Professional Experience

Sep 2023 – Present

Postdoctoral Research Associate

AI4STEM Education Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

  • Lead researcher for NSF-funded projects using large language models (LLMs) for automated assessment, scoring, and rubric generation in STEM education.
  • Supervise and mentor teams of graduate/undergraduate students in AI tool development, ML model deployment, and education platform prototyping.
  • Conduct workshops/surveys to evaluate ML system usability in schools.
  • Integrated knowledge distillation for deploying efficient models in resource-limited settings.
Jan 2021 – Jul 2023

Graduate Research Assistant

School of Computing, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

  • Conducted research on multi-robot systems: localization, path planning, and autonomous exploration in dense/dynamic environments.
  • Collaborated with eight researchers on impactful robotics research projects.
Mar 2021 – May 2023

Research Assistant

College of Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

  • Developed software for automatic scoring of middle school science assessments.
  • Led software development and managed project tasks and discussions.
  • Trained ML models for natural language-based science assessments; worked on AI in education research.
Jan 2019 – Dec 2020

Research Associate

Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, PK

  • Worked at NSG Lab (Dr. Ihsan Ayyub Qazi) on mobile web optimization research.
  • Analyzed mobile web behavior under memory/processing pressure with cross-disciplinary team.
Aug 2018 – Jan 2019

Software Engineer

Strategic Systems International, Lahore, PK

  • Researched/implemented synchronization frameworks for heterogeneous systems.
  • Synchronized data from multiple sources; collaborated with healthcare-focused engineering team.

Teaching Experience

Spring 2024

Co-Instructor

College of Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

  • Course: ESCI 6250E, Social Scientific Issues in Science Education
  • Co-instructed with Dr. Xiaoming Zhai
  • Designed and graded formative/creative assessment tasks
  • Conducted book clubs and one-on-one sessions with students
Fall 2016 & Spring 2017

Teaching Assistant

School of Computing, NUCES, Lahore, PK

  • Course: Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing
  • Designed assignments and quizzes; evaluated projects
  • Mentored students in research and coding projects

Key Responsibilities & Achievements

Leadership

Led research teams and projects, managing technical and administrative aspects and mentoring junior researchers and students.

AI Research

Innovated in AI, machine learning, robotics, and educational technology, producing multiple high-impact publications.

Software Development

Designed and implemented AI-powered applications, ML models, and research frameworks using modern technologies.

Collaboration

Worked effectively across research domains, collaborating with educators, engineers, scientists, and industry partners.