germany and worst in Pakistan :) ! In the end, I managed to complete the masters degree with cumulative 1.4 in February 2006. My thesis was; "Implementation and Performance Analysis of a UDP Binding for SOAP" with Guido Gehlen and Prof. B. Walke at ComNet. Yes! the same chair you are browsing through right now :). Prof. M. Jarke was my second examiner for the thesis. I am really thankful to all three of these wonderful people!
Post Graduate Activities: After the masters degree, I went back to Pakistan for a break. I really needed it! On my return, I worked as a part-time research engineer (WiHi) at ComNets for three months before I joined ComNets as a Research Assistant in September 2006. Since then, I am associated with this wonderful department, with wonderful people, in a wonderful environment, all conducting wonderful research.
Well! I think I have not been too long *if you consider* the time frame of my life that has been covered by this text. I am superbly thankful to you for reading it. Last but not least, I really liked the speech from Steve Jobs at the Stanford Convocation. This gives you a feeling how your life changes, and you never seem to notice it:
