Profile

Dr. Ahmar enjoys about twenty years of industrial as well as research and development experience. His professional experiences include preparing functional specifications, designing and implementing software for financial applications, as well as diagnosis, troubleshooting and resolution of customer’s technical issues.
His core research work inlcudes the performance analysis of optimization algorithms for static as well as dynamic image reconstruction using electrical impedance tomography (EIT) with application in industrial process monitoring and medical imaging. His PhD thesis was on the application of oppositional biogeography-based optimization, which is one of the most recently developed evolutionary algorithms, to solve the boundary estimation problems using EIT. The specific problem solved was that of the estimation of the size and location of the human heart, while a patient is told to hold his/her breadth.

He has been serving as Dean, Faculty of Computer Sciences and Engineering (FCSE) for about three years and none months. FCSE is largest faculty of GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, offering BS programs in five disciplines (CS, CE, AI, Cyber Security & Datascience), while MS/PhD programs are offered in two of them (CS & CE).The hall mark of this tenure is the accelerated approval and launch of three new BS programs in a row (2019 – 2022) ; BS in AI – partnered with Huawei, BS Data Science and BS Cyber Security programs. The fourth degree program, i.e., BS Sofware Engineering, has been approved and ready to be launched fom Fall 2023

Recently, he has developed research interests in the area of aerial vision and swarm robotics. As an in-charge of Aerial Robotics Lab, he is working towards devlopment of novel algorithms to induce intelligence in teams of autonomous flying robots, with applications in survielance and monitoring, precision agriculture, aerial mapping, target tracking and analysis, etc.

In collaboration with other colleagues, much of his research work has been published in international journals of hugh repute.

His research interests include
Machine Learning and Robotic Vision : Dynamic path planning, dynamic target tracking, probabilistic localization and applications of of machine learning algorithms in the field of computer vision and robotics.
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs): Application and analysis of EAs to solve the static as well as dynamic optimization problems.
Electrical Impedance Tomography: Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive impedance imaging modality which has been actively studied for its industrial as well as medical applications. The research focus is on dynamic target tracking as well as localization of anomalies in EIT medical images.
BioInformatics : Design and implementation of novel algorithms and techniques in the field of genomics, addressing problems such as finding hidden messages in the DNA, the genome assembly and the genome sequence alignment problems.

Selected List Of Publications
Journal Publications

2023

• Haider, M. Hanif, A. Rashid, S. F. Hussain 2023 Dictionary-enabled efficient training of ConvNets for image classification Image and Vision Computing, 135, 104718, [ISSN 0262-8856, Impact factor 3.86]

2021

• Z. Liu, M. Waqas, J. Yang, A. Rashid, A Multi-task CNN for Maritime Target Detection 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Letters 28 434-438, [Thomson Reuters JCR 2019, Impact factor 3.1].

2020

• A. Rashid, M.A. Zeb, S. Anwar, F. Joaquim, and Z. Halim 2019 Conceptualization of smartphone usage and feature preferences among various demographics, Cluster Computing 23 1855–1873, [ISSN: 1386-7857, Thomson Reuters JCR 2019, Impact factor 3.46, Springer], download
  2019
• A. Rashid, M. Kamran, and Z. Halim 2019 A top down approach to enumerate α-maximal cliques in uncertain graphs, Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems 36 3129 – 3141, [ISSN: 1064-1246, ISI journal, 2018 Impact Factor 1.851]. abstract
  Halim, M. Atif, A. Rashid, and C. A. Edwin 2019 Profiling Players Using Real-World Datasets: Clustering the Data and Correlating the Results with the Big-Five Personality Traits, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing 10 568 – 584, [ISSN: 1949-3045, ISI journal, 2019 impact factor 7.51] in-press. download

2018 and Before

• A. Khan, M. Imran, A, Rashid 2018 Aerial Camera Network for Observing Moving Targets, IEEE Sensors Journal 18 6847-6856, [ISSN: 1558-1748, ISI journal, 2018 impact factor 3.077]. download
• S. U. Ansari, M. Hussain, A. Rashid, S. Mazhar, S. M. Ahmad 2018 Numerical Solution and Analysis of – – Three-Dimensional Transient Darcy, Flow Transport in Porous Media 123 289-305, [ISI journal, 2018 impact factor 1.997]. download
• S. U. Ansari, M. Hussain, A. Rashid, S. M. Ahmad, S. Mazhar, and K. J. Siddiqui 2018 Validating Numerical Solution of Transient Darcy Flow using Stabilized Mixed Finite Element Method, Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International 94 55- 65. (ISI journal, 2018 impact factor 1.455). abstract
• Z. Halim, M. Waqas, A.R. Baig and A. Rashid 2017 Efficient Clustering of Large Uncertain Graphs Using Neighborhood Information, International Journal of Approximate Reasoning 90 274-291 (ISI journal, impact factor 1.766). download
• S. U. Ansari, M. Hussain, S. M. Ahmed, A. Rashid, S. Mazhar 2017 Stabilized Mixed Finite Element Method for Transient Darcy Flow, Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering  41 85–97. (ISI journal, impact factor 0.243)
• A. Rashid, S. Kim, D. Liu, K. Y. Kim 2016, A dynamic oppositional biogeography-based optimization approach for time varying electrical impedance tomography, physiological measurement 37 820–842. (ISI journal, 2016 impact factor 2.058). download
• A. Rashid, B. S. Kim, A. K. Khambampati, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim 2011 An oppositional biogeography-based optimization technique to reconstruct organ boundaries in human thorax using electrical impedance tomography, Physiological Measurement 32 767-96 (ISI journal, 2016 impact factor 2.058). download
• A. K. Khambampati, A. Rashid, J. S. Lee, B. S. Kim, L. Dong, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim 2011 Estimation of void boundaries in flow field using expectation maximization algorithm, Chemical Engineering Science 66 355-374 (ISI journal, 2016 impact factor 2.895). download
• A. Rashid, A. K. Khambampati, B. S. Kim, S. Kim, M. J. Kang, K. Y. Kim. 2010 An EKF based estimation scheme for sedimentation processes in process vessels using EIT-type measurement data, Flow Measurement and Instrumentation 21 521-530 (ISI journal, 2016 impact factor 1.203). abstract. download
• A. K. Khambampati, A. Rashid, U. Z. Ijaz, S. Kim, M. Soleimani, K. Y. Kim 2009 Unscented Kalman filter approach to track moving interfacial boundary in sedimentation process using three-dimensional electrical impedance tomography, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 367 3095-3120 (ISI journal, 2016 impact factor 2.97).download

Conference Series, Journal Publications

• A. Rashid, B. S. Kim, A. K. Khambampati, L. Dong, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim 2010 Dynamic boundary estimation of heart within a complete cardiac cycle using electrical impedance tomography. Journal of Physics: Conference series 224 012042.
• A. K. Khambampati, A. Rashid, B. S. Kim, L. Dong, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim 2010 EM algorithm applied for estimating non-stationary region boundaries using electrical impedance tomography. Journal of Physics: Conference series 224 012044.
• B. S. Kim, A. Rashid, A. K. Khambampati, L. Dong, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim 2010 Tracking resistivity changes using suboptimal fading extended Kalman filter in electrical impedance tomography. Journal of Physics: Conference series 224 012024.

Conference Proceedings

• Haider, M. Hanif, H. Kobayashi, L. Kumar Parajuli, D. Shimotoku, A. Rashid, Sonia Safeer 2023 Bioacoustics Signal Classification Using Hybrid Feature Space with Machine Learning, In Proceedings of 2023 15th International Conference on Computer and Automation Engineering (ICCAE), Sydney Australia.
• S. U. Ansari, M. Hussain, S. Mazhar, A. Rashid, S. M. Ahmad 2015 Parallel stabilized mixed Galerkin method for three-dimensional Darcy flow using OpenMP, National Software Engineering Conference (NSEC).
• S. U. Ansari, M. Hussain, A. Rashid, S. Mazhar, S. M. Ahmad 2015 Three-Dimensional Stabilized Mixed Galerkin Method for Darcy Flow,13th International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT)
• S.U. Ansari, M. Hussain. S. Mazhar, A. Rashid and S.M. Ahmad 2015 Stabilized Mixed Galerkin Method for Transient Analysis of Darcy Flow, ICMSAO, Istambul, Turkey.
• A. Naushad, A. Rashid, S. Mazhar 2014 Analysing the Performance of EIT images using the point spread function, submitted to The Tenth International Conference on Emerging Technologies 2014 (ICET 2014), Islamabad. download
• A. Rashid, A. K. Khambampati, B. S. Kim, L. Dong, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim 2010 A differential evolution based approach to estimate the shape and size of complex shaped anomalies using EIT measurements, Springer CCIS 121 206-15.
• A. Rashid, A. K. Khambampati, B. S. Kim, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim. A State Evolution Model to Monitor Sedimentation Process Using Electrical Impedance Tomography. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Process Tomography, Tokyo, Japan, April 17-19, 2009.
• A. K. Khambampati, A. Rashid, J. S. Lee, B. S. Kim, S. Kim, M. J. Kang, K. Y. Kim. Three-dimensional electrical resistance tomography applied to soil resistivity distribution for locating earth grounding system. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Process Tomography, Tokyo, Japan, April 17-19, 2009.
• A. K. Khambampati, A. Rashid, J. S. Lee, S. Kim, K. Y. Kim. Three-dimensional boundary estimation in sedimentation process using electrical impedance tomography with the aid of unscented Kalman filter. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Technical Conference on Circuits/Systems, Computers and Communications, Kaikyo Messe Shimonoseki, Shimonoseki City, Japan, July 6-9, 2008.

Funded Projects
Target Tracking From Up Above the Sky

Role: PI
Funding Body: HEC NRPU
Duration: Two Years (2019 – 2020)
Total Budget : About Rs. 2.6 M
Project Summary : The use of surveillance cameras to monitor and track target(s) is currently an active area of research, with civil as well as in military applications. The conventional surveillance mechanisms, such as, pre-installed CCTV cameras, are static in nature and lack the capability to robustly monitor and track dynamic target(s) in a timely manner. In contrast, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), usually equipped with cameras and other sensors, adapt to fast changing environments in real-time with an accelerated search capability, and offer a superior target tracking and monitoring, resulting in a much more reliable and robust surveillance system. The proposed research work seeks to design and implement intelligent algorithms in the domain of cooperative aerial camera networks for surveillance and monitoring of moving targets. The general focus of the research work is to build up robust coordination and planning mechanisms to monitor and track following types of targets: 1) Isolated targets, e.g., using aerial cameras tp to track and monitor criminal targets, such as, suspicious vehicles moving on highways. 2) Targets in a cluttered environment, such as, human target(s) moving in the crowds or suspicious vehicles moving in heavy traffic.

Teaching @GIKI
2023                                                                                                                                                                              Graduate: CSE661 Machine Learning and Computer Vision

2022                                                                                                                                                                              Graduate: CSE511 Theory of Automata II                                                                                                            Undergrad: CS/CE 453 Robotic Vision

2021 and Before                                                                                                                                                                Undergrad: Robotic Vision, Data Structures and Algorithms, Introduction to Computing and Programming, Logic Design, Theory of Automata, Wireless and Mobile Networks
Graduate:                                                                                                                                                                                    CSE539 Robotic Vision                                                                                                                                                                 CSE672 Analysis of Stochastic Processes
CSE535 Advanced Image Processing
CSE639 Machine Learning and Computer Vision
CSE506 Advanced Algorithms and Computational Techniques (CSE Core)
CSE639 Advanced BioInformatics

Teaching (Past)
Fundamentals of Data communications, Computer Networks, Computer Programming, Data Structures, Operating Systems, Theory of Automata and Engineering Ethics.
MS/PhD Students (Supervised/Co-supervised)

MS Students:

Alamgir Noushad                                                                                                                                                   – – ANALYSING THE PERFORMANCE FIGURES OF MERIT FOR THE ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE TOMOGRAPHY USING THE POINT SPREAD FUNCTION
Graduated in 2014

Muhammad Atif  (As Co-Supervisor)                                                                                                                              DATA MINING-BASED PROFILING PLAYERS USING STARCRAFT DATA FOR VERIFYING DISPOSITIONAL THEORY
Graduated in 2016

Aamir Zeb                                                                                                                                                                      MOBILE PHONE USAGE, FEATURE PREFERENCES AND CONCEPTUALIZATION AMONG VARIOUS DEMOGRAPHICS                                                                                                                                                              Graduated in Fall 2016

Muhammad Kamran                                                                                                                                                      A TOP DOWN APPROACH TO ENUMERATE α-MAXIMAL CLIQUES IN UNCERTAIN GRAPHS
Graduated in Spring 2017

Muhammad Imran (As Co-Supervisor)                                                                                                                    AERIAL CAMERA NETWORK FOR MULTI-SCALE OBSERVATION OF MOVING TARGETS, JANUARY 2018
In Co- Supervision with Dr. Muhammad Asif
Graduate January 2018

Salmab Mehboob                                                                                                                                                              MULTI TARGET TRACKING USING A TEAM OF COOPERATIVE UAVs
Graduated in Spring 2018

Irfan Hussain                                                                                                                                                                  AERIAL VIDEO SURVEILLANCE AND TRACKING
Graduated in Spring 2021

Muhammad Nafay                                                                                                                                                            FRUIT-FLY DETECTION USING DEEP LEARNING                                                                                                      Graduated in Fall 2022

PhD Students:

Usman Haider (As Co-Supervisor)                                                                                                                                  SPARSE ENCODING IN DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS

Sania Akhtar (As Co-Supervisor)                                                                                                                            MICROSCOPIC URINE SEDIMENT ANALYSIS

Administrative Duties and Committee Work

Dean Faculty of Computer Sciences and Engineering (September 2019 to Date)
HoD Comuter Engineering Program (September 2019 to Date)
Sereved as a member of GIKI Academic council for about seven years
Serverd as a member Undergraduate Admissions Committee for about eight years
Team Lead for Islamabad Admission Centre for GIKI Undergrad Admissions, Fall 2015
Team Lead for Quetta Admission Centre for GIKI Undergrad Admissions, Fall 2017
Served as a meber of Anti-Rigging Committee for about five years
Served as a member SAR committee for BSCE program
Served as a lead member of the Comittee to benchmark BSCE program wtih the ACM curriculum

International Collaborations and MOUs
Active Collaboration with Huawei for the curriclum development of BS in Aritfical Intelligence. As Dean FCSE, lead the initiative for the GIK-Huawei Partnership for BS –AI program.
Focal Person for the MOU with Kumnoh Institue of Technology (KIT), Korea for student and faculty exchange between KIT and GIK Institute.
Focal Person for MOU between GIK Institute and Sawayra Inc., a US-based humanitarian organization working in the areas of renewable energy, water, waste disposal and recycling, etc.
Prominent role in drafting and signing an MOU with University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), USA for student and faculty exchange between UMKC and GIK Institute.

National/External Commitments

Member of 2019 PEC Curriculum Review Committee for Software Engineering Program
Have been a member of 2015 HEC National Curriculum Review Committee for Computer Engineering Program.
Have been Member of NUST SEECS, Industry Advisory Board (IAB).
Currently, member of Study Board, KFUIT
Member Selection board for PAF-IAST

Naitonal Meetings
2014
First Meeting of the HEC National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) Computer (Systems) Engineering held on November 10-12, 2014, at HEC Regional Headquarters, Lahore.

2015
Final Meeting of the HEC National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) Computer (Systems) Engineering held on April 10-12, 2015, at HEC Regional Headquarter, Peshawar.
2016
Meeting of the NUST-SEECS Industry Advisory Board (IAB). The meeting focused on enhancing the academia-industry linkage and its impact through industrial feedback on the design, delivery and evaluation of the curriculum for BESE degree programs.
2017
Study Board Meeting of BS Computer Engineering Program at Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering & Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan.
2018
Represented GIK Institute in “CPEC: Think and Grow Summit”, on 31 March2018, at PITAC, Lahore
2019
6th Meeting of the PEC Sub-Group Software Engineering-ECRDC for Electrical and Allied Engineering (ECRDC) held on February, 7th, at PEC Headquarters, Islamabad.

National Competitions

Ask Leprechaun, an FYP supervised by Dr. Ahmar Rashid, was the 2nd Runner-up at National Championship of NGIRI (Ignite).

The team comprised of Dr. Ahmar Rashid, Dr. Sajid Anwar, Engr. Badre Munir, Bilal Aamir, Abdul Rehman and Ahsan Abrar.

Invited Talks
2017
Invited Talk on “Outcome Based Education”, Khawaja Farid University of Engineering and Information Technology
2020

Invited Talk on “Emerging trends in IT and Challenges to Pakistan’s HR Development (Perspective of Academia)”, during the national seminar on “HR and Connectivity Development For IT Sector: Challenges and Way Forward, held on September 9, 2020, at Institute for Strategic Studies Research and Analysis (ISSRA), National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad.

Flying Robots at Aerial Robotics Lab
Crazyflie
AR Done 2.0
DJI Mavic Air Mini
DJI Mavic Zoom 2
DJI Matrice