Held on 19 September 2019 and introduced by Syed Huzaifa of grade XI; who was inspired by the ‘Halal Conference’ he attended online held in Philippines. His idea involved to make a portable device that could detect whether the food is halal or not was one of the best ones there.
All Science Conference was a chance for BLA students to come up with their own ideas to current problems. There were four committees set up to discuss the possible solutions to four problems: the cure for thalassemia, innovative garbage disposal, the problems of thar, and is time real or an illusion. The students had been working on these issues since late August, and the President of this conference; Syed Huzaifa coordinated with Miss Andaleeb and Miss Hina Sattar to organise a foolproof event of this calibre.
Aiza Jillani from grade IX was chosen as the managing director, which was surprising for most of the school as she was the youngest person on the team. “I received a lot of criticism and a lot of people’s eyes were on me as I was the youngest. Moreover, they were judging my every move but I made sure to do my best. This is the first time I am getting such a huge opportunity. People should not judge others when they get an opportunity. It polished my skills as now I know how to manage and handle an event. I got to learn a lot of things,” said Aiza presenting her thoughts on being selected on the team.
The event started with the opening ceremony where Huzaifa, being the head of the conference gave an overwhelming speech telling us all how grateful he is to all the teachers and the heads for letting his dream come true.
After the opening ceremony, the delegates and chairpersons reported to their respective committees and the conference officially started. This event turned out to be very successful despite the fact that it was a completely new thing for everyone and the students were unaware of how to act in a formal environment (seeing how most of the girls came with their hair untied and were given rubber bands to tie them up)!
“I really liked the idea of the conference and I am really proud of the delegates because they gave really good speeches with logical and realistic solutions. I really liked this idea because it was a first of its kind experience for us. So I was really glad with Huzaifa for initiating this conference!” commented Hassan, chairperson of The Cure of Thalassemia committee.
“When I first heard about this, I thought it was very far-fetched but then I thought why can it not happen? We should commence with the idea because something that starts eventually becomes a greater reality, but I certainly hadn’t realized that it would turn out to be such a great success!” discussed Miss Andaleeb, one of the lead teachers who were helping in the event organization. “When I first heard about this, I thought it’s going to be a big flop but it turned out to be quite the opposite,” remarked Hunain Abbas, the chairperson of Problems of Thar.
However some students were nervous as they hadn’t come prepared with their reports and though the conference had been a success, there still had been some disappointing behavior of the students. As Bisma Imran, chairperson of innovative wastage disposal complained, “The delegates lacked confidence and many of them didn’t speak in English! While the code of conduct of this conference included speaking in English, but they didn’t respect that. Not everyone is perfect but you should at least try.”
“The advice I want to give to our delegates is; you should bring such ideas which are innovative, yet can be carried out by a normal person. The delegates from our committee were bringing ideas that needed a lot of capital to be spent on technology, which is realistically uneconomical, unaffordable and sumptuous for developing countries,” stated Areesha Rehman, another chairperson of the innovative Wastage Disposal committee.
This conference helped in polishing lots of skills of the participants, such as research and development. This event motivated the students to do their best, cultivating confidence in them as now they knew how to speak and act in formal conferences. ‘Research is something that scientists do and I believe that our students are the young scientist of Pakistan. One of the main aims of this conference was to emphasise on research work,” explained Huzaifa giving his reasons for introducing the conference.
“I think it was a great opportunity for students to think above their own level of thinking, by giving them a broader perspective of how science can really solve so many problems and how there are so many problems that need to be resolved,” added Adina Sohail, one of the delegates.
“I gained a lot of experiences because with experience comes knowledge. It was very informative. Mass information like this can only be acquired through large discussion panels or groups, and that’s what everyone missed before. Everything about this conference was the best,” stated Mirza Wilayat (winner of one of the best delegate awards).
“We gained knowledge regarding our topics above all other things. New tips and incentives regarding problems were learned,” spoke Habiba Bilal (winner of the best delegate award).
The delegates in the committee also proposed some good solutions for the problems. Such as:
- Regarding cures of thalassemia we learned that we could somehow redesign white blood cells to destroy the defected genes in red blood cells and then inject healthy genes using a programming language designed by MIT engineers that allowed them to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that give new functions to living cells, which is a good alternative to blood transmission.
- Regarding problems Of Thar, many delegates suggested that Solar Panels should be installed as it is an extremely arid region, so installation of solar panels would be a good option for electricity. They also suggested that underground water sources, as well as canals(from Indus River) and barrages should be made and utilized for getting water in the dessert. Furthermore, they even suggested aquaponic and aeroponic farming for getting food and shared remedies such as drinking water with chia seed which is very beneficial for health and keeps people hydrated.
- Regarding innovative garbage disposal, Yaseen (the winning delegate of this committee) presented the idea that plastics can decompose in the absence of oxygen and form an oil which can be used as bio synthesized fuel or oil, and a truck with three vacuums for different materials could be designed for cities like Karachi and Mumbai.
After the conference ended, everyone gathered in the auditorium for the closing ceremony, which was graced upon by the esteemed panels of guests: Professor Syed Ghullam Musharraf, Dr Ali Memon, and Professor Javed Iqbal. They were very impressed by the enthusiasm of the students.
“Something like this in a school is very interesting because scientific thinking at this level is very much needed for our generation. So, personally I feel very happy and proud to see such an activity at the school level. They should happen more frequently at large,” Professor Ghulam Musharraf shared excitedly. He especially wanted students to work hard towards their passion.
In the end, the chief guests were honoured with token of appreciation on behalf of BLA, winning delegates were given trophies, and the day ended with Sir Sanaullah Kazi thanking our guests for taking out their precious time for us and praising students for their diligent and industrious hard work.
