Information Technology University

The Information Technology University is a public university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 2012, the university was founded and headed by Umar Saif and is modeled after the MIT.
The university has two campuses. Its main campus on Barki Road, covering 183 acres, is still under construction but operational, with classes held there and three departments relocated as of August 2024. The City Campus is located in the high-rise Arfa Software Technology Park. The university has varying degrees of partnerships with the Harvard University and also publishes the MIT Technology Review, Pakistan edition. The university is home to several tenured academics, Pakistan's largest startup incubator and maintains partnerships with EdX, IBM and the US State Department. It hosted International Development Design Summit, organized by IDIN and United States Agency for International Development.

History

Foundation

ITU, located in Lahore, was founded in 2012.

Faculty

The university was formerly led by Umar Saif who has previously taught at the Cambridge–MIT Institute.
Dr. Sarfraz Khurshid was the second Vice Chancellor of the University. Prof. Dr. Adnan Noor Mian is the current Vice Chancellor of the University.
It has four faculties:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Business and Management Sciences
Faculty of Sciences
Faculty of Engineering

Offered Degrees

The university currently offers the following degrees:

BS Economics with Data Science
BS Management and Technology
BS Financial Technology
BS Computer Engineering
BS Electrical Engineering
BS Computer Science
Executive MBA
MS Public Policy and Society
MS Management and Technology
MS Development Studies: DEVELOPMENT, TECHNOLOGY AND POLICY
MS Data Science
MS Electrical Engineering
MS Computer Science
MS Cyber Security
PhD Computer Science
PhD Electrical Engineering

Research

ITU is home to several research centers and labs:

Center for Technology and Governance
Technology and Research in Emerging Networks and Distributed Systems
Neighborhood for Emerging World Technologies
Abdus Salam International Center of Mathematics
Center For Speech and Language Technologies
National Centre For Academic Integrity
Bio-Inspired Simulation & Modelling of Intelligent Life
Embedded Computing Laboratory
Scientometrics Lab
Data Science Lab
Business Analytics Lab
Vision Processing Lab
Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab

Between 2013 and 2016 the university has conducted PKR 700 million in research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It has received research funding from Higher Education Commission (Pakistan), Government of the Punjab, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, World Bank and Department for International Development.

First Convocation

The university's first convocation was held on December 17, 2017. The university awarded its first Honorary Doctorate Degree awarded to Dr. Adil Najam, the inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, and former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences. 139 students of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering graduated in the first convocation.

Lahore Technology Award

ITU gave Lahore Technology Award at its first convocation to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Nergis Mavalvala for her work in the gravitational theory.