SOFTEC

SOFTware Exhibition and Competition (SOFTEC)

Type	Student Organization
Headquarters	Lahore
Website	http://www.softecnu.org/

SOFTEC, the Software Exhibition and Competition, is an annual event held at National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences Lahore, Pakistan. The event contributes towards the advancement of technology and research in Pakistan’s IT industry. The event provides a platform recognizing talent, a forum for exchange of ideas and an opportunity for students with a passion in IT to interact with professionals from all over the globe. It is the largest IT extravaganza of Pakistan ^[1]

History

SOFTEC started with a single competition in 1995. SOFTEC organized an All Asia event in 2005. SOFTEC 2006 brought participants from as far away as Nepal. SOFTEC 2007 brought students from the Middle Eastern countries such as Iran. Today SOFTEC runs nearly a dozen competitions and exhibitions. Participants in the competitions come from as far away as India, Iran, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, UK, United States, and Australia.

SOFTEC Society

SOFTEC Society, the organizing body of the annual SOFTEC event, is the largest student society of FAST-NU.^[2] It's establishment by a group of students of the FAST-NU Lahore campus came in 1995. In addition to the SOFTEC Society team, a large percentage of the student body of the Lahore campus work as volunteers to create the event.

SOFTEC-IER

Each year, the competitions at SOFTEC receive participation from students belonging to 100+ institutions all over Pakistan where individual teams compete and earn their reward, bringing their institutions into the limelight. It is a moment of glory for any institution to have their students achieve at such a large and renowned platform. With this in mind, SOFTEC ’16 introduces the idea of SOFTEC-IER – the title that will be rewarded to the university declared the overall winner at the event. It’s all about escalating the excitement and competitive nature of the event, bringing all the universities of Pakistan head to head in a healthy challenging atmosphere, and giving students the chance to compete in a collective spirit to be their institution’s pride. May the best university be entitled SOFTEC-IER 2016!^[3]

Competitions

Software Competition

The Software Competition was the very first event included in the roster of SOFTEC, in its advent in 1995. It has become the core around which the entire SOFTEC event is now arranged. This competition brings together students from across the world to display their software projects for formal judging by a team of experts, providing participants with valuable feedback and experience of real-world evaluation benchmarks. Not only is this a source of erudition for the participants, but visitors to the exhibition are more often than not students seeking projects with the potential for future development, or even I.T. industry professionals looking for promising talent among the participants.^[4]

Engineering project Competition

For too long the hardware engineering aspects of I.T. work in Pakistan had been merely an afterthought in professional competitions. With the intentions of changing this attitude, the Engineering Project Competition, a highly anticipated event was launched for the first time during SOFTEC 2007. The exceedingly ambitious hardware-based projects submitted to the software competition in recent years, as well as our institute’s steps into the hardware engineering education arena prompted us to initiate this competition exclusively for engineering projects of undergraduate students. The evaluation of entries will follow the same pattern as that of the software competition, with participants’ entries undergoing three rounds of analysis by a panel of expert judges.^[5]

Belal Hashmi Programming Competition

The Programming Competition (formerly the Dynamic Programming Competition) is a challenging arena, attracting bright and sharp minds from all over Asia. Programming under timed conditions tests the skills and grit of the participants involved to the limit. SOFTEC 2016 will provide local participants the opportunity to match their skills with a much wider field of competitors than otherwise available. The international event will gear the participants to perform under pressure and give them an insight as to where they stand in comparison with their counterparts from countries throughout the world. The competition is structured to test participants in the arena of speed programming – coming up with a solution to a complex question in limited time.

The Programming Competition has traditionally been the most crucial and electrifying event at SOFTEC, mainly due to its highly competitive and challenging nature, as well as the extraordinary skills shown each year by a diverse pool of talented programmers. It is a unique opportunity for students to match wits with the very best and brightest minds from across the region.^[6]

Gaming Competition

The profession of gaming is rapidly gaining ground in Pakistan. No longer is the activity relegated to the fringes of the I.T. industry; it is now recognised as a lucrative career choice in its own right. The gaming competition also draws intense interest from spectators. Spectator arenas are set up to allow people to watch the progress of tournaments. The palpable excitement around these arenas attracts multitudes of curious visitors besides those coming specifically to watch, making the gaming competition one of the most eagerly followed competitions of SOFTEC. ^[7]

RoboRumble

Get ready to witness the rise of machines and be enthralled by the steel against steel as SOFTEC introduces the cyber matchups which will see robots take on robots in Robo Rumble. This competition provides an innovative opportunity for tech and hardware lovers to give identity and life to their creations and translates a passion of morphing into reality. We will provide the Coliseum, we will provide the cheering-mad crowd and the tech wizards will provide the machines.^[8]

Ideas Xtreme

IdeasXtreme creates a forum for school-going children to show their ideas of the uses of IT in the future. Students are required to come up with wild, speculative ideas concerning novel applications of IT in the future, demonstrating their ideas via a chart or physical model. Winners are selected on the basis of how thoroughly thought out, beneficial, and inventive their ideas are.^[9]

Web Development Competition

Different teams from renowned institutes participate to test their web development skills against a broader and tougher spectrum of students and get to know the most recent developments in the field by the experts. Competing with the tough and challenging opponents will not only provide you a fruitful experience but will also help you to analyse in depth, your weaknesses and strengths, helping you out later in your career. So if you don’t want to miss the thrill, sign up and experience the stimulating atmosphere.^[10]

Graphic Designing Competition

Dreamers are mocked as impractical. The truth is that they are the most practical of us all. Can you portray your inner dreamer into a poster? If yes, then this competition is all for you. Come to SOFTEC’s Graphic Designing Competition and compete with fellow dreamers.^[11]

Exhibitions

Software Exhibition

This exhibition brings together students from across the world to display their software projects for formal judging by a team of experts, providing participants with valuable feedback and experience of real-world evaluation benchmarks. Visitors to the exhibition are more often than not students seeking projects with the potential for future development.^[12]

Engineering Project Exhibition

The exceedingly ambitious hardware-based projects submitted to the software competition in recent years, as well as our institute’s steps into the hardware engineering education arena prompted us to initiate this competition exclusively for engineering projects of undergraduate students.^[13]

Software House Enclosure

SOFTEC is a unique opportunity for software houses to display their products to an enormous number of visitors, as well as look for recruits among the promising students of universities across Asia. This enclosure houses displays from a variety of software houses. A live rendering of the products assists in appreciating the talents at display. This enclosure also serves as an opportunity for students to get acquainted with their future employers.^[14]

I.T. Conferences

One of the major highlights at SOFTEC each year are the I.T. Conferences organized by the team. Impactful personalities of the I.T. field are invited to speak regarding a particular theme at the conferences to inspire and guide the participating students to their success by sharing their experiences.^[15]

The conferences halls witness some of the biggest crowds as they eager to be a part of informational, inspirational, fun and lively conferences.

Entertainment Eve

To neutralize the intensity of the competitions and exhibitions, SOFTEC organises an entertainment evening comprising musical performances by bands.

SOFTEC 2017 Team

Executive Body

Volunteering members

SOFTEC comprises a culture of students coming together for a cause, working towards event success. Students start by volunteering at the departments they choose to be a part of, to be then elected as members of the Society based on volunteer experience. A president along with an executive team is chosen from the student body each year to organize the event. They further delegate tasks among the remaining society members.

In addition to the SOFTEC Society team, a large percentage of the student body of the Lahore campus works as volunteers to help the event. In every SOFTEC, volunteers from the student body are numbered in excess of 2000, out of a campus population of approximately 4000-5,000.

Major sponsors

• PTCL (2008)
• Wi-Tribe (2011)
• Red Math (2012)
• Netsol Ebryx GameView Studios NorthBay Solutions (2013)
• Red Math (2014)
• i2c MindStorm Studios VentureDive Ebryx (2015)
• NextBridge(NextRobotics) Telenor QBXNet Game Storm Studios Modemetric Inov8 (2016)

See also

• National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES)
• Association for Computing Machinery

External links

• Official website of SOFTEC
• The Biggest I.T. Event of Pakistan

References

Information Technology Contests Software Industry Education