Shifat E. Arman

Shifat E. Arman

Assistant Professor

Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Dhaka

Founding Director

Cortex AI Research Group

I am an Assistant Professor in Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering specializing in developing artificial intelligence for real-world applications. I have authored 13 peer-reviewed articles, including 9 in Q1 venues, with over 280 citations, and have received multiple research awards and four competitive research grants totaling over 2 million BDT. I also founded the Cortex AI Research Group, which conducts cross-disciplinary work in medical imaging, agriculture and robotics. My research interests include Agentic AI, Multimodal and Multitask Learning, and Vision Language Models with an emphasis on interpretable AI for real-world applications.

Life Events

2026Paper accepted to ACL 2026 (Findings)Thinking Like a Botanist: Challenging Multimodal Language Models with Intent-Driven Chain-of-Inquiry. ACL is the #1 ranked venue in Computational Linguistics (h5-index 236, CORE A*).
2025Received the Dean's Award (2025 and 2023) as the youngest awardee and only lecturer to receive it twice.
2025Promoted to Assistant Professor, Dept. of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Dhaka.
2025Received the Provost Award for securing 1st position in the MSc with a CGPA of 3.98 out of 4.00.
2025Received the Dhaka University Research Excellence Award as one of the youngest awardees for impactful peer reviewed research.
2024Received the Special Merit Award and Distinction for securing 2nd position among 58 faculty members in the Foundation Training Programme.
2022Joined as Lecturer, Dept. of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Dhaka.
2022Joined as Adjunct Faculty, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, BRAC University.
2022Completed MSc in Robotics & Mechatronics Engineering from University of Dhaka.
2021Joined as Visiting Research Assistant, GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Gazipur Agricultural University.
2020Joined as Research Assistant, University of Dhaka.
2019Completed BSc in Robotics & Mechatronics Engineering from University of Dhaka.
2019Joined as AI Design and Development Intern, Datasoft Manufacturing and Assembly Limited.

Featured Works

Full list of published articles on Google Scholar →

SugarcaneShuffleNet

SugarcaneAI app for diagnosis of 15 prominent sugarcane leaf diseases using SugarcaneShuffleNet.

BananaSqueezeNet

BananaSqueezeNet: A very fast, lightweight convolutional neural network for the diagnosis of three prominent banana leaf diseases.

Intracranial Hemorrhage

Intracranial Hemorrhage Classification From CT Scan Using Deep Learning and Bayesian Optimization.

Research Portfolio

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

  1. 1.AI for COVID-19 Diagnosis from X-ray Images
  2. 2.AI for Intracranial Hemorrhage Diagnosis from CT Scans
  3. 3.AI for Histological Cancer Cell Detection from Tissue Image
  4. 4.AI for Retinal Disease Diagnosis from OCT Images

Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture

  1. 1.AI for Sugarcane Leaf Disease Diagnosis from Mobile Images
  2. 2.AI for Banana Leaf Disease Diagnosis from Mobile Images (BananaSqueezeNet)
  3. 3.AI for Mango Leaf Disease Diagnosis from Mobile Images
  4. 4.AI for Diverse Crop Leaf Diagnosis from Mobile Images (PlantCareNet)
  5. 5.AI for Cotton Seedling Monitoring and Growth Stage Classification

Artificial Intelligence in Nanophotonics

  1. 1.AI for Inverse Design in Nanophotonics
  2. 2.Generative AI for Inverse Design in Nanophotonics

Research Grants

2025–26·Associate Investigator

Deep Learning and XAI for Interpretable Microscopic Tissue Image Analysis for Cancer Diagnosis

Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

2024–25·Principal Investigator

Building Smart Biomimetic Robots for Underwater Operations

ICT Innovation Fund, ICT Division, Bangladesh

2023–24·Co-Investigator

Rapid Assessment of Plant Responses to Climate-Induced Stress Using AI

University Grants Commission of Bangladesh

2023–24·Co-Investigator

SmartPDE: Deep Learning Based Plant Disease Epidemiology and Forecasting

University Grants Commission of Bangladesh

Awards

Dhaka University Research Excellence Award 2025

2025
  • One of the youngest awardees, recognised for impactful peer-reviewed research contributions.

Dean's Award 2023 and 2025

2023, 2025
  • One of the youngest awardees and only lecturer to win twice, recognising research, mentorship and co-curricular contribution.

Provost Award 2025

2025
  • Received the Provost Award for securing first position in the MSc programme with a CGPA of 3.98 and the highest marks.

Special Merit Award and Distinction

2024
  • Received the award for securing the second highest score among 58 faculty members in the 14 day Foundation in University Teaching and Learning training and was one of the youngest participants.

Education

MSc, Robotics & Mechatronics Engineering

Thesis: Algorithms for Fast and Efficient Neural Architecture Search

First position · CGPA 3.98 · Provost Award (2025)

BSc, Robotics & Mechatronics Engineering

Thesis: Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis

Teaching

Undergraduate and graduate courses.

Artificial Intelligence

  1. Artificial Intelligence
  2. Machine Learning
  3. Neural Networks and Deep Learning

Robotics & Programming

  1. Human–Robot Interaction
  2. Introduction to Robotics
  3. Fundamentals of Programming
  4. Object Oriented Programming

Mechatronics

  1. Advanced Mechatronics Engineering
  2. Programmable Logic Controller
  3. Engineering Drawing

Collaborations

  • Ecology Lab, Dept. of Botany, University of Dhaka
  • GIS & Remote Sensing Lab, Gazipur Agricultural University
  • Microsystems & Nanoengineering Lab, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Dhaka
  • Dept. of Geology, University of Dhaka

Contact

Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh