Syed Mubashir Iqbal - Computer Science

Q: You spent a summer different from all previous ones, one where you were more focused on human connections than technology. Tell us about that. A: I feel like I made more of an impact in the community than I would have otherwise. We did a lot of volunteering during Ramadan. Without connections through the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and hanging out with them I wouldn't have participated in them. There's definitely a positive contribution to society through research and innovating in tech, but there's also this intangible human component of just face-to-face, giving your time, which in many ways is way more valuable than anything else. This summer, it made me realize that again. Q: But would you also say you had a bittersweet summer? There was a moment when you strongly felt the absence of some people in your life. A: I'm very close to my parents. I share everything about my life with them. I had missed them during Ramadan. We had the community iftars in the nest, but there were times when I would be breaking my fast alone. It just kind of had been building up, and during the Eid prayer, just seeing that atmosphere of families together brought a lot of emotions out. I consider myself a pretty composed person so that wasn't one of my highest moments. In that moment I was taken back to the Eids I'd spent back in Pakistan. Q: So with all that's happened over the summer — and these mixed emotions of missing family— what new attitude are you bringing into the post-summer phase? A: It's my goal to always try to make community service a big part of my life going forward. My parents always instilled that as a very important social value. And especially coming from Pakistan, where there's a lot of problems at a societal level that can't be fixed by an administration. There needs to be a change from the people … at a very much grassroots level. I had lost sight of it. There's now going to be time that I carve out, no matter how busy I get, for this community service role. Eventually, I have plans of returning to Pakistan and hopefully contributing back and trying to fix some of the problems. I'm not going to measure how successful my life is in the end by how many papers I've published. For me, it’s the time you put in. Q: You’re not the only one who's had change over the summer. Pakistan has undergone change with a new Prime Minister at its helm. In one word, tell me how do you feel about this new change. A: Ambivalent. Basically, there's been good things implemented, good measures, and also some developments that I think are more on the negative side. So, I think my initial spark of inspiration that I felt has kind of diminished a bit. While I'm still hoping that we do well overall, I'm taking it with a healthy dose of skepticism.