Founder and CEO Of Survey Auto, Dr. Umar Saif

Dr. Umar Saif is the founder and CEO of SurveyAuto, which is programmatically connected to all major internet and social media platforms, making it exceedingly easy for users to create, distribute, and track consumer surveys.

Dr. Saif also works as a consultant for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Pakistan. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge in 2001 and spent several years working and teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The MIT Technology Review (TR35) named him one of the top 35 young innovators in the world, and he received the Google Faculty Research Award in 2011. The MIT Technovator Award, the Mark Weiser Award, the IDG Technology Pioneer Award, and the British Council Outstanding Alumni Award are among the honours he has earned.

Umar began SurveyAuto with the goal of resolving a basic problem in the developing world, a lack of accurate population data. One of the major impediments to data-driven policymaking was the lack of precise population estimates.They were able to estimate population using Satellite Imagery analysis to achieve this goal.

SurveyAuto employs the latest advancements in AI and machine learning to estimate population at a 100m2 granularity, identifying built-up areas, residences, and any other structures/ businesses. Localities are also classified according to their socioeconomic stance. Their platform evaluates socio-economic classification using a variety of characteristics, including but not limited to night light imaging, house size, property and retail rates, gridized vs. non-gridized areas, road size and quality, and more.