Faculty

Dr David Taylor

Interim Pro-Vice Chancellor

Before joining AUW, David Taylor was for many years at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he became Pro-Director, Teaching and Learning, from 1998-2002. He then joined Aga Khan University in Karachi as Vice-Provost for Academic Development and worked there from 2002-2008. He also served as Interim Provost from 2003-2008. Later, he was appointed Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London from 2013-2017. He is a political scientist and historian with a longstanding interest in South Asia, which he first visited as a student in 1962.

Research interests and publications

David Taylor has conducted research on Indian political parties and elections, in particular the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Islamisation in Pakistan, the nature and origins of nationalism, and mass communication, particularly the Indian press. His publications include:

(ed. with Heewon Kim), Civil Society in South Asia (special issue of Journal of Civil Society, 17 (2021)

‘Pakistan: The Military as a Political Fixture’, in Peter Burnell and Vicky Randall, Politics in the Developing World, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 291-99.

(ed.) Islam in South Asia (4 vols) (London: Routledge, 2011)

‘Religion and Politics’, in Devin Hagerty ed., South Asia in World Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) pp. 213-30

(with Bharati Ray), Politics and Identity in South Asia (Kolkata: K.P. Bagchi, 2001)

‘The Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu Nationalism in India’, in Katja Fullberg-Stolberg et al. eds., Dissociation and Appropriation: Responses to Globalization in Asia and Africa (Berlin: Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 1999) pp. 151-65

Pakistan (Oxford: Clio Press, 1990, World Bibliographical Series, vol. 10)

‘The Indian National Congress: A Hundred-Year Perspective’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1987, no. 2 pp 289-305 (reprinted with minor additions in Institutions and Ideologies, D. Arnold and P. Robb eds. (London: Curzon Press, 1993), pp. 245-64)

‘The Politics of Islam and Islamization in Pakistan’, in James P. Piscatori ed., Islam in the Political Process (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) pp. 181-98

(ed. with M. Yapp), Political Identity in South Asia (London: Curzon Press, 1979)

‘Concepts of Duty held by Indian Nationalist Thinkers’, in W. D. O’Flaherty and J. D. M. Derrett eds, The Concept of Duty in South Asia (Delhi: Vikas, and London: SOAS, 1978) pp. 205-16

‘The Crisis of Authority in the Indian National Congress, 1936-1939’, in B. N. Pandey ed., Leadership in South Asia (Delhi: Vikas, 1977) pp. 321-40

Education

1966, University of Cambridge, BA History

1967, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, MA (Area Studies – South Asia)

1972, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, PhD (dissertation title – Indian Politics and the elections of 1937)

Dr Beena Khurana

Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs

I consider myself a poster child for international education and espouse that a global conscience (Pico Iyer) underpins ‘the day-to-day practice of international fellowship’.

As an educator I have successfully contributed to three aspects of higher education; teaching, research and administration in various educational institutions in the US (Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, California Polytechnic State University) and UK (Sussex University). I am passionate about students and focus intensely on creating rewarding and meaningful educational experiences.

Education

Ph.D.                Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 1992

M.S.                 Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1987

M.A.                 Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, 1982

B.A.(Hons)        Economics and Mathematics, Panjab University, Ludhiana, India, 1980

Research

I have published in journals including Nature, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, PLoS ONE, Vision Research, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, Experimental Brain Research, and Social Cognition. I have also co-edited a book titled Space and Time in Perception and Action (2010), Cambridge University Press.

Select Publications

Habibi, R. & Khurana, B. (2012). Spontaneous Gender Categorization in Masking and Priming Studies: Key for Distinguishing Jane from John Doe but Not Madonna from Sinatra. PLoS ONE 7(2): e32377. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032377

Khurana, B. & Nijhawan, R. (2010). Space and time: The fabric of thought and reality. In Romi Nijhawan and Beena Khurana (Eds.) Space and Time in Perception and Action (pp. 1-6). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Parkinson, J., Dyson, B. J. & Khurana, B. (2010). Line by line: the ERP correlates of stroke order priming in letters. Experimental Brain Research, 201(3), 575-586.

Khurana, B., Habibi, R., Po, J., & Wright, D.B. (2009). Jane versus John: Facial evaluation as a function of informative eye gaze. Social Cognition, 27, 150-160.

Khurana, B., Watanabe, K., & Nijhawan, R. (2000). Are moving objects ‘corrected’ or flashed objects attentionally delayed?  Perception, 29, 675-692.

Khurana, B. (2000). Face representation without conscious processing.  Chapter for The Neural Correlates Of Consciousness: Empirical And Conceptual Issues.  Cambridge, USA: MIT Press.

Khurana, B., Smith, W., Baker, M. (2000). Not to be and then to be: Visual representation of ignored unfamiliar faces.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 26 (1), 246–263.

Khurana, B. (1998). Visual structure and the integration of form & color information.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24 (6), 1766-1785.

Khurana, B. & Nijhawan, R. (1995). Extrapolation or attention shift?  Nature, 378, 565-566.

Khurana, B. & Kowler, E. (1987). Shared attentional control of smooth eye movements and perception.  Vision Research, 27, 1603-1618.

Dr Moinul Islam

Professor of Economics

Research

Professor Islam studies development economics, international economics, environmental economics, and monetary economics. His current research projects include:

“Consumers’ Attitude towards Eco-products/ organic Foods: Evidence from Bangladesh Cities” (With Mohammad N. Nobi)

“Households’ Willingness to pay to Avoid Water Logging in Bakalia of Chittagong City Corporation” (With Meherun Ahmed and Mohammad Nur Nobi)

“Influence of Parent’s Profession and Education on Student Performances at Tertiary Level: A Cross Country Study” (With Meherun Ahmed and Mohammad Nur Nobi)

Publications

Articles:

“Long Term Impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Economic Growth of Bangladesh” Allato Academic Studies, International Ataturk Alatoo University Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN (2016). Co-authored with Afroza Alam and Mohammed N. Nobi,

“A Demand for Money Function with Output Uncertainty, Monetary Volatility, and Financial Innovations: Evidence from Japan”: Research Journal for Management Sciences, Vol.4(5), pp.15-20 May (2015)

“Economic Growth, Economic Freedom, and Corruption: Evidence from Panel Data”: International Research Journal for Social Sciences, Vol.4(5), pp.37-42 May (2015)

Role of Rural Women in Environment Conservation: A Case Study of a Bangladesh Village (Co-authored With T.A. Chowdhury) submitted for publication in the forthcoming issue of International Research Journal for Social Sciences.

Working Papers/Reports:

“Estimating the Environmental Cost of Shrimp Farming in Coastal Areas of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh” (Coauthored with Mohammad N, Nobi)

“Does Facebook Reduce Unemployment? A Holistic Research on How Beauty Index Affects a Facebooker’s Chance of Getting Jobs” (Co-authored with Tram Pham)

Export Performance – Disadvantage of the landlocked countries (Co-authored with Kritika Kumari)

“Socioeconomic Disparities between Eastern and Western Part of Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis” (with Jeenat Binta Jabbar)

“Impact of Remittance Inflows on Economic Growth in South Asia: Evidence from Panel data” (with Jyothi Nair)

Migrants’ Remittance Income and its Impact on Households’ Savings in Nepal

Education

Ph.D. Economics, Southern Illinois University, USA

M.S. Economics, Illinois State University, USA

M.S.S. Economics, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

B.S.S. Economics, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

Dr AKM Moniruzzaman Mollah

Takeda Chair of Bioinformatics and Public Health

Dr Nazmul Alam

Associate Professor of Public Health

Dr Shane Brennan

Associate Professor of History and Classics

Shane Brennan is Associate Professor of History and Classics and teaches courses in the Core Program. He completed his doctorate in 2011 at the University of Exeter in the UK and subsequently taught at Mardin Artuklu University in the south-east of Turkey (2011-16) and the American University in Dubai, UAE (2016-22). He is the author of In the Tracks of the Ten Thousand and Xenophon’s Anabasis: A Socratic History and has co-edited books on subjects including ancient Greek history and national identity in Türkiye. He is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Teaching

Global History pre-1500

Introduction to Ethical Reasoning

Writing Seminar

Research

Brennan’s research interests are grounded in Anatolia and cut across several subject areas including classical historiography, ethnicity, and the Persian Empire. He is also interested in the societies of the contemporary Middle East, and in the question of early human settlement in the region, with especial curiosity about the prehistoric sites of Çatalhöyük and Göbeklitepe.

Authored Books

– Xenophon’s Anabasis: A Socratic History. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh (2022)

– On Binler’in İzinde: Adım Adım Türkiye, Suriye ve Irak (trans. Nihan Naiboğlu). Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları: Istanbul (2020)

Edited Books

– The Landmark Xenophon’s Anabasis. With David Thomas. Pantheon Books: New York (2021)

Book Chapters

– ‘From the Tigris to the Sea: The Problematic Geography of Anabasis Book IV’. Co-authored with Christopher Tuplin. Pages 105-29 in Xenophon’s Anabasis and its Reception. Edited by T. Rood and M. Tamiolaki. De Gruyter: Berlin (2022)

– ‘Classical Sieges of Byzantium’. Pages 63-79 in Byzantion’dan Constantinopolis’e İstanbul kuşatmaları. Edited by T. Kaçar and M. Arslan. Istanbul Research Institute: Istanbul (2018)

Journal Articles

‘The (Hi)story of a Technology in the Gulf: the case of man-made Irrigation Channels in Oman and Iran’ (forthcoming)

‘Theches: an Elusive Mountain’. Co-authored with Christopher Tuplin. Anatolian Studies 73: 129-49 (2023)

Book Reviews

– Llewellyn-Jones (L.) Persians: The Age of the Great Kings (Basic Books: New York, 2022). The Classical Review 73: 188-90 (2023).

– Baysal E. and Karakatsanis L., eds., Bordered Places: Bounded Times: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Turkey (BIAA Monograph 51: London, 2017). European Journal of Archaeology 22: 141-4 (2019)

– Kelly M. and Rose A., eds., Theories of History. History Read across the Humanities (Bloomsbury: London, 2018). International Network for Theory of History (2019)

Reference

– Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (ed., O. Nicholson). ‘Carchemish-Europos’, ‘Dibsi Faraj’, ‘Harran’, ‘Kilise Tepe’, ‘Odaenathus’, ‘Pagnik Öreni’, ‘Palmyra, empire of’, ‘Seleucia ad Calycadnum’, ‘Trebizond’, ‘Zenobia’, ‘Zeugma’. Oxford University Press: Oxford (2018)

– The Literary Encyclopaedia (Archaic and Classical Greek volume, ed. L. Swift). ‘Xenophon’s Anabasis’. www.litencyc.com (2018)

General

– ‘The Enduring Appeal of Xenophon’s Anabasis’. Literary Hub. 2021

https://lithub.com/on-the-enduring-appeal-of-xenophons-anabasis/

– Podcast on Xenophon. School of War with Aaron MacLean.

https://podcasts.apple.com/sv/podcast/ep-10-shane-brennan-on-xenophon/id1589160645?i=1000545618760

– ‘What about Turkey’s Kurds?’ The Arab Weekly. October 2017

Dr Simon Clarke

Director of the Core Program and Associate Professor of Philosophy

Simon Clarke is the Director of the Core General Education Program and teaches courses in PPE. He studied at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and received his doctorate from Oxford University. He taught at AUW in 2012-2014 before rejoining in 2022. He has also taught at the University of Canterbury (NZ) and the American University of Armenia. He is the author of Foundations of Freedom: Welfare-Based Arguments Against Paternalism (Routledge, 2012) as well as articles published in the Journal of Political Philosophy, Political Studies, Ethical Perspectives, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, and Journal of Applied Philosophy.

Research interests

Political philosophy, moral philosophy, bioethics, and the history of political thought.

Book Chapters, etc.

• ‘Populism in Armenia: A Conceptual Framework and its Application’, in Reinhard Heinisch (editor) Diverse Voices on Populism- New Insights from the European “Periphery” (Nomos Publishing, 2022, forthcoming).

Journal Articles

• Compulsory Vaccination and Nozickian Rights’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, forthcoming 2022.
• ‘Freedom and Happiness: Does freedom make people happy?’ Journal of Political Science: Bulletin of Yerevan University, volume 1, 2022.

Working Papers / Reports

• ‘The Case Against Mandatory Vaccination’, Dilemmas, Center for Population-Level Bioethics, Rutgers University, 2021.
• ‘Voluntary Euthanasia: For and Against’ Scoop, September 2020.
• ‘Was the Revolution Justified?’ EVN Report, November 2018.

Dr Shams Forruque Ahmed

Associate Professor of Mathematics & Computational Science

Dr P Mosae Selvakumar

Associate Professor in Chemistry

Dr Richard Sherman

Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Science

Professor Sherman offers courses in the Politics, Philosophy and Economics program. His research and teaching are in the area of international relations, with a focus on economic issues. He comes to AUW after holding academic positions at Syracuse University, Leiden University, the University of Utah, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Korea University, and the American University of Phnom Penh. He received the Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Washington.

Teaching

PPE 2020, Research Methods

PPE 3105, Foundations of International Relations

PPE/ECON 3500, International Political Economy

Research interests

International trade and financial policy

Politics and economics of migration

Political methodology and statistical computing

Political economy and microeconomic theory

Project involvements

Privatizing Commercial Diplomacy, a project on the role of domestic interest groups US-EU trade politics

Grants Obtained

Small grants from Syracuse University’s Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs Institute and Center for European Studies

Book Chapters, etc.

“Rational Compliance with Rationalized Bureaucracy,” in Christopher Clague (ed.), Institutions and Economic Development: Growth and Governance in Less-Developed and Post-Socialist Countries (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997): 316-340 (with Margaret Levi)

Journal Articles

“Foreign Direct Investment and U.S. Industry Demands for Trade Protection,” Review of International Political Economy vol. 16 no. 5 (December, 2009), pp. 778-802. (with Ka Zeng)

“Privatizing Commercial Diplomacy: Institutional Innovation on the Domestic- International Frontier,” Current Politics and Economics of Europe vol. 18 no. 3/4, 2007 (with Johan Eliasson)

“Trade Disputes and Non-State Actors: New Institutional Arrangements and the Privatisation of Commercial Diplomacy,” The World Economy vol. 29 no. 4, (April 2006): 473-489 (with Johan Eliasson)

“Delegation, Ratification, and US Trade Policy,” Comparative Political Studies vol. 35 no. 2 (December 2002): 1171-1197

“Targeting Democracies: Regime Type and America’s ‘Aggressively Unilateral’ Trade Policy,” Social Science Quarterly vol. 83 no. 4 (December 2002): 1063-1078

“Import Prices and the Political Economy of Tariffs: Evidence from Germany, Japan, and the United States, 1954-1994,” Economics Letters vol. 76 no. 1 (June 2002): 11-17

“Endogenous Protection and Trade Negotiations,” International Politics vol. 39 no. 4 (December 2002)

“Democracy and Trade Conflict,” International Interactions vol. 27 no. 1 (June 2001): 1-28

“Fairness and the Dynamic Stability of Institutions,” Journal of Conflict Resolution vol. 45 no. 3 (June 2001): 297-219

Dr Sayed Mohammed Nazim Uddin

Associate Professor of Environmental Science

Research

Dr Suparna Das

Assistant Professor of Economics

Dr Lutfun Nahar

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Dr. Nahar joined AUW in August 2022. She obtained her bachelor majoring in Computer Science from Asian University for Women in 2013. She received her MSc and PhD in Visual Informatics from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Before joining AUW she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Cyber Security in UKM. She actively publishes in various international journals and conferences in the field of educational technology, software engineering, artificial intelligence, deep learning and geospatial analysis.

Teaching

Introduction to Computing & Programming (CS50)

Research interests

Educational technology, Software Development & Usability engineering, Android programming, Artificial intelligence, Geospatial analytics, Deep learning, etc.

Journal Articles

Journal Articles

1. Lutfun Nahar, Riza Sulaiman, Azizah Jaafar (2022) “An Interactive Math Braille Learning Application to Assist Blind Students in Bangladesh”, Assistive Technology 34(02): 157–169, [ISI Impact Factor of 2020 is 2.431, a Q2 journal].
2. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Riza Sulaiman (2021) “Bangla Braille Learning Application (BBLA)” for Visually Impaired Students (VIS) in Bangladesh”, Interactive Learning Environments 29(5): 821–834 [ISI Impact Factor of 2020 is 3.928, a Q1 journal].
3. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Riza Sulaiman (2019) “Usability Evaluation of a Mobile Phone Based Braille Application “mBRAILLE””, Malaysian Journal of Computer Science, Special Issue 2019, p. 108-117, [ISI Impact Factor of 2018 is 0.65, a Q4 journal].
4. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Eistiak Ahamed, A. B. M. A. Kaish (2015) “Design of a Braille Learning Application for Visually Impaired Students in Bangladesh”, Assistive Technology, 27(3): 172-182, [ISI Impact Factor of 2014 is 1.679, a Q1 journal].
5. Lutfun Nahar, Riza Sulaiman, Azizah Jaafar, “Users’ Perception on Usability Aspects of a Braille Learning Mobile Application ‘mBRAILLE’, In book: Advances in Visual Informatics, 6th International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2019, Bangi, Malaysia, November 19–21, 2019.
6. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Riza Sulaiman, “Mathematics Education and Accessible Technologies for visually impaired students in Bangladesh”, 5th International Visual Informatics Conference, Putrajaya, 28-30 November 2017.
7. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, ABMA Kaish, “Mathematics Education for Blind: Current Scenario from the Blind Schools in Bangladesh”, 2nd International Conference on Special Education, Kuching, 31 July-02 August 2017.
8. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, “Bangla Talking Calculator for visually impaired students in Bangladesh”, 4th International Visual Informatics Conference, Putrajaya, 17-19 November 2015.
9. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, “Touch based braille technologies for visually impaired people in developing countries”, Visual Informatics International Seminar, Kuala Lumpur, 26-27 November 2014.
10. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Faheem Hussain, “DAISY: An Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired People in Bangladesh”, 2nd International Conference on Computer Engineering & Mathematical Sciences 2013 (ICCEMS 2013), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5-6 December 2013.
11. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Faheem Hussain, “School Based Information Center for the Rural People in Bangladesh”, 2013 IEEE Student Conference on Research & Development, Putrajaya, 16-17 December 2013.

Dr Zulfikar Alom

Assistant Professor of Computer Science - On Leave

Dr. Zulfikar Alom was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science from the University of Insubria, Italy, in October 2019. The title of his Doctoral Dissertation is “Enhancing Data Privacy and Security Related Process Through Machine Learning“. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Information and Communication Engineering from the Islamic University, Bangladesh in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He received the ICT Ministry Fellowship award from the ICT Division, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.  Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Coordinator of this program.

Courses

• Introduction to Computing and Programming (CS50)
• Database Management Systems
• Computer Communications Networks
• Software Engineering and Mobile Apps Development (iOS and Android)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
• Advanced Bioinformatics with Programming

Research

Dr. Alom’s main research interests are related to Cybersecurity, Malware detection, Big Data, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Social Networks Analysis, Machine/Deep learning, and security, privacy issues of the user-centric data management system and Bioinformatics.

Published Papers

1. Zulfikar Alom, Bikash Chandra Singh., Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Abdul Azim “Knapsack graph-based privacy checking for smart environments” International Journal of Computers & Security, 2021
2. Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, Zeyar Aung, Matloob Khushi, Josip Car, Mohammad Ali Moni “Early Stage Detection of Heart Failure using Machine Learning Techniques” International Conference on Big Data, IoT and Machine Learning (BIM), 2021
3. Dema Daoun, Fabiha Ibnat, Zulfikar Alom, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Abdul Azim “Reinforcement Learning: A Friendly Introduction” International Conference on Deep Learning, Big Data and Blockchain (DEEP-BDB), 2021
4. Dipankar Kumar Mondal, Bikash Chandra Singh, Shivazi Biswas, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim “SeizeMaliciousURL: A Novel Learning Approach to Detect Malicious URLs” International Journal of Information Security and Applications, 2021
5. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “A Deep Learning Model for Twitter Spam Detection” International Journal of Online Social Networks and Media (OSNEM), 2020
6. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “Helping Users Managing Context-based Privacy Preferences” 2019 IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC, 2019), pp. 100-107, Milan, Italy
7. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “Adapting Users’ Privacy Preferences in Smart Environments” 2019 IEEE International Congress on Internet of Things (ICIOT, 2019), pp. 165-172, Milan, Italy
8. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “Detecting Spam Accounts on Twitter” IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM, 2018), 1191-1198, Barcelona, Spa
9. Zulfikar Alom, Tapan Kumar Godder, Mohammad Nayeem Morshed, “Performance Analysis of Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET)” International Conference on Advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICAICT, 2016), Chittagong, Bangladesh
10. Zulfikar Alom, Tapan Kumar Godder, Mohammad Nayeem Morshed, Asmaa Maali, “Enhanced Spectrum Sensing based on Energy Detection in Cognitive Radio Network using Adaptive Threshold” IEEE International Conference on Networking, Systems and Security (NSysS, 2017), 138-143, Dhaka, Bangladesh
11. Zulfikar Alom, Tapan Kumar Godder, Mohammad Nayeem Morshed, “A Survey of Spectrum Sensing Techniques in Cognitive Radio Network” 2015 IEEE International Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICAEE, 2015), 161-164, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Papers Under Submission

1. Dema Daoun, Zulfikar Alom, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Abdul Azim “Reinforcement Learning in Blockchain-enabled IoT Networks Challenges”, International Journal of AI Communications.
2. Nilufa Yeasmin, Nosin Ibna Mahbub, Bikash Chandra Singh, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, “Analysis and Prediction of User Sentiment on COVID-19 Pandemic using Tweets”, International Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining.
3. Bikash Chandra Singh, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Muntasir Rahman, Mrinal Kanti Baowal, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Ali Moni, Mohammad Abdul Azim, “COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak in the Subcontinent: A data-driven analysis”, International Journal of Personalized Medicine.
4. Fabiha Ibnat, Jigmey Gyalmo, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, “Understanding World Happiness using Machine Learning Techniques” International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, (ICECIT) 2021
5. Khondoker Mirazul, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, Abdul Awal, “OLGBM: Optuna Optimized Light Gradient Boosting Machine for Intrusion Detection” International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, (ICECIT) 2021

Education

Ph.D. Computer Science, University of Insubria, Italy

M.Sc. Information and Communication Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh

B.Sc. Information and Communication Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh

Dr Tuhin Biswas

Assistant Professor of Public Health

Tuhin working as a Assistant Professor of Public Health at Asian University for Women. Before that, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research fellow (Group: Health and Society) at the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), the University of Queensland in Australia. A public health by training, Tuhin’s research focuses on understanding the social and economic consequences of health and demographic change, particularly in developed and developing countries. He has been collaborating with multidisciplinary researchers and institutions in countries including Australia, USA, UK, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. His research interest in obesity and co-morbidities development and early prevention, diabetes, hypertension, adolescent health, health system, health policy, systematic review and meta-analysis. He started his research career as a research fellow in one of the centre of excellence “Centre for Control of Chronic Diseases” at icddr,b which was established with funding support from National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), USA. His PhD research focused on double burden of malnutrition among the women in South and Southeast Asia and its geographical variation, health inequality and health achievement.

Project involvements

1. Exposure to Trihalomethanes in pregnancy and birth outcomes in Queensland: integrated data analysis and case studies for better policy and health outcomes.
2. Mobile phone-based technology to improve health, population and nutrition services in Rural Bangladesh.
3. Community based lifestyle intervention for diabetes management in Nepal: A clustered randomized trial.
4. Obesity prevalence and patterns of diet and physical activity among children and adolescents in urban areas in Bangladesh.
5. Prevalence Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases among the Elders in Old-age Homes in Bangladesh.
6. Mobile Phone Intervention for Increasing Adherence to Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes in an Urban Area of Bangladesh: a Randomized Controlled Trial.
7. Social and economic impact of diabetics in Bangladesh: a case–control study.
8. Early life exposure to famine and its influence on later life metabolic syndrome: protocol for a community-based study on 1974 famine exposed population in rural Bangladesh.
9. Prevalence of maternal depression of autistic children in Dhaka city and feasibility of implementing household-based training for parents.
10. Factors determining development of effective policy strategy to improve rural retention of medical doctors in Bangladesh.
11. Assessing emerging challenges and solutions on Faculty Development in the Health sector in Bangladesh.
12. Situation analyses of health, nutrition, and water, hygiene and sanitation among Undocumented Myanmar Nationals (UMN) and people in host communities in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh.
13. Determining the challenges and opportunities for strengthening NCD corners in Bangladesh: A situation analyses.

Journal Articles

1. Mannan A, Hasan MM, Akter F, Rana MM, Chowdhury NA, Rawal LB, Biswas T. Factors associated with low adherence to medication among patients with type 2 diabetes at different healthcare facilities in southern Bangladesh. Global Health Action. 2021 Jan 1;14(1):1872895.
2. Biswas T, Scott JG, Munir K, Thomas HJ, Huda MM, Hasan MM, de Vries TD, Baxter J, Mamun AA. Global variation in the prevalence of bullying victimisation amongst adolescents: Role of peer and parental supports. EClinicalMedicine. 2020 Mar 1;20:100276.
3. Biswas T, Scott JG, Munir K, Renzaho AM, Rawal LB, Baxter J, Mamun AA. Global variation in the prevalence of suicidal ideation, anxiety and their correlates among adolescents: A population based study of 82 countries. EClinicalMedicine. 2020 Jul 1;24:100395.
4. Islam MS, Biswas T. Prevalence and correlates of the composite index of anthropometric failure among children under 5 years old in Bangladesh. Maternal & child nutrition. 2020 Apr;16(2):e12930.
5. Islam SM, Uddin R, Zaman SB, Biswas T, Tansi T, Chegini Z, Moni MA, Niessen L, Naheed A. Healthcare seeking behavior and glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes attending a tertiary hospital. International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries. 2020 Oct 8:1-8.
6. Begum T, Saif‐Ur‐Rahman KM, Yaqoot F, Stekelenburg J, Anuradha S, Biswas T, Doi SA, Mamun AA. Global incidence of caesarean deliveries on maternal request: a systematic review and meta‐regression. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 2020 Sep 1.
7. Biswas T, Magalhaes RS, Townsend N, Das SK, Mamun A. Double burden of underweight and overweight among women in South and Southeast Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Advances in Nutrition. 2020 Jan 1;11(1):128-43.
8. Hasan MM, Magalhaes RJ, Ahmed S, Ahmed S, Biswas T, Fatima Y, Islam MS, Hossain MS, Mamun AA. Meeting the Global Target in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Care Services in Low-and Middle-Income Countries. Global Health: Science and Practice. 2020 Dec 23;8(4):654-65
9. Ahmed S, Pervin S, Biswas T, Chowdhury MA, Hasnat MA, Shuvra MM. Undiagnosed isolated systolic and diastolic hypertension subtypes and their correlates in Bangladesh: a nationwide Survey. Osong public health and research perspectives. 2019 Feb;10(1):12.
10. Biswas T, Townsend N, Magalhaes RS, Hasan M, Mamun A. Patterns and determinants of the double burden of malnutrition at the household level in South and Southeast Asia. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2020 Sep 2:1-7.
11. Rawal LB, Kharel C, Yadav UN, Kanda K, Biswas T, Vandelanotte C, Baral S, Abdullah AS. Community health workers for non-communicable disease prevention and control in Nepal: a qualitative study. BMJ open. 2020 Dec 1;10(12):e040350.
12. Biswas T, Townsend N, Magalhaes RS, Islam MS, Hasan MM, Mamun A. Current progress and future directions in the double burden of malnutrition among women in South and Southeast Asian countries. Current developments in nutrition. 2019 Jul;3(7):nzz026.
13. Das S, Fahim SM, Islam MS, Biswas T, Mahfuz M, Ahmed T. Prevalence and sociodemographic determinants of household-level double burden of malnutrition in Bangladesh. Public health nutrition. 2019 Jun;22(8):1425-32.
14. Rawal LB, Kanda K, Biswas T, Tanim MI, Poudel P, Renzaho AM, Abdullah AS, Islam SM, Ahmed SM. Non-communicable disease (NCD) corners in public sector health facilities in Bangladesh: a qualitative study assessing challenges and opportunities for improving NCD services at the primary healthcare level. BMJ open. 2019 Oct 1;9(10):e029562.
15. Biswas T, Townsend N, Islam MS, Islam MR, Gupta RD, Das SK, Al Mamun A. Association between socioeconomic status and prevalence of non-communicable diseases risk factors and comorbidities in Bangladesh: findings from a nationwide cross-sectional survey. BMJ open. 2019 Mar 1;9(3):e025538.
16. Biswas T, Haider MM, Gupta RD, Uddin J. Assessing the readiness of health facilities for diabetes and cardiovascular services in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ open. 2018 Oct 1;8(10):e0228
17. 1Das Gupta R, Gupta S, Das A, Biswas T, Haider MR, Sarker M. Ethnic predisposition of diabetes mellitus in the patients with previous history of gestational diabetes mellitus: a review. Expert review of endocrinology & metabolism. 2018 May 4;13(3):149-58.
18. GBD 2017 Causes of Death Collaborators (Tuhin Included). Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1736– 88.
19. GBD 2017 Population and Fertility Collaborators (Tuhin included). Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1995–2051.
20. GBD 2017 Mortality Collaborators (Tuhin included). Global, regional, and national age- sex-specific mortality and life expectancy, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1684–735.
21. GBD 2017 Risk Factor Collaborators (Tuhin included). Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1923–94.
22. GBD 2017 SDG Collaborators (Tuhin included). Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 2091–138.
23. Khandker NN, Biswas T, Khan AN, Hasib E, Rawal LB. Socio-demographic characteristics and tobacco use among the adults in urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Tobacco induced diseases. 2017 Dec;15(1):1-8.
24. Islam MS, Hussain MA, Islam S, Mahumud RA, Biswas T, Islam SM. Age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among female students in an urban area in Bangladesh. Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare. 2017 Jun 1;12:88-92.
25. Biswas T, Garnett SP, Pervin S, Rawal LB. The prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity in Bangladeshi adults: Data from a national survey. PloS one. 2017 May 16;12(5):e0177395.
26. Biswas T, Uddin MJ, Mamun AA, Pervin S, P Garnett S. Increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in Bangladeshi women of reproductive age: Findings from 2004 to 2014. PloS one. 2017 Jul 28;12(7):e0181080.
27. Rawal LB, Biswas T, Khandker NN, Saha SR, Bidat Chowdhury MM, Khan AN, Chowdhury EH, Renzaho A. Non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors and diabetes among adults living in slum areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh. PloS one. 2017 Oct 3;12(10):e0184967.
28. Biswas T, Islam A, Islam MS, Pervin S, Rawal LB. Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Bangladesh: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Public Health. 2017 Jan 1;142:94-101.
29. Biswas T, Pervin S, Tanim MI, Niessen L, Islam A. Bangladesh policy on prevention and control of non-communicable diseases: a policy analysis. BMC Public Health. 2017 Dec;17(1):1-1.
30. Islam SM, Biswas T, Bhuiyan FA, Mustafa K, Islam A. Patients’ perspective of disease and medication adherence for type 2 diabetes in an urban area in Bangladesh: a qualitative study. BMC research notes. 2017 Dec;10(1):1-8.
31. Uddin J, Biswas T, Adhikary G, Ali W, Alam N, Palit R, Uddin N, Uddin A, Khatun F, Bhuiya A. Impact of mobile phone-based technology to improve health, population and nutrition services in Rural Bangladesh: a study protocol. BMC medical informatics and decision making. 2017 Dec;17(1):1-9.
32. Islam SM, Niessen LW, Seissler J, Ferrari U, Biswas T, Islam A, Lechner A. Diabetes knowledge and glycemic control among patients with type 2 diabetes in Bangladesh. SpringerPlus. 2015 Dec;4(1):1-7.
33. Islam SM, Biswas T, Bhuiyan FA, Islam MS, Rahman MM, Nessa H. Injecting drug users and their health seeking behavior: a cross-sectional study in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Journal of addiction. 2015;2015.
34. Shariful Islam SM, Biswas T, Bhuiyan FA, Islam M, Rahman MM, Nessa H. Injecting drug users and their health seeking behavior: A cross-sectional study in dhaka, Bangladesh. Journal of Addiction. 2015 Jan 1;2015.

Dr Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury

Assistant Professor of Public Health

Dr. Chowdhury has recently joined as an Assistant Professor of Public Health. He will be conducting research activities besides teaching students. He received his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of South Carolina. Earlier, he has a prior experience of teaching as an Assistant Professor at BRAC University and also worked as an Assistant Scientist at icddr,b, a renowned research organization.

Dr. Chowdhury will be teaching Research Methods in Public Health. Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health, and Maternal and Child Health during this academic year.

Research interests
Maternal and Child Health, Implementation Research, Health Systems Research, Autism and disability, Migration and health, Gender based violence, and health disparities

Journal Articles

1. Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low-and-middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018. Kinyoki D, Osgood-Zimmerman AE, Bhattacharjee NV, Local Burden of Disease Anaemia Collaborators, Kassebaum NJ, Hay SI. Nature Medicine. 2021
2. Global, regional, and national mortality among young people aged 10–24 years, 1950–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. GBD 2019 Adolescent Mortality Collaborators. The Lancet. 2021
3. Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980–2019: a network meta-regression. GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators. The Lancet. 2021
4. Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2018.Bhattacharjee VN, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators. Nature Human behaviour. 2021
5. Mapping subnational HIV mortality in six Latin American countries with incomplete vital registration systems. Local Burden of Diseases HIV Collaborators. BMC Medicine. 2021
6. Subnational mapping of HIV incidence and mortality among individuals aged 15–49 years in sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–18: a modelling study. Local Burden of Diseases HIV Collaborators. The Lancet HIV. 2021
7. Are childbirth location and mode of delivery associated with favorable early breastfeeding practices in hard-to-reach areas of Bangladesh? Ali NB, Karim F, Billah SM, Hoque DME, Khan ANS, Hasan MM, Simi SM, Arifeen SE, Chowdhury MAK. PLoS ONE. 2020
8. The Interaction of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resiliency on the Outcome of Depression Among Children and Youth, 8-17 years old. Elmore A, Crouch E, Chowdhury MAK. Child abuse and neglect. 2020
9. Morbidity and mortality from road injuries: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. James SL, GBD collaborators. Injury prevention. 2020
10. The burden of unintentional drowning: global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study. Franklin RC, GBD collaborators. Injury prevention. 2020
11. Global injury morbidity and mortality from 1990 to 2017: results from Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. James SL, GBD collaborators . Injury prevention. 2020
12. Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality: methods and data used in Global Burden of Disease 2017 study. James SL, GBD collaborators . Injury prevention. 2020
13. Prevalence and factors associated with caesarean section in four Hard-to-Reach areas of Bangladesh: Findings from a cross-sectional survey. Karim F, Ali NB, Khan ANS, Hassan A, Hasan MM, Hoque DME, Billah SM, Arifeen SE, Chowdhury MAK. PLoS ONE. 2020
14. RELISH-DB a large expert-curated database for benchmarking biomedical literature search Brown P, RELISH Consortium, Zhou Y . Scientific data. 2019
15. Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search. Brown P, RELISH Consortium, Zhou Y. Database. 2019
16. Prevalence and risk factors of postpartum depression among women living in urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Azad R, Fahmi R, Shtestha S, Joshi H, Hasan M, Khan ANS, Chowdhury MAK, Arifeen SE, Billah SM. PLoS ONE. 2019
17. Prevalence and determinants of initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth: an analysis of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2014. Karim F, Khan ANS, Tasnim F, Chowdhury MAK, Billah SM, Karim T, Arifeen SE, Garnett SP. PLoS ONE. 2019
18. Quality of care during childbirth at public health facilities in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study using WHO/UNICEF ‘Every Mother Every Newborn (EMEN)’standards. Billah SM, Chowdhury MAK, Khan ANS, Karim F, Hassan A, Zaka N, Arifeen SE, Manu A. BMJ Open Quality. 2019
19. Competence of healthcare professionals in diagnosing and managing obstetric complications and conducting neonatal care: a clinical vignette-based assessment in district and subdistrict hospitals in northern Bangladesh. Khan ANS, Karim F, Chowdhury MAK, Zaka N, Manu A, Arifeen SE, Billah SM. BMJ Open. 2019
20. Ambiguous Genitalia – A social dilemma in Bangladesh: A Case Report. Chowdhury MAK, Anwar MR, Saha A. International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. 2018
21. Knowledge and Acceptance of HPV Vaccine for Cervical Cancer Prevention among Corporate Women in Bangladesh: A Mixed Method Study. Bhuiyan A, Sultana F, Islam JY, Chowdhury MAK, Nahar Q. BioResearch Open Access. 2018
22. A community-based cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) to evaluate the impact and operational assessment of “Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health Promotion Package”: Study Protocol. Hoque DME, Chowdhury MAK, Rahman AE, Billah SM, Bari S, Tahsina T, Islam T, Mori R, Arifeen SE. BMC Public Health. 2018
23. Domestic violence against women in urban slums of Bangladesh: A cross sectional survey. Chowdhury MAK, Rahman AE, Morium S, Hasan MM, Bhuiyan A, Arifeen SE. Journal of interpersonal violence. 2018
24. Child marriage: historical reality around the globe and in Bangladesh. Chowdhury MAK, Morium S. Archives of Psychology. 2018
25. Initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth and its determinants among normal vaginal deliveries at primary and secondary health facilities in Bangladesh: A case-observation study. Karim F, Billah SM, Chowdhury MAK, Zaka N, Manu A, Arifeen SE, Khan ANS. PLoS ONE. 2018

Working Papers / Reports

1. Report on demographic profiling and needs assessment of maternal and child health(MCH) care for the Rohingya Refugee population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Chowdhury MAK, Billah SM, Karim F, Khan ANS, Islam S, Arifeen SE. icddr,b. 2018

Education

Ph.D. Epidemiology, University of South Carolina, USA

MPH, BRAC University, Bangladesh

BMBBS, Chittagong Medical College, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

Dr Mukesh Kumar Gupta

Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences

Dr Ahmedul Kabir

Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Dr Raghunandan Reddy

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Dr. Reddy joined AUW in August 2021. Teaching core courses in social sciences to undergraduate students. PhD Sociology from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. Primary research areas are gender and labor process theory. Doctoral research focused on examining the way work practices and managerial discourses reproduce and sustain a gendered organization using Institutional Ethnography research framework in an Information Technology services organization in India. Published three research papers in ABDC B ranked international journal. Two decades of prior experience in managing organizational change and process management initiatives in Information Technology services organizations in India, USA, South Africa, South Korea and UK.

Research

Gendering of Organizations

Gendered Labor Process

Labor Process Theory

Bullying and Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Publications

1. Reddy, R., Sharma, A. and Jha, M. (2019), “Hegemonic masculinity or masculine domination: Toward a comprehensive social theory of gender”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 39 No. 3/4, pp. 296-310. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-08-2018-0133
2. Reddy, R. (2019), “Liberal gender equality and social difference: an institutional ethnography”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 39 No. 9/10, pp. 680-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-06-2019-0114
3. Reddy, R., Sharma, A. and Jha, M. (2019), “Gendered labour process: Exploration in an information technology services organization in India”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 39 No. 9/10, pp. 831-850. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2019-0144
4. Reddy, R. (2022). Crossing the Gender Chasm for Productive Field Engagement. The Qualitative Report, 27(12), 2744-2760. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5783

Dr Ayan Roy

Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics

I am an Assistant Professor in Bioinformatics at AUW. I joined AUW in the Spring of 2023. I am interested in teaching courses related to bioinformatics and computational biology that include multi-omics analyses, genome biology and evolution, computer-aided drug designing, R and Python programming, machine learning and AI. Previously I worked as an Associate Research Scientist in the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at the Columbia University, USA. I did my postdoctoral research from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I am a computational biologist with an expertise of 13 years in the fields of sequence analysis, multi-omics data analysis, evolutionary modeling and computer-aided drug designing. I hold a Ph.D. degree from the University of North Bengal, India.

Teaching

1. Advance Bioinformatics with Programming [COURSE CODE: BINF4000]
2. BIOL 1100: BIOLOGY I- LECTURE
3. BIOL.1101: BIOLOGY II LECTURE

Research Interests:

• Multi-omics analyses and predictive modeling using machine learning and AI
• Genome sequence analyses
• Codon usage biology
• Computer-aided drug designing
• Viral and bacterial pathogenomics

Project involvements:
1) Multi-omics analyses in long-COVID, Autism and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (in collaboration with Columbia University, USA)

2) Biomarker discovery in Autism using machine learning and AI (in collaboration with Columbia University, USA)

3) Computational drug design against coronavirus (in collaboration with Teesside University, UK and Mangosuthu University, South Africa)

2) Codon usage and evolution of pathogenesis in viral and bacterial pathogens causing human infections (in collaboration with South China Agricultural University, China)

Research Collaborations

• Prof Ian Lipkin, Columbia University, NY, USA
• Yongyi Shen, South China Agricultural University, China
• Claudio Angione, Teesside University, United Kingdom
• devashan Naidoo, Mangosuthu University, South Africa
• Balachandar Vellingiri, Central University of Punjab, India
• Surajit Basak, Scientist-C, ICMR, India

* I am currently accepting students for thesis, and Teaching Assistants

* I am looking for collaborations in multi-omics at AUW

Book Chapters.

Singh B, Roy A*. (2020). Metagenomics and Drug-Discovery. In ed. Metagenomics: Techniques, Applications, Challenges and Opportunities. Springer Nature.

Journal Articles

Journal Manuscripts (Published: 43)

Impact Factor: 274.563 (JCR Thomson Reuters impact factor)

Citations: 557

h-index: 13

i10-index: 16

Publications:

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BUYlhpsAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Publications:

1. Roy A, Guo F, Singh B, Gupta S, Paul K, Chen X, Sharma NR, Jaishee N, Irwin DM, Shen Y. (2021). Base Composition and Host Adaptation of the SARS-CoV-2: Insight From the Codon Usage Perspective. Frontiers in Microbiology 12:548275.(IF: 6.064)
2. Kar P, Saleh-E-In MM, Jaishee N, Anandraj A, Kormuth E, Vellingiri B, Angione C, Rahman PKSM, Pillay S, Sen A, Naidoo D, Roy A*, Choi YE. (2022) Computational profiling of natural compounds as promising inhibitors against the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 wild type and the variants of concern, viral cell-entry process, and cytokine storm in COVID-19. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry123(5):964-986. (IF: 4.480)

*Corresponding Author

Dr Ayan Saha

Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics

Dr. Ayan Saha is an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics at the Asian University for Women (AUW). Dr. Ayan has joined AUW during Fall, 2022. Before joining AUW, Dr. Ayan worked for a year and a half as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at East West University, Dhaka.

Dr. Ayan graduated from the University of Chittagong with a BSc (Hons.) in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology degree in 2012 and completed an MSc in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in 2013. Later, Dr. Ayan completed his second MSc in Translational Oncology degree in 2015 at the University of Hull, UK with a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship. There, he worked on the role of bisphosphonates (BPs) in the MMP-2 level of breast cancer. Later in 2016, Dr. Ayan went to Australia to start his doctoral research at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) under the TF Scholarship. His research focused on new treatments for high-risk paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. As part of his project, he developed a noble in vivo patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse model to study minimal residual disease (MRD) cells, identical with patient samples. Dr. Ayan received his PhD in medicine from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, in 2020.

Dr. Ayan has been awarded the National Institute of Physiological Sciences Internship with Fellowship, Japan-2014, Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, UK-2014 and Children’s Cancer Institute Completion Scholarship, Australia-2019.

Research interests

Cancer Biology, Clinical Epidemiology and Computational Biology

Project involvements

• Risk Factors Related to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Bangladesh.
• Genetics, clinical profile and risk factors of Down syndrome population of Bangladesh.

Journal Articles

• A Saha*, KKS Marma, A Rashid, N Tarannum, S Das, et al. (2022) ‘Risk factors associated with self-medication among the indigenous communities of Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh’. PLOS ONE 17(6): e0269622.
• TB Mahmood, A Saha, MI Hossan, S Mizan, SMAS Aman, and AS Chowdhury. (2021) ‘A next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis to reveal genomic and proteomic mutation landscapes of SARS-CoV-2 in South Asia’. Current Research in Microbial Sciences; Volume 2; 100065
• M Das, S Das, AT Bhuiyan, SD Nath, R Biswas, JD Gupta, A Ball, MJ Alam, MH Karim, RK Nath, and A Saha*. (2021) ‘Factors affecting the outcome of the usage of high-flow nasal cannula on severe or critically ill COVID-19 patients: a multicentric study from a developing nation’. Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research; 7(3), 260–272.
• A Saha*, MM Ahsan, T-U Quader, MUS Shohan, S Naher, P Dutta, et al. (2021) ‘Characteristics, management and outcomes of critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU in hospitals in Bangladesh: a retrospective study’. The Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene; Apr 29;62(1):E33-E45.
• FM Omar, A Saha, I Khan, Z Hassan, and L Ali. (2021) ‘Pro12Ala Polymorphism in PPAR-γ Gene of Impaired Glucose Tolerance Subjects in Bangladeshi Population’. (2021) Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 44 (2):179-89.
• A Saha*, MM Ahsan, T-U Quader, S Naher, F Akter, HMH Mehedi, et al. (2020) ‘Clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 infected diabetic patients admitted in ICUs of the southern region of Bangladesh’. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews; Dec 30;15(1):229-235.
• RH Chowdhury, I Bhuiyan, A Saha*, IMHAI Mosleh, S Mondol, and CMS Ahmed. (2014) ‘Identification and analysis of potential targets in Streptococcus sanguinis using computer aided protein data analysis’. Advances and Applications in Bioinformatics and Chemistry; Dovepress 7.45.
• RH Chowdhury, R Saha, KMM Islam, K Fatema, F Afrin, MM Hossain, and A Saha. (2014) ‘Analgesic and neuropharmacological effect on ethyl acetate extract of ipomoea pes-tigridis in albino mice’. European Scientific Journal; 10 (27): 344–353.
• KUM Ashraf, P Barua, A Saha, N Mahammad, J Ferdoush, D Das, MH Hussain, and JM Alam. (2014) ‘An immunoinformatics approach towards epitope based vaccine design through computational tools from Bungarus caeruleus’s neurotoxin’. Journal of Young Pharmacists; 6(2): 35–43.
• MM Rahman, R Habib, MA Hasan, MA Amin, A Saha, M Shohel, and A Mannan. (2013) ‘Comparative assessment on in vitro antioxidant activities of ethanol extracts from Averrhoa bilimbi, Gymnema sylvestreand, Capsicum frutescens’. Pharmacognosy Research; 6(1): 36–41.
• J Das, Z Datta, A Saha, SM Nur, P Barua, MM Rahman, KAA Chowdhury, MM Chowdhury, RH Chowdhury, and A Mannan. (2013) ‘A comprehensive study on antioxidant, antibacterial, cytotoxic and phytochemical properties of Averrhoa carambola’. Journal of Bioassay; 2:5.
• A Saha, MJ Alam, KUM Ashraf, and A Mannan. (2013) ‘Computational analysis of bovine alpha-1 collagen sequences’. Bioinformation; 9(1): 042–048.

*Corresponding Author

Working Papers / Reports

• Downregulated expression of APC and AXIN2 is aggravating multiple cancer prognosis: Evidence from a multi-omics study.
• Structural analysis and conformational dynamics of SOCS1 gene mutations involved in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.
• Prevalence and determinants of self-medication practices among general population: A cross-sectional study in Thimphu, Bhutan and Chattogram, Bangladesh.
• Risk factors associated with self-medication among the garments worker of Bangladesh.

Shélynn Riel

Senior Instructor of Writing & Composition

Shélynn started at AUW in August 2023, teaching in the Pre-UG and UG program. She has worked with adult learners of English for 15 years, specializing in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and Intercultural Communication. Shélynn served as an English Language Fellow with the U.S State Department, facilitating teacher training and development for novice and seasoned teachers in universities and language institutions across Argentina. Before going abroad, Shélynn held leadership positions in curriculum development and administration. She holds a Masters degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and a BA in Spanish Language and Literature.

Journal Articles

Journal Articles

“Book Review:  Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching: Creating responsible and ethical anti-racist practice by Suhanthia Motha.” Co-author. WAESOL Educator. Washington Association for the Education of Speakers of Other Languages. June 2022.

“Cultivating Advanced Integrated Skills with PBI.” TESOL Connections. TESOL Connections, TESOL

International Association. December 2020.

“Reflective Practice: The Key to Your PD.” ASOCOPI (Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés)

Webinar Series, co-presenter. Virtual. April 2023.

“Enhancing Your Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence (And Your Own!).” TESOL International Convention, presenter. Portland. March 2023.

“Strategies for cultivating media literacy in the EL classroom.”. TESOL International Convention, co-presenter. Portland. March 2023.

“PD in the post(?) pandemic world.” TESOL International Convention, co-presenter. Portland. March 2023.

“Integrating Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in ELT.” Invited panelist. Bridge Education Group, Virtual. August 2022.

“Social Media in the Language Classroom.” International Research Conference on Education, Language and Literature, co-presenter. Virtual. May 2022.

“The Power of Podcasting: How to Start an ELT Podcast.” International TESOL Conference, co-presenter.  Pittsburgh. March 2022.

“Augmenting Advanced Integrated Skills with Project-Based Instruction: E-Newspaper Edition,”

International TESOL Conference, presenter. Pittsburgh. March 2022.

“Augmenting Learner Engagement in Synchronous Hybrid Instruction.” American University of Iraq,

invited professional development consultant and presenter. Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. December 2021.

“Culture and Language in a Globalized World.” Developing Digital Citizenship Exchange, a collaboration between ECA, FHI360 & I-Earn USA. Invited panelist. Virtual. October 2021.

Joseph Voigts

Senior Instructor of Writing and Composition

Joe Voigts has been teaching Writing Seminar 1 for the UG Program and Advanced Writing for the Pre-UG Program since August 2023. Previously, he taught at universities and high schools in the United States, China, South Korea, Spain, Morocco, Greece, Italy, and Israel. Highlights include his 2019-2020 English Language Fellowship with the U.S. Department of State in Jerusalem, teaching Syrian refugees in a camp near Athens, and teaching World Literature at the University of Chicago Charter School just prior to joining AUW. He has a Master’s Degree in English and a TESOL Certification.

Mr Mohammad Masudur Rahman

Instructor of Performing Arts

Research

Sara Kohlberg

Instructor of Public Health

Sara earned her BS from New York University in Global Public Health and Food Studies, and her MPH from Columbia University in Population and Family Health and Humanitarian Assistance. Her research interests include Maternal, Child, and Infant Health and Nutrition, Reproductive Health, and Sustainable Food Systems.

Douglas Clark

Industry Professional Operations Management and Industrial Engineering

Douglas Clark has worked with the clothing and textile industries for over 35 years. He has worked alongside global brands in multicultural and multilingual leadership roles globally, spanning apparel manufacturing, textile manufacturing, clothing retail, raw material sourcing, quality management, laboratory testing, fibre & yarn technology, product development, and technical liaison in regional corporate quality and sourcing offices in Hong Kong, China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and South Africa. His career has provided him many opportunities to work with major multinational brands serving the US, EU, China and Japanese markets, across product & fabric development, fabric & garment sourcing, fabric & clothing production, total quality management, lean manufacturing, color management, testing & performance, process implementation & enhancement, and problem solving. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience through training, coaching, and support of individuals interested in the Fashion, Textile, and Apparel industries.

Dr Dipak C Jain

President Emeritus, Distinguished Professor of Marketing, CEIBS Co-Director of CEIBS Social Security and Aging Finance Institute Co-Chair of Academic Council of CEIBS Social Security and Aging Finance Institute

Dr. Dipak Chand Jain is a globally recognized marketing and innovation expert whose insights have inspired a generation of business leaders to pursue success with significance. Dr. Jain’s influential career spans nearly four decades as an educator, a senior business school administrator, and a consultant to corporations and governments. Throughout his career, he had furthered a pedagogical model that combines academic excellence and business relevance to produce high-impact results with social significance. Dr. Jain has previously served as Director of Sasin, Dean of INSEAD, and Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. In recognition of his many scholarly achievements and outstanding teaching, he was named the Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Professor of Marketing at Kellogg. Dr. Jain earned his Bachelor’s degree in Statistics with honors from Gauhati University, where he taught for four years before pursuing his PhD in Marketing at the University of Texas in Dallas. Dr. Jain’s areas of research expertise include the marketing of high-tech products; market segmentation and competitive market structure analysis; cross-cultural issues in global product diffusion; new product innovation; and forecasting models.

Dr Ellen Touchstone

Associate Dean for Responsible and Sustainable Business Education at the International Business School Suzhou (IBSS), Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Dr. Ellen E Touchstone is the inaugural Associate Dean for Responsible and Sustainable Business Education at the International Business School Suzhou (IBSS) @ XJTLU. She received her MBA in International Business from ASU Thunderbird School of Global Management and her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern California. In addition to IBSS where she teaches Introduction to Marketing, Retail Marketing, and Marketing Ethics, she has taught at the University of Southern California (USC), the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), California State University-Long Beach, California State University-Los Angeles and Whittier College. She also has significant industry experience having worked at LingualCare, a 3M company, Peoplesoft, and the US Department of Commerce as well as several US retailers such as Dillard’s, Target and Jack in the Box Inc. Under her leadership, IBSS was recently named the first and only Champion business school in China by the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) organization of the UN Global Compact. The carbon reduction initiative she launched with the Sustainable Future Talents student group, “Fifteen Ways in Fifteen Weeks,” won the AMBA BGA Best CSR & Sustainability Initiative 2022 award. In March 2022, she was named a “China Super Woman” by Shanghai-based Green Initiatives for her work on environmental and gender equity initiatives in the Yangtze River Delta.

Dr Juergen Seufert

Lecturer of Accounting at Shanghai University for Science and Technology

Dr. Juergen H. Seufert received his PhD from the University of Wollongong, Australia, for his thesis on Qanta’s marginal abatement cost curve in the context of late capitalism and climate change. His research is multidisciplinary, ranging from environmental efficiency in economics to environmental management accounting in accounting. Specifically, his work in environmental management accounting focuses on the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve as an investment tool to save CO2 and cut costs. Dr. Seufert is currently an Accounting lecturer at Shanghai University for Science and Technology, in addition to holding visiting positions at various internationally recognized universities such as the University of Aberdeen, the University of Northern Iowa, Anglia Ruskin University, and Tongji University. Dr. Seufert also serves on various editorial boards of international academic journals. Previously, he was a CPA Australia Fellow and worked as an accountant and auditor at Ernst & Young. His teaching blends academic contemporary insights with practical insights from executive training inside and outside of China.

Dr Steven White

Associate Professor, Asian Institute of Technology

Dr. Steven White received an Ph.D. from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, an MA from the International University of Japan, and a BS from Duke University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Management at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing. His research focuses on innovation, entrepreneurial strategy, and the emergence of new industries and ecosystems, and he teaches on strategic analysis, design thinking and entrepreneurial management. Since 2015, Dr. White has been recognized annually as one of the top 20 China-based management scholars based on his publications and citations. He is also an angel investor and provides strategic advice to new ventures.

John Storm

Director of EMBA Programs, University of Aberdeen

John Storm is an experienced entrepreneur, with 15 years of practice in strategic planning and leading teams across 30 countries. Merging the academic and corporate worlds together, he currently assumes the role of Executive MBA Programme Director at the University of Aberdeen, concurrently holding positions at Emlyon Business School, SKEMA Business School and the Asia-Europe Business School. He is also the co-founder of Outlander Consulting, a training organization that focuses on delivering character and leadership training in South-East Asia. John lived and worked in China for 10 years prior to returning to Scotland in early 2020, and between 2017-2020 was a partner at Suzhou Nuowander, a China- based company that delivered communication and entrepreneurial training to students in partnership with local government and universities. He continues to proactively engage with business, regularly developing consulting and/or leadership development training programmes across 3 continents.

Jon Newton

Adjunct Professor, NYU Shanghai

Jon Newton received his master’s degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Cambridge in addition to an MBA from NCKU, and is currently completing his doctorate in Business Administration, specializing in Organizational Psychology. He is also an adjunct assistant professor of Management at New York University Shanghai, where he teaches within the NYU Stern Master’s in Organization Management and Strategy and the Tandon Master’s in Technology Management programs. With over 20 years of Chinese business experience, Jon brings a unique blend of practitioner expertise combined with his passion for sharing his lifelong learnings. He is a regular keynote speaker for visiting business schools on local business insights, team building, and entrepreneurship in China. Outside of running his own business interests, Jon’s teaching practice focuses on the social dynamics of team building and business negotiations as well as making sense of the psychological motivations behind work, especially in entrepreneurial or start-up contexts.

Dr Lin Wu

Assistant Professor in Operations Management Nottingham University Business School

Lin Wu is Assistant Professor in Operations Management in Nottingham University Business School. She teaches modules on Operations Management, Supply Chain Management and Facilities Planning. Lin’s research looks at digitalization and sustainability issues in the global supply chain, with a focus on food and manufacturing sectors. Her work has been published in leading academic journals, such as Journal of Business Research, Annals of Operations Research, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Business Strategy and the Environment.

Dr Deepasri Baul

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Deepasri Baul, a historian of modern East Asia, completed her PhD in modern history from the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2019. Deepasri’s specialisation in urban history is inspired by a desire to historicise and document the residents, neighbourhoods and public life of Delhi, the city she grew up in.  Her research analyses how urban space is produced through the intersection of religion and property in late colonial Delhi. In doing this, she shifts focus away from dominant planning and state-centric approaches to urban history and redirects it on public action and street politics to build bottom-up narratives about the city. Currently, she is in the process of turning her doctoral project into a book manuscript.

Before she joined AUW, Deepasri was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in IISER, Mohali. In her time at IISER, she published parts of her research both in academic journals and public-facing platforms. Additionally, she co-taught and co-supervised graduate students and PhD scholars along with her mentor.

Besides research, Deepasri is deeply invested in teaching as a way to make young people more receptive to the politics of the past. She has been a lecturer at the University of Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women between 2006 and 2011. She has also been part of a number of instructional and pedagogical projects involving the creation of courses and accessible academic material for undergraduates, senior school students as well as government school teachers in India. As part of archival projects undertaken by the Max Weber Stiftung India, Deepasri has been collating local histories, religious texts and tourist guides from north Indian towns that have remained, for the most part, delegitimated in official historical narratives. Deepasri is also collaborating with historian Anish Vanaik for a public history project to develop, in the future, an interactive, open-source website that employs geo-spatial mapping to provide information on neighbourhoods in modern Delhi.

Dr Timothy DeMay

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Timothy DeMay, an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities starting in August 2023, received his PhD in English Literature from the University of Chicago in 2022. His dissertation, Occupations: A Repertoire of Experimental Political and Artistic Practices, documented the post-WWII avant-garde in relation to coterminous social movements and acts of political resistance. Additionally, Tim holds an MA in French from Middlebury College, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland and a BA in Philosophy and English from Northwestern University.

Alongside postcolonial literature and avant-garde studies, Tim studies languages and translation from academic and literary perspectives. His courses range from a theory survey through the genre of the manifesto, studies of post-war experimental literature, and creative writing workshops. His current project, a revision of the dissertation, focuses on the concept of the “repertoire” as used in performance studies and political sociology. He is also writing an article on the postal system and “opaque networks,” and finishing a fiction manuscript called Trade. Outside of his academic and writing interests, Tim has volunteered with refugee communities in France and the US, enjoys hiking and climbing, and looks for any opportunity to learn pieces of new languages.

Dr Stanford Howdyshell

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Stanford Howdyshell, an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities starting in August 2023, received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida in the Spring of 2023 after defending his dissertation The Ontological Grounds of Reason: Psychologism, Logicism, and Hermeneutic Phenomenology. While at USF, he also earned a Comparative Literary Studies Graduate Certificate for his work on the intersection of philosophical hermeneutics and literary criticism. Before attending USF, he earned an M.A. in Philosophy from Kent State University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Akron.

His primary research interest is the relationship between lived experience, reason, and the development and standards of knowledge, primarily from the standpoint of the phenomenological tradition. His research can be seen in the Pluralist and the Open Journal of Philosophy. He currently has articles under review by Philosophical Psychology and the Journal of Science and Engineering Ethics.

Stan has a track record of service to, and promoting equity within, the academic community. While at KSU, Stan was the founding president of the university’s Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) chapter. Then, at USF, he served as the local MAP chapter’s Treasurer and then Vice President. He also served as the Treasurer of USF’s Philosophy Graduate Student Organization.

Stan is also passionate about teaching philosophy to undergraduates. He has taught a diverse set of both introductory and upper-level courses, ranging from Introduction to Philosophy to Existentialism and Biomedical Ethics. This has given him experience teaching diverse bodies of students at all levels of undergraduate education.

Dr Francesca Pierini

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Francesca Pierini, an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at the Asian University for Women since January 2023, received her PhD in Cultural Studies from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. Drawing from Postcolonial and Cultural Studies, Francesca’s PhD thesis explores the literary construction and representation of Southern European otherness in Anglophone literary and popular fiction from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. Additionally, she holds her MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Francesca’s academic interests include Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Anglophone Literary Representations of Italian Culture, and the Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Romance Novel. Recent publications include the articles “Roma Spelled Backwards: Love and Heterotopic Space in Contemporary Romance Novels Set in Italy” in The Routledge Companion to Romantic Love (2021), and “Imploding Fireworks: Love and Self-knowledge in the Contemporary Italian Sentimental Novel” in the edited volume Love and the Politics of Intimacy (2023), Bloomsbury UK. She has published over 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes along two main axes: the topic of the Anglophone representation of Southern Europe in literary/popular novels, and the topic of popular forms of literature, especially the romance novel. She also published theoretical work, such as a book chapter on the emergence of postcolonial discourse analysis following the philosophic encounter between Edward Said and Michel Foucault.

Francesa is a former Adjunct Lecturer at the English Department of University of Basel in Switzerland, and a former postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. Currently, she teaches a yearly seminar on the popular Anglophone romance novel at the University of Regensburg in Germany. In addition, she has taught courses in Anglophone Representations of Italian Otherness, the literary Anglophone romance novel, and Critical Theory. While lecturing at University of Basel in 2021, Francesca received a nomination for The University of Basel Teaching Excellence Award.

Dr Suvaid Yaseen

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Suvaid Yaseen is historian of Kashmir and South Asia with research interests in modern Islam and social movements, political and intellectual history from below, contested sovereignties across the globe, and historical imaginations beyond nations and empires. He received his PhD from Brown University, where his dissertation received the History Department’s Distinguished Dissertation Award and Brown University’s Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award in Social Sciences in 2023. He also has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi, and an MPhil in Political Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

His book project based on his dissertation, “Islamic Intersections: Religion and Politics in Kashmir in the Long Twentieth Century,” examines intersections between Islamic reform, colonial modernity, and literary cultures from the late nineteenth century until the present. While centered on the hitherto unexamined lives and thought of poets, educators, ulema, activists, and rebels in Kashmir, it thinks deeply with other liminal spaces across South and Central Asia and the Middle East more broadly. This project rethinks the study of Islam in South Asia by moving beyond colonial and postcolonial historiographies; broadens the framework of Islamic discursive tradition beyond known foundational figures and movements; proposes the concept of an intellectual history from below to interrogate Islamic movements on their own terms; and thinks through the potentials of poetry, biography, and religious newspapers as sources for a complex and nuanced rendering of contentious histories.

After defending his PhD in August 2022, he was a Visiting Lecturer in History at Mount Holyoke College where he taught courses on anticolonial thought, history beyond empires and nations, Muslim politics in South Asia, and history through film. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in History at Brown University.

Matthew Glotfelter

Director of Pre-Undergraduate Programs

Senior Instructor of English

MS, Linguistics

CELTA

Rehana Khan

Director of General Studies

MA, English Literature

Master Trainer ELT

John Remarek

Pre-Undergraduate Registrar

Sharmin Rahmatullah

Promotion: Senior Instructor

Ashfeen Aribea

General Studies: Senior Instructor

MA, Molecular Biology

Kausar Ferdous

ESL Intensive: Senior Instructor

MA, English Literature

MA, ELT

Afrida Oishee

Admissions & Testing: Senior Instructor

MA, Disaster Management
(ACCESS)

Education

Md Noman Udin

Mathematics: Senior Instructor

MA, Mathematics

Noman was a member of the mathematics Faculty at Asian University for Women (AUW) for over seven years (From 2010 July to 2017 December). During this time, he worked to develop Mathematics Curriculum and implementing several large scale projects at AUW. In 2018 he went to University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia, for higher study in Mathematics. In 2021 he came back to AUW and join as an instructor of Precalculus in the Access Academy (AA). His responsibilities include lecturing, develop clear learning objectives and prepare comprehensive syllabi.

He received MS degree specialized in Mathematical Science from the university Technology Malaysia, Malaysia. He received a special Award by Faculty of Science University Technology Malaysia 2021. He also obtained Bsc (Hons) in Applied Mathematics from the university of Chittagong.

Research

Cosmology, Partial differential Equations (PDE)

Abdul Wahid

Reading & Writing: Instructor

Master of Education (TESOL)

Cambridge CELTA

Wahid has four years of experience in teaching English at tertiary level. Before joining AUW as a Language Instructor, he taught Language and Linguistics at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) and at IUBAT – International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka. He completed his Master of Education (TESOL) from the University of South Australia (UniSA), with a thesis in refugee education. Wahid also has a CELTA from the British Council. Previously, he worked as an Interpreter in Africa under the United Nations for some time. During his University years in Adelaide, he attended the evening school of ‘Ann Peter’s School of Acting’ which sparked his interest in psychology of human behavior and communication. His research interest includes inner speech and bilingualism, psychology of language, education psychology and the like.

Master’s Thesis:

“Factors that affect the academic performance of African refugee students at UniSA”

Conference Paper:   

1. Wahid, “Learning and Education – shouldn’t they be same? : A conceptual review”. In the pursuit of Quality in Higher Education: Challenges Ahead, (2019).

Working Paper:

“Intervention of Self-limiting L1 Inner Speech during L2 Presentations: A Study of Bangla-English Late Bilinguals”

Supervised Theses:

Postgraduate

1. Face to Face and Online ELT Classes: A Comparative Study
2. Academic Self-concept and Academic Performance: A Co-relational Study
3. Role of L1 in English Language Learning and Teaching: A Perspective of Schools in Bangladesh
4. Challenges in Adapting Reading Materials in an ELT Class: A Case Study

Undergraduate

5. The Role of Previous Knowledge in Reading Comprehension
6. Individual Learner Differences and Speaking Performance : A Case Study
7. Persuasive Techniques used in English Bulletins in Bangladeshi Television Channels
8. First Language Acquisition of A Three Year Old Bangladeshi Child : A Case Study

Conducted Workshops:

“Your Language Thoughts, Your Language Reality”; 2^nd September 2019; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) Auditorium.

“You Are Who You Think You Are”; 3rd April, 2019; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) Auditorium.

“Self-development and Learning”; 13th November, 2018; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) Auditorium.

Umme Aymun Siddiqua

Computer Studies: Instructor

MA, Computer Science

Umme Aymun Siddiqua received B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2016 and her M.Eng. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan in 2019. Currently, she is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at Asian University for Women. Her research interests include natural language processing, multimodal opinion mining and knowledge discovery from social media data especially stance detection, sentiment analysis, emotion analysis, and hate speech detection using deep learning. She is the author or co-author of several articles in journals, conferences and research workshop contributions and presented her research at national and international conferences in the USA and China. She has received recognition for her excellent academic performance and research activities, including Merit-based Scholarship, Monbukagakusho Honors Scholarship and Best Paper Award.

Courses Teach:

Introduction to Computing and Programming
CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science by Harvard University (Lab)

Research Interests:
Natural Language Processing
Social Media Analysis
Multimodal Opinion Mining and Knowledge Discovery
Computational Linguistics
Machine Learning
Deep Learning

Journal Articles

Tweet Stance Detection using Multi-Kernel Convolution and Attentive LSTM Variants
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems (IEICE TOIS), Vol.E102-D, No.12, pp.2493-2503, December 2019.

Exploiting Transfer Learning and Hand-Crafted Features in a Unified Neural Model for Identifying Actionable Informative Tweets
Abu Nowshed Chy, Umme Aymun Siddiqua, and Masaki Aono
Journal of Information Processing, Vol.29, pp.16-29, January 2021.

Peer-Reviewed International Conferences

A Neural Network Model to Identify the Crisis-related Actionable Informative Tweets for Disaster Management.
Abu Nowshed Chy, Umme Aymun Siddiqua, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP), 5-7 June 2020, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Best Paper Award (as a co-author)

Tweet Stance Detection Using an Attention based Neural Ensemble Model
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 2019 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT 2019), ACL, 2-5 June 2019, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Stance Detection on Microblog Focusing on Syntactic Tree Representation
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
3rd International Conference on Data Mining and Big Data (DMBD 2018), Springer, 17-22 June 2018, Shanghai, China.

Combining a Rule-based Classifier with Ensemble of Feature Sets and Machine Learning Techniques for Sentiment Analysis on Microblog
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Tanveer Ahsan, and Abu Nowshed Chy
International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT 2016), IEEE, 18-20 December 2016, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Combining a Rule-based Classifier with Weakly Supervised Learning for Twitter Sentiment Analysis
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Tanveer Ahsan, and Abu Nowshed Chy
International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET 2016), IEEE, 28-29 October 2016, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

International Research Workshops

KDEHatEval at SemEval-2019 Task5: A Neural Network Model for Detecting Hate Speech in Twitter
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 13th International Workshops on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval 2019) ACL, 6-7 June 2019, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Neural Networks and Support Vector Machine based Approach for Classifying Tweets by Information Types at TREC2018 Incident Streams Task
Abu Nowshed Chy, Umme Aymun Siddiqua, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 27th Text REtrieval Conference (TREC 2018), NIST, 14-16 November 2018, Maryland, USA.

Publication Records Summary:
https://scholar.google.co.jp/citations?user=zVDq8EAAAAAJ&hl=en

Homayra Binta Hafiz Silvee

Listening & Speaking: Instructor

Education

MA, Literature in English

Teaching

Presentation Skills

Debate and Public Speaking

Arif Chowdhury

Learning Center: Instructor

MA, ELT
(General Studies, ACCESS)

I have been teaching at AUW in General Studies Program for developing four language skills for more than 5 months and I am currently teaching academic Reading and Writing at AUW’s Pre-UG (Access) program.

Previously, I have taught various ESL, EFL and Academic English, and departmental courses at Huddersfield University, British Council recognized English language centers, UK and University of Creative Technology Chittagong.

My academic qualifications include a master’s degree from London Metropolitan University in Int’l ELT and Applied Language Studies; a Trinity CertTESOL; a Teaching English for Academic Purposes (TEAP) certificate from London School of Economics (LSE); and more than 10 years of experience as an educator.

Mehzabeen Zaman

Pathways: Junior Instructor

BS, Environmental Science
(General Studies, Pathways)

Mehzabeen joined as Junior Instructor for pathways in January 2022, a long-held aspiration of her started when pathways began its journey back in 2016. Besides teaching English curricular she is determined to be a great mentor for her students building confidence in their personal and professional lives. She hopes for her students to be higher achievers in their lives and serve as a strong woman in their community. Previously she served as a residential life coordinator at AUW where she acted as mentor, advisor and trusted friend to the residential students.

Majored in Environmental Science and minored in Development Studies from Asian University for Women.

Kerri Nicol

Senior Instructor

Kerri Nicol is a new Senior English Instructor in the AUW Foundation program. She has a bachelor’s degree in ESL Education from Canada and a master’s degree in TESOL from Australia. She has been teaching ESL and EAP for over 25 years in Asia, Europe, Australia & Canada. She has taught at many international schools, universities and in English language schools in these regions.

Teaching

Language & Composition (Writing), Level 2 Foundation

Reading Course, Levels 2 & 3 Foundation

Ashraf Siddique

Senior Instructor

MA, TESOL

CELTA

DELTA

Sharmin Siddiqui

Senior Instructor

Sharmin Siddiqui started as a senior instructor at the Asian University for Women, Chittagong, in September 2023. She began her career in January 2007 as a teaching assistant at Southeast University Bangladesh. After that, she joined Stamford University Bangladesh as a lecturer in English in February of the same year. She was employed as an English lecturer at King Khalid University in Abha, Saudi Arabia, in 2009.  From September 2009 to August 2023, she worked at King Khalid University.

Sharmin Siddiqui completed her BA (Hons) in English and MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Teaching

Reading across the Disciplines 6

Reading across the Disciplines 5

Language and Composition 5

Research interests

Sociolinguistics, ELT, Psycholinguistics, Second Language Acquisition

Md Aftab Uddin Chowdhury

Senior Instructor

Md. Aftab Uddin Chowdhury joined as a Senior Instructor of English at the Asian University for Women (AUW) in 2023. He had previously worked as an Assistant Professor in English at the State University of Bangladesh (SUB) for almost three years and as a Lecturer in English at BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL) for nearly seven years. Prior to joining BRAC University, he had been working as a Research Assistant in the Department of English and Modern Languages at North South University. He also completed the E-Teacher course offered by Oregon University, USA in 2014. To his credit, he was selected for the English Language Program Award by the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh for attending the ‘TESOL Certificate: Advanced Practitioner’ program offered by TESOL International Association in 2015-2016. In addition, he completed his (PGCHE) in Higher Education at Falmouth University, UK in 2018-2019 and his M.A. in English (Linguistics) at North South University in 2012. He is also keenly interested in research and publication and has had some of his research articles published in international journals.

Teaching

Reading Across Discipline (RAD) with level 5 and level 6

Research interests
Discourse Analysis, Classroom Management, Classroom Instruction, Curriculum Development

Journal Articles

1. Chowdhury, A. U., & Mohammad Akteruzzaman. (2021). The application of guided peer feedback in facilitating L2 writing: Action research with tertiary-level language learners in Bangladesh. The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 171–185.
2. Chowdhury, A. U., & Akteruzzaman, M. (2015). Teaching the Structures of Academic Writing Through Peer Review: A Study on the Beginners of English Language Courses at BRAC University. GSTF Journal on Education, 3(1).
3. Akteruzzaman, M., & Chowdhury, A. U. (2015). Transforming Ineffective Feedback of the Students to Effective Feedback: A Study on the Students of ENG 091 and ENG 101 of BIL at BRAC University. International E-Journal of Advances in Education (IJAEDU), 1(2).

Troyee Barua

Instructor

I am the instructor of mathematics in the Pre-UG program from spring 2023. I also worked as an instructor of Physics at AUW’s access academy from 2019-2020. Previously, I was a Principal of Bharateswari Homes, a residential school and college from Sep 2020 to Dec 2023. Moreover, I taught Mathematics and Physics in the Cambridge curriculum and the National Curriculum of Bangladesh. I actively participated in numerous training sessions conducted by local and international experts on teaching methods, student psychology, administration, leadership skill, etc.

I received B.Sc. (Hons) and an M.Sc degree in physics. Further, I completed a master of philosophy in medical physics. I also completed a Bachelor of education course.

Research

Research interests: Naturally Occurred Radioactivity and Heavy Metals Concentrations in Wild Mushrooms in Chittagong Hill Tracts Area of Bangladesh

Grants Obtained:

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology

Publications:

• Barua, T., Bhuian S. I., Hossain, S. et al. J Radiational Nucl Chem (2019) 322: 173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06579-6.
• Barua, Troyee;  Khandaker, Mayeen Uddin;  et al. International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry (SEP 2021) https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2021.1974423

Presentations:

• “Radiological Assessment of Natural Radionuclides in Soil in Chattogram Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.”, 3rd International Conference on “Physics for Sustainable Development & Technology” organized by ICPSDT-2019, 18-19 December 2019.
• “Accumulation of Trace Elements by Wild Mushrooms in Chattogram Hill Tracts, Bangladesh”, International Conference on Physics – 2019, organized by Bangladesh Physical Society 07-09 February 2019.
• “Radioactivity and Heavy Metals Concentration in Wild Mushrooms in Hill Tracts Area of Chittagong, Bangladesh” – Fourth International Conference on Applications of RadiotraCers and Energetic Beams in Sciences (ARCEBS-2018) ll-17, November 2018 at Fort Raichak, Kolkata.
• “Importance of Practical Laboratory Experience in Secondary Physics Education”, 2nd International Conference on “Physics for Sustainable Development & Technology” organized by ICPSDT-2017, 10-11 December 2017.

Rayhana Fatema Chowdhury

Instructor

Rayhana Fatema Chowdhury is an Instructor of English Language in Pre-Undergraduate Program. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD at University of Malaya in Educational Psychology and Counseling. She has obtained two Masters Degrees in ELT and English Literature. Before joining AUW in 2023, she had been teaching English language and literature at Port City International University as an Assistant Professor. In her long teaching career since 2013, she has supervised almost hundred thesis papers. She had also served as the Chairman of the Department of English at PCIU where she was a Syndicate Member.

Teaching

English Reading and Writing

English Listening and Speaking

Research

Psycholinguistics

Neuro-linguistics

Special Education

Educational Psychology and Counseling

Publications

Journal Articles

International Journal (03)

1. REASONS OF RETICENCE IN SPEAKING ENGLISH AMONG THE FRESHMEN IN PORT

CITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY; CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY. ELK

ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES. ISSN 2394-9392; DOI:

10.16962/EAPJSS/issn.2394-9392/2014; Volume 2 Issue 3 (2016). (Solo Author). JD Impact

Factor : 2014: 1.112

2. THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS A

FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) AT TERTIARY LEVEL IN BANGLADESH. ELK ASIA PACIFIC

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES. ISSN 2394-9392; DOI: 10.16962/EAPJMRM/issn. 2349-

2317/2015; Volume 2 Issue 4 (2016). (Co-Author). JD Impact Factor : 2014: 1.112

3. FEEDBACK PRACTICES IN THE TERTIARY LEVEL EFL WRITING CLASSROOM IN

BANGLADESH, “Australasian Journal of Business, Social Science and Information

Technology” ISSN 2206-4451 Volume 4 Issue 4 (2018).

National Journal (02)

1. Integrating Language and Literature in Teaching English: A Critical Study. “Port City International

University Journal” Volume – 1, Issue – 1, 2014, ISSN: 2311-3146 (Solo Author).

2. Eye-Heart: A Mortal War or Oneness in Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 46 and 47, “Port City

International University Journal” Volume – 2, Issue – 2, 2015, ISSN: 2311-3146 (Solo Author).

BMK Haider

Instructor

MA, International Relations
MA, History
(ACCESS)

Sabrina Naoshin

Instructor

Nahida Nigar

Instructor

Nahida Nigar have joined AUW in March 2023 as an Instructor. She  received B.Sc. Engg. and M.Sc. Engg. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2013 and 2016, respectively. She is currently an M.Phil candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at University of Chittagong.

She awarded the Chittagong University Scholarship from the University of Chittagong for studying in the M.Phil. Program in Computer Science and Engineering at CU.

During her career as an educator for more than 8 years, she taught at higher secondary and undergraduate levels of different institutions in Computer Science discipline.Currently, She is responsible for teaching a foundation in Computer Science as well as a base in Critical Thinking.

Teaching

Computer Concepts and Activities

Research interests

• Wireless adhoc and sensor network
• Network Security
• Machine/Deep learning
• Artificial intelligence

Project involvements

• An efficient encryption-secure communication using symmetric key
• A Proposed Framework for Fingerprintbased Voting System in Bangladesh
• Microcontroller-based Autistic Child Monitoring System in Bangladesh
• Offline Plagiarism Detection with Natural Language Processing
• Pharmaceutical Drug Logistics System
• IoT Based Gas Leakage and Fire Detection System
• A General Review, Analysis, and Forecasting on COVID-19
• Self-Defense System for Women
• Predicting Weather Forecasts with Machine Learning
• Gas Leakage and Fire Detection System
• GSM AND GPS Module-Based Vehicle Safety and Accident Alarming System

Journal Articles

1. Nigar, N., & Azim, M. A. (2018). Fairness comparison of TCP variants over proactive and reactive routing protocol in MANET. International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 8(4), 2199.
2. Nigar, N. (2018). Comparative performance evaluation of TCP with identical and crossvariant congestion control. Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 8(1), 163-171.Volume 8, Issue 1: January 2018, pp. 163~171
3. Nigar, N. (2018). An efficient encryption-secure communication using symmetric key. International Journal of Engineering & Technology. Volume 7, Issue 4 (2018) pp. 6510-6514
4. Nigar, N., Nath, M. L., & Islam, M. T. (2020). A Proposed Framework for Fingerprintbased Voting System in Bangladesh. JOIV: International Journal on Informatics Visualization, 4(1), 22-27.
5. Nigar, N. (2021). Microcontroller based Autistic Child Monitoring System in Bangladesh. Jurnal Kejuruteraan, 33(1), 83-88

Israt Happy

Instructor

MA, Public Health
(Pathways)

Israt has always been passionate about teaching and this is her 4^th year at AUW as a faculty. She received her bachelor’s degree in Public Health from Asian University for Women in 2015 and also earned her Master’s degree in Public Health from American International University Bangladesh in 2017. Currently, she is responsible for teaching English Language course to Pre Access-Academy (PAA) students.  Previously, she educated PAA students for two years and taught Leadership Seminar course to Access Academy students for one year. Israt believes that instilling confidence into students enables them to be higher achievers in their lives. Hence, her lessons are focused on breeding confidence, allowing students to speak, make mistakes and learn at their own pace.

Mooniah Ramkissoon

Instructor

BA, TESOL
Teacher Education Certificate
(General Studies)

General Studies Program English. English Instructor at AUW from 16/08/2022.
Previous Academic Appointments: Instructor of English Language and Academic Writing at
Princess Noura University, Saudi Arabia and Colleges of Higher Education , Sultanate of
Oman from 2010 t0 2020.
Teacher of GCSE Advanced Level English Literature in the UK, Cayman Islands and
Trinidad from 1991 to 2010.
Qualifications: BA Degree (Honors) Literature and Linguistics
TESOL Certificate Trinity
Teacher Education Certificate

Zoha Seddighi

Instructor

I’m a certified teacher with an M.A. in English Literature from Macquarie University/ Australia. I have worked in Australia, Indonesia, Russia, Iran and “Afghanistan.” During my teaching career, I have taught at different universities, colleges and schools. As a humanitarian, I have cooperated with The UN, AIESEC, UNICEF, UNESCO and The Alliance for International Women’s Rights.

I joined The Asian University for women as an English Language Instructor in January 2022 and here I teach the General Studies Program to prepare students for the university’s undergraduate degree programs. Besides teaching, I empower girls to become future leaders.

Umme Neher Shahab

Instructor

Umme Neher Shahab is celebrating nearly 5 years of experience as an educator, and her fervor for teaching English is as strong now as it was when she first began her career. Before joining AUW as an Instructor of English, she was a lecturer in English at the University of Creative Technology, Chittagong. She started her teaching career as a middle school teacher in the Cambridge Curriculum and later was promoted to senior school at a renowned English-medium school (CIDER International School) in Chittagong. Previously, she taught Basic English Language, Spoken English, Linguistics, and departmental courses at English language centers (both in Dhaka and Chittagong) and the University of Creative Technology Chittagong. Her goal is to create an academically engaging learning experience in an environment that fosters creativity, curiosity, and change. One of her favorite aspects of her role as a teacher is creating an active classroom.

Teaching

Pre-UG: Reading and Writing[Level 5 and 6]

• READING ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES
• LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION

Research Interests

• Reflective Teaching and Learning: Reading and Writing
• Self-Observation in Teacher Development
• Classroom Methods and materials,  Teaching Learning Strategies

Working Papers

Removing monotony from the students in learning English language- context from secondary level students in Bangladesh

{The paper is already presented in a Webinar at ETAB}

Ornika Jaman Akhai

Junior Instructor

Ornika joined AUW back in August 2022 as an adjunct math faculty and from summer 2023 semester, she’ll be working as a junior math instructor in the Pre-UG program. She is required to teach a maximum of 15 credit hours per trimester. Along with teaching mathematics, she is committed to mentoring her students and helping them become more confident in both their personal and professional lives.

Ornika started her journey with AUW as a formal student. She graduated from AUW in 2022 with a major in Economics and a minor in Development Studies. Prior to joining AUW as a faculty member, she worked as a Teaching Assistant at her academic level for two different courses.

Teaching

Mathematics in Pre-UG

Research

Research interests
Economics and Developments of Bangladesh, Women’s education

Project involvements

Worked with BRAC (WASH) and Breaking The Silence project, and also worked with UNDP to “Stop cyberbullying and fake news spreading”

Grants Obtained

Received $5000 from UNDP after wining the competition

Asha Barua

Junior Instructor

Asha Barua has a strong interest in philosophy and literature, from where she found mathematics to be a way to express her feelings and to see the invisible. She received her BSc of Mathematics from National University in Bangladesh, along with minors in Physics and Statistics. During her MSc at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, she taught a standalone course titled Math for Business, Economics, and Social Sciences. Asha participated in a NASA L’Space Academy training program with a focus on Proposal Writing for Research Grants and served as a primary reviewer in one of the proposal review panels.

Teaching

Level-500 and Level-600

Research

Asha is now working on several research projects to determine her long-term goal for Ph.D. Her research interests are Computational Mathematics, Theory and Applications of Mathematics, Modeling, Statistics, Machine learning, Neural Networks, and Data Science.

Abu Nowhash Chowdhury

Junior Instructor

B.Sc. (Engg.) in Computer Science and Engineering

Abu Nowhash Chowdhury received his B.Sc. (Engg.) in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2022. Currently, he is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at the Asian University for Women. His principal research interest includes opinion mining from informal social media data, measuring the informativeness of user-generated texts, deep learning technologies, computational linguistics, and natural language processing (NLP). However, he is always interested to explore other interdisciplinary research areas too. He published his research findings at two International conferences in India and Bangladesh. One of his recent articles was awarded the Best Paper Award at The 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering, and Technology (ICISET), IEEE, Bangladesh. Besides he received recognition for his excellent idea generation and software development skills at the National level Intra university Hackathon contest. He is very fond of learning and teaching programming languages. He has a great zeal to make a positive impact in the education, teaching, and research sectors.  He is always passionate to help young students deepen their interest in learning and research.

Courses Teach:

• CS Intensive (Computer Fundamentals and C Programming)
• Python Programming

Research Interests:

• Opinion Mining and Knowledge Discovery from Informal Social Media Data,
• Text Informativeness,
• Data Mining,
• Estimating Data Semantics,
• Information Retrieval,
• Natural Language Processing,
• Computational Linguistics,
• Deep Learning.

Peer-Reviewed International Conferences:

• Abu Nowhash Chowdhury, Shawon Guha, Nurul Amin, and Shahidul Islam Khan, “Exploiting Ensemble of Transformer Models for Detecting Informative Tweets”, IEEE India Council International Conference (INDICON), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, India, IEEE, 2021.
• Abu Nowhash Chowdhury, Shawon Guha, Nurul Amin, and Shahidul Islam Khan, “Exploiting Diverse Contextual Features through Transformers for Detecting Informative Tweets”, The 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET), P.P-350~355, IEEE, Bangladesh, 2022. (Best Paper Awarded)

Publication Records Summary:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LUksIeoAAAAJ&hl

Maleha Chowdhury

Junior Instructor

Maleha Chowdhury is currently a Junior Instructor, Mathematics at the Pre-UG program. She is responsible for teaching Quantitative Reasoning and Pre-calculus across three different sections. Developing comprehensive lesson plans and worksheets tailored to meet the learning needs of diverse student groups. She has a BA Major in Economics and minor in Mathematics and Finance from Asian University for Women and a MSc in Developmental Studies from SOAS University of London pursued with the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship. During her time in AUW as a student, Maleha was previously a Teaching Assistant and Peer Tutor at the AUW Science and Math Center, teaching 3000 Level UG economics and mathematics courses.

Teaching

Quantitative Reasoning (Level 3)

Pre-Calculus (Level 4)

Research

Research interests
International Development (Gig-economy and tech), applications of mathematical software,

Project involvements
Comparative analysis of Microfinance, External factors worsening fetus health.

Grants Obtained

$550 from SOAS and Commonwealth for final year thesis project

Sohana Chowdhury

Junior Instructor

Sohana Chowdhury, has been an integral part of the faculty at the Asian University for Women (AUW) who teaches Mathematics since September 3, 2023. With a stellar academic background, including a prestigious Bachelor’s degree from the AUW, they bring a wealth of expertise to AUW. Sohana plays a pivotal role at the university, encompassing areas of responsibility such as curriculum development, student mentorship, research supervision, and fostering a passion for mathematics among AUW’s diverse student body. Their dedication and scholarly achievements continue to inspire the next generation of mathematicians at AUW.

Teaching

Mathematics Level 2, PreUG.

Research Interests

Since her major was Bioinformatics, her research interest lies in the dynamic field of bioinformatics, where she is driven to unravel the complex interplay between biological data and computational analysis. Specifically, she is fascinated by developing innovative algorithms and tools to decipher the genomic, proteomic, and metabolomics data, aiming to extract meaningful insights that can enhance our understanding of biological processes, disease mechanisms, and the potential for personalized medicine. Through bioinformatics, she aspire to bridge the gap between raw biological information and actionable knowledge for advancements in healthcare and biotechnology.

Tajnim Jahan

Junior Instructor

Tajnim Jahan is a Junior Instructor of Computer Science, Pre-UG. She has joined AUW in March 2023. She is teaching Computer literacy. She worked as a Junior Instructor in a private polytechnic college in computer technology department for almost 1 year. As she has interest in teaching and research field so she is focused to inspire the students in learning.

Teaching:

Computer Literacy, Pre-UG

Education:

MSc in Computer Science and Engineering (Running)

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology

BSc in Computer Science and Engineering

International Islamic University Chittagong

Research Interest:

• Data Mining
• Machine learning
• Deep Learning
• Data Analysis
• Data Science

Publications:

1. Sustainable Rice Production Analysis and Forecasting Rice Yield Based on Weather Circumstances Using Data Mining Techniques for Bangladesh.

Published in: 2nd International Conference on Cyber Security and Computer Science, pp. – .Springer, Switzerland (2020).

2. Big data on Smart Cities and Smart Villages: A Review.

Published in: 4th International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Optimization 2021. Springer Nature.

Ruheya Khourshed

Junior Instructor

With a keen eye for detail and a natural aptitude for education, I am thrilled to join Asian University for Women (AUW) as a Junior Instructor of Mathematics for the Pre-Undergraduate Program. Throughout my four years of one-on-one tutoring experience with multiple students spanning from high school to university, I have honed my skills in creating a stimulating and supportive learning environment. With a BA in Economics and minors in Mathematics and Finance from AUW, I have a strong academic background that I am eager to apply to my role as an instructor. In addition, my experience as a Creative Director at Lussotica, a startup fashion label, and as HR Member at Youth’s Voice Organization, respectively, has given me valuable leadership and management skills. I am excited to contribute to the university’s mission of building a more progressive society through education and am delighted to be part of the esteemed faculty at AUW.

Teaching

Mathematics for the Pre-Undergraduate Program

Nargis Sultana

Junior Instructor

Highest Degree – MELT

Sofia Siddiqua

Junior Instructor

Ms Sofia Siddiqua has been an education professional at the tertiary level for half a decade now. Her professional scope spans from teaching basic English language skills to Rohingya, Afghan and several other national communities to teaching linguistics, presentation, and debating skills courses. Previously, she has taught as a Lecturer at two reputed universities in Dhaka; Daffodil International University and United International University.

Ms Sofia has had a flawless academic background in English Language and Literature. She is an M.A. in TESOL from North South University and is a Cambridge CELTA certified teacher and is currently a DELTA enrolled active candidate and an author of academic publication.

Her work includes all dimensions of English language and skills teaching, effective lesson plan and material development, ensuring individualistic development of several groups of students across General Studies and Pre-UG programs. Her skills include effective classroom management, coordinating across unexpected situations, addressing cross-cultural pedagogical, affective and individualistic needs, relevant administrative tasks, managing assessment, tracking individual performance and gradual academic development and providing feedback and support. 

Ms Sofia characterizes her performance with dedication, sincerity, ownership, transparency, and fairness. She intends to keep evolving as a professional through consistent CPD, higher studies and self-reflection.

Teaching

General Studies: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking skills.

Pre-UG: Reading Across the Disciplines, Presentation Skills, Public Speaking and Debate.

Research

Research interests: Second Language Acquisition, writing skill development, grammatical/ systemic aspects of language and skills, language and culture, teaching and learning process, classroom strategies, phonology and phonetics, sociolinguistics, testing and evaluation, and education policy and procedure.

Publications

Journal Articles: Decolonizing English Studies in Bangladesh and Integrating Bengali Literature into English Language and Literature Education at Tertiary Level: A Case Study

Working Papers: Writing apprehension at tertiary level and framework of teaching.

Isthina Rafique Rini

Junior Instructor

M.A in English from East Delta University

B.A (Hons.) in English from East Delta University

ACCESS and Pathways

Jannatul Akmam

Junior Instructor

ACCESS and Pathways

MA, English

Jannatul Akmam did BA and MA in English from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. During her career of teaching for more than 9 years, she taught at higher secondary and tertiary levels of different institutions including teaching as an Adjunct Faculty of Core at Asian University for Women. She was awarded Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Fellowship in Spring 2022 (Gender Cohort) and received professional development training at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. She has joined AUW in Fall 2022 as a Junior Instructor of English Language; and teaches ESL and Presentation Skills.

Research Interest: Education and Leadership of Muslim Women, Gender Studies, Post-colonial Studies, Disability Studies and Cultural Studies.

Research Works:

Gender Expectations and Balancing Identities: Education about Gender in High Schools in Bangladesh. (Presented online) Twenty-ninth International Conference on Learning at Universitat de Valencia – Facultat de Magisteri, Valencia, Spain, 13-15 July, 2022.

Eastern Women’s Entrepreneurship: Liberating the Enslaved Mind beyond the Patriarchal Gaze. Eastern Perspectives on Women’s Roles and Advancement in Business edited by Ela Burcu Uçel, by IGI Global, Hershey, PA, USA, EISBN13: 9781799887447 (Chapter 7, Page 139-154), February, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8742-3.ch007.

Islamic Schools in France: A Tool for Change towards Inclusiveness. Virtual Conference of New England Educational Assessment Network Fall Forum 2021, 5 November 2021.

Living Parallel-ly in Real and Virtual: Internet as an Extension of Self. (Co-authored with Nafisa Huq) Defining Identity and the Changing Scope of Culture in the Digital Age edited by Alison Novak and Imaani Jamillah El-Burki, by IGI Global, Hershey PA, USA, ISBN 9781522502128 (Chapter 14, Page 230-239), May, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0212-8.ch014

Women in War-Wounded or Wonderful? Relativity in Revelation (In the Light of Nasiruddin Yusuf’s “Guerilla” and Mrityunjay Devvrat’s “Children of War”). (Co-authored with Nafisa Huq and Prakash Sarkar) International Conference “Diasporas and Diversities: Teaching English in a Changing World”, Department of English, Independent University Bangladesh, 5-7 November 2015.

Partition across the Border: A Study of the novels The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh and Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai. Trends in Indian English Novels edited by Nagraj G. Holeyannavar, Manglam Publisher, India, ISBN 9789382983231 (Page no. 222), 21 October, 2014.

Dream Identity beyond the Patriarchal Gaze: Liberating the Enslaved Mind. 1st International Conference on Social Science and Humanities August 23-25, 2014, Center for Social Science Research, School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Independent University of Bangladesh.

New Police on the Block: Reading Contemporary Advertisement as Panopticon. Dissertation, Master of Arts Program, 2012. (Publication-in-progress)

Ngugi’s Petals of Blood: A Critical Analysis from Fanon’s Concept of Violence. Short Research Paper, Undergraduate Program, 2011. (Publication-in-progress)

Alexandra Urbanikova

Junior Instructor

MA, Mathematics
(ACCESS)

Sadia Maisha

Junior Instructor

BA, Economics (Pathways and ACCESS)

Sadia Maisha is a Junior Instructor (Mathematics) for the pre-undergraduate program at Asian University for Women (AUW). Currently she is teaching both pathways and access academy students. Before joining AUW, she worked at Chittagong Grammar School as an 8th grade teacher. During her undergraduate years, she worked as peer tutor for 9 months at the Science & Math Center at AUW. She also actively volunteered as an Academic Mentor for Mathematics and also worked as teaching assistants for courses like econometrics, principles of microeconomics & basic economics at her university.

Sadia Maisha received her Bachelor in Arts in Economics (with double minor in Mathematics & Finance) in the year 2020 from AUW.

Hasan Mahfuj

Junior Instructor

MA ELT

CELTA

ESL and Foundation

Hasan Mahfuj joined AUW as an instructor of English as a Second Language in August 2022. He has set foot at AUW with an experience of 16 years of teaching English in IGCSE and ESL areas.

Hasan’s academic qualifications include an MA in ELT; a BA in English Language & Literature; and a CELTA.

Syeda Reiyan Azim

Junior Instructor

Mathematics (Pathways)

BA, Economics, Asian University for Women

Naima Halim Tushi

Junior Instructor

MA, Developmental Studies
(General Studies, Pathways)

Naima started teaching the Pre-UG Program at the Asian University for Women in January 2022 to help students be ready for the institution’s undergraduate degree programs. In addition to teaching Naima encourages females to become future leaders. Naima completed her undergraduate studies from Asian University for Women (AUW) with PPE (Politics, Philosophy & Economics) major and Development Studies minor on 2018. After that, she pursued her graduate studies at University of Malaya (UM) in Malaysia and graduated from the Department of Development Studies. Naima’s research interests lie on women and gender issues which have been published in renowned international journals. She has received a best paper award on an international conference.

Senior Thesis: Status of E-Learning at University Level in Bangladesh: Opportunities & Limitations

Journal Articles:

Shamsi, T., & Tushi, N. H. (2019). Empowering Rohingya Women For A Sustainable Refugee Camp. International Journal of Legal Developments and Allied Issues, 5(4).

Tushi, N. H., & Shamsi, T. (2020). Dowry Practices in Bangladesh and India. Journal of Legal Studies and Research, 6 (2).

Conference Acceptances:

Tushi, N. H., & Shamsi, T. (2020). International Social Sciences Research Colloquium. India

Tahira Tazreen

Junior Instructor

MA,
(Pathways)

I am working as Junior Instructor of Pathways for Promise in AUW. Although it is my first-time teaching in Pathways, I have experience of working with them in different ways. After graduating from AUW in 2018, I joined Pathways for Promise as Program Officer and got the opportunity to work directly with the students, as well as with the instructors. Earlier, as a student of under graduation program, I worked as academic mentor for the students of Pathways, where I facilitated them in learning English (speaking, writing, and reading).

Nusrat Tahsin

Junior Instructor

MA, ELT
(General Studies)

Nusrat Tahsin joined Asian University for Women (AUW) as a Junior Instructor for Pathways for Promise Program in August, 2022. She has been in teaching career since 2014. Before Joining AUW she was a secondary level English teacher who had been teaching English Language in O level for almost eight years. She completed the Cambridge International Examinations Professional Development course for O level Examination. Nusrat is an US Department of State Exchange Alumni who received training as an international educator in Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program in Montana State University, USA. As a part of TEA program, she also served as a guest teacher in Chief Joseph Middle School at Bozeman, Montana, USA. She is also involved in charitable Access program funded by US Department of State for teaching underprivileged students. Besides teaching she served as an Academic coordinator in English Access Microscholarship Program, Chattogram for one and half year. Her aim is to finding potential and empowering students from disadvantage class and Pathways program in AUW is the perfect area to fulfill her goal.

Academic Qualification

MA in English Language and Literature. International Islamic University Chittagong

B.A. (Hons) in English Language and Literature. International Islamic University Chittagong

Jannatul Bakya

Junior Instructor

I will be working as a junior instructor of mathematics in the pre-undergraduate program. I am required to teach a maximum of 15 credit-hours per trimester. On August 28, 2022, I started teaching at AUW. I had been working as a teaching assistant for three courses at my academic level.

Education:

B.Sc. Bioinformatics and Public Health, Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh

Farishta Murad

Junior Instructor

With a formal teaching experience spanning from high school to university, including almost four years of working as a part-time teaching assistant in parallel to being a full-time student at Asian University for Women (AUW), I am thrilled to advance into representing the university as a Junior Instructor of Mathematics in Pre-UG. AUW has contributed significantly to my career accomplishments , from qualifying for a mid-senior level Banking position at HSBC as my first job to launching my own Graphic designing company called Grafiqe, and finally transitioning to a Math Faculty. I believe my calculative decision to gear into this occupation will wholly compensate my gratification level as I am driven by passion for numbers. Looking forward to accelerating the university’s ideals to build a more progressive society through education and beyond.

Teaching
Mathematics, Pre-UG.

Research
Research interests: Education and Housewives
Project involvements: I have conducted four independent research projects as a part of academics including my senior thesis – “The Worth of Housewives’ Time: A Micro-level Analysis in Chattogram, Bangladesh.”

Dilshad Jahan

Junior Instructor

I joined AUW last semester(Fall, 2022) as adjunct faculty. I taught 1-course(two sections) of Mathematics for the level Pre-Intermediate in General Studies program. From this semester I will be teaching level 1 & level 2 Mathematics. Before joining AUW as faculty I joined AUW back in 2018 as a student. I did my major in Economics with a double minor in Finance and Mathematics. I graduated from AUW on May 2022 with Cum Laude honors.

Research interests:
On development sector

Project involvements:
Socio-Economic Status of Palmyra Workers

Fariha Anjum

Junior Instructor

Fariha Anjum received B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2022. She is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at Asian University for Women since January 2023.  During her final year, she has worked as a Health Data Analytics Intern in the eSystems Research and Development Lab of BUET for a period of three months.

Teaching

Information Technology, General Studies

Computer Literacy, Pre-UG

Research interests:

Data Science, Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, Health Data Analytics, Human Activity Recognition.

Peer-Reviewed International Conferences:

1. Anjum, S. Alam, E. H. Bahadur, A. K. M. Masum, and M. Z. Rahman, “Deep Learning for Depression Symptomatic Activity Recognition,” in 2022 International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET), 2022, pp. 510-515: IEEE.

Journal Articles

“Recognition Exhibiting Symptoms Activity of Depression Employing Deep Learning” (under review by Hindawi)

On-Going Research

“Smartphone Sensors Based Heart-Rate Prediction and Pattern Recognition of Activity Intensity for Early Staging of Depression”

Publication Records Summary:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CYGJJ8oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Piers Hayward

Junior Instructor

Piers has a science and business background, and qualified to work in the field of Australian migration law. Working with migrants inspired him to volunteer teaching literacy and numeracy to refugees on the Australian Migration Education Program. He loved the experience and qualified as an ESL teacher. For the last 5 years, Piers has been combining teaching ESL, Maths and Sciences to English second language learners, and joins AUW as a Junior Maths Instructor in the Pre-Undergraduate Program. Piers holds an MBA and CELTA.

Khadija Kubra

Junior Instructor

Khadija Kubra is a Junior Instructor of Computer Science, Pre-UG. She has joined AUW in January 2023. She is teaching Computer literacy. She has completed her Bachelors of Science and Masters from American University-Bangladesh. She was an intern teaching assistant at AIUB. Her research interests include machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, Pattern Recognition, object detection & Classification. She is extremely motivated to have a positive influence on the fields of teaching, research, and education. She is constantly driven by a desire to increase the interests of young students in learning and study.

Teaching

Computer Literacy

Research Interest

• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• Computer Vision
• Pattern Recognition
• Object Detection & Classification

Project involvements

• DeepFBAs: Fetal Brain Abnormalities Detection from MRI Images using CNN with Stacking Strategy
• Fisher Motion descriptor for LSTM-based gait analysis using SVM Classification.
• Robust Walking Pattern Recognition Using Silhouette and Pose Estimation

Tasnuva Khan Tanisha

Junior Instructor

Tasnuva Khan Tanisha has joined Asian University for Women (AUW) as a Junior Instructor of English in January, 2023. She will be teaching Level 1 ESL and Level 3 Reading Across the Discipline in Pre-Undergraduate Programs. Before joining AUW, she worked at American School Chittagong for 4 months.

Tasnuva Khan Tanisha has received her Bachelor in Arts in English Language and Literature from Premier University, Chittagong in the year 2021. Currently, she is pursuing her Master of Arts in English Language Teaching (ELT) from Premier University.

Teaching

Level-1 (Reading and Writing)

Level-1 (Listening and Speaking)

Level-3 (Reading Across the Discipline)

Research interests:

• Learning Disability
• Feminism in Ancient Literature

Lutfun Nahar Anika

Junior Instructor

I am currently serving as the Junior Instructor of Mathematics at the AUW. I am teaching quantitative reasoning at level 2 and precalculus at level 3. I’ve joined AUW for the spring session of 2023. I also served as a TA in intermediate macroeconomics, principles of microeconomics, and introduction to finance during my university career. I have my own startup, QEC, which is an EdTech platform basically to prepare sixth grade students for the most competitive “Cadet College Admission Test.” The middle school students are also cared for academically both online and offline. Additionally, I created projects for K–12 kids and the Bangladesh Civil Service courses while working as the project-based instructor at the 10-minute school, Bangladesh’s largest EdTech platform.

Nawar Fairooz

Junior Instructor

Nawar is a teacher and writer, currently working as a Junior Instructor in the ESL Program. She graduated from Independent University, Bangladesh, with a major in Contemporary English Literature. She worked as a Junior Lecturer (Adjunct) at North South University before coming to AUW.

Nayma Afreen

Junior Instructor

Nayma Afreen joined AUW as a junior instructor of English in January 2023. She embarked on teaching profession in 2017. Prior to joining AUW she served three universities. Her academic background includes concentration on English Language Teaching (ELT) both in graduation and post-graduation. Her research interests revolve around ELT and social, psychological and technological effects on language learning.

Isuru Ayeshmantha Rathnayake

Junior Instructor

Isuru Ayeshmantha Rathnayake is a Junior Instructor of English in the Pre-UG Program of the Asian University for Women Chittagong, Bangladesh. After joining AUW in May 2023, he started teaching reading, writing, listening and speaking skills to level 2 ESL students.

Prior to Joining AUW, he worked as a Lecturer at the Department of English of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, from where he holds a BA (Honors) in English Studies. He is currently following his MPhil Degree in English at the same university.

Teaching

ESL Level 2 Reading and Writing

ESL Level 2 Listening and Speaking

Research

Being a visually impaired person, Isuru’s research examines an intersection of disability studies, English studies, and critical pedagogy. Furthermore, his research has also focused on teaching English as a second language to disadvantaged learner groups within a South Asian context. He has also worked as a research consultant for a number of research projects on disability accessibility and environmental conservation which were conducted by the Asia Foundation and the Center for Environmental Justice.

Publications

Authored Books

Book Chapters, etc.

Rathnayake, I. Making Meaning of the (Ab)normal Body: Reading Caesar’s Body as a Palimpsest in Julius Caesar and its Sri Lankan Performance. Shakespeare International Yearbook Special Section: Disability Performance and Global Shakespeare edited by Katherine Williams (forthcoming) 

Journal Articles

• Rathnayake, I., 2021. Broken Bodies, Breaking Boundaries: Representation of bodies with disabilities in Sri Lankan English Literature. Akademos: An Interdisciplinary  Journal of Language and Culture Studies, 1 (1), pp. 1-11

• Rathnayake, I., 2021. Re-Narrating the Postcolonial Subject within Neo-Liberal Spaces: A Study on the Role of Travel as Depicted in the Contemporary Postcolonial Novel. Litinfinite Journal, 3 (2), pp. 11, 3 (2), pp. 11, 3 (2), pp. 11, 3 (2), pp. 11, 3 (2), pp. 11-20, Available at: 20, Available at: 20, Available at: https://doi.org/10.47365/litinfinite.3.2.2021.11-20

• Rathnayake, I. Acknowledging the Disabled in the Covid-19 Response: A study on the psychological impact of the Covid-19 pandemic upon persons with disabilities in Sri Lanka. Kalyani Journal of the University of Kelaniya. (Forthcoming)

Sakib Mohammad Shahrain

Junior Instructor

Sakib Mohammad Shahrain joined AUW on January 2023 with a Post Graduate degree in English Language Teaching and an Undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature. He completed his schooling with a British Curriculum background and is active in extracurricular activities like MUN, Public Speaking, and Debating.

He has 13 months of prior teaching experience in a British Curriculum School and two months of experience in the corporate sector. His research interests are critical pedagogy, assessment validity and impacts, factors that affect learning styles and practices, and four skills.

Currently, he is taking ESL level 1 “Reading and Writing” and “Speaking and Listening” courses and the “Reading Across the Disciplines” level 1 course at the Foundation level. With his dissertation major focusing on critical pedagogy, Sakib aims to empower the students through active involvement in classroom activities, decisions on teaching styles and home tasks, and much more. He aspires to ensure that the students can implement their learnings in the classroom in the outside world to the fullest extent and be able to think critically in all sorts of situations.

Umma Salma

Junior Instructor

Ms. Salma is a TESOL graduate from North South University, Dhaka and joined Asian University for Women as a Junior Instructor.

Teaching

Currently teaching Presentation Skill for the level 3 students along with 2 courses on ESL for the level 2.

Research

Salma is deeply interested in the Critical Pedagogical field that includes mainstreaming morality and ethics education at every level. Also, diasporic discourse, cultural imperialism, ethnocentrism etc. are some of the areas that she is mostly invested in.

Akhtari Zameel

Junior Instructor

Akhtari Zameel is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at Asian University for Women. She received her B.Sc. (Eng.) in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong and her M.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering from the Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. Currently, she is attending a doctoral degree at Sakarya University, Turkey. She is the author of several articles in journals and conferences. She has received recognition for her excellent academic performance, awarded by TUBITAK and Erasmus + scholarship program, Turkish Gov. full funded scholarship for both her masters and Ph.D. She is extremely motivated to have a beneficial influence in the fields of teaching, research, and education.  She is constantly driven by a desire to increase the interests of students in learning and study.

Teaching

Computer Fundamental

Research interests

• Internet of Things (IoT),
• Wireless Communication,
• Blockchain,
• Machine Learning,
• Deep Learning.

Project involvements

• Adjustable Intelligent Antenna Based Next Generation Internet of Things (IoT).
  Sponsored by: The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)

Sawyer Taylor-Arnold

Teaching Fellow

Sawyer Taylor-Arnold, Harvard, 2023, a John Harvard Scholar, was among the top 5% of her graduating class.  Sawyer had a double major, in History and Literature and also in Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.  She also studied Arabic language and literature in Fes, Morocco for a summer.  From North Carolina, Sawyer was her high school student body president and Salutatorian of her graduating class.  She plays piano, both solo and with jazz bands, and the banjo, as well as the dulcimer.

At Harvard Sawyer was the Chair of Women’s Week, and also Co-Chair of the Women’s Cabinet. She was a staff writer at the Harvard Crimson, and a student guide at the Harvard museums.  Interested in helping empower young women in particular, Sawyer was an intern for “Running Start”, an organization that helps train girls to run for political office.  She was also a summer intern at “RISE”, where she did research on global legislative and political landscapes for UN and domestic legislative portfolios. She also was a mentor for grade school girls through “Strong Women Strong Girls.” Sawyer was awarded the Oliver Dabney Prize in History and Literature at Harvard, and was published in the New York Times and the Harvard Political Review.

Sanju Banerjee

Teaching Fellow

Sanju is a recent graduate from the University of Oxford, where she read History and Spanish. Her academic interests consist of South Asian women’s history as well as hispanic literature. Having previously taught English to foreign speakers while living in Spain, she is eager to use her experience to contribute towards the empowerment of other young women.

Teaching:
Pre-undergraduate English: ESL Level 2 and Foundation Course Level 1

Sarah Borden

Teaching Fellow

Sarah Borden, a Yale 2022 graduate in political science, and an Ohio native, spent this past year as a Fulbright Fellow where she taught English at Gulistan State University in Uzbekistan. There she also led English-language clubs for both students and teachers, and mentored students applying to US universities and exchange programs.  She also organized conferences on English teaching methodology, media literacy, and TESOL.

A long-time advocate for underserved populations, Sarah interned at the “Immigrant and Refugee Law Center” in Cincinnati where she assisted with individual immigration cases, as well as compiling an extensive spreadsheet of regional resources for immigrants and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence, as well as for attorneys supporting them.  She also interned for “The Advocates for Human Rights” where she drafted reports for UN human rights review bodies (HRC, CEDAW, CAT, URP), and one-pagers for the lobbying of UN delegates.  At the “Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants” Sarah designed curriculum and taught English for newly resettled refugees. While in college she designed curriculum and taught English for newly resettled refugees.  She also tutored immigrant and refugee students in English and math in New Haven.  Sarah plays the viola, runs cross country and track, and was on the rock-climbing team in college

Preeti Chemiti

Teaching Fellow

Preeti Chemiti, most recently from Utah, graduated from Princeton in 2023 and has been admitted to Harvard Law with a 2-year deferral, the first of which she will spend at AUW.  Preeti majored in Public Policy and minored in History/Philosophy at Princeton.  While there she received the Critical Language Scholarship from the US Dept State which allowed her to study Hindi in Jaipur, India.  Preeti received the US Congressional Service Award, the highest public service honor for civilians.  She was a Scholar in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) representing Princeton.  Preeti was named a Whig-Clio Summer Fellow at Princeton, for excellence within the Whig Chiosophic Society, the nation’s oldest collegiate debate society.  She was four times state champion in speech competitions and qualified for the National Speech and Debate Association tournament four years in a row.

While at Princeton, Preeti founded and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Princeton Political Review, where she oversaw 60 staff writers. She was a research assistant in Princeton Department of Politics and Princeton School of Public & International Affairs, and was also a research fellow at Princeton’s Center for International Security Studies.  Preeti authored “Mind Matters, Princeton,” a mental health book as a free resource for students which received over 6,500 downloads.  Interested in government and law, she was an intern at the US Dept of State, Bureau of Legislative Affairs, and was also a legal intern at the US District Court (EDNY). While in college Preeti was very active in the Princeton Mock Trial association where she was an attorney, and served as captain for two years.  She received the Outstanding Attorney Award four times from the American Mock Trial Association.  She was a Residential College Peer Leadership Advisor, Academic Advisor and College Council Member at Princeton.  In addition, Preeti was on Princeton’s tennis team, having been the 2019 North Dakota doubles state champion.

Ashira Shirali

Teaching Fellow

Ashira Shirali, a 2023 Princeton graduate, majored in English and minored in Creative Writing.  Ashira also studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, through the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English (funded by Princeton).  Raised and educated in India, Ashira has been the winner of a number of writing competitions. She was a co-winner of the Ward Mathis Prize, from Princeton’s English department for best undergraduate short story 2022.  She was also cited for Outstanding Work by a Junior, an award from Princeton’s Creative Writing department, by the faculty 2022.  And, she was the winner of the Yemassee Journal’s Short Story Contest, an international contest run by the literary journal of University of South Carolina in 2020. She was short-listed for the H.G. Wells Short Story Competition’s junior prize, a contest for under-21 writers; her story was published in print anthology.  Ashira wrote her senior thesis under Prof. Joyce Carol Oates.

While at college Ashira was the Co-Editor-in-Chief, of the Nassau Literary Review, a Princeton campus publication.  She also organized their annual literary festival, and she planned and organized a national undergrad writing contest.  She served as a fiction reader for several publications, including the New England Review, Cleaver Magazine, Storm Cellar, Nat. Brut, several literary journals, and also served as a referee for submissions.  A second major interest for Ashira is social justice.  Ashira volunteered for the “South Asian Progress Alliance,” the Princeton organization to examine social justice issues in South Asia. She was also an intern for “SOS Children’s Villages of India” (remote), where she wrote profiles of children for donors.

Yee-Lynn Lee

Teaching Fellow

Yee-Lynn Lee, a 2023 graduate of Amherst College, majored in Economics and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Amherst student newspaper, a 30+ hour per week commitment, where she mentored editors and promoted ethical journalism.  Prior to being appointed Editor, she was the Managing News Editor and a Staff Writer.  Yee-Lynn was awarded the Economics Department’s Junior Class Prize, also the Hamilton Prize in Economics, and the Walker Prize in Problem Solving from the Department of Mathematics.  While at Amherst Yee-Lynn served many roles in the Department of Economics: Teaching Assistant, Grader, and Peer Tutor in Intro to Economics, and also for Advanced Microeconomics.  She was a research assistant in the Lab for Development Research for Dr. Plamen Nikolov from Binghamton University’s Department of Economics (remote) looking at pension benefits from the New Rural Pension Scheme in China and the effect it had on private savings; she cleaned the data for regression analyses and edited papers on the topic.

Yee-Lynn was selected as an Amherst Community Advisor, in which role she supported residents in their academic and social challenges. Her interest in supporting others also extended to younger students.  She co-taught “MATHCOUNTS,” a prep class over Zoom to middle schoolers, and she helped students in grades 5-12 with pre-algebra to calculus through “The Art of Problem Solving Online and Virtual Campus.”  This Maryland resident also served as an “Amherst Community Connections” caseworker (remote during Covid), providing case management services to homeless individuals and assisting them with applications for housing and other benefit programs.

Joy Won

Teaching Fellow

Joy Won was an Education Studies major at Amherst College. The 2023 graduate also participated in a Domestic Study Away program at Columbia University for a semester.  While at Amherst Joy was a Teaching Assistant in the English Department.  She also received the Gregory S. Call Fellowship for her thesis research.  Joy was selected the Education Studies Committee Student Representative for major planning for the major at Amherst.  She was also the Education Studies Club Co-President, a student club she co-founded for fellow students interested in education.

This New Yorker was selected to be an Orientation Leader for incoming students, to help them in their adjustment to campus life.  In addition, Joy was a Health Herd Advocate, promoting health, safety, and precautionary measures for students at the College.  Joy was also the Amherst STEM Network Creative Director, an organization that focused on disseminating STEM research to members of the Amherst community. Her outreach into the larger community included being a tutor and teaching assistant in Holyoke MA, for the “Literacy Project” where she tutored adult students in pre-algebra in preparation for their GED.

Rozey Hill

Teaching Fellow

Rozey Hill, a Wellesley College 2023 graduate with a major in Africana Studies & American Studies, also studied abroad in Cameroon, through SIT, for a semester.   In addition, this native Floridian took an MIT class, 17. 275, on political misinformation and conspiratorial beliefs.  Rozey was a community inclusion facilitator for the Wellesley College Office of Intercultural Education, where she presented workshops, provided learning materials for participating students, and led group discussions on race and class, as well as on such topics as privilege, oppression, and varying identities.

While working for “The Mellman Group” Rozey did public opinion research, writing and editing surveys to measure opinions on political candidates, after which she analyzed the results of the surveys and focus groups.  She spent a summer teaching Python using Coda to an 11^th grader.  Other community outreach included serving as a tour guide for a local museum in Cameroon during her semester abroad.

Aleeza Hassan

Teaching Fellow

Aleeza Hassan, a 2023 graduate of the University of Chicago, majored in Anthropology.  She also studied abroad in Fes, Morocco at the Arabic Language Institute.  A native Californian, her family roots go back to Pakistan, where she frequently visited her grandmother during summer vacations. She is proficient in Urdu and Hindi.

Aleeza has long been interested in track and field.  She was captain of her high school track and field team that won the California state championship.  At Chicago she was the track team captain, in which capacity she mentored and coached other runners.  One summer she was a counselor for “UChicago Youth Sports Camp,” where she led groups of school-aged children in athletic activities and competitions.   Another summer she worked for the “Center for Asian Health Equity” as a research assistant, translator, and curriculum planner. She was also invited to be a Peer Mentor for 30 entering UChicago students, during their first year at the school.

Richard Bennet Morales

Teaching Fellow

Richard Bennet Morales is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, where he majored in Critical Education Technology, a program he designed.  A native of Madrid, Spain, and a student at a College-Lycee in Paris, Richard is a strong advocate for the liberal arts education.  While strongly supporting making the liberal arts more accessible in places other than the U.S., he also has observed its “shortcomings”, and aims to identify modifications, especially using various technologies and gathering significant data, that will address these, to “improve and expand the liberal arts.”  He pursured many of these things as a Research Assistant during his senior year.

Richard founded an organization at Wesleyan that was “dedicated to constructive criticism of the institution, and community building through art and events,” including large student surveys and data analysis which he shared with the appropriate academic departments and strategic planning committees; his organization was awarded the Student Organization of the Year 2022/2023 by members of the university administration.  Richard was also an orientation leader for incoming students for two years at Wesleyan.

Domenic DeSantes

Teaching Fellow

Domenic DeSantes is a 2023 graduate of Georgetown University, where he majored in Government and minored in Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs, also Education Inquiry and Justice.  Domenic was an elected representative and also a peer advisor to the Georgetown College Academic Council. The Massachusetts native was his high school valedictorian.  He has taught in the DC Public Schools as a student teaching volunteer, and at the “Mathnasium Learning Center” as a math tutor for students in middle and high school.  There he led the transition to the virtual model and developed a specialized local high school curriculum during the pandemic as a senior instructor.  Domenic was a policy & advocacy intern for “ICIVIC,” where he researched civics education policies and laws across the 50 States.  He also was a personal tutor for middle and high school students in math, social studies, and Spanish.

Domenic was a Field Fellow for the “Ed Markey for Senate” (MA) campaign where he mobilized community organizers and volunteers in their outreach to voters, hosted phonebanks, trained volunteers, and staffed events.  One of his deepest interests is in the intersection of religion and world affairs.  He was a student editorial assistant at the “Berkley Center for Region, Peace, & World Affairs” (DC).  He was the “Religious Freedom Institute Statesmanship Conference” student representative in 2020, and the “Higher Committee on Human Fraternity Building Interreligious Solidary Conference” student leader in 2022.  In addition, Domenic was the President of the Georgetown Pep Band, where he played saxophone, and was a participant at a choral exchange to Cuba.

Monica Scotti

Teaching Fellow

Monica Scotti is a 2022 graduate of The City College of New York, where she majored in International Studies.  She also attended Bronx Community College where she received her A.A. degree in Liberal Arts and Political Science in 2020.  Monica spent a semester in Washington DC on a fellowship, and was named an Edward Koch Fellow twice.  She has earned the International TEFL Academy Certificate, and taught English at the “NeuroLink English Academy” in Taiwan for the 2022-2023 academic year.

A native New Yorker, Monica was a volunteer English instructor for the “International Rescue Committee” (NJ) where she taught ESL to refugees.  She also was a virtual peer mentor for “Be the Voice of Girls,” a project of the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.  In addition, she was a program intern for the “Women’s Foreign Policy Group” (DC), where she supported planning of events and researched foreign policy topics to prepare briefings.  For “Education USA” in Turkmenistan, Monica was a cohort mentor for the Department of State’s Virtual Student Federal Service Internship, where she mentored high school students who wished to apply for higher education opportunities in the US.

Rhya Evans

Teaching Fellow

Rhya Evans is a recent graduate of Georgetown University where she completed a BS in Global Health with a minor in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. She joins AUW this year as a teaching fellow, passionate about improving health equity around the world.  

Teaching

She will be working to support instructors and students in various public health courses including Environmental Health, Introduction to Public Health, Epidemiology, and Senior Seminars.

Research interests
Her interests include global maternal, infant and reproductive health, their intersection with the environment and climate change, and the ethics of health and development programs.

Journal Articles

Religion, Menstruation, and Refugee Realities: Insights from Rohingya Girls and Women

(Pulitzer Center, 2022)

Ferowza Swapnil

Chief Teaching Fellow and Program Coordinator

Ferowza completed her bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Mathematics from AUW in 2019, where her academic excellence and leadership were recognized with the Andy Matsui Award. During her time at AUW and even after graduation, she took on various roles, including serving as a Teaching Assistant in the Economics department, Senior Tutor at the AUW Writing Center, and Academic mentor to Pathway for Promise students.

After her undergraduate studies, Ferowza briefly worked as a Revenue Analyst at Marriott International in Hong Kong before pursuing her Master’s degree in Economic Policy in Global Markets at Central European University in Vienna, Austria. It was during her Master’s program that she developed a keen interest in the Economics of Education and Education Policy design and implementation.

Ferowza’s dedication to community service and potential to contribute to alumni communities earned her the prestigious Alumni Scholarship award at CEU. As an Alumni Scholarship Recipient, she actively engaged in maintaining vlogs about the university, reaching out to potential students as a UNIBUDDY, fostering community bonds, and establishing partnerships with potential organizations in the development sector for creating placement opportunities for CEU students. She was also part of the team that initiated the first policy incubator for CEU.

In her current role, Ferowza is dedicated to ensuring the overally efficient operation of the Graduate Program in Education. She facilitates communication with partner universities and AUW-SF while also overseeing AUW’s Afghan Online Learning Project, known as Roshin e Omid.

Teaching

She co-teaches courses such as “Curriculum Development” alongside Dr. Glenn Devoogd and “Introduction to Global Education Policy and Analysis” with Dr. Kathlyn Eliott at the Graduate Program in Education. Ferowza also conducts writing workshops in the program to further enhance the educational experience.

Research Interest

Her research endeavors primarily revolve around addressing unique inequality challenges. Currently, Ferowza is focused on identifying sustainable and innovative solutions to educational barriers, particularly in regions where access to education is hindered by political obstacles.

Israt Jahan Oeeshi

Teaching Fellow

Israt completed a research-intensive Master’s in Economic Policy in Global Markets from Central European University in Vienna, Austria, where she received CEU’s master’s scholarship to pursue her two-year program coursework. During her studies at CEU, she was also awarded a merit-based bursary by the Open Society Foundations to attend an exchange certificate programme titled “Advanced Certificate in Inequality Analysis” at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA. Besides, Israt completed a certificate program on global education and development by the Open Society University Network, where she had the opportunity to work as a student consultant with Amnesty International Hungary as part of a practicum project. Israt’s academic journey led her to develop a keen interest in the economics of higher education, inequality studies and global education policies.

Israt is an alumna of the Asian University for Women as well; she graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a minor in Development Studies. During her studies at AUW, she participated in a summer research project analysing the diverse education curriculum of Bangladesh. She also worked as an academic mentor for the Pathways for Promise program, and upon graduation, she was selected from AUW to work as a finance intern at the International Finance Corporation-World Bank Group.

Israt envisions herself as an aspiring educator/analyst committed to promoting sustainability and equality. As an advocate for equality and inclusivity, Israt has actively participated in community development services since high school and worked for the World Food Programme at the Rohingya camp. In the long run, she wants to enhance people’s lives by developing long-term innovative policy solutions based on empirical evidence, rigorous study, and green approaches.

Courses and Research Interests:

Israt co-taught “Educational Technology for Strong Schools” and “Design Thinking” with Dr. Stefanie Panke at the AUW graduate program in education. She provides on-the-ground support to students in using education technology tools, design thinking concepts for research, and creating innovative policies and analyses. Besides, Israt held independent reading seminars on John Dewey’s theories of education and provided tutorials for writing research papers. Israt is also leading the program’s student onboarding processes and admissions campaign.

Israt’s primary research interests in the education sector include the future of AI in education, the implementation of affirmative action policies to combat higher education inequalities, and the future of investments in women in STEM programmes and EdTech schemes.

Conference Paper:

Panke, S. & Jahan Oeeshi, I. (2023). Strong Schools: Effective Teacher Education at the Crossroads of Open Pedagogy, Collaborative Writing and Educational Technology. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 486-496). Vienna, Austria: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved July 21, 2023

Tansum Tanha

Teaching Fellow

Tanha completed her undergraduate studies at AUW with a major in Economics and a minor in Development Studies. Following her graduation, she joined BRAC Institute of Educational Development, where she explored roles as Media and Communications Officer, and Short Course Facilitator.

Subsequently, she pursued her Master’s in Economic Policy in Global Markets at Central European University in Vienna, where she honed her data analysis skills. During her time there, she also served as a Social Media Assistant at Central European University. Tanha’s research interest lies in educational policy analysis, and the economics of Early Childhood Education. Drawing from her five years of professional experience in media marketing within educational institutions, her curiosity extends to researching innovative digital media marketing strategies that promote educational equity.

Muzahida Tasbiha

Teaching Fellow

Muzahida graduated from Asian University for Women (AUW) in 2018 with a BA major in Politics, Philosophy, Economics (PPE) and minor in Development Studies. She has worked at BRAC University, Economics and Social Science department as a Teaching Assistant. Later she joined the ‘Teach for Bangladesh’ fellowship program where she worked with underprivileged students and community to join the movement of ensuring quality education for all. She has received fully funded scholarship as a part of her fellowship to pursue MEd. in ‘Educational Leadership and School Improvement’ from BRAC University. Her research interest lies in Educational leadership, Gender role in education, Education for marginalized community and TESOL. Currently she is working as a Teaching Fellow for the Graduate Program in Education at AUW.

Nusaiba Binte Zakaria

Teaching Fellow

Nusaiba holds a BA in Economics from AUW and an MSc in Development Economics from the University of Sussex. Her research interests are in development microeconomics, particularly in questions centered around gender. She returned to AUW as a Teaching Fellow, led by her interest to develop a more nuanced understanding of the barriers faced by women, especially by those from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Zuhairia Ibnat

Teaching Fellow

Zuhairia is a graduate of AUW Batch of 2020 with a double major in Environmental Science and Bioinformatics. Her undergraduate degree was followed by a Masters of Science in Quantitative and Computational Biology from the University of Trento in Trento, Italy. She has worked on research projects related to single-cell sequencing and data analysis during her masters. Her research interests include studying omics data from a holistic point of view.

Apart from her academics, Zuhairia is an enthusiast of organizing, traveling and crafting.  Currently, she is working as the Teaching Fellow for the Graduate Program in Education at AUW.

Engr Abdullah Al Shahid Chowdhury

Junior Instructor

As a junior instructor at AUW, he coordinates prestigious certification programs for industry leaders like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. With a B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from International Islamic University Chittagong, he brings valuable insights and real-world expertise from his prior experience as a technical trainer and electrical engineer in renowned industrial groups. Passionate about guiding and empowering students, he is a dedicated advisor, providing unwavering support to those pursuing valuable certification certificates. Committed to fostering an enriching academic environment, he actively contributes to research activities, inspiring students to unlock their full potential.

Teaching

• Google IT Support Professional Certification Course
• Google Cybersecurity Professional Certification Course
• Google Data Analytics Professional Certification Course
• Google Project Management Professional Certification Course
• Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certification Course

Research interests

• Robotics and Automation
• Internet of Things
• AI, DL, ML, NLP
• Embedded Systems Security
• Power System Resilience and Cybersecurity
• Hardware-Software Co-design
• Energy-Efficient Cloud, Edge Computing
• Quantum Computing
• Energy System

Project involvements

• Design of A Robot for Military Operation & Multipurpose Surveillance.

Developed an advanced rescue and surveillance robot with autonomous and manual control capabilities. Compact, lightweight, and precise for versatile operations.

• IoT Based Vehicle Safety and Accident Position Detecting System.

Developed a smart vehicle safety system to reduce street accidents in Bangladesh. Offers durability, low maintenance, and energy efficiency.

Journal Articles

• Anisur Rahman, S.M.G Mostafa, Md. Shakil Ahmed, Masud Hasan and Abdullah Al Shahid Chowdhury, “Multilevel Automated Car Parking System,” Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, Vol. 12, 07-Special Issue, 2020, pp. 1273–1281.

Peer-Reviewed International Conference:

• Abdullah Al Shahid Chowdhury, Yasir Arafat, M. Shafiul Alam, “IoT-GSM Based Controlling and Monitoring System to Prevent Water Wastage, Water Leakage, and Pollution in the Water Supply,” 2022 International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET), Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2022, pp. 567-572.

Working Papers / Reports

Graph Neural Network for Traffic Forecasting

Under the guidance of Professor Shams Forruque Ahmed, he is researching traffic forecasting in intelligent transportation systems and the Internet of Vehicles. Focusing on deep learning models, like convolutional and recurrent neural networks, and exploring the potential of graph neural networks (GNNs) for improved performance. Addressing challenges of data privacy and edge device implementation

Publications Record Summary:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5mOBx3oAAAAJ&hl

Javeria Fazal

Junior Instructor

As a Junior Instructor at AUW, Ms. Javeria’s responsibilities include teaching courses, developing curriculum, conducting research, mentoring students, and contributing to the university’s academic programs. She teaches Google certification courses. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from North South University. Prior to joining AUW and worked as a Database Engineer. She also taught Mathematics and IT subjects to O level and A level students. She conducted research and have published a paper titled ‘Face Mask and Social Distance Monitoring via Computer Vision and Deployable System Architecture’ in the Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing journal in August 2022. In addition, Ms. Javeria has a strong interest in AI, deep learning, machine learning, neural network, and data science, and continuously strive to expand her knowledge and expertise in these rapidly evolving fields.

Teaching

1. The Google Project Management Certification course
2. The Google Digital Marketing and E-commerce Certification course
3. The Google IT Support Specialist Certification course
4. The Google Data Analytics Professional Certification course

Research

Her research interests lie in the intersection of computer vision, pattern recognition, and data analytics. Specifically, she is passionate about exploring innovative approaches to face recognition, object detection, and image segmentation using deep learning techniques. Ms. Javeria keen on applying machine learning algorithms to solve complex problems in natural language processing and predictive modeling. Furthermore, she is interested in the ethical implications of AI and data science and exploring ways to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in algorithmic decision-making systems.

• Project involvements
  Projects:
• Kidney and Kidney Tumor Segmentation (2020) Course: Pattern Recognition and Neural Network Our main contribution is a weighted dice soft loss function, which provided results on par with other state-of-the-art models while utilizing minimum resources. Link for the Paper.
• Website Project: CaretutorsBD (2020) Developed a website for connecting tutors and parents, enabling them to communicate and share their requirements.
• Autism-friendly Website (2019) Created an educational website specifically designed for children with autism, offering interactive learning experiences for basic letters, fruits, animals, and more.
• 2D Project on AutoCAD (2019) Replicated a side design of a Land Rover Defender through 2D modeling using AutoCAD.
• 3D Project on AutoCAD (2019) Designed a 3D model of a toothbrush using AutoCAD.
• Project: Airlines Database Management System (2019) Implemented a mini–Database Management System (DBMS) using C++ and MySQL to store and retrieve information related to the airline industry, as well as perform transactions associated with air travel.
• Digital Indicator System with 7-Segment Display (2018) Developed a digital indicator system using a 7-segment display, demonstrating skills in electronic circuit design and programming.
• Operating System Design Project: Water Level Sensor (2018) Designed and implemented a water level sensor using ultrasonic sensors. The system automatically controls a motor pump, turning it on when the water level is low and off when the tank is full.

Journal Articles

https://www.techscience.com/iasc/v35n3/49406/html

Face Mask and Social Distance Monitoring via Computer Vision and Deployable System Architecture

Published a paper titled ‘Face Mask and Social Distance Monitoring via Computer Vision and Deployable System Architecture’ in the Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing journal in August 2022.

The paper aimed to develop an automatic system to simultaneously detect social distance and face mask violation in real-time that has been deployed in an embedded system. A modified version of a convolutional neural network, the ResNet50 model, has been utilized to identify masked faces in people. You Only Look Once (YOLOv3) approach is applied for object detection and the DeepSORT technique is used to measure the social distance. The efficiency of the proposed model is tested on real-time video sequences taken from a video streaming source from an embedded system, Jetson Nano edge computing device, and smartphones, Android and iOS applications.

Working Papers / Reports

Metaheuristic Algorithms: Recent Advances and Engineering Applications

She is currently working on this paper under the supervision of Professor Shams.

This paper introduces a novel metaheuristic algorithm designed specifically for optimizing emergent technologies. It leverages swarm intelligence and adaptive learning principles, incorporating local search strategies, global exploration mechanisms, and dynamic adaptation techniques. The algorithm’s superior performance is demonstrated through benchmark evaluations and real-world case studies, highlighting its potential for improving efficiency and effectiveness in various emergent technology domains.

Mahfara Hoque

Junior Instructor

Ms. Hoque joined as a Junior Instructor on June 2023 and has been teaching and guiding students to earn Professional Certificates provided by Google to the Undergraduates.

Previously, she worked as a teaching assistant of General Chemistry and Peer tutor of Science and Math Center for a year at the same institution. Also, she worked as a part of the Education in Emergency program at Save the Children International, designed for educating the Rohingya Community. As a Research Assistant at the One Health Research Center (OHRC), and published a Research paper and contributed in two other publications in the field of Computer Science. One of those got published in the 8th International Conference on Mechatronics Engineering (ICOM 2022) and another conference paper was presented in 8th International Conference on Advanced Computing and Intelligent Engineering [ICACIE 2023]. She has around 2 years of teaching and research experience and skills.

She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Bioinformatics with double minors in Computer Science and Mathematics from the Asian University for Women (AUW). Graduating in August 2022 and developed a strong foundation and specialization in her chosen fields. My interest in the area of biology and computational analysis has grown significantly throughout the course of her academic career. The study of bioinformatics has equipped her with the necessary skills to effectively analyze and interpret biological data, enabling her to uncover meaningful insights and contribute to advancements in the life sciences. With double minors in Computer Science and Mathematics, she possessed a diverse skill set that enhances her ability to address complex challenges. Her field of expertise has grown to include being proficient in programming languages, algorithms, and data structures as well as applying computational methods to complex biological problems. Furthermore, her mathematical background enables her to apply statistical techniques to gain deeper insights into biological systems.

Teaching

1. Google IT Support Professional Certification Course
2. Google Data Analytics Professional Certification Course

Research interests:

Data Science, Data Mining and Machine Learning in Bioinformatics, Drug Discovery, Telecommunication and networking, Computational Analysis using programming languages (Python and R) and IT Management.

Project involvements: Worked as a part of “Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)” project with YPSA, and “Peer Education Program (PEP)” project with Education in Emergency department at SCI

Journal Articles:

Green communication in 6G

Source: 8th International Conference on Mechatronics Engineering (ICOM 2022), 2022 p. 101 – 106

https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/icp.2022.2273

Effect of demographic factors on the outcome of early intervention therapy among the children with autism spectrum disorder in Bangladesh

Journal: Research Square

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2398588/v2

Working Papers

• Early detection of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in Covid-19 patients of Bangladesh
• Integrating the Internet of Things with Cloud, Edge, and Fog Computing Architectures
• Enabled Technologies, applications, challenges and Openings of industrial internet of things (IIoT)

Graph Neural Network for Traffic Forecasting

Maisha Tasnim

Junior Instructor

Ms. Maisha Tasnim is a junior instructor for certification programs at AUW. With a profound background in software engineering from SEGI University in Malaysia, she has embarked on an inspiring journey in technology & computational study.

She has worked at EMA technical consultancy firm at Kepong, Malaysia where she embraced transformative power of a Learning Management System (LMS). She is a full stack developer.  Her responsibilities at Asian university for women include teaching courses, developing curriculum, conducting research, mentoring students, and contributing to the university academic programs.

Teaching

1. Digital marketing and e-commerce
2. Data Analytics
3. UX design
4. Project management
5. IT support

Research

Research interests
She is deeply fascinated by the potential of deep learning algorithms and their ability to extract intricate patterns and representations from complex data, few other areas of interests include Machine Learning, Virtual and Cognitive Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Project involvements
1. Integrated application system built with latest scripting and programming libraries.

System application title “Online cleaning service system”.

2. Built Mobile Application for a restaurant management and ordering system,

Application title “Project Crazy”

Working Papers/Reports

Title:

Special issue on deep learning for cognitive healthcare

Supervisor:

Dr. Prof. Shams Forruque Ahmed