Thursday, 20th August 2026

The Faculty of Computing at Riphah International University organized a full-day Faculty Development Session titled "From Lab to Market: Guiding Commercialization of Research & Final Year Projects." The session was held on 23 July 2026 at the I-14 Main Campus and repeated on 20 August 2026 at the Gulberg Green Campus, drawing strong participation from faculty members.

The sessions were led by Muhammad Saud Khan (In-Charge Industrial Liaison, Faculty of Computing), who served as the resource person. He shared practical approaches for helping faculty guide students and researchers in transforming research outcomes and Final Year Projects (FYPs) into market-oriented innovations and viable business products.

The session opened with a core message: innovation is not simply invention - it is the combination of invention and commercialization, achieved only when a paying customer exists for a product. Participants examined the difference between traditional businesses and innovation-driven enterprises, and explored how a technology-push approach ("what can we build?") differs from a market-pull approach ("what should we build?").

Participants learned how to break broad markets into focused segments - demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral - and how to identify a well-defined "beachhead market" rather than attempting to sell to everyone. The session then moved into designing a real-world customer persona, showing how a detailed, research-based profile of the end user can guide product decisions, use cases, and a quantified value proposition built around making a product better, faster, or cheaper for the target customer.

The session further addressed customer acquisition and sustainable growth, covering decision-making units, sales funnels, sales channels, and key commercial measures such as Lifetime Value (LTV) and Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA). Another key focus was the Minimum Viable Business Product (MVBP), emphasizing the transition from a working prototype to a business product that delivers customer value, attracts a paying customer, and creates a meaningful feedback loop.

The final module examined the Startup Ecosystem in Pakistan, introducing participants to the network of entrepreneurs, organizations, and support structures that contribute to the development of new startups. The discussion covered co-working spaces, business incubators, startup accelerators, venture capital firms, and other startup support infrastructure in Pakistan.

Through this Faculty Development Session, the Faculty of Computing at Riphah International University strengthened faculty members' understanding of how research and Final Year Projects can progress beyond the laboratory and prototype stage toward customer validation, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and sustainable business growth.