Quick Facts
Biography
Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani (Urdu: ذیشان الحسن عثمانی) is a Pakistani data scientist, writer, entrepreneur, and scholar in the field of computer science. He is a Fulbright grant recipient and holds multiple degrees in the field of computer science. Usmani has authored numerous books in the field of technology, politics, and international affairs, including one book documenting his journey and education as a Fulbright scholar. His PhD thesis Modeling and Simulation of Suicide Bombing was also published in book form. His study on the impact of drone strikes in Pakistan was published in 2014 by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University where he is also a visiting scholar.
Usmani is an Eisenhower Fellow, having received the honor in 2012. He is the co-founder of PredictifyMe, a predictive analytics firm he started with another Eisenhower Fellow in 2014. He currently serves as the company's chief data scientist. Usmani has performed extensive research on the effects of suicide bombings, including developing a predictive model to help reduce injuries in the event of a suicide bombing. He is also the founder of Pakistan Body Count, a website that provides statistics on suicide bombings and drone attacks in Pakistan. He is also an alumnus of National Defense University.
Early life and education
Usmani was born in 1978 in Sukkur, Pakistan which is located in the province of Sindh. He is the youngest of fourteen siblings and has a twin brother as well as a pair of twin sisters. His early education was completed at Shah Faisal Mosque before moving on to Modern High School, for both his primary and secondary education, earning distinction passing his matriculation examinations. He then attended S.M.A. College where he completed his Intermediate (HSC) education, obtaining his first position at the college as a pre-medical student.
Usmani continued his education at Petroman Training Institute, an affiliated college with Shah Abdul Latif University, in Khairpur. He completed his undergraduate with a Bachelor of Computer Science, earning a 3.9 GPA. Usmani moved to Karachi in 1999 where he began working at the same time he pursued his master's degree at the Preston Institute of Management Science and Technology. He completed his M.S. at the Institute in 2002 and began working as an instructor and lead engineer at the school's research and development center.
Usmani continued his education while working in his professional career. He enrolled at Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology for continuing education credits, spending a year at the institute before joining Lahore University of Management Sciences to work on his second master's degree. He moved to Florida after receiving a Fulbright scholarship to attend the Florida Institute of Technology, earning a Masters in Computer Science, competing his degree in 2006. As part of his Master’s thesis, he has developed a simulation of supermarkets to observe and quantify the effects of herd behavior on impulse shopping by customers. He came back to Florida Tech to complete his PhD, attending the university on his second Fulbright scholarship and graduating in 2009.
Career
Usmani began his career in 1999 after moving to Karachi to attend Preston Institute of Management Science and Technology. He began as a lead engineer and instructor for the school's research and development center. After moving on to further his education at Lahore University of Management Sciences, Usmani joined GIFT University as a technical consultant. He worked with GIFT for a year prior to moving to the United States to attend Florida Tech. After completing his first stint with Florida Tech, Usmani moved to New Jersey where he joined ECMTek Inc. as an Ab Initio developer. At ECMTek, he worked on projects with CitiBank in New York before moving on to work on a project at Discover Financial at that company's headquarters in Riverwoods, Illinois.
After completing his PhD, Usmani returned to Pakistan as part of the fulfillment of his Fulbright scholarship. He joined the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology where he worked as an assistant professor in the school's computer science and engineering department. After a year at the Institute, he moved to Islamabad where he took a position as chief of research for Interactive Group.
Research and writing
Usmani began writing for publications while after graduating from the Preston Institute of Management Science and Technology. He wrote monthly for Global Science, a popular science magazine in Pakistan. Usmani published his first book in 2003. Since that time he has published several others, including three about his educational experience in the United States and being an Eisenhower Fellow and Fulbright Scholar. He has also written multiple research papers in the field of computer science.
Usmani's research work has been mainly centered on simulation and modeling of suicide bombings. In 2011 he published Simulation of Suicide Bombing: Using Computers to Save Lives. The book details BlastSim, a physics-based software platform that simulates suicide bombing events. The software tests, analyzes, and validates results of suicide bomb attacks, including recreating actual bombing events for forensic analysis. It has a 91% accuracy with predicting injury and fatality rates under various conditions. Usmani's research is used to take preemptive measures to minimize casualties in potential bombing situations such as providing safe distance recommendations.
Usmani's work has been mentioned in Wall Street Journal, AOL News, Wired Magazine, NPR, MIT’s Technology Review, Florida Today, and The Economist. He has worked as a consultant to both the Sindh Police and the Anti-Narcotics Force in Pakistan. His software also helped determine that the February 2010 Karachi bombings were actually planted explosives and not a suicide attack. His research is also part of Pakistan Body Count, a website he founded that contains the longest running tally of suicide bombings and drone attacks in Pakistan.
Outside of his work in the field of computer science, Usmani has authored a series of novels for youth in Urdu. The series contains four books with the first one titled A Passage to Illumination (Urdu: جستجو کا سفر), the second being The Journey Within (Urdu: اندر کا مسافر), the third Sins Interrupted (Urdu: ادھورے گناہ), and the fourth The Calling (Urdu: اذان). The novels take place in an impoverished village in Pakistan. The main character, Abdullah, sets out to change his life through self-discovery using religion and spirituality. Abdullah earns a scholarship to the United States where he challenges everything he had previously learned about the U.S. in his lifetime.
PredictifyMe
PredictifyMe is a predictive analytics company with headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Islamabad, Pakistan. The company uses advanced algorithms and data sets to predict outcomes of social and commercial problems. Its products are based on the research and doctoral thesis of co-founder Zeeshan-ul-Hassan Usmani during his studies at Florida Institute of Technology. It works primarily in the fields of security, retail, and healthcare.
Working with the United Nations
On March 18, 2015, UN special envoy for global education and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Partnership of United Nations with PredictifyMe. The sole purpose of Partnership was to involve the technical abilities of PredictifyMe to counter terrorist attacks on educational institutes all over the world. Mr. Brown pledged to fight terrorism and related causes that hinders the basic right of education to children.
He said “Among the new developments to address the children’s crisis, I can announce today a 1,000 school pilot in Pakistan in a partnership between the government, UNICEF and the Global Business Coalition for Education, spearheaded by a pro-bono technology contribution from Predictify.Me, a US-based data sciences and predictive analytics firm. The partnership will deliver state-of-the-art technology and simulation software to assess the level of risk preparedness of schools and generate recommendations for school and community safety plans. Each school will receive specific recommendations for improving the school’s set-up to become safer and recommendations for community measures and ongoing risk forecasts".
Awards and recognition
Usmani has won numerous awards for both his research and as an entrepreneur. In 2012 he received the Best IT Innovation Award given to him by the Frontiers of Information Technology. The following year he received the Teradata IT Excellence Award in Research and Development for his project on terrorism forecasting, and was the winner of the TiE StartUp Cup Pakistan. In 2014 he followed up by winning the World Startup Cup in Armenia.
Personal life
Zeeshan-ul-Hassan Usmani is married to Binish Bhagwanee, whom he married on Pakistan Day in 2001. In October 2016 Dr. Usmani's son Abdul Aziz was bullied and beaten in North Carolina because of his Islamic faith. His family immediately left USA after the incident and returned to Pakistan.