Furqan Alam
Assistant Professor  ·  AI & Data Science

Furqan Alam,
researcher & teacher.

Building machine learning and AI systems that turn data into better decisions — across smart healthcare, autonomous driving, and the Internet of Things.

Affiliation
Computing & Information Technology
Sohar University
Office
FCIT, Sohar University
Sohar, Oman
Profiles
Google Scholar · ResearchGate

A brief account.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Computing & Information Technology at Sohar University, Oman, where I teach and research at the intersection of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. My work centres on building real-world tools — from medical image analysis to autonomous-vehicle perception and IoT-driven smart systems — that turn data into better organisational decisions. To date I have published 23 indexed papers with more than 1,750 citations, alongside over nine years of academic and industry experience.

I earned my PhD and MSc in Computer Science from King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, working with Prof. Rashid Mehmood, Prof. Iyad Katib, and Prof. George N. Rouskas (NC State University). Before joining Sohar University in 2023, I held industry roles including Tech Lead for Data Science at MAGES Institute (Singapore) and Program Manager at SkilloVilla (Bangalore), as well as faculty positions at Amity and Poornima Universities. I was named Best Student at King Abdulaziz University in 2015 and have contributed to seven internationally funded projects, including one supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

I review for leading journals across IEEE, Springer, MDPI, and Frontiers, and serve as guest editor for the Q1 journal Future Internet. I have supervised six MSc Data Science theses at Liverpool John Moores University and co-supervise a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle, Australia. I welcome inquiries from prospective students whose interests overlap with mine — please read a recent paper before reaching out.

Research interests.

i.
Smart healthcare & medical AI
Skin-lesion segmentation, microrobot detection in ultrasound, human activity recognition for health monitoring, and generative AI for sustainable toxicology.
ii.
Autonomous driving & perception
Road detection, object recognition and classification for connected autonomous vehicles using decision fusion and pixel-level methods.
iii.
IoT & smart cities
Machine-learning-enabled Internet of Things, data fusion across heterogeneous sources, and ubiquitous teaching-and-learning environments for smart societies.
iv.
Machine & deep learning
Image classification and segmentation, neuroevolution, activity recognition, and applied deep learning for real-world decision-making.

All publications.

2026IEEE Access

Confidence-weighted semi-supervised learning for skin lesion segmentation using hybrid CNN–Transformer networks

S. Qamar, M. Alkhatarishi, F. Alam, M. Fazil
IEEE Access, 2026.
2026Computers

A resource-efficient approach to fine-tuning a BERT-base model for sentiment analysis

A. M. Basahel, S. H. Giriyappa, F. Alam, T. S. M. Alnazzawi, S. Qamar, A. A. Abi Sen
Computers, 15(3), Art. 159, 2026.
2025Curr. Res. Toxicol.

A review of the applications, benefits, and challenges of generative AI for sustainable toxicology

F. Alam, T. S. M. Alnazzawi, R. Mehmood, A. Al-Maghthawi
Current Research in Toxicology, 8, Art. 100232, 2025.
2025Actuators

Benchmarking robust AI for microrobot detection with ultrasound imaging

A. Almaghthawi, C. He, S. Luo, F. Alam, M. Roshanfar, L. Cheng
Actuators, 15(1), Art. 16, 2025.
2024Processes

Multi-objective optimisation of injection moulding process for dashboard using genetic algorithm and Type-2 fuzzy neural network

M. R. C. Qazani, M. Moayyedian, P. J. Amirkhizi, M. Hedayati-Dezfooli, A. Abdalmonem, A. Alsmadi, F. Alam
Processes, 12(6), Art. 1163, 2024.
2024Cognitive Robotics

High-fidelity learning-based motion cueing algorithm by bypassing worst-case scenario-based tuning technique

M. R. C. Qazani, H. Asadi, Z. Najdovski, S. Alsanwy, M. Zakarya, F. Alam, H. M. Ouakad, C. P. Lim, S. Nahavandi
Cognitive Robotics, 4, pp. 116–127, 2024.
2024IEEE Access

NeuroHAR: A neuroevolutionary method for human activity recognition (HAR) for health monitoring

F. Alam, P. Pławiak, A. Almaghthawi, M. R. C. Qazani, S. Mohanty, R. Alizadehsani
IEEE Access, 12, pp. 112232–112248, 2024.
2024Preprints

Evolutionary converging functions (ECF) as a novel object detection method for satellite images

F. Alam, S. Mohanty, A. Almaghthawi, T. S. M. Alnazzawi
Preprints, 2024.
2023Mobile Netw. Appl.

TAAWUN: A decision fusion and feature-specific road detection approach for connected autonomous vehicles

F. Alam, R. Mehmood, I. Katib, S. M. Altowaijri, A. Albeshri
Mobile Networks and Applications, 28(2), pp. 636–652, 2023.
2022Electronics

Machine learning-enabled Internet of Things (IoT): Data, applications, and industry perspective

J. Bzai, F. Alam, A. Dhafer, M. Bojović, S. M. Altowaijri, I. K. Niazi, R. Mehmood
Electronics, 11(17), Art. 2676, 2022.
2021Sustainability

IResponse: An AI and IoT-enabled framework for autonomous COVID-19 pandemic management

F. Alam, A. Almaghthawi, I. Katib, A. Albeshri, R. Mehmood
Sustainability, 13(7), Art. 3797, 2021.
2019Springer

Comparison of decision trees and deep learning for object classification in autonomous driving

F. Alam, R. Mehmood, I. Katib
Smart Infrastructure and Applications: Foundations for Smarter Cities and Societies, Springer, pp. 135–158, 2019.
2018Tutorial · KAU

Tutorial: Data analytics for Internet of Things

F. Alam, R. Mehmood
HPC Center, King Abdulaziz University, 2018.
2017IEEE Access

UTiLearn: A personalised ubiquitous teaching and learning system for smart societies

R. Mehmood, F. Alam, N. N. Albogami, I. Katib, A. Albeshri, S. M. Altowaijri
IEEE Access, 5, pp. 2615–2635, 2017.
2017IEEE Access

Data fusion and IoT for smart ubiquitous environments: A survey

F. Alam, R. Mehmood, I. Katib, N. N. Albogami, A. Albeshri
IEEE Access, 5, pp. 9533–9554, 2017.
2017Springer · SCITA

D2TFRS: An object recognition method for autonomous vehicles based on RGB and spatial values of pixels

F. Alam, R. Mehmood, I. Katib
Proc. Int. Conf. on Smart Cities, Infrastructure, Technologies and Applications, Springer, pp. 155–168, 2017.
2016Procedia CS

Analysis of eight data mining algorithms for smarter Internet of Things (IoT)

F. Alam, R. Mehmood, I. Katib, A. Albeshri
Procedia Computer Science, 98, pp. 437–442, 2016.
2016UKACC CONTROL

Analysis of round-robin load-balancing algorithm with adaptive and predictive approaches

F. Alam, V. Thayananthan, I. Katib
Proc. 2016 UKACC 11th Int. Conf. on Control (CONTROL), pp. 1–7, 2016.
2015ICNC

Spectrum assignment in rings with shortest-path routing: Complexity and approximation algorithms

S. Talebi, F. Alam, I. Katib, G. N. Rouskas
Proc. 2015 Int. Conf. on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC), pp. 642–647, 2015.
2015PhD Thesis

Architecture and algorithm for data fusion of heterogeneous multi-source information in Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm

F. Alam, R. Salama, I. Katib
Ph.D. dissertation, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, 2015.
2014Opt. Switch. Netw.

Spectrum management techniques for elastic optical networks: A survey

S. Talebi, F. Alam, I. Katib, M. Khamis, R. Salama, G. N. Rouskas
Optical Switching and Networking, 13, pp. 34–48, 2014.
2013IJARCSSE

New networking era: Software defined networking

F. Alam, I. Katib, A. S. Alzahrani
International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2013.
2013NCSU Repository

Spectrum management techniques for elastic optical networks

S. Talebi, F. Alam, I. Katib, M. Khamis, R. Khalifah, G. N. Rouskas
North Carolina State University Repository, 2013.
View on Google Scholar →

In the classroom.

Data Science
UG · PG
Data science and analytics — undergraduate & postgraduate
Machine Learning
PG
Machine learning and predictive modelling
Deep Learning
PG · PhD
Deep learning — theory and applications
Applied AI
Industry
Short-course & corporate training (UpGrad, Imarticus, MAGES)

Research supervision.

Image analysis & healthcareMSc · LJMU
Autonomous drivingMSc · LJMU
Smart city infrastructureMSc · LJMU
eLearning platformsMSc · LJMU
Internet of ThingsMSc · LJMU
Advanced networkingMSc · LJMU
AI in healthcarePhD · Newcastle (co)