Abbottabad, Pakistan (Feb 02, 2022)

The Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) of Abbottabad University of Science and Technology (AUST) in collaboration with the Precision Medicine Lab, an affiliate of the Higher Education Commission’s National Centre for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC) organized a high energy and interactive innovation challenge to encourage and promote innovation and problem solving amongst the students.

The event, dubbed as PML Hacks – Hack health for all, was attended by over 300 students on campus and revolved around creativity and entrepreneurship. Ms. Shagufta Rehmat from the Precision Medicine Lab during her presentation shared some top-notch examples of global health-tech startups that have created great impact for their people.

“There is an essential need for locally solving some of the most pressing problems that exist in our healthcare system faced by patients, doctors, nurses, faculty and even attendants on a daily basis. At PML Hacks we engage passionate community members to come forward and play their part in revolutionizing healthcare in Pakistan.” said Mr. Shahram Khan, Business Development Manager at the Precision Medicine Lab.

The students were given an opportunity to pitch their ideas to the audience and jury that included Dr. Ajab Khan (Director ORIC, AUST), Dr. Mir Jamal (Computer Science Faculty), Dr. Arshad Abbasi, Mr. Arsalan Riaz and Dr Zainab Jahan. The brightest students and the most brilliant ideas were awarded on-spot cash prizes and certificates. Winning students also won a seat to the next stage where they will get professional mentorship to further sharpen up their idea and create a business plan around it to commercialize.

The top ideas of the day were mostly at the integration of biology and technology, with many ideas on augmented reality, genetic engineering, machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

The event was concluded with a prize distribution ceremony by the Dean of AUST, Dr. Malik Mujaddad Ur Rehman. He said in his remarks “These types of events provide a platform for students to think beyond text books and we are very grateful to Dr. Faisal Khan and his team at the Precision Medicine Lab for organizing such an engaging event for our students”. The event ended with the distribution of certificates and a group photo with the winning students.