Regarding final year project policies:

With extreme respect, owing to your precious time, without any long prologue,
I would say directly that I want to draw your attention towards a serious issue
concerning Final Year Project Policies.
Sir, our final year project is necessitated to provide a CAD model,
simulation, a prototype & a group not greater than 3 members. It's
mandatory for us to present final year project having all above listed qualities.
Sir I want to say and prove that despite being a very good industrial and fully
mechanical project, not every project meets these three criteria set by
department.
Sir I request you to please read it thoroughly:
In pursuing a good final year project, we visited Dr Liaquat who gave us three
ideas, all being industrial projects:First project was related to the automation of casting process. It takes about
30 minutes (according to Dr Liaquat) in the Pakistani industry just to align the
mold according to the ladle. This was basically an MS Project despite being
very very beneficial to the Pakistani industry, we could not go for it just
because there was a major role of image processing and we could not fulfil
the criteria of simulation.
Second project was akin to CNC calibration. Usually special teams of
instrument engineers are called from abroad for the task of calibration of CNC
machine and it costs approximately 25 lakh for a Pakistani industry. Dr Liaquat
wanted us to make calibration software for the CNC machine incorporating a
simple GUI based on Microsoft Visual Basic. According to him CNC calibration
software is considered a very good FYP in the foreign universities at UG level.
This was excellent project, very beneficial to the Pakistani industry but again it
was all programming based & so it did not fulfil the criteria of modelling,
prototype and simulation even though being a very good mechanical project
we had to reject it.
Third project was associated with composite materials, it was design and
fabrication of a composite filament winding machine for winding of variable
diameter pipes. This was a huge mechanical project and more specifically it
was an MS Project. Because sir were trying to start research on composite
materials in SMME. He required a composite winding machine whose cost
was 10 million so he required us to make a simple version of composite
filament winding machine. Being an intricate project, according to sir it
required a team of at least 7 or 8 members but when he came to know about
the FYP policies, he reduced the number to 4. At the time of presentation
regarding FYP proposal, the department fustigated harshly and what Sir
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Adnan and Sir Usman said was ridiculous. They said your project is very
good, its too complex and it cant be completed in the required time, they
heavily criticized over matter of 4 members that FYP policies do not allow this.
The solution they provided was to break the group into two parts! We placed
this matter before the respected HOD, still we didnt get the reply. So our this
FYP is going to be rejected because of the policy of three member group.
Respected Sir, you can see that despite all the projects being
exceptionally good mechanical projects, but they dont fulfil all the
policies by the department required for an FYP.
Why did not we accept the offer to break our group into 2, we can also present
its reason, the reason is very clear, we have to make a machine and 2 groups
working separately on the same machine, what happens next? You can see its
result in the multipurpose vehicle project, which was a single project broken
into many subparts. Seeming an excellent project, it turned out to be a selfdeluding self-beguiling project and the reason was only because it was broken
into many sub fyps. Im saying this, not without any reason, I myself took the
suspension part of the multipurpose vehicle as a project last year, I myself is
the witness of the problems faced by all the groups, the problem being one
group needed the calculation and it was dependent on the other group, this
problem was faced by all the groups and they ended up in doing nothing
except doing a market survey and buy whatever parts they could get, without
any selection criteria, I again say I myself was the witness of all this trouble.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now altering your attention towards another serious issue, robotics related
FYPs which face an acerbic evaluation by the faculty, their most common
question being How is this related to the mechanical engineering? Sir Im not
here to advocate the robotics department however I do want to show the
difference. We also have the right to ask, If the robotics is not related to
mechanical engineering then why in NUST and in many major universities of
the world the robotics department is under the mechanical department? Sir,
teachers usually provide us with the reason that your FYP needs to be very
good if you want a good job in the industry however according to our seniors
FYP is very very tiny portion of the interview questions and more generally
they dont even hassle to ask about our final year project and what if
someone doesnt want to do a job after bachelors, what if he wants to pursue
higher studies. To get admitted in top universities is a dream of every student
and for that research publications play a great role, in fact the impact of the
research at UG level is even greater than the effect of GPA. Research is
ongoing in the Rise Lab so:
Why not those fain to pursue higher studies go for a research-based
FYP if they want to change their field from mechanical to robotics.
Why is the robotics lab there if we are not allowed to do robotics related
projects? And more specifically, why is the robotics department under
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the firmament of SMME if robotics isnt related to mechanical (in your

opinion)?
Even if theres animosity between the robotics faculty and the
mechanical faculty (if there is any..)Its too bad way to deal with this.
There is a reason why the robotics department has surpassed all other
departments of NUST?
Sir Aamir, Sir Emad, Sir Jamal, Sir Sajid they are all CFD masters so
can I ask, Why there is not even a single wind tunnel in SMME when
the robotics department can buy NAO robots worth several million
rupees? Of course wind tunnel costs less than dozens of robots in the
rise lab.
Is there any lab in SMME which remains open even after 9:00 PM? If
one wants to work in the lab one can ask Sir Yasar and he manages to
keep RISE lab open as long as someone wants to work there, can you
find any other such lab in the mechanical department?
Is there any lab in SMME which can open on Saturdays and Sundays?
Rise lab is the one!

Respected Sir, I again say Im not here to sponsor robotics, I just want to show
you the difference, there is a difference between the one which surpasses and
the others. There is another major issue concerning the collaboration between
the departments. Robotics and Biomedical department collaborate heavily and
their projects are joint mostly. But for a mechanical department UG, its a
dream, under the vault of SMME to cooperate with Robotics department in the
form of a joint project.
Having said all that I dont find the reason why robotics related projects are so
harshly treated? So badly evaluated? When the robotics department is very
active in the field of research, so why one should not pursue a project in the
rise lab, if he wants to have a taste of Research, or if he wants to change the
field from mechanical to controls or robotics in the future? WHY NOT...
As an epilogue I want to thank U for taking time to read this. Having no idea
what to take as FYP, now I aim to do a research based project in the rise lab
as my FYP. I will be single but that still does not solve the problem because I
know department will throw questions like how your project is related to
mechanical, I know I will face acerbic treatment and I know I will face bitter
questions from the faculty throughout the evaluation period as well on the
open house!
SIR, THERE IS FLAW IN THE FINAL YEAR PROJECT POLICIES SET BY
THE DEPARTMENT, NO ONE WANTS TO BE AN INSURGENT TO THE
SYSTEM, ONLY SUCH POLICIES COMPEL ONE ON REBELLION.

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