WIT Summer Mentorship Program 2023

The Center for Water Informatics and Technology (WIT) has launched its Summer Mentorship Program (SMP), which enables undergraduate students to spend one month at the Centre to undertake a scientific project related to the WIT agenda.

Duration: The WIT SMP 2023 will take place from May 15, 2023 to June 15, 2023. Applications will be accepted till May 05, 2023.

Eligibility: Undergraduate students from all universities are eligible to apply. Depending on the nature of the work, students of only some specific disciplines may be asked to apply for a particular project. Details for each individual project are published prior to the call for applications. Note that while students from outside Lahore are also eligible to apply, they must arrange their own accommodation for the project duration. 

Procedure: Students apply for specific projects included in the shared project list. Student applications will be reviewed by the WIT faculty and successful applications will be informed accordingly. Each project is assigned to a mentor from the WIT staff who will supervise the student during the program. 

Compensation: Each student will receive a stipend of PKR 20,000 which will be awarded after successful completion of the program.

Project Presentation and Report: At the end of the program, the student will present their work in a joint session, and submit a written report. These will be evaluated by the WIT faculty to rank the projects for the best project award.

Best Project Award: The winner of the best project award will receive support to continue the project for an additional period of one month. In addition to the stipend for the extended duration, the student-mentor pair will also have access to a small grant of PKR 50,000 that can be utilized for travel, training, and purchase of materials and equipment related to the project activities.

How to apply: Interested candidates must send their applications by email titled "WIT SMP 2023 Application" to hrwit@lums.edu.pk. The email must include the applicant's CV, academic transcripts, and a cover letter (no more than 300 words) detailing why the applicant is best suited for the proposed work. In the email, the applicant must clearly specify the project for which the application is being submitted. A maximum of two projects can be applied for (with preferences 1 and 2 clearly mentioned).

Available projects: The list of projects for the year 2023 can be found below 

Projects for WIT SMP 2023

Below are details for the available projects in summer 2023.

Development of Laboratory Test-Rig for Hyperspectral Camera

Mentor: Hamza Rafique, PhD Student, WIT.            
Majors: Embedded systems/Electrical/Electronics/Mechatronics Engineering and related disciplines.            
Necessary Skills: Basic electronics and cameras understanding, Familiarity with Electrical Hardware            
Description: WIT has acquired a high-end hyperspectral imaging camera, primarily designed for airborne remote sensing. To use this camera in laboratory settings, a customized test rig is to be designed. In the basic setting of a test-rig, the hyperspectral camera is mounted on a tower, the sample is placed on a linear translation stage below the camera and illuminated from above. During data acquisition the stage moves, translating the sample beneath the imager.


Thus, the primary components to be designed/fabricated for this test rig include a mounting surface for the camera, linear translation mechanism and an illumination source. This project will give hands-on experience to the selected student in the domain of embedded systems. Furthermore, the student will get a chance to work on high-end hyperspectral cameras by conducting a wide range of exciting experiments in the field of food analysis, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and precision agriculture. The developed test-rig can be used in future for designing and conducting laboratory experiments for undergraduate/ graduate students to give them familiarity with hyper-spectral imaging.

Regenerating the Transboundary Relations Across the Himalayan Watershed

Mentor: Joudat Bint Khalil, Project Lead, WIT.            
Majors: Open to all disciplines            
Necessary Skills: Experience conducting qualitative or theoretical research (policy-related research experience would be a plus), a basic understanding of SDGs, climate resilience and the relevant sectors, the ability to present research outputs concisely, and a firm belief that all scientific research, regardless of its field, advances society.            
Description: The geopolitical boundaries which account for the Himalayan watershed are one of the most biologically and agro-ecologically diverse regions. Even though their contributions to the global climate crisis are extremely low, unfortunately, they are highly vulnerable and on the front lines of the global climate crisis. Albeit the climate crisis is mainly a water crisis, there is either too much water or too little, the focus of all South Asian nations has been the energy sector. Every nation has taken measures for mitigation, adaptation, and loss/damage at the national level, but there hasn't been a 100% success rate, mainly due to a lack of investments. Researchers from the region realize the need to come up with regional level solutions and have recently highlighted the need for transboundary cooperation in the water and energy sectors at numerous forums, but the absence of any regional intergovernmental body that could take up the research up to implementation is unfortunate, keeping in mind the abrupt end of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 2016.

The motivation behind this internship is to come up with significant recommendations on transboundary cooperations within the four countries (Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh) and be able to have a united regional front at the upcoming COP 28 in November 2023. To formulate the transboundary cooperation recommendation, which ensures that no harm is done while also providing help and support across borders, we plan to evaluate the climate policies, action plans, or green energy initiatives put forth by the four countries. We aim to highlight the significance of regional cooperation in tackling all the hydro-met, biological, and geological disasters as there is inadequacy of international solidarity for the developing countries of the region.

If we are being overly ambitious, upon getting an extension for the internship, we plan to either include policies and initiatives from the remaining four countries by expanding the scope to South Asia (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka) or expand towards the agriculture or water sectors for the existing countries and come up with a research article as an outcome that explains the entire crosscountry policy analysis and the transboundary recommendations.

Build a simple energy system model using GAMS/LEAP tools

Mentor: Umer Yasin, Research Assistant, WIT.           
Majors: All Science and Engineering majors in third or fourth year.           
Necessary Skills: Python / C++/ R, Basic Knowledge of Power sector & Data Science.           
Description: The energy system is highly uncertain and depends on different factors such as technological innovations and breakthroughs, socioeconomic developments, resource availability and societal choices. The main goal of this project is to build a baseline energy supply and demand model. Which in the future extend to develop for analyzing climate mitigation strategies and also be used to explore other sustainability issues. Exploring different scenarios for developments around the use and supply of energy provides a baseline to develop complex energy system models.

PCB fabrication and testing in WIT production facility

Mentor: Usman Lateef, Lab Technician, WIT.          
Majors: Electrical/Electronics/Mechatronics Engineering and related disciplines.          
Necessary Skills: Basic electronics understanding, Soldering, PCB testing and debugging.          
Description: Numerous PCBs are fabricated in the WIT facility on a regular basis for ongoing projects. The selected student will assist me in routine tasks such as PCB stuffing, soldering, testing and debugging. The student may also be required to assist with deployments in the field. The student will get the opportunity to work on the hardware for a wide range of exciting applications, including water, agriculture, and robotics.

Analytics for decision making & alert generation using SWG Portal data

Mentor: Usama Saif Agha, Research Assistant, WIT.         
Majors: Information Technology, B. A, B. Com or any relevant field.         
Necessary skills: Good Knowledge of computer networking and MS Excel.         
Description: SWG Portal is an in-house custom created online application that is used to visualize data from various sensors deployed at many remote sites, such as weather stations and soil moisture sensors. Following data visualization, the selected student will be able to develop trends for a certain time period. The learner will also be able to obtain particular datasets for dash board development in Excel (pie charts, bar graphs, pivot charts, and tables). This will also benefit the student in the future while working in huge organizations like LUMS.

IMU Calibration and Integration for Drone SLAM Improvement

Mentor: Hassan Nawaz, Research Associate, WIT.         
Majors: Preferably someone with prior exposure to Robotics 
Necessary Skills: Able to carefully follow the user-manual instructions        
Description: This project aims to improve the accuracy and stability of a drone's simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) by calibrating and integrating an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor. The IMU sensor measures the drone's acceleration and rotation rates, which are critical for estimating its position and orientation. However, IMU sensors can suffer from errors due to manufacturing imperfections, temperature changes, and vibrations. This project will develop a calibration procedure to reduce these errors and integrate the IMU sensor with the drone's SLAM system to improve its accuracy and robustness. The project will involve software development, hardware integration, and testing to evaluate the performance improvement of the drone's SLAM. 

Soil Moisture Sensor Analysis

Mentor: Rida Zainab, Research Assistant, WIT.      
Majors: Electrical/Electronics Engineering and related disciplines.      
Necessary Skills: Basic Knowledge of Sensors and Data Acquisition      
Description: Soil sensors are devices used to measure various properties of soil, such as moisture content, temperature, and electrical conductivity. Measuring soil moisture helps farmers and other land managers to determine when to irrigate crops or landscapes. It can help to conserve water and prevent over-watering. Accurate measurements from soil moisture sensors can also help to monitor soil health and plant growth.

This project aims to work on the problem of Inconsistent soil moisture readings from different soil sensors deployed at the same place and depth. The Student has to visit the field once a week to find the Volumetric Moisture Content using a standard device and compare its results with the actual sensor readings to observe the difference between readings over time. After calculating the offset, one can correct the sensor readings.

Construction of a low-cost multi-camera module for environmental monitoring applications

Mentor: Mishal Fatima, Research Assistant, WIT.     
Majors: EE and CS department juniors     
Necessary Skills: Programming languages (C++, Python), Experience with microcontrollers (Esp32, Jetson nano), Familiarity with computer vision is a plus     
Description: For detection and monitoring purposes, we want to construct a low cost multi-camera  module that can capture frames in 360 degrees. All the frames will be sequentially processed to extract the desired results. For this purpose, we will utilize 4-6 esp32-cam or arduino cameras and create a single unit for capturing a multi-directional view. The student will be responsible for attaching all the cameras into a single unit and programming them to send images to jetson nano. The images will be further processed on jetson nano using a pre-trained model for detection purposes. The use cases of this task exist in multiple projects. Experiments will be performed in the LUMS field to verify the effectiveness of the developed project. At the end of the internship, the student will have hands-on experience in integrating microcontrollers and implementing Neural Networks on low-power devices (Jetson Nano).

Improving Rule Curves for Reservoir Operation

Mentor: Khansa Tariq, PhD Student, WIT.  
Majors: All Science and Engineering majors in final year  
Necessary Skills: Sound knowledge of dynamical systems,  
Description: The storage of water for numerous uses, including flood control, hydropower generation, and irrigation, is accomplished by reservoirs, which are significant infrastructures. To maintain optimal water resource utilization and to reduce the negative effects of water-related calamities like droughts and floods, effective reservoir management is essential. Reservoirs are managed by regulating discharges to keep reservoir water levels within predetermined ranges that change based on the season. Rule curves enable the reservoir operator to determine when to release water from the reservoir spillway. One may determine the desired water levels in a reservoir for various hydrological scenarios by using these curves. These curves are typically valid for specific climatic conditions based on historical averages. When extreme events such as floods or droughts occur, the curves no longer represent the best policy for reservoir operation and thus must be updated. In this project, the student will build a conceptual model for updating these rule curves under climate change. Using the language of the Causal diagrams the relationships between variables that affect reservoir operation and rule curves will be analyzed.