Bio

Dr. Athar Osama is a science and innovation policy adviser and consultant and the founder and CEO of Pakistan Innovation Foundation (PIF). He is also the Founder and Chief Executive of Technomics International Ltd – a public policy research and consulting firm. At PIF, Dr. Osama has spearhead fundraising and executive responsibility for developing and delivering several innovation programmes including a National Innovation Grand Challenges (NIGC) initiative, an annual Conference (Pakistan Innovation Forum), a National Learning Innovation Challenge, and a Civic Innovation Initiative for Karachi.
Prior to this, Dr. Osama was the Director of Middle East and Asia for Angle Plc. – a UK-based technology commercialization consulting, management, and venture capital firm that specialized innovation programmes, incubators, and research parks in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. From 1999-2006, Dr. Osama worked at the RAND Corporation where he helped designed eCommerce Strategies, consulted on the re-organisation of US Army’s R&D Infrastructure, and helped create the US Army’s Venture Capital Fund. Dr. Osama has advised and consulted for several state and national governments across Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North America and institutions like DfiD, ADB, UN, The OIC, The Carbon Trust, and The Royal Society, among others.

Dr. Osama is the Fellow of the New York-based World Technology Network (WTN) and a Young Global Leader (2013-18) for the World Economic Forum (WEF). Dr. Osama graduated with a PhD in public policy from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, CA and has a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Pakistan Airforce Academy where he won the coveted ‘Sword of Honor’.

Bio

Currently, Dr. Ayub Alvi is working as Rector, National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Islamabad and Chairperson, National Computing Education Accreditation Council Higher Education Commission, Pakistan. He joined FAST NU as a Consultant for establishment of their planned Institute of Electronics at Lahore in 1982. He served as Dean of National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Islamabad from 2000 to 2017. Dr. Alvi also worked as Research Assistant at Microprocessor Engineering Unit, Electrical Engineering Department, UMIST, Manchester, England. He has professional affiliation to ACM, IEEE and PEC. His distinct work made his way to many patents. Dr. Alvi has also been awarded a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at NCR IT Excellence Awards in 2007.

Bio

Dr. Shoab A Khan is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). He is a founding member of Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE) and CEO of Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE). CASE is a primer engineering institution and runs the largest post graduate engineering program in the country, whereas CARE has risen to be one of the most profound High Technology Engineering organizations in Pakistan.

Dr Khan is actively involved in research and development and has 5 awarded US patents and 160+ international publications. Dr Khan has more than 17 years of industrial experience in companies like Scientific Atlanta, Picture Tel, Cisco Systems, and Avaz Networks.

His most renowned engineering work was when he established and then headed a team that executed a pioneering work of System on Chip (SoC) design in Pakistan. He with his team designed the world highest density media processor for carrier class voice processing system.

He has been awarded Tamgh-e-Imtiaz, the Presidential Award for his contribution in the field of Engineering. He has also been a recipient of National Education Award 2001 in the category of “Outstanding Services to Science and Technology”, NCR National Excellence Award in the category of IT Education, prestigious Cisco System research grant, ICT R&D and PTCL R&D research funding beside executing on multi-million US dollars worth of projects. He also won PASHA ICT awards in four different categories and three APICTA Merit awards in Malaysia in three different categories for CASE.

Bio

Syed Ahmad is founder & CEO of DPL, a leading software company based in Islamabad. Like no one else, DPL is setting a trend in Pakistan defying popular culture with its own counter-culture movement called “Rebel Ethos”. DPL’s mission statement reflects this: “Liberating minds to become the model IT enterprise in the region”.

Syed founded DPL in 2003 with three co-founders straight out of university. Learning from its ruthless mentor i.e. the market, DPL is now a multi-million dollar company that has top global companies as its clients in the US and Northern Europe. Syed wants to build DPL into the first large-scale IT company from Pakistan that can compete at global stage with likes of InfoSys and Accenture. In order to achieve its goals, DPL is focusing on building a team comprised of top talent and giving them an environment and culture that is no less than the Silicon Valley. DPL has already won various awards and recognition and currently going through high-growth phase.