Zahin Wahab

Hi! I am currently a Ph.D. track M.Sc. student in the Software Practices Lab at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver under the supervision of Prof. Caroline Lemieux. I have worked as a lecturer at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from BRAC University for 3 years before coming here. I also completed my Masters degree from Department of CSE, BUET under supervision of Prof. Rifat Shahriyar in June 2024.

After my graduation from CSE, BUET with honors in February 2021, I decided to pursue teaching career and joined United International Univeristy. In the next semester, I joined BRAC University as a full-time faculty. For my undergraduate thesis, I worked on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology supervised by Dr. Md. Shamsuzzoha Bayzid. I was fortunate enough to have my undergraduate thesis published in Oxford Bioinformatics. However, I wanted to explore my hidden interests and decided to start my Masters thesis in Software Engineering. My current research interests are in Programming Language and Software Engineering.

Email: zahinwahab [at] gmail.com

Links: [Curriculum Vitae] [Google Scholar][GitHub]

Publications

wQFM: Highly Accurate Genome-scale Species Tree Estimation from Weighted Quartets
Mahim Mahbub, Zahin Wahab, Rezwana Reaz, M Saifur Rahman, Md. Shamsuzzoha Bayzid
In Oxford Bioinformatics 2021
[bib] [abstract] [code]

Motivation: Species tree estimation from genes sampled from throughout the whole genome is complicated due to the gene tree–species tree discordance. Incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) is one of the most frequent causes for this discordance, where alleles can coexist in populations for periods that may span several speciation events. Quartet-based summary methods for estimating species trees from a collection of gene trees are becoming popular due to their high accuracy and statistical guarantee under ILS. Generating quartets with appropriate weights, where weights correspond to the relative importance of quartets, and subsequently amalgamating the weighted quartets to infer a single coherent species tree can allow for a statistically consistent way of estimating species trees. However, handling weighted quartets is challenging.
Results: We propose wQFM, a highly accurate method for species tree estimation from multi-locus data, by extending the quartet FM (QFM) algorithm to a weighted setting. wQFM was assessed on a collection of simulated and real biological datasets, including the avian phylogenomic dataset, which is one of the largest phylogenomic datasets to date. We compared wQFM with wQMC, which is the best alternate method for weighted quartet amalgamation, and with ASTRAL, which is one of the most accurate and widely used coalescent-based species tree estimation methods. Our results suggest that wQFM matches or improves upon the accuracy of wQMC and ASTRAL.
```
                                    @article{mahbub2021wqfm,
                                        title={wQFM: highly accurate genome-scale species tree estimation from weighted quartets},
                                        author={Mahbub, Mahim and Wahab, Zahin and Reaz, Rezwana and Rahman, M Saifur and Bayzid, Md Shamsuzzoha},
                                        journal={Bioinformatics},
                                        volume={37},
                                        number={21},
                                        pages={3734--3743},
                                        year={2021},
                                        publisher={Oxford Academic}
                                      }
                                
```

Notable Projects

GPS Spoofing Detection in VANETs using ML (M.Sc. Coursework) [Summary]
Summary: Detection of GPS Spoofing attack in a VANET from three consecutive BSM packets using the VeReMi dataset
- Performance comparison with existing two consecutive BSM approach on KNN, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree and Random Forest models
- Analyzing how three consecutive BSM approach beats the existing two consecutive BSM approach
Supervisor: Dr. Md. Shohrab Hossain
A Comparison of Modern JVM Based Garbage Collectors (M.Sc. Coursework) [Summary] [Github Repository]
Summary: A study of the performance of three JVM based garbage collectors: G1GC, ZGC and Shenandoah
- Observed performance variation with modifying heap sizes by analyzing log files using GCEasy
- Comparing their performance on several big-data benchmarks from two Benchmark Suites: Re- naissance and DaCapo, on OpenJDK Java version 11.0.15
Supervisor: Dr. Rifat Shahriyar
Hotel and Flight Booking System (B.Sc. Coursework) [Summary] [Github Repository]
Summary: Dynamic Web Platform for booking of hotels and flights to be used primarily by tourists
- Users can surf through selective hotel and flight options.
- They can confirm booking using payment system like credit/debit card.
- They can cancel their booking any time they like as permitted by hotel/airline concerned.
DHCP Starvation Attack (B.Sc. Coursework) [Summary] [Github Repository]
Summary: Simulation of a DHCP Starvation attack by broadcasting spoofed DHCP request packets
- Created raw sockets using socket() system call in Linux.
- Spoofed the chadrr (Client Hardware Address) field in DHCP Discover packet.
- Created and sent Spoofed DHCP discover packets until all IP addresses are used up.
- Process is repeated until WIFI is forced to shutdown.
Audio Spectrum Visualizer (B.Sc. Coursework) [Summary] [Github Repository]
Summary: A project to demonstrate frequency spectrum visualization from real time audio via time domain to frequency domain conversion on Atmega32 micro-controller
- Simulates a real time audio signal to frequency spectrum.
- Transformation of audio on Atmega32 Micro-controller using Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).
- Inputs taken from Electret Microphone Breakout Circuit.
- Outputs the amplitude plotted on two Dot Matrices (shape: 8X8) consist of uniformly distributed 16 frequency bins over 0-4 kHz
Simplified C-Compiler (B.Sc. Coursework) [Summary] [Github Repository]
Summary: Developed a full-fledged compiler for a subset of C language
- Lexical Analysis using Flex
- Syntactic Analysis using Bison (yacc)
- Intermediate code generated for 8086
- Implemented various optimizations while generating intermediate code such as removing NOPs, efficient usage of temporary variables, etc.
Network Models Simulation using NS-2 (B.Sc. Coursework) [Summary] [Github Repository]
Summary: Simulated various networking models, parameters by observing different metrics using NS-2
- Performed simulations for Wired and Wireless 802.15.4 static network, cross-network-simulations between wired and static wireless mode, Satellite and LTE networks.
- For wired and wireless modes, variation of basic parameters such as number of nodes, flows, packet rate, coverage area, speed of nodes were considered.
- Measured metrics such as network throughput (average, instantaneous and per-node), end-end delay, packet delivery and drop ratios, energy consumption, residual energy per node and queue variation.
- Experimented with various modified simulation scenarios such as congestion algorithm, queue size variation using Random Early Detection (RED) queue, Re-transmission Timeout (RTO) calculation, AODV routing protocol.

Education

(September 2024 - Present) Master of Science in Computer Science (Ph.D. track)
Department of Computer Science
The University of British Columbia
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Caroline Lemieux
(April 2021 - June 2024) Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Rifat Shahriyar
CGPA: 4.00/4.00
(February 2016 - February 2021) Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
CGPA: 3.91/4.00
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Md. Shamsuzzoha Bayzid

Work Experience

BRAC University July 2021 - May 2024
Lecturer (currently on study leave)
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
United International University Feb 2021 - June 2021
Lecturer
Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Honors & Awards

(2016 - 2021) Dean's Award in each academic year for excellent undergraduate results
(2016 - 2021) University Merit Scholarships in each semester for excellent undergraduate results

Teaching Experience

Course Instructor @ Numerical Methods CSE-330 (Summer 21, Fall 21, Spring 22, Summer 22, Fall 22, Spring 23, Summer 23)
Course Instructor @ Computer Architecture CSE-340 (Fall 22, Spring 23, Summer 23)
Course Instructor @ System Analysis and Design CSE-471 (Summer 23)
Course Instructor @ Artificial Intelligence CSE-422 (Summer 21, Fall 21, Spring 22, Summer 22)