Welcome to the first edition!
Why another Newsletter?
Welcome to the first edition of Made in Pakistan where the main focus is on Technology happenings in Pakistan.
Why another newsletter?
There are many good sources to get news about tech in Pakistan, two of the most popular ones are TechJuice and ProPakistani. However since they’ve become quite big, a lot of great tech news is not covered and, bring in the commercial aspect, we miss out on more cool tech happenings. So why not share the not so newsworthy but lots of tech-worthy news through this newsletter!
The COVID situation!
It’s not possible to talk about something these days and not talk about the COVID situation. Where ever we look, whether offline or online news channels, we are being bombarded by charts and statistics about the spread of COVID. However, the focus of this newsletter is to talk about tech Made in Pakistan, and that’s what our focus will be! And of course we will start with Tech that is Made in Pakistan for dealing with the COVID situation..
Ventilators!
One of the most interesting things that has been a result of the COVID-19 virus spread in Pakistan is the coming together of tech enthusiasts to solve one of the major issues facing our country, the availability of ventilators. Since these are expensive, and generally very few in number, as the virus spreads, more and more people require them. There are many initiatives going on right now, and I know two of the teams behind these initiatives, however I’ll choose to showcase one, that is making excellent progress and showing great teamwork.
The OpenVentPk Project
The OpenVentPk project started around March 15th when a public call on social media invited like minded tech enthusiasts to design and develop a ventilator locally. Within a few days a Google spreadsheet was shared, where hundreds of volunteers singed up to provide their services for free! One of the best things about this project is that the team has decided to open source the design, which can be accessed on their Github page.
My source of information has been Muhammad Umair who has been posting regular updates on Facebook. His latest post on Tech Geeks shows update#13 (as of May 9th 2020) which includes a 3d model along with other updates! This is a very inspiring project and you can still be a part of it as the call for help is still open..(openventpk@gmail.com).
At the moment Pakistan Engineering Council is evaluating a number of such locally developed ventilators, and soon we will be seeing Made in Pakistan Ventilators In Sha Allah.
Fixing existing Ventilators
There has been another team of volunteers who have been fixing the existing broken ventilators in hospitals in Pakistan. On May 1st around 204 ventilators had been fixed by these volunteers. My source was FB updates from a friend.
Cool Products Made in Pakistan
Do you know JalBujh is a Made in Pakistan product that helps save Natural Gas usage. Designed for the Geysers that are common in Pakistan it simply plugs on top of an existing geyser and allows users to control the thermostat using an app! I’ve worked with the creator of this product and he is a great guy who has been supporting Pakistanis in tech for quite a while now! Here is a fun fact, the gas bill of a well known university in Islamabad reduced their Gas bill from around 7 million a month to 3.5 million! This is absolutely amazing!
Cool Hack of the Day!
If you have access to a DJI tello drone, code it to fly using Go language!
Be safe, stay indoors and see you in the next edition!
Disclaimer:
None of the products I’ve mentioned here is sponsored content.