Ramadan: Expectation Vs. Reality.

This year's Holy month of Ramadan started and on of the first things that came to my mind was "I need to maximize my good deeds" Easily said than done. Year in year out I go in to Ramadan with sincere and determined  intentions to turn my life for the best but more often I fail to honor that commitment and fall back to my usual life routine after the Ramadan thus maintaining myself in a perpetual vicious cycle. This rather humorous way of illustrating the expectation Vs. reality of the Ramadan of many Muslims around the world is an attempt to remind me and everyone what our intended goal is during this Ramadan and try to avoid this bad habits. Share and enjoy. Ramadan Kareem.

1- Moon Sighting : 
  Expectation

   
   Reality

2- Ibadah:

3- Quran:
  Expectation

  Reality

4- Food (Iftar/Suhoor)
  Expectation

  Reality

5- Taraweeh:
  Expectation

  Reality

6- Itikaf:
  Expectation

  Reality

7- Zakat/Sadaqah:

  Expectation

  Reality

8- And lastly Post Ramadan:

  Expectation

  Reality

My Research Work

Most of the time when I meet new people and they ask me what research I am working on I find it not easy to explain what I really do, so I just go with " I work in Biomedical Engineering" which is very vague. So here I try to explain what I do in a simple way.
 My work is mostly on Electrical Impedance Tomography(EIT). It has applications in industrial engineering and bio-medicine. EIT produces images of the distribution of resistivity, or its variation with time or frequency, within the subject under test. That is It can give an image of the electrical resistance of the subject or object under test. In practice almost all EIT systems use constant current sources, and measure voltage differences between adjacent pairs of electrodes. To obtain an image with good spatial resolution, a number of such measurements is required.

In my lab, Impedance Imaging Research Center (IIRC) a lot of people from various universities and different background work together to develop physical and mathematical models, simulate, design, implement and test the EIT system. The lab is run by Prof. Eung Je Woo who is also my supervisor and adviser. Many other groups around the world are also working on the same topic as us.

My job is to build the electronic and mechanical hardware as well as the software to control the system. I also perform various experiments.

 Some of my work  

                                    Bio-impedance spectroscopy

                                      Planar EIT

                                                                       

                                         Micro-EIT                                 

                                                            

                                          Fabric based pressure sensing

   

David Moyes Delivers a Man Utd Win After Apology Letter to Fans.

On Saturday, Man Utd won West Bromwich side by 3 goals to 0. The United first goal came from a header by Phil Jones at the 34th minute, the second from another header by Wayne Rooney at the 65th and Danny Welbeck provided a cool finish at the 82rd after a well-worked move.This win comes at a crucial time when Man Utd is desperately looking to come back in the race for next season's Champions League place. Man Utd which was the first in last year's Premier League under Sir Alex Ferguson, is just 6th now with 48 points after 28 matches. Earlier the United manager David Moyes sent an open letter to the fans for Man Utd apologizing for this poor performance and promising to bring back victory to Old Trafford. Moyes wrote:
"A big step towards that will be transforming Old Trafford back into the fortress it has long been renowned as, and we will do everything in our power to get the positive performances and results to do that, so that we can give you season ticket holders and all of our supporters something to shout about."

Later Andrew Kilduff, spokesman for the independent supporters group Stretford End Flags, said the letter from Moyes was ill-timed and claimed it was performances, not words of apology, that were needed from the United boss. He said:
“It’s a big month for Moyes and with every performance, result and team selection analysed, the words and body language he is portraying are a battle for himself.”

But after Saturday's win in West Bromwich the hope is rekindled. However it is too early to say with confidence that Man Utd are back, the results have to replicated against Liverpool and Olympiacos in their next games. But this win could be the good restart needed. Speaking to BBC Sports after the game Moyes said this about the team:
"All areas pleased me today. There were some very good performances. Marouane Fellaini did really well, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling were excellent.
"I thought the two boys up front were fabulous, with Juan (Mata) and Adnan (Januzaj).
"I saw by their attitude had changed completely (from the Olympiakos game).
"They showed their effort and commitment, not just good play."

Why Black People Don't Do Crazy Things

Sometimes my friends, usually the non African/Black people, invites me to go with them for extreme outdoor activities like bungee jumping, skiing or snow boarding, extreme hiking you know stuffs that could kill you. My response to their invitations is generally "Nah, I think I will pass..." But they don't usually understand why someone could pass out an opportunity to do such exiting and adrenaline filled activities. After all YOLO* right?


Well let me try to give you a simple explanation as to why we Black people prefer to keep in real. First of all it is not common to every Black person to try and avoid dangerous activities, some Black people do those stuffs just as some non-Black people would also prefer keeping it real. But generally Black people stay away from danger primarily because our parents taught us when we were kids to watch out and be careful not to hurt your self. And even Hollywood movies have promoted the danger-phobia Black person stereotype who in many cases is the first person to die in the movie. But I think a more reasonable reason would be that Black people are always facing life threatening situations in their real lives that they learn to be more cautious and are desensitized to the rush of adrenaline that comes with these situations or if they do have that rush it reminds them of the hostile situation that they are in or have been in. So be it in the ghettos of Soweto, streets of Harlem, villages of Somalia, down town Lagos, wild parks of Kenya, mines of the DRC or slums of Haiti Black people face dangerous, life threatening events day in day out and haven witness these all their lives they do not feel any need to try playing with their lives as those of other races might do. Another reason Black people don't do those things is that they would not like to do anything just for the sake of doing it, there is always a catch either materially or financially. This is mostly common among Black Africans. I have a friend who said, while we were discussing about hiking, that "...if you want me to climb a mountain put something up there and tell me it is mine if I go get it."

So this is in short why I don't go skiing or bungee jumping with my friends. And I will not tell my kids, if I ever have one, YOLO* but instead I will tell them YOHO**. And I suggest you to consider YOHO too. But in case you are in for the thrill here is a list of 60 crazy things to do before you die. Good luck.

*  YOLO: You Only Live Once
** YOHO: You Only Have One life

Science Vs. Religion: Part I - General Idea About Science and Faith

The debate of Science Vs. Religion is an eternal one. Ever since Galileo Galilei suggested heliocentrism (the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around a relatively stationary Sun at the center of the Solar System) in the 15^th century a fierce battle was set between scientist and people of faith. And since then a lot have changed and science has grown and evolved to a point where an overwhelming part of it is proven and researches are still going on to help prove the rest. But still people who have faith in God find it difficult to reconcile or accept certain part of this science. In this series of post I will try to present my own understanding of how Science and Religion can and do work together. In this first post I will present my general idea and set the foundation for the rest of the series of posts.

Recently I came across a series of videos by Bill Nye the science Guy, Lawrence M. Krauss the theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Richard Dawkins the evolutionary biologist and Stephen Hawkins the theoretical physicist and cosmologist. They all were pointing out how believe in God who created everything is just nonsense unproven faith. Bill Nye said creationism isnot appropriate for children while Lawrence M. Krauss said teaching creationismis child abuse. Both stressed that while science can prove by test and observation how we got here creationism is based on blind faith. Could they be right? Did we get here by chance? Well to present my views I will first define creationism and evolution.

Creationism is the belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, such as in a literal reading of Genesis.

Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.

True while evolution can be proven through scientific methods, creationism cannot. And the idea of everything appearing one day from nowhere is rather disturbing for me. (Even though as a Muslim I know that God is capable of doing that). But also this process of evolution occur is a well-organized and calibrated manner that gives me no doubt that all is under the control of a Higher Power.

Richard Dawkins said that the faith in religion is based on no evidence at all, which is not consistent in all religions. In Islam we are taught not to believe blindly but to seek to know more about our Allah. This can be done by reading the Quran (The revealed book), the Hadiths (Prophetic traditions) or simply by observing and trying to understand the nature (Science). In various places in the Quran Allah points out things in nature and ask Muslims to observe them and reflect on their design and Designer.

Stephen Hawkins on his part said if there was one thing hewould want to know about the universe is why the universe exist, why there is something rather than nothing. He said that he did not believe in a “Human like God” and that ”..science will win because it works.” The problem here is that he thinks that God is “like” us the humans, limited by the time space continuum. In the Quran chapter 112 we learn the definition of God

Say, "He is Allah , [who is] One,

Allah , the Eternal Refuge.

He neither begets nor is born,

Nor is there to Him any equivalent."

He created everything and he need not be in it.

In conclusion I do not believe that everything just appeared suddenly, but that God, through the law of nature which he created fashioned the universe and all that which is in it and even beyond the universe, the parts that we do not know exist yet. 

International day of women: Women and men equal or complementary?

In view of the International day of women on March 8 I would like to talk about the relationship between women and men. We have generally heard “women are equal to men.” I do not necessary disagree or agree with that statement. I think that this statement is ambiguous as it can mean they are equal in all aspects or that they are equal as human beings. To start meaning that they are equal in all aspects is ludicrous. Mathematically when you say two things are equal it means that the two are exactly the same. But from biologically to psychologically passing through physically, mentally and emotionally men and women are different and there is a lot of research work out there that supports this. Even socially the roles of each are distinguished from the others roles. I will not go in to what role is for men and what role is for women as it varies from society to society and why these rule exist is a debatable issue. But there are some feminist who really believes women=men and will take any opportunity to call foul whenever they think that there is an inequality between genders. And this has prompted some men to become less sensitive to ladies in difficult situations. I remember one of my friends ones said

".. The day women started talking of equality with men that was when my gentleness went out the window"

An Ivorian musician once sang

"… in the 2000s (…) if I [the man] pay the electricity bill, you [the woman] will pay for the water… "

This can be natural for man people living in the West but in Africa it sound strange as it is the role of the man to take care of the household even if the woman makes more than him. Another generally heard statement is that “What a man can do a woman can do and even better”. Well it is vice versa, what a woman can do a man can also do and even better. But we have to realize that even though these statements are true there are things that a man is better suited for and things that a woman is better suited for. For example Pierre and Marie Curie, she died of radiation poisoning while he did not because in their work even though they were exposed to the similar dose of radiation she was more at risk than him. I believe in complementarity and justice between the genders. In a couple if the role of the genders are clear I think that there is more understanding and prosperity of the couple. Ok here I do not mean that the man should only be providing for the couple and the woman should cook, clean etc. No, I mean that the man provides the strong base that supports the family (financially, morally, educationally etc.) while the woman provides balance (kindness, understanding, emotions etc.). In society justice should be applied between the genders.But sadly this is not the case. There is still a lot of double standards when it comes to women and men. And as men we do not really imagine what women goes through every day. A short video made recently shows us when the role is switched and a man is exposed to sexism and sexual violence in a society ruled by women (NSFW link). In another experiment a youtuber wears a yoga pants and films the reaction of passersby. In a different video he tried to see what will people do when a girl wearing the hijab was harassed. We men have to watch those videos and reflect on them and how we treat our fellow humans.


But what alarms me the most in the situation of the woman and girl child in the whole world is  the violence part. Sex trafficking, sexual violence, domestic violence, FGMs you name it. And most of those atrocities are committed by men sometimes relatives of the victim. A report by the World Health Organization and other groups in 2013 says more than one in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence. And it is not specific to the so called “third world countries” even developed countries have high prevalence rate. In another survey carried out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, about a third of all women in the EU have experienced either physical or sexual violence since the age of 15. In this chaos everyone male or female needs to start fighting back against the oppression of more than half of the population of the earth because I believe that the number of good people in this world far out numbers that of bad people.