Devncode ; A new chapter of AI in Karachi

DEVNCODE’S Meetup IV Resulted in a crowded auditorium , leaving no room for people to stand.

The event kicked off in Karachi, Pakistan on December 9th at The Nest I/O.

Devncode arranges monthly meetups on different aspects of Technology like Swift Programming and Artificial Intelligence. Seeing the need of the meetups that can inculcate a stream of knowledge in Karachi’s tech community, devncode was launched to arrange meetups and deliver rich content through the different mediums of tech talks, live coding demos, and networking sessions for a diverse audience of techies.

This event started with a keynote by Kamran Qadri, CEO at Stack Innovationsand Founder Devncode. Kamran boosted the audience with his story of how he turned from working into textile Industry in Karachi to the tech industry and how during this transforming journey he saw a need for a platform that can foster other communities around.

“devncode’s mission is to help foster the failing communities around us and also to provide a platform for new tech-speakers and mentors.”

Kamran’s session was followed by Hamza Farooq. Data Scientist at Walmart Labs in California, Hamza’s talk revolved around the topic “A day in the life of data scientist,” where Hamza spoke about his experiences as a data scientist at Walmart. Hamza spoke about how his team used Raspberry Pi’s to collect data about a specific product at Walmart, so that it can be determined when the stack for that product should be refilled.

The talks continued with Zia Khan motivating the audience with his well-built argument about why AI should be adopted. Zia’s witty session concluded on a keynote that Pakistan’s technology sector suffers due to lack of women in this sector, and the same topic was carried on by the host Hira Saeed to explain her own experiences. Followed by this Ahsan Ayaz, Web Developer at Modus Create, shared the path he is following from being a developer to data scientist and Mesum Raza shared his journey of founding Karachi.AI. These talks were followed by a Networking session(Freee Fooood!!) where snacks were offered by devncode and it provided an opportunity for the audience to connect with each other.

After business cards were exchanged and speakers answered the queries of the audience, Anas Ayubi founder of Pakistan.AI shared his views on the topic “Is the AI hype real?” This was followed by Muhammad Faizan Khan from 10Pearls who shared his enthusiasm about chatbots and advancement in human computer interactions using deep learning. The event was concluded by Case Studies of data science by Meesum Raza and Umair Hanif. Mesum and Umair explored the world of Data Cleaning for the audience and explained data science using real world examples they have previously worked on like Insurance Agencies.

The event was engaging for the audience as we saw a minimal decrease in the number of attendees after snacks, which is quite rare. The diversity of the tech talks included everything ranging from AI myth busters to the way data is useful in our daily lives. As one of the attendees said

“I was particularly attracted by the examples of how AI can be used in treating patients. Overall this was a really good event for me to learn about the practical implications of Artificial Intelligence.”

While this event resulted in a jam packed room at the Nest I/O, the number of registrations and attendees surpassed all the previous events devncode had arranged. This was a clear depiction of a success in devncode’s mission, which can be further translated to a turnover of almost 100% and yes some unregistered attendees too.

We are proud of team devncode who contributed to the success of this event, specially the event manager Tehseen Ahmed. Team members other than meinclude: Ahmed Raza, Ahsan Ayaz, Usama Ejaz, Saad Abbasi, Ishaq Hassan, Haider Ali, Taimoor Saeed, and Mashood Rastgar.

DEVNCODE was founded in August 2017 and we are proud to have an exponential success in this journey. Reach us on our facebook page for our next grand event about Android and Kotlin.