Governor Punjab addresses ITU’s first convocation

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LAHORE: “There is a need to promote positivity and curtail negativity to create islands of hopes in the sea of disappointment,” said Punjab Governor and ITU Chancellor, Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana while addressing the first convocation ceremony of Information Technology University (ITU) on the graduation of its first batch of electrical engineering and computer science students here today.

Governor Rajwana said that efforts were required to provide social justice to the underprivileged common man to promote the ongoing corporate social services for the needy in order to keep the flag upward.

He further stated that all political parties were committed to the development of Pakistan and that all the leaders were a patriot as they all are proud to have a similar Pakistani identity.

In his convocation speech, the founding ITU Vice-Chancellor Dr Umar Saif congratulated the successful candidates and said that they felt a lot of pride in the release of their products in the shape of the first batch of MS Computer Science, BS Computer Science and BS Electrical Engineering.

Acknowledging the untiring services of the faculty members and registrar Zaheer Sarwar, he said their services would be remembered by the students for decades to come.

He added that the main purpose of ITU, driven by a culture of research and entrepreneurship, was to advance innovation and research in the areas of science, technology and engineering. Presenting the university report he said that ITU faculty members have won Rs 700 million in competitive research grants, published 465 papers in top journals and had made technology that solved local problems in Pakistan.

He added that ITU has become one of the first universities in the world to enter into a formal partnership with EdX (MIT and Harvard University online course platform) to introduce online learning for masters programmes in development studies and data sciences.

“With a special focus on entrepreneurship, ITU and PITB jointly established the startup incubator “Plan9” and has created over 160 startups that have boosted a culture of tech startups in Pakistan”, he stated.

The chancellor presented degrees to the 139 successful students of MS computer science (Batch: 2012-2014, 2013-15, 2014-16 and 2015-17) and BS electrical engineering, computer science batch 2013-17.

Gold medals were presented to Amna Batool MSCS, Hafiz Ahmed Awais MSCS, Anam Akram MSCS, Usama Bin Shakeel MSCS, Hafiz Hashim Imtiaz BSEE and Ammar Ahmed BSCS.

Professor Adil Najam from Boston University received ITU’s first honorary doctorate for his contributions in science, climate change and sustainable development while Professor Nergis Mavalvala from MIT received the first international technology award titled ‘Lahore Technology Award’ on her discovery of gravitational waves.

Provincial Minister for Higher Education Syed Ali Gillani, Punjab HEC Punjab  Mr Nizamuddin and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.