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Express Tribune
08-07-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
'Cursor' wows Islamabad tech crowd
The Cursor team demonstrates its platform's features and answers the audience's questions at their first ever meetup in Pakistan held at the National Incubation Centre in Islamabad. PHOTOs: ZUNAIRAH QURESHI/EXPRESS A few weeks ago, the name Sualeh Asif coupled with the acronym MIT, began making rounds on social media as people discovered the young man from Pakistan is one of the minds behind Cursor, the AI-powered code editor valued at $9.9 billion, which is taking the AI startup scene by storm. The Cursor team made its first appearance in Pakistan at a meetup in Islamabad attended by over hundred builders, tech enthusiasts and students eager to take part in the future of programming. The event was hosted at the National Incubation Centre and featured a live demonstration of Cursor's build-on-command capabilities by its Pakistan Ambassador, Yahya Qureshi, a talk by Antematter engineer, Zohaib Adnan, on how the product has changed programming at their company and a Q&A session with Cursor developer, Juan Batista Martinez, who joined on zoom. Cursor allows developers to generate code and build programmes simply by describing what they want it to do. In response, the software prints out ready-to-use lines of code which can be further edited through additional prompts to incorporate new features, fix bugs and more. "For those unfamiliar with the concept, this is known as vibe coding," explained the Cursor ambassador, Yahya. "You no longer need to type out thousands of lines of code one by one. You could be out for a walk or driving, and you simply need to have entered a task into Cursor, so that by the time you have reached your destination, your code will be ready," he added enthusiastically. Several tech companies, including Taleemabad, Eynvision, and others, showed up to the event, curious about how Cursor can help upgrade their work. "Since using Cursor, our developers at Antematter are spending much less time doing the grunt work and more time innovating and investing energy in coming up with critical solutions," said Zohaib Adnan as he shared how AI has transformed development. Cursor developer Juan Martinez echoed the same thoughts when asked about what vibe coding means for the future of engineers in the job market. "AI isn't here to replace engineers. We need humans for their ability to exercise creativity and think critically," he said. "Cursor is not about eliminating the work humans do. It's about what can be achieved when humans work alongside the power of AI." Many from the audience posed questions about Cursor's features and future updates to Juan. Some even shared feedback based on their own experience using the software. The Cursor team was overwhelmed by the response and the interest shown by the community in Pakistan, with the ambassador saying that he was amazed to see the projects people have been working on using Cursor, which they shared on the Cursor Pakistan WhatsApp group. "This is only the beginning. We plan to host many more meetups, including workshops and hackathons across Pakistan," announced Yahya. The attendees expressed their satisfaction at the chance to interact with the Cursor team in Pakistan, while others on social media expressed that they could not wait for a similar event in their cities. "Events like these are a great thing for the tech space in Pakistan," said a computer science student, Amama. "Opportunities to interact with skilled people in the field are rare for us, so this was very refreshing," she said.
Express Tribune
08-07-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
‘Cursor' wows Islamabad tech crowd
The Cursor team demonstrates its platform's features and answers the audience's questions at their first ever meetup in Pakistan held at the National Incubation Centre in Islamabad. PHOTO: ZUNAIRAH QURESHI/EXPRESS Listen to article A few weeks ago, the name Sualeh Asif coupled with the acronym MIT, began making rounds on social media as people discovered the young man from Pakistan is one of the minds behind Cursor, the AI-powered code editor valued at $9.9 billion, which is taking the AI startup scene by storm. The Cursor team made its first appearance in Pakistan at a meetup in Islamabad attended by over hundred builders, tech enthusiasts and students eager to take part in the future of programming. The event was hosted at the National Incubation Centre and featured a live demonstration of Cursor's build-on-command capabilities by its Pakistan Ambassador, Yahya Qureshi, a talk by Antematter engineer, Zohaib Adnan, on how the product has changed programming at their company and a Q&A session with Cursor developer, Juan Batista Martinez, who joined on zoom. Cursor allows developers to generate code and build programmes simply by describing what they want it to do. In response, the software prints out ready-to-use lines of code which can be further edited through additional prompts to incorporate new features, fix bugs and more. 'For those unfamiliar with the concept, this is known as vibe coding,' explained the Cursor ambassador, Yahya. 'You no longer need to type out thousands of lines of code one by one. You could be out for a walk or driving, and you simply need to have entered a task into Cursor, so that by the time you have reached your destination, your code will be ready,' he added enthusiastically. Several tech companies, including Taleemabad, Eynvision, and others, showed up to the event, curious about how Cursor can help upgrade their work. 'Since using Cursor, our developers at Antematter are spending much less time doing the grunt work and more time innovating and investing energy in coming up with critical solutions,' said Zohaib Adnan as he shared how AI has transformed development. Cursor developer Juan Martinez echoed the same thoughts when asked about what vibe coding means for the future of engineers in the job market. 'AI isn't here to replace engineers. We need humans for their ability to exercise creativity and think critically,' he said. 'Cursor is not about eliminating the work humans do. It's about what can be achieved when humans work alongside the power of AI.' Many from the audience posed questions about Cursor's features and future updates to Juan. Some even shared feedback based on their own experience using the software. The Cursor team was overwhelmed by the response and the interest shown by the community in Pakistan, with the ambassador saying that he was amazed to see the projects people have been working on using Cursor, which they shared on the Cursor Pakistan WhatsApp group. 'This is only the beginning. We plan to host many more meetups, including workshops and hackathons across Pakistan,' announced Yahya. The attendees expressed their satisfaction at the chance to interact with the Cursor team in Pakistan, while others on social media expressed that they could not wait for a similar event in their cities. 'Events like these are a great thing for the tech space in Pakistan,' said a computer science student, Amama. 'Opportunities to interact with skilled people in the field are rare for us, so this was very refreshing. I just wish there were more girls participating at such events,' she said noting the lack of women attendees.
Express Tribune
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
‘Forgotten Images' brings history to life
SNIPPETS FROM THE PAST: Images of old Murree painted on vintage postcards show sceneries of the hilltop city from Pre-Partition Pakistan. The postcards were showcased at the 'Forgotten Images' session hosted at a private hotel in the federal capital. PHOTO: ZUNAIRAH QURESHI/EXPRESS Collecting stamps, coins, postcards and the like may appear to be a hobby of the past, but as the layer of dust upon them thickens, these tokens only continue to amass greater value as historic artefacts. This was fascinatingly exemplified at the presentation of a collection of postcards from across Pre-Partition Pakistan by legendary art historian and author Fakir Syed Aijazuddin, OBE, which was based on his latest book, 'Forgotten Images: Postcards of Pre-Pakistan, 1890-1947'. The session was hosted by the Asian Study Group and attended by a packed audience of diplomats and citizens keen on the subject. Aijazuddin opened the session by introducing his interest in deltiology, the study and collection of postcards. A flip-through across postcards through the decades, each boasting images of scenic landscapes, iconic architectural structures and cultural moments depicted how the old medium of communication held more than just the senders' heartfelt messages. Each postcard had a unique story to tell, not just through its image, but also through the words scrawled upon it, and even through its form – the kind of paper the card was made from and whether it was hand-painted or carried a black and white photograph told of its origins and the trajectory it took as it traversed continents. The presenter displayed a scanned copy of a postcard sent in 1905 by Alexandra Feodorovna, to-be Russian Empress, to her cousin Goerge, later King Geroge V, in which she writes to him fondly, thanking him for the books he had sent and lamenting about how they did not meet anymore. The message, preserved in time by way of the postcard, provides historians with a window into the royals' casual and intimate lives, allowing them to gain greater insight into the lives of the historic figures and the development of their future political relations. 'While today, postcards have been replaced by digital messaging, at one point in time, they were themselves adopted as a more efficient means of communication, replacing letters. Postcards did not only require less words but were visual mementos that could be sent back to family and friends during one's travels,' explained Aijazuddin. He took the audience through postcards from different regions of Pakistan, starting from Karachi and going through the major cities, marking iconic landmarks such as the Mall Road of Murree, Frere Hall in Karachi, Aitchson College in Lahore and others, each of which served as snapshots of familiar areas in the time of the British Raj. Other cards carried advertisements by beverage companies, images of influential figures, regional communities and illustrations depicting local culture that foreigners in Pre-Partition Pakistan found particularly amusing. The presenter added that the most popular scenic postcards belonged to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region as they depicted the area's mountainous beauty, which appealed to many. 'In present day, postcards are considered valuable antiques and artefacts which are traded between collectors for large sums of money. So, if you happen to have any postcards or similar pieces of history, I suggest you hold onto it,' said Aijazuddin, concluding his presentation. Towards the end, audience members were able to purchase the book, 'Forgotten Images', which contains the full stories and images of Aijazuddin's vast collection, and get it signed by the author.
