Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad

I am a Resident Fellow at the Harborview Medical Center (UW Medicine). I am also an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Washington (UW) in Bothell. I received my PhD in Computer Science from University of Minnesota and Bachelors in Computer Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Research: responsible ai (explainability, robustness, fairness), digital twins (Integrating simulation modeling and AI to create large-scale digital replicas of real-world systems, ai in healthcare (disease prediction, algorithmic nudging), personality emulation.

Industry: In recent years, my work has centered on AI in healthcare, with experience across multiple startups in the field, including (KenSci, Advata) in this domain. Prior to this, I have worked in applied AI and machine learning in a number of industries: Commercial retail (Senior Data Scientist at Groupon), Gaming (Research Scientist at Ninja Metrics), modeling human mobility (GIS at UQU), Energy sector (Consolidated Edison of New York), Population Studies (Research Assistant at Minnesota Population Center) and Biomedical devices (research intern at Boston Scientific).

Academia: I have taught at University of Washington Bothell as well as University of Washington Tacoma. I was a Visiting Research Scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur in Professor Nisheeth Srivastava’s Lab. I was a research assistant in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota (UMN) and research associate at the Center for Cognitive Science at UMN.

Press: My work has been covered in major news outlets in the US (PBS, Discover Magazine) and internationally (Wired, The Independent, SBS Korean TV).

Speaking: deliver public talks on three main topics: the societal impact of AI, using AI to simulate the deceased (GriefBots), and AI applications in healthcare. To book a talk, feel free to email me at maahmad@uw.edu. I am also a speaker with Humanities Washington; for talks on GriefBots within Washington State, please contact Humanities Washington directly.

Mentors: I have been fortunate to have many wonderful mentors. I would especially like to acknowledge Jaideep Srivastava (Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota), Ankur Teredesai (Departent of Computer Science & Systems, University of Washington Tacoma), Dmitri Williams (USC Annenberg School of Communication), Noshir Contractor (Kellog School of Management), and Marshall Scott Poole (UIUC School of Communication).

Students: If you are a student and are interested in doing research then drop me a line at maahmad@uw.edu. If you would like me to be part of your thesis committe then please share your thesis idea or proposal in the email. Here is a list of students that I have mentored in the past.