About
AI and Machine Learning researcher and educator with a Ph.D. in Computer Science and over a decade of teaching and research experience. My work spans deep learning, computer vision, medical image analysis, federated learning and cybersecurity — with a doctoral focus on ransomware detection using deep neural networks. I currently serve as Assistant Professor, teaching graduate courses in Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence while supervising research at the intersection of AI and security.
Assistant Professor & AI / Machine Learning Researcher.
Advancing deep learning research and educating the next generation of AI practitioners.
- Website: zahoora.compulife.com.pk
- Email: ummezahoora.ai@gmail.com
- City: Rawalpindi, Pakistan
- Degree: Ph.D. Computer Science
- Field: AI / Machine Learning
- Google Scholar: Umme Zahoora
My research contributions include first-author work in Scientific Reports, Applied Intelligence and other peer-reviewed venues, along with a co-authored survey of deep convolutional neural network architectures that has attracted over 3,000 citations. I have contributed to funded projects including EU H2020 Energy Shield and HEC's ViBCOT virtual-biopsy programme in collaboration with Aga Khan Hospital, and I actively review for journals such as Scientific Reports and npj Artificial Intelligence.
Top Skills
Education & Experience
Education
Ph.D. Computer Science
2022
PIEAS, Islamabad
Thesis: Ransomware Detection in Deep Neural Networks. CGPA 3.7 / 4.0.
M.Phil. Computer Science
2012
International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI)
Thesis: Feature Subset Selection using Opposition-Based MOGA for biomedical data. CGPA 3.7 / 4.0.
BS Computer Science
2009
International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI)
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor
Sep 2025 - Present
Air University, Islamabad
Teaching Machine Learning (MSCS), Programming for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Image Processing and Introduction to Data Science.
Assistant Professor
Jan 2024 - Sep 2025
Institute of Space and Technology (IST), Islamabad
Taught Deep Learning (MSCS), Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence. Led curriculum development and established outcome-based education.
Research Associate — ViBCOT
Dec 2022 - Jul 2023
HEC-funded, in collaboration with Aga Khan Hospital
Virtual Biopsy for Brain Tumor Classification. Developed machine-learning and deep-learning methods and validated algorithms on medical imaging datasets with clinical experts.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Sep 2022 - Jan 2023
Riphah International University
Machine Learning, Digital Logic Design and Programming Fundamentals.
Lecturer
Sep 2016 - Nov 2017
Air University sub-campus, Bilquis College (PAF Nur Khan)
Data Mining, AI, Automata, Programming Fundamentals and Image Processing.
Visiting Lecturer
Sep 2013 - Sep 2015
Indus College, Islamabad
Operating Systems and Database Systems.
Please see the full list of publications and research at: https://zahoora.compulife.com.pk
Skills
Research and engineering strengths across artificial intelligence, machine learning and programming.
AI / Machine Learning
Programming & Methods
Publications & Research
Selected peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and funded research projects.
Journal Articles
Ransomware detection using deep learning based unsupervised feature extraction and a cost sensitive Pareto Ensemble classifier
Scientific Reports · 2022
U. Zahoora et al.
Zero-day ransomware attack detection using deep contractive autoencoder and voting based ensemble classifier
Applied Intelligence · 2022
U. Zahoora et al.
A Bias-Resilient Client Selection Analysis for Federated Brain Tumor Segmentation
Scientific Reports (Springer) · 2025
U. Zahoora, A. R. Shahid
A survey of the recent architectures of deep convolutional neural networks
Artificial Intelligence Review · 2020 · 3,000+ citations
A. Khan, A. Sohail, U. Zahoora, A. S. Qureshi
A Recent Survey of Vision Transformers for Medical Image Segmentation
IEEE Access · 2025
A. Khan, Z. Rauf, U. Zahoora et al.
Multimodal Multi-Agent Ransomware Analysis Using AutoGen
arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.20346 · 2026
A. Khan, A. Wadood, M. Iqbal, U. Zahoora
Detection of exceptional malware variants using deep boosted feature spaces and machine learning
Applied Sciences · 2021
M. Asam, U. Zahoora et al.
Ransomware analysis using feature engineering and deep neural networks
Preprint · 2019
A. Ashraf, U. Zahoora et al.
Book Chapters
Evaluating ML models for intrusion detection in VANETs
Springer · 2025
U. Zahoora et al.
Grants & Funded Projects
Zero-Day Ransomware Detection
EU H2020 Energy Shield · 2017 - 2022
Role: Ph.D. Researcher
ViBCOT: Virtual Biopsy for Brain Tumor Classification
Funded by HEC Pakistan
Role: Research Associate (in collaboration with Aga Khan Hospital)
Teaching & Academic Service
Courses Taught
Machine Learning · Deep Learning · Computer Vision · Artificial Intelligence · Digital Image Processing · Programming for AI · Introduction to Data Science · Data Mining · Operating Systems · Database Systems · Automata
Student Supervision
MS — Federated Learning using Transformers & LAMAS for Brain Tumor Segmentation
IST · 2024 - Present
Co-supervisor
Ransomware Detection using Deep Models & Agentic AI
PIEAS · Expected 2025
Co-supervisor
BS — Ransomware Analysis using Feature Engineering & Deep Neural Networks
PIEAS · 2018 - 2020
Co-supervisor
Peer Review
Reviewer for Scientific Reports, npj Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Research Journal and the Artificial Intelligence and Report Journal.
Talks & Workshops
Ransomware Detection Systems using Machine Learning (2021) · Introduction to Ransomware (2021) · International Workshop on Recent Advances in AI, PIEAS (2024) · 3rd National Artificial Intelligence Seminar, NCP (2024) · Federated Learning Workshop, Scaleout Systems.