Category: PhD
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At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs Fazle Hasan in his office 1981 Mr Fazle Hasan (1939-2006) was teaching us Financial Management in 1986 at IBA. During each class session,…
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Lesser known dimensions of US Universities – Archives of history and literature
Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin Lesser known dimensions of US Universities – Archives of history and literature During my seven years at the University of Texas at Austin, I went a few times to Harry Ransom Center (HRC) which is an archive and a museum of art, literature and other historical documents. I now think,…
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Myth of Impact Factor- Does it Measures Real Impact or is it a Racket?
Myth: Impact Factor Measures Real Impact One of the most interesting game being played in the universities is that of impact factor research. There is a whole industry that is now specializing in how to increase the impact factor. There are researchers who are publishing at the rate of one publication every month (or even…
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Beauty is Our Business – Mathematics, Excellence and the Great Dijkstra
I remember here the lessons Dijkstra gave about beauty and excellence through personal examples. His colleagues celebrated his works with the salute: “Beauty is Our Business”[1]. Dijkstra is one of the most revered computer scientist whose footprint on the fundamental ideas in computer science is now legendary. This was 1988-89. I was at The University…
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5 Myths of Higher Education in Pakistan
Presentation originally made at CIO Conference, March 2009 at Sheraton, Karachi. The links and write-up below is an extended rehash of those thoughts: Myth #1: Our backwardness is because we lag behind in Science and Technology Myth #2: There is mushrooming of Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan Myth #3: Impact Factor research measures real impact…