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LUMS professor among ‘World’s Top Young Innovators’
First Pakistani to be recognised by the MIT Technology Review in the past decade.
Dr Umar Saif has been recognised for his innovative technology in the developing world. PHOTO: MIT
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 The 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 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.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2011.
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WOW such an award for creating a download software and a SMS engine? Tribune needs to work harder.
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AND still
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/7461/10-reasons-why-karachi-university-is-better-than-lums/
tsk tsk tsk LUMS.
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wow! way to go man, the zuckerburg of pakistan :)
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kinda awesome..
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Dr. Saif heartiest congratulations and hearties thanks for a providing us good news in these trying times
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i was wondering if this one will be featured on propakistani.pk?
I am glad that poor man’s broadband finally came into limelight.
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well done sir!
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Wow…gr8 achievement by Dr. Saif.
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Is KU is still better than LUMS.?????
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proud of you Sir!
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hahhahaahahahahahahha@The Only Normal Person Here.:
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@tanoli:
KU is public sector university, LUMS is private. KU student pays Rs. 3000 and LUMS guys..
Which university is better is based on research it does and no. of articles which get published in research paper. And due to massive size of KU faculty and a large no. of departments, the KU ranking is better than LUMS, as far as I know.
But I am glad to see Umar Saif achievement. Great work sir!
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Respect!
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His bitmate is non practical idea. He has secured funding from Microsoft $40k (source: http://cs.lums.edu.pk/newt) five years back and nothing has been accomplished so far. Every 3-5 months he gets some newspaper to give him publicity. This project is rebranded from dittorrent to “Poorman’s Broadband” to Bitmate just to keep it fresh.
His SmsAll is another spinoff started 4 years ago and previously known as Chopaal.pk. He seems to have rebranded it in the name of “innovation”. Frankly, who uses it? His third startup: Bumpin has already hit deadpool.
His “only” alive startup is seenreport, which is an “innovative clone” of http://ireport.cnn.com/ you can see yourself at http://geodost.tv
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Just found this announcement from last year, explaining the selection process: http://www.technologyreview.com/article/26041/ . Awesome!!!
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Well done! We need more people like him in Pakistani universities!!
Pakistan Zindabad!
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Congratulations professor. May you innovate further.
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Great!
These are the people who deserve special recognition by the government. Not the Farooqis, the Awans or Luqmans.
On a side note, this can’t beat prem gali ke ‘samosay’. KU still rocks!
(sarcasm intended)
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ET – Don’t do injustice with Umar Saif, credit goes to Umar not LUMS, remember he’s a the professor at LUMS not student.
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@ the comments above : himmat kar hasad na kar!!
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All i would say, Thanks for coming back to Pakistan…! keep up the good work
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heartiest congratulations sir
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This only shows that Pakistanis are second to none. It is a great news that Pakistan is making advancements in science and technology. Let us do away with all the madarsas and replace them with real schools. This is the only way out for Pakistan and it would improve its image. By this award, the West/USA has proved that they are fair minded people. Everybody loves progress and new ideas, way to go Doc!
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Stop hating on the one bechara person who has actually made somehting out of his life!
Great achievement, congratulations!
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@ hamza k: i wish that guys at Harvard and MIT were as smart as you.
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@only normal person here. If you KU is better the only thing I can say is that you probably didnt get into Lums.
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Without taking away any credit from the award winner – congrats – but honestly speaking its not that a big achievment which places him with Google and Facebook developers. So how and why this ‘karam’ on us? and then I found this info :
“Thanks to a new BitTorrent client, funded by a grant from the U.S. State Department, this situation can look forward to positive change.”
read more here : http://torrentfreak.com/bitmate-a-bittorrent-client-for-poor-bandwidth-people-110301/
I hope there is no political or any other angle to it.
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Great work!! and as far as the critics posting here, you feel his achievements not worth mentioning than might as well do something of this caliber yourself. MIT isn’t dishing out awards for no reason!
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Great…Keep u the good work..
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well look at where he got his education from.. just shows that our institutions aren’t that good enough. Although we are proud that he is a Pakistani.
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A cambridge graduate i believe could have stayed anywhere in the world and done wonders. What we should be proud of is that some of these people come back to serve their own nations and make us proud. Imagine the people who get the opportunity to learn from him. I think this is the quality only LUMS has. Being taught by such people it always inspires the youth to come back to own land and not let the brain drain happen. We have such potential yet theres only target killings and bhaata khoori , flooding poor drainage and what not damaging all our potentials away.Recommend
oh cmon that guy is good , just because he is in lums doesnt belittle him
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Well done sir. It is people like who you make Pakistan proud. God bless you and hope you continue your endevaours.
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actually tanzeel he did his under grad from lums in 90′s so yes he is a student of lums!
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Proud of you Dr.Said
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In the land of blind…one eyed man is the king…
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A moment to celebrate indeed…..Get him to write something on ET if possible
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hats off sir…for this great achievement!!! @ppl who think that creating sms and other softwares won’t call ur attention…then u might be sleeping in a utopia… remember a samll software hoouse in Lahore few months back were distinguished with the most downloaded blackberry application software…we have to find happiness in these small things and appreciate whoever and whatever he/she does it…
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Great work by another Pakistani genius, this is the true face of Pakistan:)
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Excellent work! Dr.Umar Saif, you make the nation proud!!
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Amazing news :D
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A sign of a quality researcher is either an ability to come up with fundamental scientific insights or have an innovative application. Umar Saif prefers to recycle standard ideas as innovation and aggressively markets these ideas in the media as the next best thing.
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amongst the gloom and sadness surrounding us at the moment… this news is a breath of fresh air. We are proud of you.
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Good for Pakistan that this guy decided to come back. I can see his fellow countrymen here are more interested in ripping him but that’s a typical South Asian tendency.
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1) @Ali: Tribune didn’t award him with that title so well stop being ridiculous.
2) Chopaal (now SMSAll.pk) is a great idea but quite honestly, it’s nothing that should land him into the top 35 list of the world. It sure is a great idea but it never reached the masses the way it should have had. It’s not really a success I’d say. It may land in the top 35 most innovative things done by Pakistanis
3) I have loved chopaal considering that it was something done by the students of LUMS like Asim Fayyaz who was still pursing a bachelors degree at LUMS when he launched this. This was quite a project for a bachelors level but again you expect better things from a Doc.
4) Credit to the students who worked hard enough to make chopaal should have been given. They deserve it.
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firstly, congratulations sir… and it has been an honour being your student.
secondly, I really cant believe all these hate comment from people who only hold a grudge grudge against our institution and its members just because they themselves were too dimwitted to get admitted. Really, shame on you guys…
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A good + positive work always deserves appreciation. A journey of thousand miles is always started with a single small step…..so……Very very well done sir
http://www.gocrossborders.com
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well done……………
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I saw some cynical and down right ignorant comments and looked at this carefully. BitMate has more than 30,000 users — someone commented its not a practical idea?!?! He has a whole body of work on using p2p for low-bandwidth networks — simply amazing and published in top journals/conferences. BitMate was covered in New York Times!
SMSall is used by many people in my immediate circle at my college. I can only imagine how much traffic it could generate. Simply an amazing platform.
The guy has a PhD from cambridge and a postdoc from MIT. I am amazed “ahmed” has the sense to even comment on what he thinks is ‘good research’ !
Please please learn to celebrate the success of other Pakistanis. Don’t be cynical and ignorant. It does not diminish the success of people like Dr. Umar Saif. It only shows your pettiness and ignorance.
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@Ali:
what did you last make anything if at all? And what does Tribune has to do with the award.
You just don’t know what you are talking about and all those who recommend your comments. Forget nation or country or university pride, this is a personal achievement of very high standards.
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Oh well the critics. How awesome? – I remember how a friend of mine had the most beautiful things to say about this guy, only because he probably had a C+ in his course at LUMS.
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@vaneeza: If you think 30000 users who downloaded BitMate makes it success you should probably know why its used by no one ;)
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I am a big fan of two universities of Pakistan, QAU Islamabad and LUMS Lahore. Both are world class institutes. Hats off to this young professor. I have always maintained my position, that investment in education in Pakistan is the only strategy left which will change the future of the country.
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It was not his fault that MIT has named him for something. Reading the above comments… Now I know why Pakistan cannot emerge as a leading nation despite having people of highest caliber.
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He doesn’t seem so young. Besides, these kind of software can be found in heaps around the web. What makes him so special? May be he has the right connections.
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Good Luck for the future and may AllahMian bless you and Pakistan, Illahi Ameen:)
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Finally some good news from my motherland. Well done!
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Now people like these should be one the post of minister for science and technology and then you can expect something impressive
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How happy we are to sit back and point fingers- even at something good, something productive, something for the better.
Btw, this guy does not represent LUMS at this award as much as Pakistan. This is something to be proud of. I’m sure the MIT TR did their research to ensure credibility of Saif and his work.
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Proud to be Pakistani
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we are PROUD of you, the nation is honoured NO WORDS TO EXPRESS MY FEELING in these dark day where good news are hard to come by
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Puhlease…. ET should improve its own research before printing articles…. this is such a sifarishy article….
30000 downloads!! the project has been up in one name or the other for about 3 years….
He is just a bit too full of himself and is just Marketing himself to get more funds
Seregy Brin and Mark Zuckerberg and Umar Saif….. hahahahahaha…. I bet there are many more ppl in Pakistan doing much more in IT as part of global outsourced teams and this guy (who btw has had a privileged education throughout) just knows the right ppl and how to market himself as a Meshiah in the modern times….
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Credit goes to LUMS and Saif for a job well done. And for those who think that its only SMS and downloading stuff from the internet, go get an education. By the way, it is not tribune which gave the recogniation, its MIT.
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No one I know has heard of or used any of these so call innovations. They are on paper and hyped by the good self-promoting professor himself. Glad to get positive spotlight for Pakistan but just hope people don’t dig too deep and find a hallow core.
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Yes,,This is proud moment for us,, Its great achievement in the field of IT.
We need as like professionals they can preform well for IT Department for the Betterment of Country..
At least we got it a good news……..thanks Younger innovators
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Well this is wonderful news although comparing him to Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Brin (Google) undermines the credibility of this award. Facebook is valued at $50 Billion and Google at $170 Billion. Both are global household names. I haven’t heard of any of this persons companies and their combined economic value is closer to $0.
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I appreciate his work.
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OMG!!! i know him personally!!! :D
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This is amazing. Let’s learn to celebrate those who come from amongst us. Keep it up doc!
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You have done entire pakistani nation very proud.I am sure there are many many more talented and gifted youg men and women like you amongst our ranks.All they need is opportunity and some one doing the torch beare,s duties.You must show them the light.Future of this country lies in the hands of people like you,take a lead.God bless you
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OMG..will you believe this..Read the official announcement…
Saif previously created a service that linked mobile phones into groups so that mass SMS messages could be sent. Since its launch in 2008, it has been used to send nearly four billion texts to about 2.4 million users in Pakistan, *and the service, now called SMSall, has been used to coördinate protests, find missing persons, and organize blood drives. This summer Saif began expanding SMSall beyond Pakistan to Nigeria, Iraq, Bangladesh, and the Philippines*
SMS ALl has been used to find missing persons…OMG…cant beleive this nonesense
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@ The Only Normal Person Here: you fix your brain in the right place. The point of the article is that Dr. Saif has made us all proud and if he is modest enough to give credit to his university i.e. LUMS, then please give him the right to express himself. Your petty concerns are of no relevance here. You are so narrow minded that you cant even give credit to a university in Lahore, God knows what kind of spiteful views you hold when it comes to the issue of ethnic races in Pakistan.
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Wonderful work Mr Saif and LUMS does have contribution is this work as Mr Saif mentioned. I am from KU and i enjoyed the Juicy debate of LUMS and KU. Although some of us got unnecessarily serious in that.
Congratulations Mr Saif, hats off to you. I respect your university and your work. LUMS and KU both have their remarkable share in the progress of our beloved Pakistan.
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chopaal was built with lums money. someone should investigate that. is lums getting anything from his for-profit startup?
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@ Hamza K: Please tell us YOUR last achievement in this land of blind. Surely you lack all senses. Dr. Saif has been awarded by MIT, not by some scam organization. Its the concept and everything that goes into it. People like you are all words and no substance. How pathetic of you to try and undermine the achievement of somebody who has received an international accolade, moreover, he is the first Pakistani to have done so. Its because of leg-pulling Pakistanis like you that we are considered to be a self-destructive nation.
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Here is the link to Dr. Saif’s Wikipedia article if anyone wants to read more about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Saif
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Few things:
1) This review honors innovations not business ventures. Read the criteria, it doesn’t mention profits.
2) Sergey Brin, Zuckerburg and Dr Umar Shafi appeared on the same list but in different years, 2002, 2007 and 2011 respectively. Again, the purpose of the list is to mention worthy innovations not profits. If you want comparison, do it with other entries on the 2011 list.
3) The level of cynicism in my country is astounding. No wonder, we haven’t made any technological advancement since many years. If one person makes some progress of significant importance, an army of critics and cynics appear to drag him down. All I can say is Congratulations Dr Umar best of luck for future ventures.
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Dr. Umar Saif has created his own entry on Wikipedia with a picture and this latest award freshly added with 38 painstaking references! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Saif. Congrats guy but ease up on the self promotion!Recommend
This “young innovator” appears to be quite controversial. ;) Never good to over-hype, it discredits you even when you do good work.
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I thank you all for your kind words of support. I also take on board the criticisms leveled at me. I shall strive to win a Nobel prize for my country. Pakistan Zindabad !!
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There was one very poor Pakistani who had designed a solar engine car. Another engine worked on water. He did not get anything and I am not sure where he is now. But this professor is also a wonder kid and I really like the applications he has created.
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Everyone, just What is wrong with self promotion again? These comments are absurd.Recommend
Congrats Dr Saif….
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Awesome, Brilliant, Outstanding, Trail-blazer, Genius etc the superlatives fail me. To all you kids from LUMS and Karachi Univ trying to out do the other- chill out…. Pakistan is proud of BOTH institutions.Recommend
Go aitchisonian!
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Well done, Dr. Saif!
Shame on all those who want to belittle whatever efforts anybody else has put in due to which Pakistan’s name has been mentioned in a positive manner in the world press. Tell me, what have you done to improve the image of this country, which has forever suffered due to this leg-pulling attitude of ours? Look at our neighbors from across the border; they will not let a single chance go where they won’t commend a fellow countryman on achieving something, however simple or brilliant it may be.
Our country will improve only when we all realize that its betterment lies in OUR hearts, and not in those of our enemies. Let’s not be our country’s worst enemies, ourselves!
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Great work by another Pakistani genius, this is the true face of Pakistan:). Saif Sahib did a great job done. we being a Pakistani proud of you. May Allah Live Long you.Recommend
Ignore the Racists :)
Lahore Rocks!
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@Abdul: Now people like these should be one the post of minister for science and technology and then you can expect something impressive….Abdul, people like him do not aspire for political offices, these kind of people are actually following the original message of Father of the Nation…Kaam Kaam Aur Bas Kaam. Being an Indian, I am so proud of him and his work. He has already sowed the seeds of a different Pakistan and I believe that his students will carry on his work and dream of Qaid. Ameen
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The only way to improve Pakistan’s GDP is to encourage technology guys to become more active and innovate stuff. Simple and easy if there is a will from the government to provide level playing field. Also large businesses must consider capital funding to such projects.
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@Ali:
If u think making a down load software is that easy try making one yourself!! Just like that people don’t get awarded by MIT !!!
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I still can’t figure out what this guy did that was so special. MIT is notorious for giving awards to its own.Recommend
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.
Regarding the literacy rate in Pakistan that would b most wonderful thing to do.We r really proud of you.
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@Mansoor Sultan:
4 Indian also in list of 35.But except The Hindu no other paper reported it.
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I hope he does not get killed here. Anyone in Pakistan with a bit of recognition is under threat.
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Best of Luck Proud to be Pakistan
keep contact with me have a lot of topic to discuss
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This is LUMS for you. An incredible place that produces incredible people.May ALLAH prosper this institute,its faculty and its students.
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Another shameless act of self-promotion by LUMS on Tribune. This newspaper seems more like Pro-Lums now :/ …. tsk tsk. It’s just a frekin’ institution not a temple of god is it ?
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you are smart guy you have done mit and harvard and also doing good job in lums professors. u are smart good guys and good life also proud .
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dear you are really cograts on such a remarkable achievement.
and respects.
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gud job. . . . . .its good see research being done . . . . . wat ever the scale of success . . . .in the end research pays off. . . . . . .
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i’ve never heard of anyone who uses this stuff. well done umar on creating awareness about it.
has the saifu center of innovation created anything apart from chopaal and bitmate? also, can you help us get off those mass sms lists? ;)
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@CB Guy: getting featured in the tech review (a publication) is not the same as getting recognized at mit.
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GREAT. PAKISTAN IS PROUD OF U SIR
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It’s good. UET’s Dr. Shahid Bukhari was acclaimed long before him. By the way good Work.
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