Air University Kamra Campus

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Dr. Umar Ishfaq

Assistant Professor | Department of Computer Science

Email: [email protected]

Qualification: PhD in Computer Science

Research Focus: Natural Language Processing, Text Analysis and Machine Learning

Academic Profile

Full Name	Dr. Umar Ishfaq
Designation	Assistant Professor
Department	Computer Science, Aerospace & Aviation Campus (A&AC), Kamra
Highest Qualification	PhD in Computer Science
University	COMSATS University Islamabad, Wah Campus
PhD Duration	2018–2024
CGPA	3.96 / 4.00
Research Discipline	Natural Language Processing, Text Analysis and Machine Learning
Research Group	Not specified in the submitted profile

Research Interests

Natural Language Processing (NLP) Sentiment Analysis Social Network Analysis Influential User Detection Media and News Bias Detection Machine Learning Deep Learning Multimodal AI Data Mining Explainable AI Large Language Models Hate Speech Detection

Areas of Specialization & Research Keywords

Areas of Specialization: Natural Language Processing, Text Analysis, Machine Learning, Data Mining and Social Network Analysis.

Research Keywords: NLP, sentiment analysis, social network analysis, influential users, centrality measures, blogosphere, microblogs, QA forums, news bias detection, transformers, large language models, explainable AI, multimodal learning and hate speech detection.

Research Impact & Metrics

331 Google Scholar Citations

9 H-index

9 i10-index

Citations since 2021: 244

Metrics reported in the faculty profile, checked on 8 October 2026.

Selected Publications

1. Modelling to Identify Influential Bloggers in the Blogosphere: A Survey

Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 68, pages 64–82, 2017.

Citations: 102 | Impact Factor reported: 9.0

2. Identifying the Influential Nodes in Complex Social Networks Using Centrality-Based Approach

Journal of King Saud University – Computer and Information Sciences, Volume 34, Issue 10, pages 9376–9392, 2022.

Citations: 74 | Impact Factor reported: 8.86

3. Finding Influential Users in Microblogs: State-of-the-Art Methods and Open Research Challenges

Behaviour & Information Technology, 2021.

Citations: 29 | Impact Factor reported: 2.9

4. Modelling Topic-Specific Influential Users in QA Forums Using Association Rule Mining

IEEE Access, 2024.

DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3517702

Impact Factor reported: 3.4

View Complete Publication List on Google Scholar

Publications & Research Outputs

Journal Articles	9
Conference Papers	2
Peer-Reviewed Publications	11, including 9 journal articles and 2 IEEE conference papers
First-Author Publications	7
Scopus-Indexed Journal Articles	8
WoS-Indexed Journal Articles	7
Scopus-Indexed Conference Papers	2
Manuscripts Under Review	2

Research Projects & Funding

1. Are Enrichment Gains in News Bias Detection Real?

Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

Status: Ongoing, 2026–present

Funding: Unfunded

This study investigates whether linguistic and sentiment features improve transformer-based news bias detection or whether reported gains result from data leakage and shortcuts. It includes robustness evaluation, explanation faithfulness and reproducible experiments.

2. Reading the Fund: An Open, Expert-Annotated Corpus of IMF Article IV Reports

Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

Status: Ongoing, 2026–present

Funding: Unfunded

This project aims to develop an open, expert-annotated dataset of IMF Article IV reports to examine policy advice across income groups, with a particular focus on Pakistan.

Awards, Distinctions & Recognition

Pride of Performance

Awarding Organization: Government Graduate College, Attock

Recognition: National

Awarded for exceptional teaching outcomes and IT-based administrative contributions, for two consecutive years.

Nominated Best Teacher of Computer Science

Awarding Organization: Higher Education Department, Rawalpindi Division

Divisional-level nomination for teaching excellence.

ICT R&D Fund Scholarship

Organization: ICT R&D Fund, Government of Pakistan

Period: 2006–2010

Merit scholarship for BS Computer Science at FAST-NUCES, Islamabad.

International Research Collaborations

King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

Research co-authorship with Dr. Mohammed Alghobiri. Joint publications include work in Behaviour & Information Technology (2021), Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems (2021), and International Journal of Business & Technology (2016).

King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

Research co-authorship, including a publication in Computers in Human Behavior (2017).

Qassim University, Saudi Arabia

Research co-authorship with Dr. Mohammed Alreshoodi, including an IEEE Access publication (2024).

View IEEE Access Publication

Université de Moncton, Canada

Research co-authorship with Prof. Habib Hamam, including work in Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (2022).

Professional Engagement

Peer reviewer for PLOS ONE.
Peer reviewer for Computers in Human Behavior (Elsevier).
Paper setter for the University of Sargodha.
Paper setter for BISE Rawalpindi.
Former Head, Department of Computer Science, Government Graduate College, Attock.
Mentor to junior faculty members.
More than 13 years of undergraduate and graduate teaching experience.
Visiting Faculty, COMSATS University Islamabad, Attock Campus (2017–2018).

Teaching Experience & Technical Skills

Teaching Areas

Data Mining Machine Learning Data Structures Analysis of Algorithms DBMS Advanced DBMS Operating Systems Discrete Structures

Technical Tools

Python PyTorch TensorFlow HuggingFace Transformers NLTK NetworkX Gephi

Current Research Directions

Multimodal bias detection using vision-language transformers for text, images and captions.
Adversarial generator–detector frameworks for identifying hidden bias, propaganda and framing.
Multimodal hate speech detection with dehumanization awareness, including memes.
Reproducible evaluation of linguistic and sentiment features in news bias detection.
Open datasets and large language model benchmarks for economic policy analysis.

Researcher Profiles & Links

ORCID	0000-0001-6639-7133
Google Scholar	View Google Scholar Profile
LinkedIn	View LinkedIn Profile