Zahid Hossain

zhossain@cs.stanford.edu

Interest

My research combined computer vision, embedded systems, and distributed computing to develop a biology cloud lab system that allows online students to execute real biology experiments interactively at scale, for the first time, over the Internet. Prior to that, I had researched extensively in computer graphics.

Education

• PhD, Computer Science: Stanford University. (Defended, Autumn 2016).
  Thesis: Interactive Biology Cloudlab System Architecture and Applications in Large Scale Online Education
  Committee: Dr. Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, Dr. David Dill, Dr. Paulo Blikstein, Dr. Michael Bernstein
• MSc. in Computing Science: Stanford University, (Jun, 2015).
  G.P.A: 3.89 / 4.00
  Concentration: Applied Computing, (Graphics, Robotics, Vision).
  
• MSc. in Computing Science: Simon Fraser University, (Apr, 2011).
  G.P.A: 4.06 / 4.33
  Thesis: Edge Aware Anisotropic Diffusion for 3D Scalar Data on Regular Lattices (Supplementary materials).
  Senior supervisor: Dr. Torsten Möller, Supervisor: Dr. Steven J. Ruuth, External Examiner: Dr. Hao-Min Zhou
• BSc. in Computing Science (with a minor in Telecommunications): North South University, (Sep 2006).
  G.P.A: 3.93 / 4.0 (Summa Cum Laude)
  Thesis: Solving 2D Strip-Packing Problem Using Genetic Algorithm., (Software)
  Faculty Advisor: Dr. Khaled Mahmud, Co-Advisor: Dr. Md. Kaykobad, Co-Advisor: Mr. Munirul Islam

Immigration Status in the USA

Permanent Resident (Green Card holder).

Work Experience

• Applied Research Scientist & Manager, Facebook Reality Labs, Redmond ( May 2018 - Present ):
  Lead a team within AR/VR that takes interest in the general registration problem of the real and the virtual world.
• Senior Software Engineer, Meta Co. ( May 2017 - 2018 ):
  Part of the rendering and core tech group.
• Summer Intern, Apple Inc. ( Jun 2014 - Sep 2014 ):
  Developed new rendering techniques within large-scale 3D Flyover data in Apple Maps.
• Parallelization Consultant (Autumn Intern), Samsung Information Systems America ( Sep 2012 - Jan 2013 ):
  Worked in a group of 5 people on end-to-end GPU parallelization of the Bullet Physics engines on small devices.
• Summer Intern, Samsung Telecommunications America ( Jul 2012 - Sep 2012 ):
  Solely developed novel UI interfaces on mobile devices using Physics simulations and sensors.
• Senior Software Developer, Relisource Technologies Ltd. ( Jul 2011 - Sep 2011 ):
  Designed and implemented OSX client for third party calendar synchronization.
• Software Developer, Relisource Technologies Ltd. ( Jul 2006 - Aug 2008 ):
  Ported OpenGL 1.4 rendering pipeline to DirectX 9c, ported Renderware SDK for an animation tool used by Electronic Arts (Redwood) towards the games Simpsons, God Father.

Graphics developer, eSophers Ltd. ( Feb 2003 - Jul 2004 ):
Graphics lead in a computer games startup comprising 6 people. Developed the Rendering Engine.

SELECTED PROJECTS & CODE

• Computer Vision System to Track Hundreds of Motile Euglena Cells in Realtime (C++, PBRT, OpenCV, Intel TBB) - (2014).
• Lightfield Camera Simulation" (2nd Prize Winner in CS348b - Stanford Rendering Competition), (C++, PBRT, OpenCV, Intel TBB) - (2014).
• Depthmap Extraction from Lightfield Imaging using Lytro, (C++, OpenCV, OpenGL, Intel TBB) - (2012).
• HDR Photo Compositing Using Short Exposure Bursts" (Ranked among top 5 projects in CS478 - Computational Photography, Stanford), (C++, OpenCV, nVidia Tegra, Intel TBB) - (2011).
• Zahid Hossain, Lattice Tracer - A General Purpose Multi-Threaded Volume Raycaster for Regular Lattices (incl. Body Centric Cubic) with High Order Derivative Filters", (C++, OpenGL, Matlab, MPI) - (2010).

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• General Programming: C/C++, Python, Matlab, Golang, node.js, Java, Objective-C, C#
• Platform/API: OpenGL, OpenCV, DirectX, Android
• GPU Programming: GLSL, HLSL, OpenCL.
• Hardware: Electronics, PCB Design, Robotics; Computer interfaces with microscopy, microfluidics, and microbiology.

Teaching

• Instructor of CS148 (Stanford University): Introduction to Computer Graphics & Imaging, Summer 2016. Taught this class of 80 students, composed of undergrads, grads, and visiting students.
• Teaching Assistant (TA) of CMPT 361 (Simon Fraser University): Introduction to Computer Graphics.

Publications

Zahid Hossain, Engin W. Bumbacher Alison Brauneis, Monica Diaz, Andy Saltarelli, Paulo Blikstein, Ingmar H Riedel-Kruse "Design Guidelines and Empirical Case Study for Scaling Authentic Inquiry-based Science Learning via Open Online Courses and Interactive Biology Cloud Labs," International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (2017): 1-30.

Amy T Lam , Karina Giselle Samuel-Gama , Jonathan Caleb Griffin , Matthew Austin Loeun , Lukas C Gerber , Zahid Hossain , Nate J. Cira , Seung Ah Lee and Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, "Device and Programming Abstractions for Spatiotemporal Control of Active Micro-particle Swarms," Lab on a Chip, 2017.

Zahid Hossain, Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, "Life-science Experiments Online: Technological Frameworks and Educational Use Cases," Book Chapter, 2017 (to appear).

Zahid Hossain, Engin W. Bumbacher, Paulo Blikstein, Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse, Authentic Science Inquiry Learning at Scale Enabled by an Interactive Biology Cloud Lab," Proceedings of the Fourth ACM Conference on Learning@scale. ACM, 2017. (to appear)

Zahid Hossain, Engin W. Bumbacher, Alice M. Chung, Honesty Kim, Casey Litton, Ashley D. Walter, Sachin N. Pradhan, Kemi Jona, Paulo Blikstein, Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse, "Interactive and Scalable Biology Cloud Experimentation for Scientific Inquiry and Education." Nature Biotech, 34(12):1293-1298, 12 2016.

Dominik L. Michels, Dmitry A. Lyakhov, Vladimir P. Gerdt, Zahid Hossain, Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse, and Andreas G. Weber, "On the General Analytical Solution of the Kinematic Cosserat Equations," Proceedings of Computer Algebra in Scientific Computing, CASC 2016, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Sept. 2016.

Zahid Hossain, Xiaofan Jin, Engin W. Bumbacher, Alice M. Chung, Stephen Koo, Jordan D. Shapiro, Cynthia Y. Truong, Sean Choi, Nathan D. Orloff, Paulo Blikstein, Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse, "Interactive Cloud Experimentation for Biology: An Online Education Case Study," (Honorable Mention for Best Paper) Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, SIGCHI, (3681-3690), 2015.

Zahid Hossain, Alice M. Chung Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse, "Real-time and Turn-based Biology Online Experimentation" Proceedings of 12th International Conference of Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV), 2015.

Zahid Hossain, Torsten Möller, "Edge Aware Anisotropic Diffusion for 3D Scalar Data" IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings Visualization / Information Visualization 2010), vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 1375--1384, Nov.-Dec. 2010.

Zahid Hossain, Usman R. Alim, Torsten Möller, "Toward High-Quality Gradient Estimation on Regular Lattices," IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, TVCG on 17.4 (2011): 426-439.

Zahid Hossain and Mohammad Towhidul Islam, "Fast Ray-Triangle Intersection Test for Real-Time Applications", in the Proceedings of the ICCIT Dhaka, Bangladesh, December, 2005.

Awards & Recognitions

• Honorable Mention for the Best Paper, ACM SIGCHI, 2015, Interactive Cloud Experimentation for Biology: An Online Education Case Study."
• MPC-VCC Scholarship (2015 - 2017) Max Planck Center for Visual Computing and Communications
• BioX SIGF (Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship) (Sep 2014 - Sep 2017): School of Engineering, Stanford University.
• 2nd Prize: Stanford Rendering Competition for the project Lightfield Camera Simulation.
• Ebco/Eppich Scholarship (Jan 2011 - Apr 2011 ): Applied Sciences (Intelligent Systems), Simon Fraser University.
• Graduate Fellowship (Spring 2010): Simon Fraser University.
• Graduate Entrance Scholarship (Sep 2008 - Dec 2010): Computing Science, Simon Fraser University.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, SKILLS & INTERESTS

• Vice president, NSU Wireless Forum (2006-2007), an undergrad engineering club.
• Communication Skills: Taught a quarter long class (CS148) at Stanford, presented papers in ACM SIGCHI and IEEE Visualization Conferences.
• General Interests: Playing soccer, collecting miniature (1:400) airplane models, and electronics.