To provide best possible education on merit not money is the hallmark of the Information Technology University (ITU) the Punjab, which was dreamt four years back in accordance with the concept realized as per the vision of father of the nation Qauid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who led from front through his visionary leadership to carved out a welfare State. The Chief Minister of the Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said while addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of Information Technology University ITU’s main campus here today.

He said that no one should be deprived of the best education due to non-availability of resources as in the eyes of law all citizens were equal and deserved equal opportunities in education and health. ITU would not charge $ 50,000 but its meant in terms of performance and intelligence, which was the order of the day, he added.

He further stated that dedicating precious resources for the development and prosperity of the nation was a big investment in the youth of Pakistan as the future of the country was in their hands. We don’t lack resources we only lack state of mind, which needed to change the fate to defeat our right left neighbors and to become choosers, he said.

Shehbaz Sharif lauded the stature and services of Dr. Umar Saif for making the dream come true and termed the event a great moment in the history of Pakistan to kick start first campus of ITU. He congratulated the students, their parents and the faculty on their achievements on the first successful convocation. Earlier he unveiled the groundbreaking plaque of the main campus being built at 183 acre area on Barki road.

Dr. Umar Saif founding Vice Chancellor of ITU, Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and Advisor to the CM in his welcoming address said that 63% partial or full scholarship for deserving students as per vision of the CM has made ITU a University of common man, which received Rs.700 million research grants, published 465 research papers in leading journals of the World and through 160 Startups under project Plan9 attracted US $ 70 million (Rupees seven billion) investment and that was not possible without the patronage of Shehbaz Sharif who attached great importance to ITU and his help would be remembered centuries to come.

He added that the admission acceptance ratio is 2.28 % which confirmed ITU as a selective University while faculty acceptance is 1 % assembled from the best institutions of the globe. Provincial Minister for Higher Education Syed Ali Raza Gilani said that we should not under estimate ourselves anymore and should become offensive as the modern world was the age of information and technology and it has highest rate of employment opportunities. The establishment of faculty development academy to learn teaching methodology would further improve the teaching standards in addition to the benefits of Lahore Technology Park destined to bring in World class Universities in Pakistan.

Dr. Umar Saif presented memento to the CM as a token of appreciation for his dedicated contribution towards the establishment of ITU. The CM awarded shields in recognition to the services rendered by the ITU Registrar Mr. Zaheer Sarwar, Director Academics Ms. Farzana Shahid, Treasurer Mr. Tarrar and the Deans of the University. The GM Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab (IDAP) Ms. Maira Ali elucidated the salient features of the main campus and informed that the State of the Art purpose built main Campus of Pakistan’s first focused research University would be built at the cost of Rs.5.2 billion.

Application Link :  http://goo.gl/xnkjQH

ITU is offering a semester-long program ‘Design of Interactive Learning Applications’. The program will be conducted by two highly esteemed academicians from the industry, Dr Ashraf Iqbal, Professor and force behind the Centre for Innovative Technologies in Education at NUST and Dr Yasira Waqar who received her PhD in instructional Technology from Columbia University, NY.

The program is designed to make the students and professionals step out of their comfort zones and think outside the box to learn new skills to stay ahead of the industry’s rapidly evolving technologies, trends and emerging platforms. Interactive Learning Applications is a 60 Billion Dollar industry and we want to play our part in harnessing our country’s finest brains to benefit from it.

The benefits do not have a solely financial impact but also a positive impact on the socio-cultural fabric of a society. “Edutainment’’- the merging of technologies between educational and entertainment content- can open up endless possibilities for teaching and learning by increasing the outreach. Edutainment can help fill the gaps created by barriers like language, geography and other demographic indicators.

Program Overview:

• Review and integration of central practices and theories in instructional technology
• Storytelling, drama & entertainment through discussion involving analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation
• Course deliverable is a learning application to be pushed on Mobile and web Stores like Playstore(Google) Appstore (Apple) and others

There was excited chatter and ideas aplenty at the closing ceremony of Workshop on Learning Through Interactive Apps this Saturday at the Information Technology University (ITU). I.T.U.’s Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Umar Saif, addressed the workshop attendees and congratulated them on taking the pioneering step towards rejuvenating educational curriculum in the nation. Mr. Sami Khan, Manager Industry Training and Events, also addressed the participants and encouraged their efforts for educational reform. The trainers, Mr. Mustafa Syed, Ms. Komal Farooq, Mr. Zia-ul-Islam, Ms. Aleena Hasan, Mr. Malik Shehzad and Ms. Sheeza Farooq, were commended for their tireless effort during the six-day workshop. The six facilitators of this workshop are currently enrolled in the MS Innovative Technologies in Education program at NUST.

Combining technology and cutting-edge pedagogical techniques, Dr. Yasira Waqar and Dr. Ashraf Iqbal had designed the workshop to introduce attendees to the potential of technology-based innovative curriculum. Participants were instructed in the design of learning applications and were exposed to themes like education through drama and storytelling and the impact of games on learning. The goal behind the workshop was to have participants designing learning applications which have students studying at their own pace. Studies have shown that self-paced studying invigorates creativity in young learners and maximizes retention of subject matter.

Feedback from the workshop participants lends that the program’s interdisciplinary and field-work focused nature helped accelerate their understanding of the subject matter. This workshop will be followed up by an entire course on Innovative Educational Technologies being offered at Information Technology University in the upcoming fall semester.

Day three of a week-long workshop on Designing Interactive Learning Application came to a successful conclusion with participants enthusiastically working towards completing their final projects. Being held at Information Technology University (ITU), the session’s theme was Education through Storytelling and Drama.  The workshop has been organized by ITU faculty members Dr. Ashraf Iqbal and Dr. Yasira Waqar and is being facilitated by a qualified team from  NUST’s MS-IT (Innovative Educational Technologies) program, which includes Alina Qureshi, Komal Farooq, Mustafa Syed, Malik Shehzad, Zia-ul-Islam and Shiza Farooq.

After sharing a comparative analysis of whether and how storytelling was incorporated into various textbooks, the facilitators introduced Dr. Yasser Hashmi, a professor of Cognitive Psychology at LUMS, to the participants. Dr. Hashmi detailed the need for storytelling in education to the attendees. He also explained that storytelling, and learning through stories, is tradition that is very deep-rooted in Islamic societies and that there is a need to revisit its importance in pedagogy.  A short story-writing activity as also conducted among the participants. Ms. Nigar Nazar from NUST then introduced the idea of public awareness and education through comic art and asked participants to draw comic strips based on public service messages.

Participants, many of whom are IT professionals, were eager and excited to be in such a dynamic and interactive learning environment. Many have given up professional commitments to take part in the workshop and were happy that they were learning so much. Mustafa Syed, one of the facilitators, explained how this workshop is taking place at the very time technology is completely altering the field of education and pedagogy. Mr.Sami Khan, who spearheads the Events and Training Department at ITU, expressed his satisfaction with the turnout of the workshop and told that ITU will be following this workshop up with an academic course on Interactive Learning Applications as part of its MS Computer Science program, and that this course shall also be open for outsiders to enroll in.

Day 1 of ITU’s Grand Robotics Challenge came to an end today with many of the 28 teams’ robots being eliminated in the football-like game they were competing against each other in. The remaining robots will play tomorrow in further elimination rounds until we have the grand winner of the Robotics Challenge.

The sense of excitement and energy were palpable in ITU’s 6th floor auditorium this morning as students set their robots up to play against each other. These bots represent months of hard work on part of students as they used the mathematical programming skills they had been taught in the first half of the MATLAB course to build and program their robots over the second half. These ‘intelligent’ Lego Mindstorm robots have been programmed by students to autonomously respond to certain situations, which enables them to compete in the game by themselves.

The playing field is the surface of a billiard table, the opposing ends of which form the competing robots’ home areas. In each four minute game, the two bots begin from the opponents’ home area onto the field which is scattered randomly with ten red and black balls. Each robot is to try to push many balls into their own home area as possible; red balls are awarded with points while black ones deduct them; smart robots with colour sensors are programmed to push the red ones into their home area and repel the black ones.

Students have been very creative in constructing their robots and a sense of healthy competition prevailed over today’s matches. A team demonstrated how their robot Mera Shaheen has been constructed to increase its ball-catching ability while another team claimed that their Fifi (named after a team member’s agile cat) is the fastest robot. The robot Hercules is equipped with an implement which helps it contain the balls it captures and push them over to its home area. Another bot, Dranzer- named after the team members’ favourite Beyblade character- has wings while MAAKA 01 moves on tank tyres and has a lower beacon.
Students are being graded by a panel of ITU faculty members and industry professionals who are using a criterion which includes robot-building skills, creativity and originality, robot aesthetics, team work and competition performance.

ITU’s Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab (IPAL) organized the Design for Development Expo to showcase the exciting products developed by this year’s DLAB 2 students. Design Lab 2- a unique coursed offered at Information Technology University (ITU)- equips students with the skill and theory required to use design to create products which could offer effective solutions to developing world problems

Ideas presented by ITU students are exciting and innovative in nature, Dr. Subash Chandir of Interactive Research and Development

The expo was held at ITU and was attended by students, academics and industry professionals. Students presented their projects in detail and received encouragement, critique and suggestions from a panel of judges. The judges included faculty from the country’s top universities, such as the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and leading industry professionals from organizations like Interactive Research and Development (IRD).

Built around the ideas of maximized convenience, affordability and efficiency, ITU students’ cutting edge design prototypes included HYDRA, a product designed to address the problems of load-shedding and shortage of cold water in rural and disaster-affected areas, a Khoya Maker which increases the shelf life of milk and as well as the yield of its by-products, and an Aloe Vera extractor. Among other interesting projects were Gluco Check- a Bluetooth-enabled medical health applications for diabetes patients which builds a centralized database and patient history management system and an efficient fruit-dryer which makes the fruit-drying process more efficient and thus empowers farmers. Some of the most lauded projects were an ICTD baby monitor and a solar charger for disaster-struck areas.

IPAL has taken an excellent initiative in the form of this Design Expo, Mr. Umer Bhatti of the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES)

The judges expressed their appreciation for the effort and innovation of ITU students and offered them detailed and constructive advice. They lauded them for developing solutions which address very relevant problems in the health, energy and agriculture sectors and will help empower the common man.

A two week workshop on Adobe Cold Fusion successfully came to an end at Information Technology University on Friday. Adobe Cold Fusion is an internationally recognized enterprise level rapid application development platform for web applications. ITU Trainings organized a free two week long training session on this software. This workshop was conducted by Mr. Abdul Rahim, who is a certified Cold Fusion developer with over seven years of experience with the software.

Some 90 participants attended the open house of the training session while over 50 people ultimately graduated from the two week course. Cold Fusion development is a lucrative yet untapped opportunity for software developers to export their services. At the moment, Pakistan has no service offering in this field; each year one or two individuals from the country are recruited internationally for their skill in the software as opposed to hundreds from India. In this way, the training workshop was also an extremely significant step towards vital capacity building for the country’s software skills landscape. Mr. Abdul Rahim, who has worked with the developers of Adobe Cold Fusion, and conducted the workshop on a pro bono basis, told that he wished to help impart this lucrative skill to workforce in Pakistan. Mr. Rahim further said that he found the participants promising, and that he estimated that at least eight of them would be able to compete well in the global market.

This workshop, organized by Mr. Sami Khan and Mr. Haseeb Anwer Virk, addresses ITU Training’s mission of empowering the local software workforce through capacity building, guidance and skill-training.

Information Technology University’s first Admissions Open House for the current admissions cycle was a well-attended event. The auditorium was filled with parents and prospective students who took an active interest in the offerings of the university, engaged with faculty members and freely asked questions and voiced concerns at the two admissions booths outside the auditorium.The session began with a short video which introduced the audience to the vision of ITU. This was followed by a series of short talks by ITU’s faculty members. Dr. Khalid Zaheer spoke of his short but wonderful experience at ITU and recommended it highly, while Dr. Adnan Noor Mian talked about the research-oriented environment of the university, and how this complements its core mission. Dr Saeed ul Hassan told the audience about the wide scope of research and entrepreneurship opportunities ITU opens up for students and faculty while also touching upon the university’s focus on extracurricular activities. Next up was Dr. Hammad Qureshi who talked about the relationship between the work students do at ITU and its application in real life, followed by Dr. Faisal Kamiran who briefed the audience about the exciting work taking place at ITU’s Business Analytics Lab, and how this innovative research can help solve real-life governance problems. Mr. Abbas Akhtar was next and he gave the audience an idea of how intensive yet rewarding the coursework at ITU is, and how it drives students to realize their full potential. Ms. Samia Razaq then spoke of ITU’s aim of developing home-grown solutions to cater to locally relevant problems, and how the Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab (iPAL) at was playing in important role in this. The event ended with Ms. Zaineb Siraj, the Manager Administration, giving participants an overview of ITU’s admissions process and the widely available scholarship opportunities.

Student society bearers also enthusiastically took part in the open house session and successfully manned one of the admissions booths by themselves. All information regarding admissions, including scholarship opportunities, admissions test dates and test registration forms, were freely disseminated among the audience.

Renowned Pakistani Actor, Writer and Producer Adeel Hashmi gave a lecture titled Pakistan: Kal, Aaj aur Kal (Pakistan: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) at Information Technology University (ITU). This public event was organized by the ITU VOICE Society. Mr. Hashmi touched upon several topics during the course of his lecture. He began by comparing the Pakistan of yesteryear- a time, he said, of no barriers boundaries or restrictions, with the Pakistan of today, with its gated communities, dangers and infrastructure of restriction and exclusion. He then went on to encourage the youth to play their role responsibly and with humbleness. He pointed out the common man’s plight in Pakistan, who, by being unable to approach the Supreme Court, is symbolically excluded from even the law of the land, and reminded participants that they must work to rectify the sad state of affairs of the country; “Many have taken from Pakistan, but hardly anyone has given back. We must realize our responsibility towards our country,” he said.

Mr. Hashmi also greatly stressed that the young people of today educate themselves thoroughly. He clarified that by education he did not merely mean the acquisition of a degree but a deeper knowledge of history, literature and language. Being ignorant of the historical context in which we exist, and the language we speak, is inexcusable, in his opinion, for it denies one the chance to understand oneself and one’s society. Mr. Hashmi then proceeded to point out the crucial difference between religion and religiosity, and how the latter can kill the spirit of the former. He ended the lecture by asking the youth not to be discouraged, and to practice patience. He beseeched them not to let hate make home in their hearts and do their best to fulfil their responsibilities- towards the state, the society and towards their own selves.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session and a trivia quiz.