Md Zia Ullah

Md Zia Ullah serves as a Lecturer in the School of Computing, Engineering & Built Environments at Edinburgh Napier University, where he contributes to both teaching and research activities. His academic journey includes a PhD from Toyohashi University of Technology (2016), followed by post-doctoral research at French institutions (2017-2022) before joining Napier. He maintains active professional affiliations through memberships in prestigious research groups including the Centre for Algorithms, Visualisation and Evolving Systems and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

• B.Sc. (Hons.) from University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (2010)
• M.Eng. from Toyohashi University of Technology (2013)
• PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan (2016)

Dr. Ullah's research centers on information retrieval systems with particular expertise in query performance prediction, adaptive search strategies, and misinformation detection. His work bridges theoretical advances in machine learning with practical applications in social media analysis and healthcare informatics. He has developed novel approaches for microblog retrieval, semantic expansion techniques, and risk-sensitive search configuration selection that have advanced the field of information access systems.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward addressing misinformation challenges through computational methods, with increasing focus on query performance prediction reliability and selective search strategies. His work demonstrates consistent publication in top-tier venues including SIGIR, CIKM, and ECIR, showing evolution from foundational work on bipartite graph ranking to contemporary challenges in misinformation detection and mental health monitoring through social media analysis.

• Co-patented adaptive IR technique
• Active Program Committee member for SIGIR (2018-present), CIKM (2019-present), WSDM (2020-present), SIGKDD (2020-present), ECIR (2019-present), ECMLPKDD (2022-present), CLEF (2017-present)

Dr. Ullah currently serves as Co-PI on the Royal Society Edinburgh-funded "False webs: Network to address the misinformation pandemic" project (2023-2025, £19,931), building on his prior involvement in EU Horizon 2020 projects including PREVISION (2019-2021) and FabSpace 2.0 (2015-2018). He supervises doctoral research, notably serving as second supervisor for Katarina Alexander's project on "Developing a Fake News Warning Label." His professional service extends to lecturing data analytics during his post-doctoral period at Université Toulouse I Capitole.

Based in the School of Computing, Engineering & Built Environments, Dr. Ullah contributes to research themes in AI and Technologies, particularly within Information Science, Optimization and Learning, and Software Systems. His work connects with practical applications through evaluation forums like TREC, CLEF, and NTCIR where he tests methodologies against benchmark datasets.