LAHORE: There is a need to promote positivity and curtail negativity to create islands of hopes in the sea of disappointment.
This was stated by Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana at the first convocation ceremony of Information Technology University (ITU).
Governor Rajwana said that efforts were required to provide social justice to the under privileged to further promote the ongoing increasing corporate social services for the needy to keep the flag upward and to strive hard for the country.
ITU Vice Chancellor Umar Saif congratulated the successful candidates and said that we felt a lot of pride in the release of our product. While acknowledging the untiring services of the faculty members and registrar Zaheer Sarwar he said their services would be remembered by the students for the 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 Rs700 million in competitive research grants, published 465 papers in top journals and conferences and 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 of two masters programmes in Development Studies and Data Sciences.
The chancellor awarded degrees to 139 students of MS Computer Science (Batch: 2012-2014, 2013-15, 2014-16 and 2015-17), BS Electrical Engineering, Computer Science Batch 2013-17 while 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 received Arfa Karim Randhawa Award.
Professor Adil Najam from Boston University received ITU’s first honorary doctorate for his contributions in the fields of science, climate change and sustainable development.
