Md Abrar Jahin

CS PhD Student & Graduate Fellow, USC Viterbi | AI Researcher, Center on Knowledge Graphs, USC ISI

md_abrar_jahin.png

Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA

Contact:

abrar.jahin.2652[at]gmail.com

jahin[at]usc.edu

jahin[at]isi.edu

This is Md Abrar Jahin, CSCA; however, you can call me Abrar.

I am an incoming CS PhD student at the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC). I am affiliated with the Center on Knowledge Graphs at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), located at the heart of Silicon Beach. I am fortunate to be co-advised by Prof. Craig Knoblock and Prof. Jay Pujara. My research at ISI will be generously supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a US Department of Defense agency. I have also been awarded the prestigious Viterbi Graduate School Fellowship (2025-2026) in recognition of my outstanding academic promise.

Before joining USC, I obtained my B.Sc. in Industrial & Production Engineering (IPE) in March 2024 from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET).

My current research interests lie at the intersection of efficient deep learning, quantum machine learning, geometric deep learning, and trustworthy AI. My previous research includes reinforcement learning, sentiment analysis, operations research, and comparative genomics. I conceptualize and develop methods to solve complex problems either by hybridizing different techniques or by adopting ideas from seemingly unrelated fields to create novel, interdisciplinary solutions. My background in IPE and extensive research experience in comparative genomics help me approach challenging issues in machine learning from a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective. This distinctive lens allows me to conceptualize and implement efficient, unorthodox strategies beyond traditional machine learning frameworks.



Early Research Achievements

From my first year of university (2019), I started learning C/C++ and Python for problem-solving while maintaining strong academic performance. I participated in international competitions like IYMC (2019) and IAAC (2020), where I tackled challenging research-level problems. My first success on the international stage came from solving these problems using my own algorithms. This experience boosted my confidence and helped me realize my passion for research, leading me to pursue a career in AI. Since then, I haven’t looked back. I see learning as a lifelong journey. I deeply believe in the value of knowledge—its loyalty, its depth, and its power to endure over time.

I feel fortunate to have been the first Bangladeshi undergraduate student to receive the opportunity for two international research internships in the same year. After leading my team to win the “Smart Roads – Winter Road Maintenance Hackathon 2021”, I was offered a 3-week Machine Learning research internship at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. During this internship, I contributed to the DIT4BEARs Smart Roads project.

I was honored to receive a fully-funded scholarship as the first Bangladeshi Research Intern (RI) (October 2021) at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). Under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Miller (PhD in Biology, Cambridge; PhD in Physics, Caltech), I conducted research on perfectly conserved sequences in humans and other species in the Physics and Biology Unit (Miller Unit). Thanks to this early experience, I was fortunate to be offered another opportunity in 2023 as a Visiting Research Student (VRS) at OIST. After graduating in March 2024, I continued collaborating as a Visiting Researcher (VR) until March 2025, working closely with Prof. Miller as well as Dr. Zifcakova, Dr. Biller, Dr. Lajbner, and Dr. Pnini on the evolutionary dynamics of strongly conserved sequences in vertebrates and insects.

I had the privilege of being co-supervised by Prof. M. F. Mridha, Prof. Nilanjan Dey, Prof. Md. Saiful Islam, and Dr. Mohammad Arafat Hussain (Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School) during my undergraduate studies and early research career. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with distinguished computer scientists, including Prof. R. Simon Sherratt (IEEE Fellow), Prof. Jungpil Shin, Prof. Yuichi Okuyama, Prof. Zeyar Aung, Prof. Yutaka Watanobe, Prof. Md. Rashedul Islam, and Prof. Md. Jakir Hossen.

I am the first undergraduate in Bangladesh whose thesis focused on Quantum Machine Learning (QML) and achieved remarkable success by being published in Nature Scientific Reports, setting several new records:

  • First instance of any thesis from KUET accepted by a ‘Nature Portfolio’ journal 5-6 months before the graduation of any student.
  • First instance of any article or thesis from my department (KUET IEM) being published in a ‘Nature Portfolio’ journal, irrespective of student or faculty status.
  • First successful research related to ‘Quantum Computing’ published from KUET.
  • First work on the application of Explainable Quantum Machine Learning in the Supply Chain Management domain.

I received an encouraging email in 2023 from Professor Junyu Liu (Assistant Professor, Department of CS, University of Pittsburgh), a renowned quantum information and machine learning scientist. Professor Liu was impressed by my undergraduate thesis, which he came across on arXiv preprint while it was under review.

My presentation demo on undergraduate thesis defense.


My Personal Perspectives about Life in Academia

I firmly believe that being a researcher is not just a career but a way of life that demands perseverance, intellectual curiosity, and commitment to advancing knowledge. Under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Miller at OIST, I had the privilege of conducting PhD-level computational research while balancing the demands of my undergraduate studies. During this time, I observed the pressures of the publish-or-perish culture in academia but remained committed to conducting meaningful and ethical research. Under his guidance, I gained invaluable insights into how groundbreaking science is conducted, no matter how long the process might take. Professor Miller’s mentorship profoundly shaped my research approach, and being part of his lab was a transformative moment when his colleague, Professor Svante Pääbo, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (2022). The research I was pursuing at that time closely aligned with Professor Pääbo’s work, reinforcing my confidence in the potential impact of my efforts and elevating my aspirations to new heights.

My experiences in academic research over past couple of years since 2021 has strengthened my belief that academia is the place where I belong. I am fascinated by the ethics, honesty and rigor that academia represents. Compared to the outcomes which are more apparent in industry, academia forces researchers to face these uncertainties and solve problems with much more harder questions over much longer timescales. Overcoming smaller technical challenges (which are still not easy) in academia has given me the greatest satisfaction and inspired me to pursue academic research. I am eager to join in a highly competitive environment and push myself out of my comfort zone, because I am peer-pressure-driven and consider this as a motivation.

My philosophy of success is simple: I seek out individuals smarter than myself, collaborate with them, and learn from their expertise. My leadership experiences have taught me that while I cannot excel in every domain, I can bring brilliant minds together to achieve impactful solutions for the greater good of science and humanity. Throughout my academic journey, I have combined technical expertise, research experience, and interpersonal skills to accomplish ambitious goals that often seemed beyond reach.


Childhood Education and Academic Achievements

My educational journey has been profoundly influenced by my experiences at Mirzapur Cadet College and Bogra Zilla School (BZS). These institutions have played a pivotal role in shaping my character and academic success. Through these formative years, I acquired essential qualities such as perseverance, stepping out of my comfort zone, taking responsibilities, and the determination to overcome challenges. I also learned the value of selfless friendship, leadership, and the importance of following a chain of command. Moreover, I developed skills in extempore speech, time management, decision-making, and task prioritization.

My academic achievements were recognized through Government Board Scholarships in PSC (2006), JSC (2013), SSC (2016), and HSC (2018) exams. Notably, I secured the 17th position in the Rajshahi Board in the PSC exams.

During my time at BZS for primary education, I excelled in a highly competitive academic setting, consistently achieving top ranks in annual academic assessments. I actively participated in various quiz competitions, securing victories in three competitions organized by renowned entities such as the United Nations and Kishore Kantho. Additionally, I organized a quiz competition on a rolling basis, engaging students in subjects like primary-level Olympiad maths, English, and general knowledge (both national and international categories). This initiative not only kept students involved but also generated revenue, with each set of quiz questions priced at 2 Taka and a grand prize of a video game DVD (FIFA 2010), resulting in approximately 500 Tk in revenue during 2010-2011. These experiences have significantly influenced my academic journey, fostering a deep-seated passion for continuous learning and personal growth.


News

Jul 10, 2025 ​Our article “AdeptHEQ-FL: Adaptive Homomorphic Encryption for Federated Learning of Hybrid Classical-Quantum Models with Dynamic Layer Sparing” [Full Text] has been accepted for presentation in 1st ICCV BISCUIT Workshop 2025 (CORE Rank A*) which will be archived in the ICCV 2025 workshop proceedings.
Jun 10, 2025 ​Our article “Vision Transformers for End-to-End Quark-Gluon Jet Classification from Calorimeter Images” [Full Text] has been accepted as poster in 3rd IJCAI GLOW Workshop 2025 (CORE Rank A*) which will be archived in the proceeding of Communications in Computer and Information Science (Springer Nature).
May 2, 2025 ​Our “MCDFN: Supply Chain Demand Forecasting via an Explainable Multi-Channel Data Fusion Network Model” [Full Text] article has been accepted for publication in Evolutionary Intelligence (Springer Nature).
Apr 8, 2025 My PhD SOP and PS have been approved and published on the cs-sop website, where you will get to know how I cracked the top schools considering the brutal funding conditions and in a competitive domain like CS-AI/ML Systems in Fall 2025, despite coming from a non-CS (IPE) background.
Mar 25, 2025 ​Our article, “Ultrasound-Based AI for COVID-19 Detection: A Comprehensive Review of Public and Private Lung Ultrasound Datasets and Studies,” [Full Text] has been accepted for publication in Multimedia Tools and Applications (Springer Nature).
Mar 20, 2025 ​Our article, “Lorentz-Equivariant Quantum Graph Neural Network for High-Energy Physics,” [Full Text] has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence (TAI). This marks the first Transactions article for our AMIR lab. My co-supervisors are extremely delighted with this remarkable achievement.
Feb 9, 2025 USC CS Department informed me of my recommended admission to the PhD program and invited me to attend the PhD Visit Days on March 6–7, 2025, in Los Angeles. The two-day event includes meetings with faculty, current students, and department leadership, along with tours of the new Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall and affiliated research centers such as ISI and ICT.
Feb 2, 2025 Professor Craig Knoblock and Professor Jay Pujara jointly emailed me with the exciting news of my acceptance to the USC CS PhD program. They shared that I’ve been awarded a first-year fellowship, with guaranteed multi-year funding, and invited me to join their research group at the Center on Knowledge Graphs at ISI.
Nov 8, 2024 Valeriy M., PhD, MBA, CQF (author of bestselling “Practical Guide to Applied Conformal-Prediction”) shared his optimistic views about our latest research article “Human-in-the-Loop Feature Selection Using Interpretable Kolmogorov-Arnold Network-based Double Deep Q-Network” (available as arXiv preprint).
Oct 10, 2024 Our 2 articles got accepted for publication in PLOS ONE and Nature Scientific Reports, respectively:
[1] Shahriar*, H., Islam, M.S., Jahin*, M.A., Ridoy, I.A., Prottoy, R.R., Abid, A., Mridha, M.F. (2024). Exploring Internet of Things Adoption Challenges in Manufacturing Firms: A Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.12350
[2] Jahin, M.A., Shovon, M.S.H., Mridha, M.F., Islam, M.R., Watanobe, Y. (2024). A Hybrid Transformer and Attention Based Recurrent Neural Network for Robust and Interpretable Sentiment Analysis of Tweets. Nature Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2404.00297
Jul 14, 2024 Cierra Choucair (pursuing MS in CS @CU Boulder, USA) shared her optimistic insights on Twitter about our latest research article, ‘TriQXNet’ (not yet published), which is available as a preprint and featured this work on ‘The Daily Qubit’.
[1] Labs, U. (2024, June 25). The Daily Qubit. The Daily Qubit. https://www.thedailyqubit.com/p/issue-97
Jul 11, 2024 Valeriy M., PhD, MBA, CQF (author of bestselling “Practical Guide to Applied Conformal-Prediction”) shared his opinion about our latest research article “TriQXNet: Forecasting Dst Index from Solar Wind Data Using an Interpretable Parallel Classical-Quantum Framework with Uncertainty Quantification” (available as arXiv preprint).
Jul 10, 2024 Our 2 research articles got published in Q1 journals (both Scopus and Web of Science indexed).
[1] Saha, A. K.*, Jahin, M. A.*, Rafiquzzaman, Md., & Mridha, M. F. (2024). Ergonomic Design of Computer Laboratory Furniture: Mismatch Analysis Utilizing Anthropometric Data of University Students. Heliyon, e34063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34063
[2] Ahmad, K.*, Islam, M. S., Jahin, M. A.*, & Mridha, M. F. (2024). Analysis of Internet of things implementation barriers in the cold supply chain: An integrated ISM-MICMAC and DEMATEL approach. PLOS ONE, 19(7), e0304118. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304118
Jun 19, 2024 Thanks to the organizers for selecting me anonymously as a reviewer for being among one of the top emerging young AI Researchers. It’s an honor for me as IEOM conferences are the topmost and the most prestigious in the field of “Industrial Engineering and Operations Management.”
Apr 24, 2024 We’ve just hit the “submit” button for SpecX, our groundbreaking XAI-Powered Web App for Sentiment-Driven Disease Profiling & Specialist Allocation, in this year’s MIT Solve Challenge 2024 in the 2024 𝐺𝐿𝑂𝐵𝐴𝐿 𝐻𝐸𝐴𝐿𝑇𝐻 𝐸𝑄𝑈𝐼𝑇𝑌 𝐶𝐻𝐴𝐿𝐿𝐸𝑁𝐺𝐸 track.
Apr 16, 2024 My research article, titled “𝐀 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬,” has been published in the 𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 (Scopus Indexed, IF=2.143, Citescore=0.9)!
Feb 28, 2024 Successfully arranged Research Counseling Program (Part-1), from KRS IEM Research Unit. The keynote speaker was Shawkat Shakil (PhD Candidate in ME, The University of Toledo, USA) from IEM’14, KUET.
Feb 28, 2024 I successfully defended my B.Sc. undergrad thesis! Thesis Title: “Supply Chain Backorder Prediction Using Interpretable Hybrid Quantum-Classical Neural Network” published in Nature Scientific Reports). upervised By: Dr. Md. Saiful Islam, Associate Professor
Feb 8, 2024 I developed the first-ever LaTeX template for B.Sc. Undergrad Thesis of KUET! Template
Feb 5, 2024 Our research article, “𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 – 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬,” got accepted for publication in 𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒅𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 of Springer, a top-tier journal [I.F. = 9.7 (2022), Q1 ranking, Citescore = 14.1, SJR = 1.581, and H-index = 79]. It’s Q1 both in Scopus and WoS-based indexing.
Nov 2, 2023 The ‘Team Aurora’ lead by me got Global Nomination in NASA Space Apps Challenge 2023!
Oct 19, 2023 My undergrad thesis has been accepted to be published in Nature Scientific Reports, even 5-6 months before graduation.

Selected Publications

  1. Quantum-Informed Contrastive Learning with Dynamic Mixup Augmentation for Class-Imbalanced Expert Systems
    Md Abrar JahinAdiba Abid, and M. F. Mridha
    Under review in Expert Systems with Applications, Jun 2025
    arXiv:2503.01284
  2. IEEE OJ-CS
    jahin_human-loop_2024.png
    Human-in-the-Loop Feature Selection Using Interpretable Kolmogorov-Arnold Network-based Double Deep Q-Network
    Md Abrar JahinM. F. Mridha, and Nilanjan Dey
    Under review in IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society, Nov 2024
    arXiv:2411.03740
  3. Lorentz-Equivariant Quantum Graph Neural Network for High-Energy Physics
    Md Abrar JahinMd Akmol Masud, Md Wahiduzzaman Suva, M. F. Mridha, and Nilanjan Dey
    IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, Mar 2025
  4. NeurIPS 2025
    jahin_quantum_2024.png
    Quantum Rationale-Aware Graph Contrastive Learning for Jet Discrimination
    Md Abrar JahinMd Akmol MasudM. F. Mridha, and Nilanjan Dey
    Under review in NeurIPS 2025, Nov 2024
    arXiv:2411.01642
  5. KACQ-DCNN: Uncertainty-Aware Interpretable Kolmogorov-Arnold Classical-Quantum Dual-Channel Neural Network for Heart Disease Detection
    Md Abrar JahinMd Akmol MasudM. F. MridhaZeyar Aung, and Nilanjan Dey
    Under review in Computers in Biology and Medicine, Oct 2024
    arXiv:2410.07446
  6. TriQXNet: Forecasting Dst Index from Solar Wind Data Using an Interpretable Parallel Classical-Quantum Framework with Uncertainty Quantification
    Under review in npj Artificial Intelligence, Jul 2024
    arXiv:2407.06658 [cs]
  7. QAmplifyNet: pushing the boundaries of supply chain backorder prediction using interpretable hybrid quantum-classical neural network
    Md Abrar JahinMd Sakib Hossain Shovon, Md. Saiful Islam, Jungpil ShinM. F. Mridha, and 1 more author
    Scientific Reports, Oct 2023
    Number: 1 Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
  8. A hybrid transformer and attention based recurrent neural network for robust and interpretable sentiment analysis of tweets
    Scientific Reports, Oct 2024
    Publisher: Nature Publishing Group