Bridging neuroscience, GPU computing & immersive technology
I defended my PhD in Life Sciences and Biotechnologies at the University of Sassari, Italy, on 6 May 2026 (degree conferred 16 June 2026). My doctoral research developed the NeuroConstellation platform family, five GPU-accelerated visualisation tools for rendering large-scale neural network activity across desktop, mixed reality, virtual reality, and web-browser environments. Alongside the platforms, I analysed full-scale single-cell CA1 connectomes of the human (~5.28M neurons) and mouse (~288K) on the GPU, producing one of the first matched cross-species comparisons at this scale (manuscript in preparation) and identifying a conserved GABAergic neurogliaform rich-club.
My work sits at the intersection of computational neuroscience, extended reality, and human-computer interaction. I collaborate with researchers at the Institute of Biophysics CNR Palermo (Migliore lab), EBRAINS-Italy, and Aix-Marseille University, where I completed a 6-month international research mobility from August 2025 to January 2026. My ongoing research includes EEG signal analysis using MATLAB and brain co-simulation frameworks within the EBRAINS-Italy infrastructure.
Before the PhD, I earned an M.S. in Software Engineering from UESTC, China, where my thesis focused on fine-grained emotion detection from text using deep learning, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Sindh, Pakistan. This interdisciplinary background, combining software engineering, NLP, and neuroscience, shapes how I approach complex visualisation challenges.
Notable distinction: Part of the first group of international students invited to serve as museum guides in UESTC's 60-year history (2019), delivering special lectures on Chinese technological advancement to a global audience.
Outside research, I have been actively involved in community work, most notably as an ILM Ambassador with the British Council's Take a Child to School programme, which contributed to enrolling over 110,000 out-of-school children across Pakistan.