The Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Lahore has formally joined the United States State, Local, and Education Final Year Product Development and Commercialisation National Initiative through a strategic collaboration with Collab P and Tiksom Private Limited, bringing another major Pakistani university into a structured national programme designed to convert final year student projects into market-ready products targeting one of the world’s largest public procurement markets.
The agreement was signed by Farhan E Shah Esar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Collab P, Junaid Butt, Chief Operating Officer of Tiksom Private Limited, and Professor Dr. Muhammad Atif Chatha, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Lahore. The initiative is anchored around the United States State, Local, and Education market, a combined procurement segment estimated at USD 1.85 trillion annually, which encompasses government technology contracts, educational technology procurement, and public sector software and services spending across American state and local governments and educational institutions. By directing Pakistani student innovation toward the specific requirements and tender opportunities within this market, the initiative aims to bridge the gap between academic project work and internationally viable technology products with genuine export potential.
Under the collaboration, the University of Lahore will provide academic supervision, faculty engagement, student participation pathways, research and development support, and institutional oversight for participating final year project teams. Collab P will contribute access to United States State, Local, and Education procurement intelligence, relevant project requirements and product themes aligned with active tender opportunities, market and commercialisation direction, and pathways to collaboration with United States market participants. Tiksom Private Limited will lead on-ground coordination in the Lahore region, supporting technical product development, student and faculty liaison, product execution and mentoring, and market-readiness preparation that bridges the gap between a university submission and a commercially deployable solution.
The initiative is designed to produce outcomes across several dimensions simultaneously, converting final year projects into export-ready products, aligning student innovation with real international demand rather than hypothetical briefs, developing student entrepreneurs and technology founders, strengthening academia-industry collaboration, and building a national pipeline of GovTech and enterprise solutions that contribute to Pakistan’s technology export revenue. The University of Lahore’s participation adds to a growing number of Pakistani universities joining the initiative, collectively creating what the organisers describe as a structured national pathway for innovation, commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and global market access built from within the country’s existing higher education infrastructure.
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