Initiatives with Lasting Impact

This page highlights some of the initiatives I have taken that created a meaningful and lasting impact over time.

DPEC (DLD Project Exhibition and Competition)

To celebrate students' hard work and recognize their achievements in the Digital Logic and Design course at Habib University, I initiated the DLD Project Exhibition and Competition (DPEC) for the first time, which showcased their innovation and skill. Highlights of the course and DPEC 2019 can be seen in the following video.

The foundation of DPEC that I laid in Fall 2019 has continued, and my legacy of this flagship event is now carried forward every year. Figure F1(a) and F1(b) show the inaugural event organized in 2019 and the more recent event held in May 2025, respectively.

ACBF (Acton Children's Business Fair)

I co-organized Acton's Children's Business Fair, the largest youth entrepreneurship event in North America, which is held annually across multiple states. In October 2024, I helped bring this event to Stamford for the first time.

My contributions included managing core operational and organizational responsibilities, such as designing the event layout and tent map, preparing visitor parking passes, developing evaluation criteria and guidelines for judges, coordinating judges, venture assignments, and creating logistical guides for parking and on-site navigation. I was also actively involved in event setup and fundraising. Highlights from the 2024 event are shown in Figure F2(a).

Building on the success of the inaugural Stamford fair, we organized the event again in 2025, as shown in Figure F2(b), on a significantly larger scale. The 2025 fair featured 50 student-run business booths, double the number from 2024, with participation from more than 120 young entrepreneurs and attendance exceeding 1,000 community members. The event was sponsored by UConn's Vergano Institute for Inclusion, whose interactive booth further enriched the experience and engagement for participating children. The event was captured by News12 and can be seen below:

DanHuset

After completing my PhD and returning from Denmark, my wife and I were so inspired by the Danish early childhood education system that we began educating our children at home using the same principles practiced in Danish Bornehave (kindergarten). Throughout our stay in Pakistan, we witnessed their remarkable progress, often surpassing that of children attending traditional schools.

Motivated by these results, we decided to establish our own institute to offer a similar learning experience. This led us to launch a daycare inspired entirely by the Danish model, which we named "DanHuset" (Danish House). From the design and construction to fully operational status, we built it from the ground up in just 28 days.

Figure F3. Glimpses of kids' activities at DanHuset.

Figure F3 shows the logo and glimpses of DanHuset, where children are engaged in hands-on activities that promote fine and gross motor skills. True to the Danish kindergarten philosophy, the images capture kids involved in creative play, collaborative projects, outdoor exploration, and practical life skills, all in a nurturing, child-centered environment.

TechCharity

I am a firm believer in the power of charity, not limited to monetary donations but encompassing a broader spectrum of assistance. It is my belief that true charity involves actively seeking out individuals in need and providing them with meaningful help. Charity goes beyond financial support; it can be as simple as offering a smile, sharing knowledge without expecting anything in return, or dedicating your time to assist others.

Fortunate to possess a diverse skill set, I am driven to give back by sharing the knowledge I have acquired throughout my life. Teaching, in particular, grants me a profound sense of fulfillment. However, I have always felt the desire to do more yet lacked a concrete opportunity to implement my plans until a chance encounter at a kids' playground in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA. There, I met a gentleman accompanied by his seven-year-old son, who was engrossed in play with my own eight-year-old.

During our conversation, he expressed his financial struggles and his aspiration to transition into the field of computer science to support his family. Despite my own demanding schedule, averaging around 12 working hours a day, I resolved to assist him to the best of my abilities. I volunteered to teach him in cafes, libraries, and even public parks. Along the way, I realized that he needed not only fundamental computer science knowledge but also guidance in creating effective presentations, formatting documents, visualizing ideas, and crafting resumes and cover letters.

It was during this period that the concept of "TechCharity" emerged in my mind, prompting me to extend this knowledge-transfer initiative to benefit others as well. In addition to mentoring this individual, I have undertaken the following community services under the umbrella of TechCharity:

1. Throughout my extensive 15+ year career, I have dedicated myself to developing comprehensive training resources that benefit students and instructors worldwide. These resources encompass a range of materials, including high-quality animated lecture slides, thoughtfully designed in-class interactive activities with Slido participation quizzes to foster student engagement, meticulously formatted lab manuals, and customized software tools that enhance student learning, offering features like auto-checking and report generation for instructors. The creation of these resources has required a tremendous amount of time and effort, but I firmly believe in the importance of providing them freely for educational purposes. They can be accessed and downloaded from my teaching portfolio at https://www.hasanbaig.com/trainingsportfolio/. These resources have been downloaded more than 13K times during the past three years around the globe, as mentioned in my Teaching Philosophy.
2. In addition to developing these resources, I have voluntarily conducted numerous hands-on training workshops for students, staff, and faculty members across various organizations. The details of these workshops can be found in the list of workshops section above, and the contents are available to download from the same link.
3. Further demonstrating my commitment to education, I was honored to be invited to deliver a talk on my research topic at the Frederick Gunn School in Connecticut, USA, which required an hour-long drive from my location. While I was offered a $1000 speaker fee, I made the decision to donate the entire amount back to the school, requesting that it be used to support deserving and needy students.
4. Recognizing the importance of encouraging aspiring engineers, I gladly accepted an invitation to attend the engineering project presentations of two graduating high-school students. Despite the 50-minute drive to the school, I made time to attend each 15-minute presentation at my own expense, providing valuable feedback and words of appreciation.
5. As an educator, I am driven by a sense of responsibility to go beyond imparting subject knowledge effectively. I strive to provide students with something more, a form of charity that extends beyond academia. Through my teaching, I aim to deliver meaningful messages that can empower students to navigate life's challenges with resilience and wisdom. Out of all such motivational messages I have shared with my students, the following one turned out to be the most effective and left a positive impact that I could clearly observe.
6. I provide students with opportunities to earn bonus points, allowing them to offset any points they may have lost or could lose in upcoming assessments. Students eagerly anticipate these chances and view them as valuable opportunities. Additionally, I prioritize the well-being and personal development of my students. To promote these aspects, I conducted a unique activity: a survey on what brings them happiness, the average duration of their happiness, and how they define someone as a good person. Figure F4(a), F4(b), and F4(c) display the students' responses, followed by a personality development message in Figure F4(d).

In adulthood, many of us become emotionally disconnected from our families, negatively impacting our mental peace and happiness. We often neglect expressing gratitude, appreciation, and recognizing the importance of our family members and friends in our lives. Recognizing this, I assigned students a task to reach out to their family or friends and do something positive that would surprise them and bring them happiness, with a 1% bonus incentive. This activity served two purposes: first, to help students experience genuine and lasting happiness by making others, starting with their families, happy; and second, to play my part in creating a positive impact within the community.

Among the 100+ heartfelt responses I received, Figure F5 highlights a selection that demonstrates the profound impact this small activity had on students' lives. The last response enclosed in the green box stands out as the most positive and impactful, reinforcing my decision to continue such activities in the future.

Through these community services, I aim to empower and enrich the educational experiences of individuals, while also giving back to the community that has supported my own growth and success.