Dr Adnan Ahmad
- Senior Lecturer
- School of Global Futures & Sustainable Innovation
Biography
Dr. ADNAN AHMAD holds a PhD degree in Computer Science from Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand. He has more than eighteen years of teaching and research experience at various educational and research institutes including Massey University New Zealand; COMSATS University Pakistan, and Saint Louis University Spain.
He has more than 70 peer-reviewed articles at renowned venues including Computers & Security, ACM transactions, and IEEE Communication Magazine. He is an associate editor of 3 international journals, a reviewer of various IEEE, Elsevier, IET, and springer journals, and part of TPC of several prestigious conferences. He is also an external evaluator for National Ignite R&D fund, PITB research fund, DICE-IET, and many other international funding agencies. Moreover, he has organized multiple international workshops in Belgium, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Portugal, and Spain.
He has supervised 14 PhD, 35 MS thesis students, and several startup projects. He has also co-authored two books on emerging technologies in distributed systems. He is also the founding in-charge of Center of Advance Research in Distributed Systems and Security (CARDS) research group & Cybersecurity Research Group (CSRG) at COMSATS University, Pakistan, and Asia region member of INFORMS group, Bahrain. His research interests include Cyber Security, Digital Forensics, Penetration Testing, Distributed Systems, and Internet of things (IoT).
Academic & Professional Qualifications
- PhD - Cyber Security, Massey University, New Zealand (2013)
- MS - Computer Science, LUMS, Pakistan (2009)
- BCS (Hons.), GCU, Pakistan (2005)
Research Interests
- Cyber Security
- Penetration Testing
- Digital Forensics
- Distributed Systems
- IoT
Teaching Areas
- Information Security
- Operating Systems
- Object Oriented Analysis and Design
Courses Taught
- Computer and Network Security
- Computer Application and IT
Notable Publications
1) Asghar, S., Ahmad, A., Albalawi, A., Hussain, M., Umer, T., Arsalan, A., & Arshad, J. (2026). Adaptive lightweight authentication (ALA): An efficient paradigm for IoT devices security. Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal, 80, 102441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2026.102441 (Impact Factor: 5.8)
2) Muhammad, T., Ahmad, A., & Zeshan, F. (2026). A multimodal framework for modeling and predicting information propagation in online social networks. Journal of Big Data. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-026-01381-0 (Impact Factor: 6.4)
3) Javaid, S., Ahmed, S., Sania, H., Ahmad, A., Ahmad, F., Elkiran, H., & Rasheed, J. (2026, July). Multi-year evaluation of a smart inquiry-based science learning application in middle school education. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 11, p. 1865946). Frontiers Media SA. (Impact Factor: 2.6)
4) Ahmed, M., Ahmad, A., Zeshan, F., & Mirza, H. T. (2026). Enhancing blockchain efficiency and security: a shard-chain methodology with smart contract integration. World Wide Web, 29(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-025-01388-2 (Impact Factor: 3.4)
5) Ahmad, A., Zeshan, F., Marriam, R., Ahmed, S., Samreen, A., Hamid, M., ... & Zahary, A. T. (2026). Investigating the effect of gaming habits on extrinsic motivation in gamification environment through structural equation modeling. Scientific Reports 16, 24227. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-50610-2 (Impact Factor: 3.9)
6) Sarfraz, A., Ahmad, A., Ahmad, F., & Zeshan, F. (2026). Modeling and validating rumor dynamics in online social network: formalizing crowdsourcing with colored petri nets. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 85(3), 268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-026-21241-6 (Impact Factor: 3.0)
7) Ahmed, M., Ahmad, A., Zeshan, F., & Akram, S. (2026). BAAR: A framework for blockchain-based anonymous and revocable user authentication scheme. Plos one, 21(3), e0343696. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343696 (Impact Factor: 2.6)
8) Sarfraz, A., Ahmad, A., Zeshan, F., Hamid, M., Hajjej, F., & Alshalali, T. A. N. (2025). Hybrid Harmony: The Role of Socio-technical System for Cross-Cultural Behavioral Variations to Profile Adversarial Resistance. Computers & Security, 104727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2025.104727 (Impact Factor: 5.4)
9) Sarfraz, A., Ahmad, A., Zeshan, F., Hamid, M., & Alshalali, T. A. N. (2025). Unmasking deception: detection of fake profiles in online social ecosystems. Journal of Big Data, 12(1), 214. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-025-01254-y (Impact Factor: 6.4)
10) Bilal, A., Mirza, H. T., Ahmad, A., Hussain, I., & Khan, A. S. (2025). Unveiling functional aspects in google play education app titles and descriptions influencing app success. Automated Software Engineering, 32(1), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-025-00497-6
(Impact Factor: 3.1)
11) Bilal, A., Mirza, H. T., Khan, A. S., Ahmad, A., Hussain, I., & Ali, S. Z. (2025). Who dominates generative AI? Analyzing user feedback to identify common use cases and areas for improvement in ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini. Knowledge and Information Systems, 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-025-02550-y (Impact Factor: 3.1)
12) Ahmed, S., Bukhari, S. A. H., Ahmad, A., Rehman, O., Ahmad, F., Ahsan, K., & Liew, T. W. (2025, March). Inquiry based learning in software engineering education: exploring students’ multiple inquiry levels in a programming course. Frontiers in Education (Vol. 10, p. 1503996). Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1503996 (Impact Factor: 1.9)
13) Ahmed, S., Zeeshan, M., Parsons, D., Rehman, O., Ahmed, Z., Ahmad, A., & Ahmad, F. (2025). Exploring Game‐Based Inquiry Learning Application in a Maritime Science Museum: A Visitors’ Perspective. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2025(1), 8284489. https://doi.org/10.1155/hbe2/8284489 (Impact Factor: 3.0)
Achievements & Accolades
National Computer Emergency Response Team (nCERT), Pakistan
Autonomous SOC Architecture for Advanced Threat Detection and Response (ASoC)
PI: Dr. Adnan Ahmad
Jan 2025 – Feb. 2026
Budget: PKR 6.3 million / USD 22,000
(Completed)
Higher Education Commission, China
(In collaboration with Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China)
An Adaptive AI based Next Generation Firewall
PI: Dr. Adnan Ahmad
Dec 2024 – Nov. 2025
Budget: PKR 12 million / USD 43,000
(Completed)
Ignite National Technology Fund, Pakistan
E-Assessment System for C/C++ Programming Assignments PI: Dr. Adnan Ahmad
April 2017 – Oct 2018
Budget: PKR 11.1 million / USD 40,000
(Completed)
Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan
Adaptive game AI: Rethinking the video game experience PI: Dr. Adnan Ahmad
Feb 2014 – Jan 2015
Budget: PKR 0.5 million/ USD 2,000
(Completed)
