Through innovation and entrepreneurship, ASPIRE Pakistan seeks to create a socially and economically prosperous Pakistan.
A ORIC/BIC leadership was invited to the brainstorming session on the topic of the industry-academia gap and how overseas Pakistanis can contribute to closing it through ASPIRE Pakistan.
Through innovation and entrepreneurship, ASPIRE Pakistan seeks to create a socially and economically prosperous Pakistan. The organisation is 501(c)(3) compliant and registered in the USA.
The goal of ASPIRE is to lead the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem, connect stakeholders, and foster socioeconomic prosperity in a fair and sustainable way in order to accelerate the development of Pakistan’s knowledge economy.
In order to fulfil its mission, ASPIRE Pakistan works in partnership with all relevant parties—including academia, business and industry, the government, overseas Pakistanis, local experts, and organisations—to transform individual potential into shared opportunities.
The event of brainstorming session was hosted by NED University, Prof. Dr. Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Tufail Jokhio, and Dr. Riaz Uddin, as Mr. Hassan Syed, founder and chairperson of ASPIRE Pakistan, thanked them for it in his welcome message.
He expressed his gratitude in particular to Prof. Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry for serving as his mentor and motivator.
Dr. Azam Arastu, President of Apex Consultants, and Vice President (Retired) of Boeing Space & Defense Systems, both of Los Angeles, California, also attended the meeting (USA). Dr. Azam Arastu and Mr. Hassan Syed are the minds behind Pakistan’s national idea bank and Aspire. Everyone gave thoughtful, constructive contributions while engaging in good discussion.
The following ideas were identified and discussed as potential beneficial activities that could help during our conversations: Problem-solving competitions to encourage students’ innovative thinking and involve business in providing real-world problems.
Faculty training programme for problem formulation and market definition in order to produce better final year projects. Create an engagement framework and best practises.
Publicize a list of creative individuals and yearly prizes to honour innovators. Create and upkeep a central repository for all grant opportunities and a database of exceptionally innovative projects looking for funding.
Assess your invention portfolio and your research to assist in creating commercialization roadmaps. As part of a programme for visiting faculty, provide courses taught by professionals in the industry so that Pakistanis living abroad can contribute their advanced knowledge of technology and leadership.
The goal of ASPIRE Pakistan is to create thriving innovation ecosystems across the country, and academia will take the lead in fostering an innovative and entrepreneurial culture.
These concepts will be further developed by our group of committed volunteers from more than 20 nations into a long-lasting programme that can be made available to the partner universities.