Saif is a Pakistani computer scientist and entrepreneur, who is known for his work on using ICT solutions for developing-world problems.
In August 2011, the MIT Technology Review named Saif among its list of the 35 “World’s Top Young Innovators for the year 2011”.
Mr. Umar Saif is currently an Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at LUMS. He received his Ph.D. from Trinity College, Cambridge when he was only 22 years old and worked at MIT between 2001-2005 (where he was part of the core team that developed system technologies for the $50 Million Project Oxygen). Also used to manage the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) collaboration on Pervasive Computing.
At LUMS, Saif runs the Dritte Initiative, focused on using technology to solve the problems in the developing-world. Saif and his students developed Bit Mate, a Bit Torrent client designed for the low-bandwidth clients in the developing-world.
Saif has co-founded several startups at his incubator SCI. Saif is also the co-founder of SMSall Pakistan’s first mobile social network. Over 3 Billion SMS have been sent using SMSall in Pakistan. Awards and recognitions
- 2011 MIT TR35: World Top 35 Young Innovators
- 2010 Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
- 2008 MIT Technovator Award (Grass root Technologies)
- 2008 IDG Technology Pioneer Award
- 2008 IEEE Percom Mark Weiser Award
- 2006 Microsoft Research (MSR) Digital Inclusion Award
- 2001 Fellow, Cambridge Commonwealth Trust
- 1998 National Commonwealth Scholar, University of Cambridge
Has had lots of international and local press, and TV interviews: Geo TV - Kamran Khan Show, Express TV.
PBS ran a story on See ‘n’ report's impact on enabling citizen journalism in Pakistan and its use during the recent floods in Pakistan.
Pakistan's largest English newspaper Dawn has published an article on his incubator - Saif Center of Innovation (SCI) - and our citizen journalism startup See‘n’ Report.
His work on Grassroots technologies received the MIT Global Indus Technovator Award! Two of his startups - SMSall and SeeNreport.com - won the Annual ICT PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) Awards, 2008 and were shortlisted to represent Pakistan in the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA’08) in Jakarta.
He was awarded the CIO IDG Technology Pioneer Award.
Dr. Awab Alvi is a dentist by profession and a TED Senior Fellow. He was awarded the degree of Master of Science in Orthodontics from Saint Louis University in Missouri one very prestigious orthodo
Saif is a Pakistani computer scientist and entrepreneur, who is known for his work on using ICT solutions for developing-world problems.
In August 2011, the M
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