Panelist

Biography

I started my professional career from industry, but as I moved to academia by joining Centre for Research on Embedded Systems (CERES), Sweden, I found the research environment very stimulating. I completed my PhD degree in Computer Science from Örebro University, Sweden in 2011. I have published 40 journal and conference publications and have supervised 4 PhD students at Halmstad University. I have a very diverse experience of raising more than 650 million equivalent in PKR in research funding from both national and international funding agencies such as Vinnova, SSF, Knowledge Foundation, ELLIIT in Sweden, EU-FP7 at European level and National ICT R&D Fund in Pakistan. I have worked in close collaboration with industrial partners such as ST-Microelectronics, Ericsson, Adapteva, Ambric, and Saab Electronic Defence Systems in these projects. I have put all my efforts in strengthening the existing collaborations between our group and the industrial partners and I have also been active in expanding our industrial network. The successful realization of such efforts can be seen in the form of four co-publications with the industry in highly reputed conferences.

In 2017, I had been appointed the Technology Area Leader (Systems of Cyber-Physical Systems) or Asstt. Dept. Head for the School of Information Technology at Halmstad University, where my role was to develop strategies for strong research and collaboration that could lead to robust project portfolio and funding. In this regard, I have worked to develop the strategy of focusing on the intersections between the three subjects i.e., innovation sciences, health sciences, and information technology.

At HEC, I have been managing research portfolio with an annual turnover of 3.5 Billion PKR. I have been instrumental in the digital transformation of the R&D Wing of HEC as well as introducing policy reforms to revamp the research grants framework and the research management system. The overall research grant framework was revamped in order to meet the national and local needs as well as achieve a much wider societal impact. The accreditation policy for the HEC recognized journals was revised to develop a transparent, comprehensive and object-oriented mechanism for promoting research originating from Pakistan in line with international best practices.

I have also played a pivotal role in raising funds for different programs for the higher education sector of Pakistan from international funding bodies such as World Bank, USAID, and British Council.