PITB Signs MoUs With Three Punjab Universities to Push IT Hardware Innovation and Research
LAHORE: The PITB Makerspace Punjab programme widened its reach on Wednesday as the Punjab Information Technology Board signed memorandums of understanding with three public sector universities, opening the board’s laboratories and prototyping facilities to students and researchers who usually have to make do with far less.
The agreements were signed with COMSATS University Islamabad’s Lahore Campus, the University of Education, Lahore, and the University of the Punjab, Lahore. On the board’s side, the documents were inked by Director General e-Governance Sajid Latif. Signing for the universities were COMSATS Lahore Campus Director Prof Dr Qaisar Abbas, University of Education Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Aqif Anwar Chaudhry and Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ali. PITB Director Skills Development Ahmad Islam Syan and the Makerspace Punjab team were also present.
Labs, mentors and prototypes, not just paperwork
Under the deals, students, researchers and faculty at the three universities will get access to specialised laboratories, technical mentorship, training and prototyping facilities. The idea, both sides said, is to move bright ideas out of classroom notebooks and into working products — joint research, knowledge exchange and a shorter road from an academic project to something a market might actually buy.
PITB Chairman Faisal Yousaf described Makerspace Punjab, a Punjab government initiative the board is implementing, as an effort to strengthen the province’s IT hardware innovation ecosystem “through product design, rapid prototyping, and the local development of technology products.”
For a province that talks often about its young tech talent, the test will be simple: how many student prototypes built in these labs ever reach a shop shelf.
