Me and my friend had decided to take the Ukrainian Carpathian Region as our vacation exile since he was on a low budget period due to change of job. The main goal of our trip is to enjoy nature away from the stress of city life and do some adrenaline rush activities. Doing some research I found out that the Carpathian region of Ukraine is a natural heaven so I decided to spend some time there.

One of the problems of going to Ukraine is language barrier. The majority of Ukrainians do not speak English and I’ve noticed that some of them do understand English but they can’t speak it. So we decided to look for a Ukrainian tourist company in the Carpathian region. After some Googling, I stumbled upon a website called Green Ukraine that organize trips to the Carpathian region and provide a personal guide throughout the whole trip all day long. After some emailing with the company, we came up with a schedule to spend 5 days on the Carpathian region. I was fascinated on how fast their email reply is. Heck, we had around 7 emails a day going back and forth. The guy I was corresponding was Andriy and it turned out that he is also also our guide.

Train to Ivano-Frankivsk

I went to Ivano-Frankivsk by a train from Kiev. The meeting point with our guide Andriy was the railway station in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Word of advice: Never ever travel in Ukraine by train. Keep reading to know why.

I took the 3rd class ticket because there were no seats on the second and first class cabin. The train trip from Kiev to Ivano-Frankivsk was the crappiest trip I’ve ever been to in my life. There was no air-conditioner and it was summer so the whole compartment stinks and smells like underwear and socks! Heck I felt like throwing up and I was disgusted the whole freaking time. There are no windows to open and the toilet is crap and dirty. People do no know English so we couldn’t talk to anyone in there. Luckily, at the last moment before the train leaves, a guy came by listening to me and my friend talking in Arabic language, so he greeted us. It turned out that he is a nice guy from Jordan in his senior year studying medical in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Days later, we went back also by train but on second class. It is better than the 3rd but it still stinks. There were no tickets for the 1st class.

Anyway, at least I ended up experiencing soviet union era trains.

The Arrival

After about 12 hours on the railway, we finally arrived to Ivano-Frankivsk railway station at 9am. As soon as I stepped out the train, it felt like joy of life is coming back to me again. Of course, I still stink after spending 12 hours in there, but the delightful and fresh air outside the cage has risen up my mood.

After spending about 2 hours waiting for a restaurant to open, pick up some groceries, and looking for bank to withdraw Euro currencies from my bank account, then it start raining and we finally hit the road to go to our cottage in Verkhovyna. That’s another 2 hours until we reached the cottage to take big awesome shower and feel clean!

As you can see above, that’s where we spent our nights. In a super cool cottage out in the country. We are surrounded by farm houses and a nice view to a mountain nearby.

Quadricycle

Our first activity was Quadricycling (ATV). We spent around 30 minutes riding on various locations and tracks. Ascending and descending heights, between woods, on the street, on muddy tracks… etc. It also rained for few minutes. It was fun and enjoyable and the instructor allowed me to drive fast because he said I’m a good driver. That was a good complement for someone who had never drove an ATV before!

I’ll leave you with a picture of how the view was when we were doing Quadricycling.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and lying down on the farm. The night was cold and misty and we went to bed early because we were exhausted.

Intel i7 Processor Architecture Seminar

The Intel i7 seminar was another successful even conducted by the chapter at May 18th, 2009 in building 20kh in Khaldiya. The seminar was presented by Naeem Hamami from Intel talking about the i7 architecture which was not yet released yet that time. He also talked about the market availability of the i7 processor and ended the session with Q&A and some prizes were given away at the end.

Attendance was moderate with about two scores of attendees. The feedback I received from Intel is that the computer engineering students were smart and most of the questions asked during the session were technical questions that needed a specialized engineer to answer their questions.

Entertainment Day

It’s an open day with lots of entertaining activities throughout the day at March 5th, 2009. Here’s a list of some of the activities we had:

• Playstation 3 football competition for guys
• Missing words competition
• Wii game for the gals
• Barbeque lunch
• Pottery Trappings
• Table Tennis
• Movie night with popcorn
• Live football match

Hundreds of students participated in some way to the event. The most excited activity was the pottery trappings were many gals participated. The picture on the left shows potteries that were completed.

The last activity was the movie show Bolt in building 20kh. Popcorns and soft drinks were handed out to the audience. Some students brought their families which was awesomely the first time families interacted with us.

After the movie, we handed out prizes for the winners of our activities and competitions.

I’ve got interviewed by Microsoft Feed recently and the interview is now online at Microsoft Feed. The interview is basically about my experience as a Microsoft Student Partner in Kuwait University.

By the end of November of 2008 the new board of 2009 was established. The Chair and Vice Chair position were chosen by a vote from the previous board members. It resulted on me to run as the Chairman and Mosa Alsulaimi was chosen as the Vice Chairman. All other positions were chosen by recommendation of previous board after interviewing only those whom applied for the board. We’ve ended up with the following board members:

Kuwait University ACM Student Chapter Board of 2009

Chairman: Saleh Alsaffar

Vice Chairman: Mosa Alsulaimi

Treasurer: Ali AlSahaf

Public Relation: Taleb Behbehani & Shatha Shameya

Media Coordinator: Areej Hamouda & Faye Altammar

Membership Coordinator: Mohammed Ghazall

Cultural Coordinator: Yacoub Dashti

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Mohammed Jeragh then Dr. Abdulla Mutawa

It took us time to organize ourselves and then we ended up with three events being held during the first semester.

Trip to KNPC

The plan was to do an education trip to KNPC’s I.T. department and gain more knowledge on how I.T. professionals work there. IT happened so fast and easily since a volunteer named Bader Alnaser has a relative who works there and which made it easy for us to contact them.

A very informative trip to Kuwait National Petroleum Company located in Alahmadi area.  At 12:30 we gather at the parking lot where the buses were waiting for us. Later on, at first sight, the building looks really astonishing and huge. We’ve started off with an introductory seminar about KNPC and the a quick glimpse of the I.T. infrastructure of the company that took about half an hour.

The seminar ended and there was a buffet where we had our lunch and in the same time they‘ve interviewed me for the local KNPC magazine. After we filled our stomach with tasty lunch they guided us to the upper floor where awesome servers were running in a room. They’ve divided us into three groups and showed us the aim of each server, how they are connected and lots of other information.

The going back trip was quiet and we have really enjoyed the trip. We were talking about it on the way back to the campus. Students were provided with snacks and drinks on the bus. By 3:30 we were back to the campus and the mission was a great success!

Trip to Kuwait Airways

We wanted this trip to be a technology demonstration of Kuwait Airway’s infrastructure but unfortunately they’ve decided to show us their safety measurements instead. We headed to Kuwait Airways and learned the types of planes in service and their safety which is, according to them, the reason why their tickets are expensive!

CCNA1 and 2 Courses

We provide student with an official CCNA1 courses almost every year but this time we added CCNA2 courses to satisfy the growing number of CCNA1 graduates. This is an official course from Cisco and has been introduced to Kuwait University by Dr. Fawaz Alenezi. The course costs only 30KD to 40KD which is cheap compare to the original price of 150KD. Of course, this course is only for Kuwait University students and staff.

Around 50 students were registered for the CCNA1 and 13 students for the CCNA2. First class kicked off by the Winter vacation of February 2, 2009. The course ended with the final exams being held by March 15, 2009 and all students who passed the CCNA1 and CCNA2 exams had their certificates printed and signed by Cisco.

There is no doubt in my mind that 2009 was one of the best years of my life. Not only was I a chairman in the ACM Student Chapter, I was also a Microsoft Student Partner, Adobe Student Representative for Rich Internet Application, Sun OSUM Leader and I also held the Vice President position of the DotNet Club. I’m going to start writing a series of post talking about the student club and our activities and by that I hope what we have done will still remain in the memory of students and in a tiny dot in the massive world wide web. For whom you may ask? For whomever is interested in whatever happens in KU or might find useful information

The History of Computer Engineering Societies

The ACM Student Chapter of Kuwait University is officially known as CpES, the Computer Engineering Societies, and we are the only student club for the Computer Engineering department of Faculty of Engineering and Petroleum. The society was founded in 1993 under the supervision of Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed with 6 board members but unfortunately, the chapter was engaged for only one semester because all members were at their senior year. I do not have any picture or publication that were published during that time nor that I have any more information about the members.

ACM is the world largest and oldest educational and scientific computing society founded in 1947 and serves all professionals and students in the field of Information Technology.

The chapter remained idle until 2000 and they managed pull one successful activity which is a trip to the Scientific Center of Kuwait to reestablish the chapter. The students who were involved were: Mohammed Al-Kanderi, Mai Al-Sharhan, Abdullah Al-Bloshy, Othman Al-Failakawi and Basma Al-Jenae.

The chapter went idle, again, until September 2001 were five officers (board membes) arise to lead the chapter. Those students were: Bashar Al-Finaini (Chair), Bashayer Al-Awad (Vice Chair), Nada Shishter (Treasurer), Ahmad Al-Qaoud (Secretary), Deena Rabee (Media Coordinator) and Dalal Hasan (Cultural Coordinator). The chapter during that time was under the supervision of Dr. Amar Al-Hosaini, and according to what I have found in the chapter’s achieves that during that time the chapter registered officially as an ACM chapter. I’m not sure if that indicates that the chapter wasn’t officially registered post 2001.

Their first event which was called "Computer Engineering Student Week of Information Technology" and followed by series of ‘special’ events according to the archives.

By Spring 2002-2003, there were seven officers and 50 members under the supervision of Dr. Hamed Alazmi. Two new positions were integrated to the board which were the Chapter Coordinator and the Webmaster. The officers were: Bashayer Al-Awad (Chair), Ahmad Al-Qaoud (Vice Chair), Dalal Hasan (Cultural Coordinator), Nada Shishter (Webmaster), Abdulla Al-Meer (Secretary), Abdulla Al-Qitifi (Media Coordinator), Mohammed Al-Meer (Chapter Coordinator) & Motlaq Al-Rahely (Treasurer).

And through the years, new positions were added and revoked and board members were changing constantly as follows:

Fall 2003-2004: Dr. Mohammed Al-Failakawi (Faculty Supervisor).

Spring 2003-2004: Bashayer Al-Awad (Chair), Ahmad Al-Qaoud (Vice Chair), Dalal Hasan (Cultural Coordinator), Abdulla Al-Meer (Secretary), Mai Al-Shayee (Treasurer), Abdulla Al-Qitifi (Media Coordinator), Anfal Meshari (Webmaster), Ahmad Al-Furaih (Chapter Coordinator), Mariam Bishara (Chapter Coordinator), Sadiq Torabi (Membership Coordinator) & Asmaa Al-Najem (Membership Coordinator).

Fall 2004-2005: Hamad Al-Ghemlas (Chair), Abdilhadi Jeragh (Treasurer), Maryam Bisharah (Secretary). (I can’t find anything more about this period so I don’t know the rest of the officers)

Fall 2005-2006:  Abdilhadi Jeragh (Chair), Hamad Alghemlas (Vice Chair), Malek Alrabea (Media Coordinator), Hesa Albalol (Cultural Coordinator), Yousif Alzanki (Secretary), Hisham Farahat (Treasurer), Majed Bassam (Webmaster), Huwai Aljurais (Public Relation), Asma Alosaimi (Membership Coordinator), Dr Mohammed AlFailakawi (Faculty Supervisor).

2007: Malek Al-Rabeea (Chair), Hessa Al-Baloul (Vice Chair), Bader Al-Khazi (Media Coordinator), Asma Al-Osaimi (Secretary), Ahmad Ashkanani (Treasurer), Bashayer Alarbeed (Membership Coordinator), Hamad Al-Meer (Public Relation), Duha Shubai (Cultural Coordinator), Amir Ahmed (Webmaster), Nosayba Abubakr (Cultural Coordinator), Omaima Al-Osaimi (W.E. Coordinator), Dr Fawaz Alenezi (Faculty Supervisor)

2008: Hamad Almeer (Chair), Abdulla Taha (Vice Chair), Taleb Behbehani (Treasurer), Mosa Alsulaimi (Public Relation), Ali Alsaffar (Media Coordinator), Ali Alsahaf (Cultural Coordinator), Dana Khalid (Membership Coordinator and WIE), Saleh Alsaffar [me] (Webmaster), Saad Alwatyan (Secretary), Dr Mohammed Al-Failakawi (Faculty Supervisor) then followed by Dr Mohammed Jeragh (also Faculty Supervisor). Total chapter members 115.

2009: Saleh Alsaffar [me] (Chair), Mosa Alsulaimi (Vice Chair), Ali Alsahaf (Treasurer), Taleb Behbehani (Public Relation), Shatha Shameya (Public Relation), Areej Hamouda (Media Coordinator), Faye Altammar (Media Coordinator, dropped by mid-term), Mohammed Ghazal (Membership Coordinator), Yacoub Dashti (Cultural Coordinator), Majed Alqabandi (Webmaster, dropped after first event), Dr Mohammed Jeragh (Faculty Supervisor) then followed by Dr. Abdulla Almutawa (Faculty Supervisor). During that term we had an outstanding 264 members within 3 months of registration.

2010: Majed Alqabandi (Chair), Mansi Elenezi (Vice Chair), Mohammed Rajab (Secretary), Mishari Alomran (Treasurer), Bader Alnaser (Public Relation), Fatema Abdulkareem (Public Relation), Mahmood Shaban (Media Coordinator), Sara Fahad (Cultural Coordinator), Shefa’a Ahmad (Membership Coordinator), Hussain Buhamad (Webmaster), Dr Abdulla Almutawa (Faculty Supervisor).

Activities

I’m going to list all events we have done during the 2008 and the 2009 terms. I don’t have the list of all events before the 2008 period. I’m going to update the post when I have the full list of activities that have been done before the 2008 term.

2008 Events

1. Notes and files handout day
2. Web design tutorial
3. CCNA1 and 2 courses
4. Global Awareness seminar
5. Trip to Wataniya servers in the Liberation Tower
6. Trip to Ministry of Communication in Liberation Tower
7. Graduating Adivising Sessions with CpE Department
8. cPanel workshop
9. Open Day at KSE
10.   HTML Workshop
11.   Javascript Workshop
12.   Informatics Day 2008
13.   Islamic Day Seminar
14.   Trip to Kuwait’s smartest building: Permanent headquarters of the Arab organizations
15.   Web design workshop
16.   Distribution of the Year Book.

2009 Events

1. Trip to KNPC
2. Programming contest
3. Intel i7 Processor Architecture seminar
4. cPanel session (twice)
5. CCNA1 and 2 courses
6. Entertainment Day
7. Trip to Kuwait Airways
8.   Petroleum company session
9. Ramadan Open Day with KSE
10. Session with freshmen in association with the CpE department
11. Alternate Energy conference
12.   Java Beginners session
13.   Java Intermediate session
14.   Informatics Day 2009
15.   Installation Festival
16.   Java Advanced session

So I have listed the events during the 2008 and the 2009 periods. Of course we did have some other activities we have done like handouts and participating in CpE department events.Coming up a blog post with details about each event.

I watched this video on Channel8 and I figured out to write what I have learned from Imagine Cup 2008 Gulf region contest which was held in Jebel Ali resort, Dubai. I might even wind up being glad that I have failed! Failure is the first step to success.

For those who does know what is Imagine Cup, it is an annual competition from Microsoft aimed to solve world’s toughest challenges by using technology. Software Design is one of the categories in this competition. We have to use .NET technologies for this year’s theme, which is the environment.

Lessons learned from Imagine Cup 2008:

1- Don’t wait until the last 2 nights!

That’s my first mistake. We haven’t done the video nor practiced well for the presentation. Never ever delay anything until the last two days before the presentation. You will not have time to do anything because you’ll be totally booked for all the trips and events happening the day before the contest.

2- Eat well! But not much…

I was shocked when I woke up just 1:30 hour before the presentation. I had to jump off the bed and rush to get ready. There was no time at all to eat breakfast. But I could at least eat a 1 minute snack!

3- Bring business card

We met lots of people there from different countries and different universities. We also met a lot of people from the press and Microsoft. I think if we brought a business card it would make life easier to keep in touch with some of those individuals.

4- Be prepared

Always be prepared and have a backup plan! I had everything prepared before the presentation and I even hibernated my laptop rather than totally shutting it down just to make sure it will directly open  with my slides ready on the screen. But after going on the stage my laptop’s touch pad suddenly – and for the first time – stop responding. I was like "Hell no! It never happened to me before… why now?!". Damn it was a funny situation in front the camera and a hall full of audience.

5- More practice

The more practice you do the less mistakes you’ll make. I was shitty nervous in the stage. I was even shaking and I felt totally blocked out. It was like I can’t see anything, my vision was blocked… saying wrong words and grammar because I was extremely nervous. However, after the presentation my friend told me that I did very well and it was like one of the best presentations in the contest and he told me that I didn’t look nervous at all. To be honest, we did our practice just the night before the presentation from 12:30am to like 2:30am. I’m sure if we had practiced days before the contest, we would do much better in the contest’s presentation.

6- Video!

Every team has used videos in their presentation. We were the only team started the presentation without any video clips. You asking why? It’s because we didn’t have the time to do it and we ended up deciding to do it the day before the contest which again was a big mistake. Video is an essential part of the presentation to deliver your idea in another way and to convince judges. After all, we are marketing our idea and there is no limitation on what you should do when marketing your product.

7- Demo!

Believe it or not, we didn’t have a running program for the contest. Even though it is not required to have a running program in the regional contest, but it would be a big plus for our team. A program demonstration will show judges how far you’ve reached in developing the program and it is really a proof that your idea is implement and your software is working.

8- Sleep well…

Oh this is the thing which I’m not really good at. I rarely sleep well and I occasionally don’t care if I slept well or not. Guess what! I slept only 4 hours before the presentation… and maybe it is one of the factors that affected my mood in the presentation.

9- It’s not how good your project as much as how to deliver it to judges

We had a great and easy to implement idea. But the problem – in my opinion – was we weren’t able to convince the judges. I think they didn’t totally understand the concept behind our project and how easy it is to implement. After all, they did told us that their main focus was on selecting the idea which is good and easy to implement. Convincing is the keyword in this regional contest.

10- Marketing skills is much more important than a working application

I also learned that the presentation and communication is much important than showing them a working demo of the project. The regional Imagine Cup contest wasn’t aimed to show a demonstration of your project, it is aimed to communicate with judges and to convince them that you have the best idea and the easiest to implement. If you convinced them and won the regional, then you’ll move a step ahead and start implementing your project for the finals.

I think we, Super Coders team, did pretty well in the competition even though it was the first time for a team from Kuwait University and Kuwait to participate in this contest. Winning an XBox 360 Arcade at least it won’t let me feel I left Dubai empty handed.

My goal for Imagine Cup 2009 is to win the regional and win the final. Microsoft told us that next year (2009) will have a local competition rather than regional Gulf competition. The winner in Kuwait for Imagine Cup 2009 will go directly to the final contest.

I’d like to thank Dr. Thalaya Al-Fozan – our team coach, Kuwait University – Dr. Mohammad Ilyas – Gulf University for Science and Technology – for his effort and precious time he gave us on our project. Thanks to Microsoft and Lana Khalaf for their effort on making this great event. I really had fun there in Dubai.

Imagine Cup Gulf – Software Design category – regional final is set to start next week on 10th of May in Dubai. Six teams of many teams in the Arabia Gulf region have been nominated for the regional contest.

Here is the contest agenda as received by email from Microsoft:

Under extreme stress and lack of sleep I tried to squeeze my schedule to write this post. I haven’t written anything for some time now on this blog because I’m so busy nowadays. Let’s start off with, what the hell I’m doing?

1- Midterms and school work.

2- Getting ready for Imagine Cup.

3- Working on a research project.

4- Setting up Informatics Day event.

5- Following up CpE Socieities and the magazine.

6- .Net Programming Club.

7- Cisco Course is killing me.

1. School Works

Okay I’m enrolled in 15 credits classes and it is killing me. I had just done a midterm and there are 3 on the way which are in Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. Most of those classes are difficult subjects and takes time to study not to mention all the projects we are assigned to do. Next week alone I have to submit 2 projects… damn.

2. Imagine Cup

About a week left for the trip of the regional contest in Dubai. We still have lots of stuff to do and unfortunately those things would take DAYS to get them done and we have to do it in few hours. Our presentation will be in 11th of May and we have to get everything sorted out at least 2 days before. It’s now 1st of May… Do you think we can still do that? We still have to finish our speech, presentation slides, the freaking video that takes forever to edit, and we still have a lot to do in the programming part. Holy smokes!

3. Research Project

I have been working on it for a year, the final day to send the paper is today, however, my mentor and instructor Dr. Maitham was able to extend the due date. We are like 99% done, we just need to finalize some stuff. I’ll be happy to see that paper published.

4. Informatics Day

Yep, the most anticipated day for Computer Engineering department in the college. I’m organizing it alone, and I think it is fair to say that I’m receiving only little help from some board members of the society, heck some are even complaining about me and I’m really disappointed. It will be the biggest event ever organized by the society and I was able to make it unofficially an open day for the department. I’m glad now we have an open sponsorship from Kuwait Society of Engineers. I invited Microsoft to do 3 workshops for that event; however, I’m really disappointed with their sponsorship. I was expecting much more from them.

5. CpE Societies

We did great events this year and people are happy with our accomplishment in such small period. We still have few events planning to do and I have to make sure that the next 3 tutorial will happen in a 3 week window.

We are also printing a new magazine and it is currently in the print shop. I had to submit few new articles and follow up the design process of the magazine in the print shop. Of course I can’t follow it up much because I’m so busy but other board members are doing that too which really, really, truly reliefs me a lot.

6. dot Net Club

I don’t know if you ever heard of it because it is a new club in the university. I’ve been appointed in Technology position and soon Vice President. We haven’t done anything yet so far…

7. Cisco CCNA-2

This class has huge material that should be covered in less than a 20 days. Online exams should also be taken which is a big time waster.

Pardon me for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I’m writing this post in haste.

I never ever witnessed such a storm in Kuwait! Watch until the end of the video and you’ll be shocked. It happened last Friday! Watch the video:

Me and my teammate are suppose go out that night and take some video shots of pollution in our environment for the Imagine Cup competition. Well, it came right on us like hell. Shit, I never imagine something like this can hit Kuwait! So I picked up the phone and called my teammate to take a video shot.

Mother nature is pissed! What have we done? What have we done! Climate change is affecting the whole world, even here in Kuwait.

This storm lasted for like 10min but lots of damage left behind. Next year, maybe a freaking tsunami hurricane or maybe volcano! Who knows! Shit happens when it is unexpected.

More videos of the storm can be found here.

Dr. Craig R. Barret, Intel’s CEO, has visited Kuwait University last Thursday April 10th, 2008. He was hosted in a Q&A session arranged by CS Club and Computer Science Department in Kuwait University.

In his talk he focused in how to establish a good education system that can be compared to education systems around the world, not only in the Middle-East. Three characteristics have to be available to create an excellent education system which are: smart people, smart ideas, and good universities to provide a good environment for smart people to look for smart ideas.

Smart ideas can be found when doing basic researches, not in developing ideas. Companies like Intel spends millions of dollars in developing, however, Intel cooperates with universities to conduct basic researches. Stanford University in Silicon Valley is a good example of a university that spends millions in basic research. Intel spends 6 billion dollars in research yearly, but only 200 million in basic research.

We do not need a huge research budget to create a good idea, what we need is passion, training, and good universities.

Dr. Craig Barret will continue his trip to visiting Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi. His goal on the trip is to see what’s happening in the ground with his own eyes and visit some technology professionals in universities in the Middle-East.

The session was so informative, and I am so happy to attend it. I also have to say that not even 1 instructor from our department, computer engineering, was there, how pathetic! That’s not like it wasn’t expected. However, a faculty member from electrical engineering has been sighted there!

I’m also glad that some of my friends had shown up.