AI scientist Dr Hamad Shirazi receives KP Pride Award

AI scientist Dr Hamad Shirazi receives KP Pride Award

BATTAGRAM:Artificial intelligence researcher Dr Syed Hamad Shirazi, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at Hazara University Mansehra, has received the *Pride of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Award* in recognition of his contributions to artificial intelligence, healthcare technology, scientific research and higher education.

Advisor to the Chief Minister on Sports and Youth Affairs, Taj Muhammad Khan Tarand, presented the award during the *8th Metrix Pakistan Youth Summit 2026* at Hazara University’s Battagram Campus. The summit attracted senior government officials, legislators, academics, researchers, industry experts and more than 3,000 students from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Dr Shirazi has built a strong reputation in artificial intelligence and medical image computing through more than a decade of research and academic work. His expertise covers machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, healthcare informatics and intelligent decision-support systems. His research aims to improve disease diagnosis and medical image analysis while advancing AI applications in education, climate science and sustainable development.

His research record includes over 50 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 30 appearing in HEC-recognised W-category journals. International journals such as *PLOS ONE*, *Computers in Biology and Medicine*, *BMJ Open*, *Neurocomputing* and *Neural Computing and Applications* have published his work.

Among his key achievements, Dr Shirazi led an HEC-funded National Research Programme for Universities (NRPU) project in collaboration with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre. The team developed a deep learning-based decision-support system for analysing anaemic red blood cells and created an open-access medical image dataset to support AI-assisted healthcare research.

He also leads another funded project that combines artificial intelligence, remote sensing and geospatial technologies to study climate change, glacier-fed water resources and agricultural crop mapping in Pakistan, providing data-driven insights for environmental planning.

According to academic citation databases, Dr Shirazi’s research has earned more than 1,400 citations, with an h-index of 19 and an i10-index of 31. His work spans medical image analysis, blood cell segmentation, thyroid disease detection, cervical nuclei analysis, healthcare AI, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and federated learning.

Beyond research, he has supervised 15 MS and five PhD scholars while mentoring postgraduate researchers in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, natural language processing, deep learning, remote sensing and medical imaging. He currently serves as Graduate Coordinator and AI Programme Coordinator at Hazara University.

Dr Shirazi previously received the Best Teacher Award from the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Research Productivity Award from COMSATS University. In 2025, he also filed a patent for an Urdu lip-reading system, highlighting his contributions to computer vision and language technologies.

Speaking at the ceremony, Taj Muhammad Khan Tarand praised researchers who strengthen Pakistan’s scientific and technological progress. He said the provincial government would continue supporting innovation and research to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and technology.

After receiving the award, Dr Shirazi thanked the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the organisers of the Metrix Pakistan Youth Summit. He said the recognition would encourage him to further expand research in artificial intelligence and healthcare while mentoring the next generation of scientists and developing practical solutions for Pakistan’s health and education sectors.

The Pride of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Award is jointly presented by the Directorate of Youth Affairs, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Metrix Pakistan to individuals who make outstanding contributions to education, scientific research, innovation, public service and the socio-economic development of the province.