Renowned artificial intelligence researcher and academic Dr. Syed Hamad Shirazi, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Hazara University Mansehra, has been conferred the prestigious ‘Pride of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ Award by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recognition of his outstanding contributions to artificial intelligence, healthcare innovation, scientific research, and higher education.
Renowned AI researcher conferred with ‘Pride of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ award
PESHAWAR, Jul 01 (APP): Renowned artificial intelligence researcher and academic Dr. Syed Hamad Shirazi, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Hazara University Mansehra, has been conferred the prestigious ‘Pride of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ Award by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recognition of his outstanding contributions to artificial intelligence, healthcare innovation, scientific research, and higher education.
The award was presented by Advisor to the Chief Minister on Sports and Youth Affairs, Taj Muhammad Khan Tarand during the 8th edition of the Metrix Pakistan Youth Summit 2026, held at Hazara University Battagram Campus.
The ceremony was attended by senior government officials, parliamentarians, university leaders, researchers, entrepreneurs, faculty members and more than 3,000 students and young participants from across the province.
Dr. Shirazi has emerged as one of Pakistan’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence and medical image computing with more than 10 years of experience in machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, healthcare informatics and decision-support systems.
His research focuses on developing AI-powered technologies that improve disease diagnosis, medical image analysis and clinical decision-making, while also advancing the use of intelligent systems in education, climate science and sustainable development.
Dr. Shirazi has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research papers, including over 30 articles in W-category journals, and contributed to book chapters in emerging areas of artificial intelligence.
His work has been published in internationally recognised journals, including PLOS ONE, Computers in Biology and Medicine, BMJ Open, Neurocomputing and Neural Computing and Applications.
One of his most notable achievements is leading a Higher Education Commission (HEC) National Research Programme for Universities (NRPU) project as Principal Investigator to develop a deep learning-based decision-support system for anaemic red blood cells in collaboration with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre.
The project produced a publicly accessible medical image dataset designed to improve AI-assisted diagnosis of anaemia and support future research in automated healthcare systems.
He is also leading a funded research initiative on remote sensing and geospatial analysis to model the impacts of climate change on glacier water resources and crop mapping in Pakistan, combining artificial intelligence with environmental monitoring to support evidence-based policymaking.
Dr. Shirazi’s research has attracted more than 1,400 academic citations, reflecting the growing international recognition of his work in medical image analysis, blood cell segmentation, cervical nuclei analysis, thyroid disease detection, healthcare AI, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and federated learning.
His academic profile includes an h-index of 19 and an i10-index of 31, indicators widely used to measure the influence and consistency of scientific research.
Beyond research, Dr. Shirazi has played a significant role in developing Pakistan’s future AI workforce.
He has supervised 15 MS and five PhD graduates, while currently mentoring additional postgraduate researchers in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, natural language processing, deep learning, remote sensing and medical imaging. He also serves as Graduate Coordinator and AI Programme Coordinator at Hazara University.
His contributions to education have previously been recognised through the Best Teacher Award from the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Research Productivity Award from COMSATS University.
In 2025, he filed a patent for an Urdu Lip Reading system, reflecting his continued work in language technologies and computer vision.
Speaking at the ceremony, Taj Muhammad Khan Tarand said the provincial government remained committed to recognising researchers whose work strengthens Pakistan’s scientific and technological capabilities.
“Investment in research, innovation and human capital is essential for sustainable development. Scholars such as Dr Syed Hamad Shirazi are helping position Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a contributor to emerging technologies while inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and innovation,” he said.
Receiving the award, Dr Shirazi thanked the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the organisers of the summit for the recognition.
He said the honour would encourage him to further expand research in artificial intelligence and healthcare technologies while continuing to mentor young researchers and develop practical solutions for challenges facing Pakistan’s health and education sectors.
The Pride of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Award is presented by the Directorate of Youth Affairs Government of Khyber Pakhtunkha and Metrix Pakistan to individuals whose achievements have made significant contributions to education, scientific research, innovation, public service and the socio-economic development of the province.
