Dr. Shahzad Akbar

Brief Bio

Dr. Shahzad Akbar is working as Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern Punjab, Multan, Pakistan. He is an HEC Approved PhD Supervisor and has more than 26 years of academic, research, and industry experience. He was a senior researcher at the Biomisa Research Group, EME, NUST, Pakistan and Post-Graduate Researcher at the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He served as a Managing Director at Index A Page Pty. Ltd., an Australian based software company.

His research interests lie in Digital Image Processing and Machine/Deep Learning, with extensive work on medical image analysis for the detection of hypertensive retinopathy, papilledema, glaucoma, central serous retinopathy, brain tumors, leukemia, melanoma, pneumonia, and other diseases. He has authored numerous high impact journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters, and continues to mentor postgraduate researchers in artificial intelligence and biomedical imaging.

Education
PhD Computer Science
COMSATS University Islamabad
2018
MS Computer Science
Islamia University Bahawalpur
2014
Professional Experience
Associate Professor
University of Southern Punjab, Multan
2026 – Till now
Associate Professor
Riphah College of Computing, Riphah International University
2023 – 2026
Assistant Professor
Riphah College of Computing, Riphah International University, Faisalabad Campus
2020 – 2022
Assistant Professor (IPFP)
Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan
2019 – 2020
Senior Researcher
Biomisa Research Group (www.biomisa.org), EME, NUST
2014 – 2019
Managing Director
Index A Page Pty. Ltd. (Australian Software Company)
2009 – 2014

Professional associations

Reviewer of reputed journals and conferences

Research Interests

  • Digital Image Processing
  • Machine Learning / Deep Learning
  • Medical Image Analysis
  • AI Systems

Research Impact:

  • Publications:  53
  • H-index: 24
Title Year Published Link
Akbar, S., Shahzore, U., Saba, T., Alamri, F. S., Khan, S. S., & Khan, A. R. (2025). Microscope-Assisted Hypertensive Retinopathy Diagnosis Using Deep Learning Models. Microscopy Research and Technique.
2025
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Hassan, S. A., Akbar, S., Shoukat, I. A., Khan, A. R., Alamri, F. S., & Saba, T. (2025). Deep Ensemble for Central Serous Microscopic Retinopathy Detection in Retinal Optical Coherence Tomographic Images. Microscopy Research and Technique.
2025
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Shahzore, U., Akbar, S., Shoukat, I. A., Rehman, A., Saba, T., & Sikder, T. (2025). A Vision Transformer-Based Framework for Detection and Classification of Soybean Leaf Diseases. In 2025 8th International Conference on Data Science and Machine Learning Applications (CDMA), pp. 138–143. IEEE.
2025
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Asim, T., Akbar, S., Shahzore, U., Rehman, A., Saba, T., & Ayesha, N. (2025). Retinal Image Analysis for Detection of Diabetic Macular Edema Using Transfer Learning. In 2025 8th International Conference on Data Science and Machine Learning Applications (CDMA), pp. 144–149. IEEE.
2025
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Safdar, K., Akbar, S., Shahzore, U., Iqbal, S., Ayesha, N., & Gull, S. (2025). Explainable AI for melanoma diagnosis through dermoscopic images: Recent findings and future directions. Explainable AI in Healthcare Imaging for Medical Diagnoses, 389–431.
2025
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Arif, R., Akbar, S., Gull, S., Ain, Q. U., & Ayesha, N. (2025). Automatic Detection of Leukemia through Explainable AI-Based Machine Learning Approaches: Directional Review. In Explainable Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging, pp. 79–102. Auerbach Publications.
2025
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Farooq, A. B., Akbar, S., Ain, Q. U., Naqvi, Z., & Urooj, F. (2025). Skin Cancer Detection and Classification Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Unbalanced Data: State of the Art. Explainable Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging, 124–146.
2025
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Hussain, M. M., Akbar, S., Hassan, S. A., Aziz, M. W., & Urooj, F. (2024). Prediction of student’s academic performance through data mining approach. Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering, 3(1), 241–251.
2024
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Hassan, S. A., Akbar, S., & Khan, H. U. (2024). Detection of central serous retinopathy using deep learning through retinal images. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 83, 21369–21396.
2024
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Shoukat, A., Akbar, S., Hassan, S. A., Iqbal, S., Mehmood, A., & Ilyas, Q. M. (2023). Automatic Diagnosis of Glaucoma from Retinal Images using Deep Learning Approach. Diagnostics.
2023
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Teaching & Supervision

Courses

  • Programming
  • Data Structures
  • Image Processing
  • Analysis of Algorithms
  • Machine Learning
  • Deep Learning

Supervision:

  • MPhil/MS: 33
  • Undergraduate: 87

Collaborations and Honors

  • Post Graduate Researcher – School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom (2017–2018)

Awards & Recognition

  • IRSIP Scholarship– Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (2017)

Collaboration

Active research collaborations with various International Universities

Contact