LAHORE: 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 `World`s 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 world’s 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 couldn’t have done it without Lums. While talking
to Our Sources, 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 Google’s Seregy Brin and
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
While talking about one of his projects, SMSall.pk; 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 Pakistan’s
largest SMS social network and has sent close to 4 billion SMS for
users in Pakistan.
Technologies developed by Saif’s research group and startups are
used by millions of people in the developing world. Other notable
technology is 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.
Tags:
Pakistani Tech