Syed Waqar Jaffry

Dr. Syed Waqar ul Qounain Jaffry (Urdu-سید وقارالکونین جعفری) (born 1980) is aPakistani academic and researcher in the field of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. He is the Director of National Center of Artificial Intelligence at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Jaffry was born in 1980 to an educated, Punjabi-speaking, Syed family in Lahore, Pakistan. He received his college degrees from the Government College Lahore, and MSc. Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore. He earned a PhD degree with ranked highest Accolade (excellent) in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at Agent Systems Research Group, Department of Artificial Intelligence, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Jaffry started his career as a lecturer at the University of the Punjab and became an assistant professor. He is associated with the Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) since 2000. He also served on various academic and administrative positions as Graduate Program Coordinator, ACM Student Chapter Adviser, Chairman Computer Society, Secretary of Doctoral Program Committee (DPC), Graduate Financial Support Committee, Research Advisory Committee, Curriculum Development Committee etc.

Jaffry has designed and taught dozens of computing courses at undergraduate and graduate level during last eighteen years of teaching in national and international Universities. He supervised hundreds of students in their capstone projects and research theses at undergraduate and graduate level respectively.

Jaffry is currently serving as the Director of National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI), University of the Punjab, Lahore. Over the last couple of years, he secured research funding of more than a hundred million Pakistani rupees as Principal Investigator (PI) on various research and deployment projects. He has published several research articles in peer reviewed international journals and conferences. Besides teaching and research, he is also involved in academic administration.

Jaffry served at national and international levels to raise the standard of education, research, and development of computer science and information technology at large. Being official evaluator for National ICTRnD fund and Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, in last couple of years, he has reviewed multiple competitive research and development proposals. Currently he is serving as a Vice Chair, IEEE Computer Society, Lahore Section. He served as Technical Co-Chair in IEEE International Conference on Advancement in Computational Sciences (ICACS). As the chief organizer, He organized National Software Exhibition and Competition (SOFTExpo) for five consecutive years from 2013 to 2017. In this mega national event, besides software and programming competitions, he initiated and executed first ever National Graduate Research Symposium. In K-12 education, he is the Convener of External Review Committee for Computer Science and Information Technology Textbooks at Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB), Lahore. Besides textbook evaluator at PCTB, he is also serving as the Convener of Review Committee for the Review of Curriculum of Computer Science and Information Technology for Grades VI-XII at Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, Lahore. In this committee he designed and submitted a state of the art Curriculum for the subject of Computer Science and Information Technology Grades VI-XII at Punjab province for administrative approval.

In his research Lab, he has developed and deployed several software products for the betterment of society at large. These products include student request portal at PUCIT, University of the Punjab, Library management system at PUCIT, University of the Punjab, in Lab driver training kit through which user can learn how to drive an automobile, traffic simulation environment in which traffic and transportation engineers can perform what-if analysis for various traffic and infrastructure interventions, and the Pakistan’s first ever biometric election system for Lahore High Court Bar Elections. The biometric election system is being used successfully for conduction of annual bar elections since 2015.

Jaffry is a prolific researcher and has published over 50 researcher articles in well reputed international conferences and journals.

Dr Jaffry is also serving on various positions for the uplift of education and research at National level

• PhD Approved Supervisor, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Evaluator, Research Funding Proposals of Ignite, National Information and Communication Technology Research and Development (ICTRnD) Ignite Fund, Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Program Evaluator, National Computing Education Accreditation Council (NCEAC), Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Member Board of Studies, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan.
• Director, Agent-based Computational Modeling Laboratory, National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI), Pakistan.
• Convener, External Review Committee for Computer Science and Information Technology Textbooks, Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, Punjab, Pakistan.
• Member Judging Panel, National Grassroots ICT Research Initiative (NGIRI), Ignite, National Information and Communication Technology Research and Development (ICTRnD) Fund, Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Technical Co-Chair, IEEE International Conference on Advancements in Computational Sciences.
• Vice Chair, IEEE Computer Society (CS), Lahore Section, Lahore, Pakistan.
• Convener, Review Committee for the review of Curriculum of Computer Science and Information Technology for Grades VI-XII, Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, Punjab, Pakistan.
• Advisor for Interview, Punjab Public Service Commission, Lahore, Pakistan.

Dr Jaffry has supervised several graduate students in their research and academic carrier over the years a partial list includes

• Mian Muhammad Muabsher (Assistant Professor, University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
• Asif Sohail (Assistant Professor, University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
• Anzar Ahmad (Assistant Professor, University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
• Muhammad Haris (Assistant Professor, University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
• Zara Nasar (Adjunct Lecturer, University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
• Muffrah Naveed (Adjunct Lecturer, University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
• Bilal Shahzad (Program Architect, IBEX Connect)
• Imran Latif (IBM, Pakistan)
• Huma Shoaib (PhD candidate, Purdue University, USA)
• Ali Hussain Khan (Principal Software Engineer, Northbay Solutions, Pakistan)
• Maria Javiad (Lecturer, Government of Punjab)
• Afnan Iftakhar (Lecturer, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan)
• Usama Nawaz (Software Engineer, Fiveriver Technologies, Pakistan)
• Shahmin Sharafat (Research Assistant, National Center of Artificial Intelligence, Lahore, Pakistan)
• Hafiza Baseerat Fatima
• Ainee Ejaz Mirza
• Maria Khurshid
• Zunaira Asghar
• Muhammad Waqas riaz