NUST authorize 5 more IPRs to industry

Driven by its thrust to bring about economic revolution through technological intervention and cutting-edge R&D, National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) has been sparing no effort to transcend itself as the leading giver of university based technologies to the industry.

NUST authorize 5 more IPRs to industryIn pursuance of the landmark initiative it embarked upon in 2018, as the first Pakistani university to license out its technologies to the industry, NUST has hit another milestone of transferring 5 more Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to the industry under the Technology Development Fund (TDF). NUST had licensed out 7 IPRs last year; and the transfer of 5 more to the industry this year has taken the overall count of transferred IPRs to 12. 

TDF is the initiative of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan, to facilitate institutions of higher learning to serve as engines of socio-economic development of Pakistan. Under TDF, NUST has secured 27 projects worth PKR 270 Million out of which Chatbot is the first TDF project of NUST.

The licensing agreement for “Reshaping Online Consumer Experience with Data Driven Personalized Chatbots” was inked between NUST and AARZ Media Pvt Ltd  at the university’s main campus.

Pro-Rector RIC NUST Dr Nassar Ikram, and, CEO of AARZ Media Pvt Limited, Mr Waqas Mushtaq signed the agreement at the occasion. The IPs belong to Dr Faisal Shafait of NUST School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (SEECS) and his research associates. The NUST Chatbot not only remembers the context of a conversation, but also recommends the right products to the user within the chat session.

This opens a new dimension in chatbot R&D by allowing the visitors of an e-commerce portal to close a transaction from within the chat session, without having to go back and forth on the web pages of a huge number of products. The developed system has the potential of bringing a major shift in the way chatbots are viewed by the e-commerce industry from a fun to have add on to a fundamental pillar of online sales; thereby harnessing the true potential of conversational interfaces in the online consumer market.

NUST is also currently in talks with few other companies to license out its other IPs having societal impact and are in the market ready state.