There have been early indicators that
Muhammad Hamza Ihtisham was born to excel in engineering or pc science, however household custom initially steered him towards a profession in medication. Ihtisham’s mom and different members of the family have been medical professionals. His father is a businessman.
Though his father had dreamed of getting a son within the engineering area, it was assumed that Ihtisham would change into a health care provider. And he nearly did. However when he didn’t go the medical qualifying exams in highschool, he noticed it as an indication to modify professions.
Muhammad Hamza Ihtisham
Employer:
Jazz in Lahore, Pakistan
Title:
Community expertise specialist in radio
Member grade:
IEEE member
Alma mater:
College of the Punjab
“I requested my dad and mom and my principal for permission to modify my focus from medication to pc science,” he says. Though the change took impact solely three months earlier than he needed to take exams, he scored excessive sufficient to position third among the many pc science college students at his faculty. He has by no means seemed again.
Ihtisham is now a community expertise specialist in radio on the largest telecommunications supplier in Pakistan:
Lahore-based Jazz. Ihtisham displays, supervises, and troubleshoots nationwide wi-fi networks and is a crew participant who implements sensible techniques and AI-based options to optimize community efficiency.
“We’re working with 2G, 3G, and 4G community supervision,” he says, “and we’re additionally evolving for 5G and optical fiber networks.”
Muhammad Hamza Ihtisham chats with 2018 IEEE President Jim Jefferies.Muhammad Hamza Ihtisham
Early proof of STEM affinity
Ihtisham didn’t want a lot encouragement to change into an engineer, he says, including that he all the time has needed to work with know-how.
When he was younger, his father purchased him a pc with a Pentium II CPU “at a time when there have been only a few computer systems in my city,” he says.
Ihtisham’s curiosity led him to dismantle and discover its elements, fostering a deeper curiosity in know-how.
“I destroyed many motherboards and processors after I pulled them out of the pc to see how they labored,” he says. It was a part of his innate tendency to unravel how issues labored. “I nonetheless have that spark in me, that interior little one who needs to open issues up and examine how they work.”
He earned a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering with a specialization in telecommunications from the
College of the Punjab in 2018. He returned to pursue a grasp’s diploma in industrial engineering and administration—which he obtained in 2022.
Because of his IEEE connections, Ihtisham secured his place at Jazz even earlier than getting his bachelor’s diploma. Because the college’s IEEE pupil department chair, Ihtisham invited an engineer from Jazz to talk to college students on campus. When Ihtisham later confirmed up on the firm for a job interview, that very same engineer was the division head and instantly acknowledged him.
Since his school days, Ihtisham has poured time and power into giving again to the occupation by means of participation in IEEE. He based his faculty’s pupil chapter and as we speak serves as chair of the
IEEE Lahore Part’s Younger Professionals group. He’s additionally the deputy lead of the worldwide technical and operation committee of the IEEE Younger Professionals mentoring program, which connects specialists with mentees to assist them be taught and additional their profession.
Lively IEEE pupil chief
Ihtisham entered school considering he would change into a pc scientist, however earlier than lengthy he grew to become satisfied that his true ardour lay in engineering. Noticing a niche in pupil actions throughout the faculty’s EE division, he joined IEEE in his third semester.
Though the college was greater than 150 years outdated, electrical engineering was a comparatively new course of examine there.
“My graduating class had solely the tenth cohort of graduates to earn that diploma from the college,” he says.
As founding father of the college’s IEEE pupil department, Ihtisham set about including actions and alternatives for would-be engineers that he felt have been lacking. He was the department’s first chair, organizing actions, boosting membership, and overseeing initiatives that impacted his college and the broader
IEEE Lahore Part. He was then appointed a pupil consultant for the part.
“That was a turning level for me,” he says.
He initially began volunteering with IEEE for a practical goal that served your entire engineering pupil physique, he says, however as he settled into his new management roles, volunteering grew to become a supply of non-public achievement and growth.
“Once I began my IEEE journey, I used to be not ready. However I labored on my management, my habits, and enhancing my mushy expertise. So, you possibly can say my involvement with IEEE has remodeled my persona and served as management coaching.”
For his efforts, he has been acknowledged with a number of awards together with the IEEE Lahore Part’s 2018 Excellent Volunteer for organizing pupil actions and conferences.
“Once I began my IEEE journey, I used to be not properly groomed,” Ihistham says. “However I labored on my management, my habits, and enhancing my mushy expertise. So, you possibly can say my involvement with IEEE has remodeled my persona and served as management coaching.”
The communications and negotiating expertise he picked up by networking with IEEE members throughout the globe have benefited him at Jazz, he says.
His dedication to IEEE didn’t finish along with his pupil years. At the moment his roles contain mentoring, networking, and main initiatives to foster progress and collaboration within the engineering group.
Now his management expertise assist him handle and encourage different volunteers and mentor engineering college students. He obtained the 2021
IEEE MGA Younger Professionals Achievement Award for organizing YP actions and the 2021 IEEE IAS Younger Member Service Award for just about participating IEEE Business Functions Society members through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recommendation for aspiring engineers
To college students contemplating a profession in electrical engineering, Ihtisham emphasizes the significance of discovering the appropriate mentors and embracing open-source collaboration. He advises discussing concepts with specialists to realize beneficial insights and foster modern considering.
His success story underscores the worth of mentorship, steady studying, and group engagement. Whereas he was in graduate faculty working towards his grasp’s diploma, he started doing analysis to develop an efficient and dependable
brain-computer interface. He talked with the medical professionals in his household for details about how the mind works however then discovered himself at an deadlock as a result of there weren’t sufficient datasets in Pakistan for coaching his machine-learning software program.
He reached out to the IEEE group and located a mentor for the mission on the
College of New South Wales in Sydney. Their collaboration was fruitful sufficient that Ihtisham was invited to current a TEDx speak on what he had realized about dependancy and neurofeedback.
Primarily based on that mission, he took dwelling third prize within the IEEE IAS Chapters and Membership Division
Zucker Undergraduate Pupil Design Contest in 2019.
Ihtisham’s journey with IEEE exemplifies the affect of dedication, mentorship, and continued studying on constructing an attention-grabbing and profitable engineering profession.
“My success is having an affect on my youthful cousins,” he says. “In the event that they need to pursue a profession in engineering or one other STEM area, they’ve somebody within the household who can information them.”
