MIT honours Dr Umar Saif one of the top 35 innovators (TR35) in the world

Lodhi

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
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LAHORE: Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has announced that Dr Umar Saif, Associate Professor at the School of Science of Engineering, has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 35 innovators (TR35) in the world.

In the last decade, this is the first time a Pakistani has been selected for the prestigious TR35 award, says a press release issued on Tuesday. The TR35 recognizes the worlds top 35 young innovators that are radically transforming technology as we know it. Their work - spanning medicine, computing, communications, energy, electronics and nanotechnology is changing our world, according to MIT Technology Review.

Dr Umar Saif has been honoured for his work on technologies for the developing-world. Technologies developed by Dr Saifs research group and start ups are used by millions of people in the developing-world, especially BitMate, that enhances the speed of Internet in the developing-world using peer-to-peer technology, and SMSall.pk, Pakistans largest SMS Social Network which has sent close to 4 billion SMS for users in Pakistan.

Dr Saif has won numerous awards for his innovative technology solutions for the developing-world. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. He is a recipient of the MIT Technovator Award, Mark Weiser Award, Digital Inclusion Award from Microsoft Research and the IDG Technology Pioneer Award. Before moving to Pakistan, Saif worked at MIT and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.

We are immensely proud of this recognition for Dr Saif and of how it reflects the cutting edge work being done at our young School of Science and Engineering, said Adil Najam, Vice Chancellor of LUMS. Dr Saifs work demonstrates not only the potential for innovation in technology for development but also the level of enterprise and expertise that already exists within Pakistan and the larger developing world.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=8353&Cat=13
 
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QaiserMirza

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Dr Umar Saif, a Professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) has just become the first Pakistani to be recognised as one of the top 35 innovators of the world. The MIT Technology Review has named him as one of their 35 Worlds Top Young Innovators for the year 2011.

No surprise, given his background; Saif started out at Aitchison, went on to Lums, did his Doctorate at Cambridge and ended up doing his Post doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The MIT Technology Review (TR35) recognizes the worlds top 35 young innovators that are radically transforming technology as we know and this is the first time in the past decade that a Pakistani has been recognised.

Saif says that he couldnt have done it without Lums. While talking toThe Express Tribune, he said, It would have been difficult at other universities. There are certain things that Lums has gotten right. The faculty is empowered and hiring and promotion is all done based on how research active you are.

I am tenured at Lums and I cannot be fired. The rest of the universities in Pakistan have more of a teaching focus. Lums lets me do only two to three courses a year. This gives me ample time to do my research. Saif now joins an elite group of researchers and technologists including the likes of Googles Seregy Brin and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg.

While talking about one of his projects,
SMSall.pk[COLOR=[URL=http://www.siasat.pk/forum/misc.php?do=dbtech_usertag_hash&hash=008000%5D%5BFONT%3Dinherit%5D]#008000][/URL] he excitedly explained that it was like Twitter and that it was fanning out at an exponential rate in Pakistan. Political parties, media channels; everyone is signing up for it, he exclaimed. SMSall.pk is Pakistans largest SMS social network and has sent close to 4 billion SMS for users in Pakistan.

Technologies developed by Saifs research group and startups are used by millions of people in the developing world. Other notable technology is [/COLOR]BitMate
, which enhances the speed of Internet in the developing world using peer-to-peer technology.

The MIT Technology Review selects the top innovators after a rigorous evaluation process. Judges, who are leading experts in their fields from universities such as MIT, Stanford and Harvard, consider hundreds of high-impact researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world, out of which top 35 are chosen for the award.

When asked about the innovation process. Saif explained that he had a startup incubator called the Saif Centre of Innovation. It deals with new projects the same way as Silicon Valley, said Saif. People, mostly students come to me when they want to do a startup. We keep discussing the idea till it is viable. Then we put together a team, distribute equity I am always a minority stakeholder. Then I give the startup money to get it off the ground. Saif says that the reason these projects are successful is because he gets the kids to run these companies. And they work 18 hours a day to get their ideas to work.

Saif is working on some incredibly innovative start ups right now. One uses mobile phone cameras to allow illiterate people to understand English. People can take pictures of English text newspaper clippings, labels, anything from any cell phone, MMS it to a number and they will get a call back that that reads out the text to them in Urdu.

Best of all, Pakistan need not fear losing Saif to any other country. Because he has no plans to move his home base out of Pakistan. Even though he spends some time visiting other universities to get some work done, Saif says that he is in Pakistan to stay permanently
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Published in The Express Tribune, August 24[SUP]th[/SUP], 2011.
 

titan

MPA (400+ posts)
Re: Some Good News about Pakistan: Category (Science & Innovation)

Camle kay mouth mein zeera kay braber:lol:
 

behzadji

Minister (2k+ posts)
Re: Some Good News about Pakistan: Category (Science & Innovation)

Camle kay mouth mein zeera kay braber:lol:

chalo khali glass bharnay tau laga...........aap khali glass ko dekhna bund kerain aur uss ke bharnay main madad kerain ya phir uss ko bharta dekh kar khush hon ke aap ke jagah koi aur aap ke hissay ka kaam kar raha hay........

shikwa-e-zulmat-e-shab se tau kahin behtar thaa
apnay hissay ki koi shamma jalatay jatay....