Hello, I'm Safia.
I am a Lecturer at GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, where I teach Data Science, Cloud Computing, Information Retrieval, and Big Data Analytics. I received my M.S. in Computer Science from FAST NUCES Karachi, where I also taught for over three years.
My research focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP), Large Language Models (LLMs), and Agentic AI, with an interest in developing trustworthy, human-centered AI systems. I investigate how language models and intelligent agents understand, retrieve, and utilize knowledge in multilingual and real-world settings — including multilingual/low-resource NLP, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and information retrieval and knowledge grounding.
I was awarded Outstanding Instructor by the Data Science Department at GIKI in May 2025, and I served as an instructor at the ML to LLM Summer Bootcamp in the same year.
Publications
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Towards Human-Centered Multi-Agent Systems: Integrating Cognition, Culture, Values and Cooperation in AI Agents
arXiv preprint · 2026
arXiv [arXiv:2606.08274] -
Governed by Agents: A Survey on the Role of Agentic AI in Future Computing Environments
arXiv preprint · 2025
arXiv [arXiv:2509.16676] -
Forecasting the Stability of COVID-19 Vaccine Companies Stock Market using LSTM and Time-Series Models
International Conference on Communication, Computing and Digital Systems (C-CODE / ICCDS) · 2023
Conference [IEEE] -
UrduTokBench: A Multidomain Tokenization Benchmark for Urdu NLP
In Preparation -
From Labels to Latent Topics: Benchmarking Text Mining Approaches on AG News
In Preparation
Experience
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Lecturer Oct 2024 – Present
GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Swabi
- Teaching Data Science, Cloud Computing, DevOps Lab, Information Retrieval, Big Data Analytics
- Coordinator, Data Science Students Summer Internships & Curriculum Committee
- Batch Advisor, DS Final Year Students
- Supervising FYPs including Health Atlas (AI-driven prescription digitization & disease mapping)
- Instructor, ML to LLM Summer Bootcamp (Jul–Aug 2025)
- Outstanding Instructor Award, May 2025
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Lecturer Jan 2021 – Sep 2024
FAST National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Karachi
- Taught Operating Systems, Discrete Structures, Data Structures, Parallel Distributed Computing
- Faculty Head, ACM Chapter (2021–22) and ACM-Women Chapter (2022–23)
- Supervised research on virtual therapy, ML-based TB detection, resume screening
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Instructor Aug 2017 – Dec 2020
FAST NUCES, Karachi
- Labs for Programming Fundamentals, Data Structures, Operating Systems, ICT Tools
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SQA Engineer Oct 2016 – Jun 2017
Ovrlod Pvt Ltd, Karachi
- Software quality assurance for product releases
Research & Project Supervision
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Health Atlas: AI-Driven Prescription Digitization & Disease Mapping
- OCR-based digitization of handwritten prescriptions with disease-distribution mapping for public health monitoring
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IntelliDentX: Automated Dental Lesion Detection and Root Canal Evaluation
- YOLOv11-based computer vision system for detecting dental lesions and evaluating root canal filling quality
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Stocks in Sight: Stock Market Forecasting Using Time Series Analysis
- PSX time-series forecasting for market behavior analysis and price prediction
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Tuberculosis Classification Using Machine Learning
- Multiclass TB classification framework using the ImageCLEF Tuberculosis dataset
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Virtual Therapy for Acrophobia and Claustrophobia
- Unity-based VR exposure-therapy application for fear of heights and confined spaces
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Automatic Resume Screening and Ranking System
- ML-based system to extract resume features and rank candidates against job requirements
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Lossless Compression of Vector Databases (CS412 Course Project)
- ANNS, IVF-based retrieval, Product Quantization, and Bolt compression for vector databases
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Improved Rational Retrieval Acts for Sparse Retrieval Models (Course Project)
- Context-aware retrieval and RSA-based enhancements for sparse retrieval models
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GraphReddit: Social Network Analysis and Community Detection on Reddit (Course Project)
- Neo4j-based interaction networks with PageRank, community detection, and sentiment diffusion analysis
Education
M.S. Computer Science · GPA 3.13/4.0
FAST NUCES, Karachi · 2017–2020
Thesis: Automatic Grading of Short Answers using Text Similarity Techniques
B.S. Computer Science
FAST NUCES, Karachi · 2012–2016
Sindh Endowment Scholarship · FYP: HuMa — Platform for Human-Machine Computations
Awards, Honors & Academic Service
Awards & Honors
- Outstanding Instructor Award, Data Science Department, GIKI — May 2025
- Member, Pakistan Youth Parliament — Nov 2025 – Present
- ML to LLM Summer Bootcamp Instructor, GIKI — Jul–Aug 2025
- MS Scholarship, FAST NUCES Karachi — Aug 2017 – Jul 2020
- 1st Prize, Inter-Board College Debate Competition, Karachi — Apr 2009
- Best Performance Award, Secondary School — May 2007
Academic Service & Leadership
- Academic Reviewer: ICETST 2024, ICIT 2024
- Team Member, ICPC Asia-Topi — Jan 2025 – Present
- Faculty Head, Literature Club Society, FAST NUCES Karachi — Jul–Sep 2024
- Faculty Head, ACM-Women Chapter, FAST NUCES Karachi — Aug 2022 – Jun 2023
- Faculty Head, ACM Chapter, FAST NUCES Karachi — Aug 2021 – Jun 2022
- Faculty Co-Head, Sportics Society, FAST NUCES Karachi — Aug 2020 – Jun 2021
- Head, Procom Flagship Event Creative Competitions, FAST NUCES — Apr 2019
- Judge, Procom Creative Competition (Sketching), FAST NUCES — Apr 2018
Technical Skills