Education
- Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Minor in Data Sciences), Texas A&M University (TAMU), College Station, TX, USA (2009–2015, CGPA 3.36) — Thesis: Information Theory, Graph Theory and Bayesian Statistics-Based Improved and Robust Methods in Genome Assembly; Advisor: Prof. Erchin Serpedin (IEEE Fellow)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Electrical Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Lahore, Pakistan (2007–2008, 77.43%)
- B.Sc. (Hons) in Electrical Engineering (Major: Telecommunication, Minor: Computer Engineering), UET, Lahore, Pakistan (2003–2006, 77.51%)
Research Interests
- Bioinformatics and multi-omics integration; machine learning for oncology and disease prediction; genome assembly and genomic signal processing; high-performance computing.
Biography
Dr. Bilal Wajid has been Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Habib University since January 2024, where he serves on the Computer Science Board of Studies, the Minor Program committee, and the External Linkages committee. He is a seasoned data scientist, bioinformatician, and engineer with nearly two decades of interdisciplinary research and teaching experience across Pakistan, the US, Türkiye, and Australia.
Before Habib, Dr. Wajid was Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at UET Lahore (2015–2023) and, concurrently, at the University of Management & Technology, Lahore (2018–2021), where he directed the M.S. in Data Science program. He also briefly served as Senior Data Scientist at Insigene, Australia (2023–2024). His industry and consulting work includes a licensed diagnostic invention — the Dysbiosis Index, a machine-learning-based PCR assay for canine chronic enteropathy, now licensed to IDEXX Laboratories — developed during his Ph.D. research at Texas A&M University (2009–2015) under IEEE Fellow Prof. Erchin Serpedin. Earlier in his career, he held visiting and instructor roles at Duke University, Texas A&M International University, and Istanbul Commerce University.
Dr. Wajid has authored a book on Linux systems programming, holds a licensed biomedical invention, and has published over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles spanning bioinformatics, genomics, and clinical machine learning, along with numerous conference papers, mentoring more than a dozen Ph.D. and master’s students. He received UET’s Joint Best Teacher Award (2023) and UMT’s Highest Impact Factor Award (2020).
Selected Publications
- Alshawaqfeh, M. K., Wajid, B., Minamoto, Y., Markel, M., Lidbury, J., Steiner, J., Serpedin, E., and Suchodolski, J. “A Dysbiosis Index to Assess Microbial Changes in Fecal Samples of Dogs with Chronic Inflammatory Enteropathy.” FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 93(11), 2017.
- Khan, R., Saqib, M. A., Wajid, B., et al. “Tuar – Transitory – Instabilità (T2i): An ML-based Framework to Predict Transient Instability in a 7-Power Plant Network.” IEEE Access, 2024.
- Khalid, M., Iman, K., Ghafoor, A., et al., Wajid, B., Chaudhary, S. U. “PERCEPTRON – An Open-source GPU-Accelerated Proteoform Identification Pipeline for Top-Down Proteomics.” Nucleic Acids Research, 2021.
- Nisar, H., Wajid, B., Shahid, S., Anwar, F., et al. “Whole-Genome Sequencing as a First-Tier Diagnostic Framework for Rare Genetic Diseases.” Experimental Biology and Medicine, 246, 2021.
- Wajid, B., and Serpedin, E. “Review of General Algorithmic Features for Genome Assemblers for Next Generation Sequencers.” Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics, 10(2), 2012.
- Book: Wajid, B., Iqbal, H., and Jamil, M. “Linux Programming for the Faint of Heart.” Sabz Qalam, 2020.
Honors & Awards
- Joint Best Teacher Award, UET Lahore, 2023
- Highest Impact Factor Award, UMT Lahore, 2020
- Ph.D. Scholarship, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, 2008
- TAMU Graduate Scholarship, 2010
Professional Affiliations
- Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Registration No. ELECT/51658
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