Professor Dr. Syed Arif Kamal
Program Convener, the Early Talent Research Participation Program

Project Director, the NGDS Pilot Project; HEC-Approved PhD Supervisor

MS (Indiana, Bloomington, USA); MA (Johns Hopkins, USA); PhD; Member, AIAA (USA), IBRO (France)

Member, Expert Panel (Mathematics), National Curriculum Council, Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan

Convener, Sub-Committee (Schools), the Education Committee, Transparency International Pakistan
Convener, National Curriculum Revision Committee (Mathematics), Higher Education Commission
Convener, Subject Committee (Mathematics), National Testing Service

Member, Senate, Academic Council, Board of Faculty, Board of Studies; Ex-Chairman

Professor, Department of Mathematics
UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI

Office: Room No. G-5, Department of Mathematics, University of Karachi, University Road
Paper Mail: University of Karachi, Post Office Box No. 8406, Karachi 75270 (Pakistan)

Link on KU Site: http://www.uok.edu.pk/faculties/mathematics/faculty.php#kamal
Homepage: http://ngds-ku.org/kamal • e-mail: kamal(at the rate of)ngds-ku.org
Telephones: (92 21) 9926 1300-6 ext. 2293 (secretary), ext. 2380 (direct)
Public Profile: http://pk.linkedin.com/pub/dr-syed-arif-kamal/12/b71/400

½ Biodata ½ Publications ½ Leadership Vision ½ Research Synopsis ½ Pedagogical Synopsis ½ Contact Information ½

Abstracts of Papers

Key

Journal Papers

Conference Papers

Receiving shield from Prof. Dr. Q. K. Ghori,

on May 12, 2009 during 4^th CCIS,

1. Key                     COMSATS. Prof. Ghori left us
                                                   on May 17, 2009.

Year of Publication

CODE NUMBER: Title
Work done at: Institution, where this
work was performed
Author(s), ------------, citation ----------
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Abstract


2. Journal Papers

2011

J29: Growth–and-Obesity Profiles of Children of Karachi using Box-Interpolation Method
Work done at: UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, University Road, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
Kamal SA, Jamil N, Khan SA, International Journal of Biology and Biotechnology 8(1), 2011, 87-96
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This paper introduces quantifiable growth-and-obesity profiles of children in family-centered care. This work presents a model based on the mathematical-statistical technique of ‘box interpolation’, which generates patient- and parent-friendly profiles based on one set of height and weight mea surements of parents and children. Mid-parental (Target) heights and optimal weights were compared with measured heights and weights to determine if the children were obese (wasted) and tall (stunted), associating a numerical index with each condition, in the form of percentage. This model, also, estimated adult-heights and weights of children and indicated whether parents were obese (wasted). Data were collected by authors, following standard protocols developed by our team, as part of the NGDS (National Growth and Developmental Standards) Pilot Project. This project was approved by Institutional Review Board. Informed consents were obtained from parents of participating families. Each child was weighed and measured, in the presence of father and mother, barefoot, wearing short underpants, stripped to waist. Data from 70 participants of different localities of Karachi (17 families, consisting of 17 fathers, 17 mothers, 16 boys, 20 girls) were analyzed. Boys showed a greater risk of obesity (46.15%) as compared to girls (17.65%), when both parents were obese (15 families). Excessive obesity (wasting), failure-to-grow, short children developing normally, and failure-to-thrive, children neither growing nor developing normally, may be the cause of an underlying physical or psychological problem needing a head-to-toe evaluation. The method reported in this paper may be helpful in identifying such cases in children 3-10-year old, if regular height and weight screenings are conducted. Paper PDF

2009

J28: Concept Building in the Undergraduate Mathematics and Physics Curricula
Work done at: UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, University Road, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
Kamal SA, Siddiqui KA, Naseeruddin, Karachi University Journal of Science 37, 2009, 1-6
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The basic concepts of scientific method should be reinforced in the undergraduate mathematics and physics curricula. Students should be able to distinguish what is science and what is not science. The key is to keep the terminologies to a minimum and to introduce the correct concepts depending on the cognitive abilities of the students. Experiments need to be designed to demonstrate the concepts taught in the classroom and to inculcate scientific thinking. Paper PDF

2005

J27: A Systematic Way to Express the Equations of Straight Line in Terms of Their Direction Ratios
Work done at: UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, University Road, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
Kamal SA, Naseeruddin, Karachi University Journal of Science 33(1&2), 2005, 71-72
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The equations of straight line are generally given as the intersection of two planes. A systematic way to express the straight-line equations in terms of their direction ratios is presented. Paper PDF

2004

J26: An Investigation of Growth Profiles of the Pakistani Children
Work done at: UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, University Road, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
Kamal SA, Firdous S, Alam SJ, International Journal of Biology and Biotechnology 1(4), 2004, 709-717
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The NGDS (National Growth and Developmental Standards for the Pakistani Children) Pilot Pr oject was initiated in 1998 to establish Pakistan-based anthropometrical-data library and growth charts, to formulate mathematical models, which predict growth parameters, to write softwares, which generate detailed growth profiles and to develop inexpensive anthropometry instruments from local resources, which could be employed in obtaining anthropometric measurements of Pakistani rural and slum-area children. Standing and sitting heights, shoulder widths, weights and mid-upper-arm circumferences are measured on over 2000 healthy children. Mathematical procedure/software was developed, which takes as input heights and weights of biological parents, and those of child at 2 successive occasions, 6 months apart. The output is a detailed growth profile indicating stunting and wasting (if present), overweight/ underweight conditions, height velocity, rate of weight gain/loss and body-mass index (comparison of all three with references). Failure to grow may be the first indication of a major underlying problem. The authors recommend growth monitoring and analysis of all 4-10 year old children using this software. Paper PDF

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3. Conference Papers

2011

C86: Curbing Corruption in Pre-University Education

Work done at: UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, University Road, Karachi 75270, Pakistan

Kamal SA, Seminar on Curbing Corruption in the Education Sector, the Education Committee, Transparency International Pakistan, Ambassador III, Hotel Marriott Karachi, 2011, p 1
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Corruption in a society is a dissipative force, which tends to slow down the pace of progress (in the presence of dissipative force, the system dissipates energy to the surroundings, the force law being function of generalized velocities in addition to generalized coördinates; opposed to conservative force, which is characterized by the property that total work done along a closed path vanishes, the force law being function of generalized coördinates, only). It cannot be eliminated, but it can be quantified, and, possibly, minimized. Corruption can be understood by looking at the second law of thermodynamics. Just like flow of heat is the basis of all physical processes, flow of money is the basis of all economic activities. When there is money involved, there appears corruption. The essence of second law of thermodynamics may be summarized in the statement that heat from a hot body is partially converted into work and partially wasted in a heat sink. Money allocated for a project (equivalent to heat extracted from a hot reservoir — heat source) ends up partially in infrastructure (equivalent to increase in internal energy, in the context of first law of thermodynamics) and services/products (equivalent to work done by the system — first law of thermo-dynamics) and partially goes into corrupt hands (equivalent to heat absorbed by a cold reservoir — heat sink). The measures for curbing corruption may be broadly classified as pre-assignment phase (identification of soft areas/conflict of interest), implementation phase (follow through— monitoring) and commissioning phase (follow up — evaluation). Public must be made aware that they have a right-to-know and a right-to-question. There should be a website/a hotline to receive complaints, with proper filter to screen out false accusations. A system of reward and recognition should be established to encourage honest practices. The paper, then, focused on the fee structure of private schools. It was suggested that the fee structure should be according to the services provided. In addition, teachers should be compensated in line with the fee charged from the students. It was, further, observed that hidden charges pose a big burden to parents’ pockets. Hence, it is need of the hour to streamline the fee structure of such institutions with strict enforcement of locally-applicable laws. The other issue discussed was that of ghost schools. Besides causing wastage of funds, the unoccupied buildings become sources of garbage dump as well as hub of antisocial activities, e. g., hideouts for criminals and drug addicts. There is a need to keep track of all func

tional and non-functional schools. As regards religious schools, it was observed that the different philosophies, the different contents and the different pedagogical techniques are creating a divide between religious and secular schools, widening with the passage of time. The mindset of students is shaped by teachers’ perception of religion and driven by sources of support. “A teacher has the power to make a student tolerant in one minute and a terrorist in another minute, not only, in the religious schools, but also, in the secular schools”. The role of a teacher should be to promote tolerance, empathy for emotions/points-of-view of others (discouraging hate towards any community, religion or sect) and use of non-violent means to achieve objectives. Today’s religious schools should prepare students to resolve conflicts, not generate new controversies as well as face challenges of modern-day social order (internet, cable TV). It is a wrong assumption that terrorism breeds only in impoverished neighborhoods or when children are exposed to domestic or street violence (gang war, civil war due to political unrest, economic meltdown or natural disasters, war imposed by a foreign power) or any form of abuse (peer pressure/bullying, verbal, physical, sexual abuse). It has been observed that suicidal tendencies may be present in students, who excel in academics and co-curricular activities. The proposed solutions include (a) continuous monitoring of emotional intelligence of students, (b) integrating secular and religious education in the form of an Integrated Educational System, (c) requiring teachers (in particular, the ones entrusted to impart religious education) to declare their religion, school of thought and sphere of influence in writing (cross checked through NN graphs) and (d) ascertaining the sources of support of an institution. It was concluded that SMART (specific-measurable-attainable-realistic-time bound) targets should be set for reducing corruption. This might be achieved by modeling money flow as a substance-like quantity to obtain an optimal solution using tools of operational research. Abstract PDF

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Updated: November 1, 2011 (0000h GMT)

½ Biodata ½ Publications ½ Leadership Vision ½ Research Synopsis ½ Pedagogical Synopsis ½ Contact Information ½