About

I am a Computer Science student at FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (FAST-NUCES), Lahore. My work sits at the intersection of machine learning evaluation, language models, and applied AI systems.

My research focuses on evaluating AI systems in domain-specific contexts and exploring efficient methods for uncertainty estimation in large language models. I am passionate about building robust, real-world AI applications, ranging from autonomous agents to computer vision systems.

Alongside my research, I am actively involved in teaching and mentoring, helping students across the globe build strong foundations in programming and algorithms.

Note: Open for Fall '27 graduate opportunities (research-oriented MS / PhD programs).
🏆 MIT × Hack-Nation 1st / 2,000+ teams
🥇 WebMind Innovation Hackathon 1st Place
🎓 4× Dean's List of Honor
📄 First-author paper under review

Publications

Under Review
1
Domain-Specific Evaluation of Text-to-Speech Systems: A Multi-Metric Benchmarking Study
A. Jafar, A. Sarmad, S. Yousaf, and M. Bashir
Computer Speech & Language  ·  Under peer review, 2026  ·  First & corresponding author
Thesis (Final Year Research Project)
T
AI Reliability Under Distribution Shift
Ali Jafar
Bachelor's Final Year Project, FAST-NUCES  ·  Ongoing, 2026–27

Evaluating whether lightweight confidence estimates stay reliable across changing domains using controlled train/test comparisons; studying transfer loss and limited-data adaptation with held-out testing rather than relying only on in-domain results.

Paper PDF

Selected preprint is available below.

Experience

Research Experience
Research Assistant Feb 2026 – Present
Department of AI and Data Science, FAST NUCES  ·  Supervisor: Dr. Maryam Bashir (PhD, Northeastern)
  • Co-designed a reproducible benchmark of four Urdu TTS systems across four speech domains and 960 reference-synthetic audio pairs, combining acoustic, speaker-similarity, and human perceptual evaluation.
  • Built evaluation software for MCD, F0 RMSE, speaker embeddings, MUSHRA-style tests, and ABX analysis; found strong domain sensitivity and rank disagreement between objective and perceptual measures.
  • Contributed to study design, evaluation software, experimental analysis, and manuscript writing.
  • Continuing as RA on AI Reliability Under Distribution Shift: evaluating whether lightweight confidence estimates stay reliable across changing domains using controlled train/test comparisons, and studying transfer loss and limited-data adaptation with held-out testing.
Research Collaborator Sep 2026 – Present
Purdue University  ·  Remote  ·  Online Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive AI Agents
  • Working with a research team on agents that continue acting while learning from feedback, connecting reliability detection with adaptation under changing environments.
Teaching Experience
Teaching Assistant – Data Structures (2025); Design and Analysis of Algorithms (2026) Aug 2025 – Present
FAST-NUCES, Lahore  ·  Appointment
  • Supported 100+ Data Structures and Algorithms students by preparing and grading assignments, conducting vivas, reporting results to instructors, and helping during problem-solving sessions.
Section Leader Mentor Apr – Jun 2025
Stanford Code in Place 2025  ·  Remote  ·  Certificate
  • Led 24+ live Python sessions over 8 weeks for students from 15+ countries, using live coding and small-group exercises to teach introductory programming.
Python & AI Trainer Feb – Mar 2026
WPBrigade Bootcamp, Lahore  ·  Certificate
  • Taught introductory Python, machine learning, and image processing to 20+ students from underserved communities during a one-month training program.
Leadership & Service
Hackathon Judge Feb 2026
HEC Pakistan & DEVLAUNCH  ·  Certificate
  • Reviewed 50+ AI/full-stack projects and provided technical feedback.
Global AI Ambassador 2025–2026
Hack-Nation
  • Promoted three global AI hackathons and ranked among the top ambassadors for outreach.
Accommodation Officer 2025
SOFTEC 2025, FAST-NUCES, Lahore
  • Coordinated accommodation for 500+ participants during the three-day SOFTEC festival, Pakistan's largest international IT event.

Projects

Selected research and technical projects.

Selected Research & Technical Projects
System Implementation Qdrant · FastAPI · React · Gemini 2026
Hybrid Semantic Code Search
AST-aware retrieval and LLM planning
Built hybrid retrieval over 10,000+ code chunks using AST-aware splitting and BM25 + dense ranking; achieved MRR@5 = 0.84 with < 50 ms latency, 35% above keyword search. Separated retrieval from LLM planning, using retrieved repository context to generate file- and code-section-level modification proposals.
1st Place – MIT × Hack-Nation LangGraph · Databricks Vector Search · FastAPI · Next.js 2026
Healthcare Infrastructure Intelligence – India
Multi-agent facility reasoning
Built a 5-agent LangGraph workflow over 10,000+ healthcare facilities, routing queries across analytics, semantic retrieval, extraction, trust checking, and geospatial reasoning. Designed a two-pass extractor/validator with medical checks and an LLM judge assigning 0–100 trust scores; distinguished Medical Deserts from Data Deserts to avoid equating missing documentation with missing clinical capacity.
Research Project PyTorch · ConvNeXt · Streamlit 2026
HMSTUNet – Crowd Counting via Density Estimation
Hybrid Multi-Scale Transformer U-Net
Implemented a Hybrid Multi-Scale Transformer U-Net with ConvNeXt for density-map regression, replacing individual detections with spatial density prediction in heavily occluded crowds. Evaluated both ShanghaiTech splits, reaching MAE 62.4 on Part A and 7.5 on Part B; added density maps and heatmaps for inspecting spatial prediction errors.
Agent System LangGraph · FastAPI · React · Gemini 2026
InboxCopilot – Opportunity Email Ranking
11-node LangGraph workflow
Built an 11-node LangGraph workflow that classifies incoming emails, extracts deadlines and eligibility fields, removes duplicates, and ranks opportunities against each student’s profile and priorities. Kept deduplication, urgency scoring, and validation deterministic, using 4 LLM calls per scan only for classification, structured extraction, and profile matching.
Mobile Application Flutter · YOLOv8n · TensorFlow Lite 2025
Real-Time Rear-Obstacle Detection System
On-device edge computer vision
Built an offline Android system using YOLOv8n TFLite and monocular distance estimation, reaching ±4.2% error across 0.5–5.0 m during camera-based testing. Ran TFLite inference on background compute threads at 5 FPS and used EMA smoothing to stabilize distance estimates while keeping the live camera interface responsive.
Research Prototype PyTorch · scikit-learn · Flask · React 2026
Alvira – Speech and Multimodal ML Prototype
Cognitive-health screening application
Integrated a PyTorch WaveNet-style speech classifier using dilated 1D convolutions and attention, with 16 kHz audio preprocessing, for an exploratory cognitive-health screening application. Added separate scikit-learn SVM pipelines for structured symptom and image-derived inputs, connecting audio, text, and image inference routes to a Flask API and React interface.

Certificates & Credentials

Featured
Hackathons & Competitions

View Hackathon Demos Playlist

Silver Brick Award – CALICO Programming Competition 2025
UC Berkeley  ·  Global rank 66/312 (top 21%)
CALICO Certificate
1st Place – WebMind Innovation Hackathon 2025
Ranked 1st among 500+ international teams
2nd MIT x Hack-Nation Hackathon Nov 2025
MIT x Hack-Nation  ·  Outstanding Participation
2nd MIT x Hack-Nation Hackathon
3rd MIT x Hack-Nation Hackathon Nov 2025
MIT x Hack-Nation  ·  Outstanding Participation
3rd MIT x Hack-Nation Hackathon
LeetCode 50-Day Challenge Badge
Consistent daily problem-solving streak
LeetCode 50 Day Badge
Academic Honors
Dean's List of Honor - Fall 2024 2024-25
FAST-NUCES
Dean's List of Honor - Spring 2025 2024-25
FAST-NUCES
Full Merit Scholarship Award Letter 2023 - Present
FAST-NUCES  ·  Top 5% of Cohort
Teaching & Mentoring
Teaching Assistant – Data Structures (2025); Algorithms (2026) Aug 2025 – Present
FAST-NUCES
Section Leader Mentor - Code in Place Apr - Jun 2025
Stanford University
Python & AI Trainer - WPBrigade Bootcamp Feb - Mar 2026
iCodeGuru x WPBrigade
Python & AI Trainer
AI Hackathon Judge
Judge - DEVLAUNCH Hackathon 2026 Feb 2026
Evaluated participant AI/software projects
Generative AI Instructor/Mentor/Judge - 1st Edition 2026
NCEAC  ·  HEC
Judge 1st Edition
Work Experience
Web Development Internship Certificate
Industry Experience
Internship

Curriculum Vitae

My detailed academic CV.

Download CV

Contact

Get in Touch

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