University of Toronto homepage
Photo of Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed

Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed

Associate Professor

Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Computer Science

Orcid identifier0000-0003-2452-0687
  • Associate Professor
    Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Computer Science
  • 647-220-3482
  • Bahen Centre for Information Technology, Department of Computer Science, 40 St. George Street, Room 5262, Toronto, ON, M5S 2E4, Canada

BIO

Ishtiaque Ahmed is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He directs the Third Space research group at the DGP Lab. He is also a graduate faculty member of the School of Environment, a Faculty Fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a Senior Fellow at the Massey College. He co-organizes the monthly UofT Critical Computing Seminar that hosts speakers analyzing computer science and its applications from the perspectives of marginalization, bias, and oppression. He also co-directs the PRISM program at the CS Department that trains students from marginalized communities for higher education in computer science. He also leads the weekly Critical Data Science reading group that studies and analyzes recent scholarly work around AI and Machine Learning from various critical points of view. His research interest is situated at the intersection of computer science and the critical social sciences. His work is often motivated by social justice and sustainability issues, and he puts them in the academic contexts of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information and Communication Technology and Development (ICTD). He operates through a wide range of technical and methodological apparatuses from ethnography to design, and from NLP to tangible user interface.

Ahmed earned his PhD at Cornell University, where he was advised by Steve Jackson. Before moving to North America, he studied and taught Computer Science at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He developed and still mentors the first HCI community in Bangladesh. He is a Schwartz Reisman Institute Faculty Fellow ('21), Senior Massey Fellow ('21), Fulbright Centennial Fellow ('19), a Connaught Scholar ('18), a Fulbright S&T Fellow ('11), and an OpenStreetMap Scholar ('10). His current research is supported by all three divisions of Canada's federal tri-council research agency: NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC, among others.

Preferred method of contact: Email

MEDIA

Showing media thumbnails 1 to 3 out of 3.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Associate Professor
    University of Toronto, Computer Science, Toronto, Canada2024 - present
  • Assistant Professor
    University of Toronto, Computer Science, Toronto, Canada2017 - 2024
  • Lecturer
    United International University, Computer Science, Dhaka, Bangladesh2009 - 2009
  • Programming Instructor
    United International University, Computer Science, Dhaka, Bangladesh2009 - 2010
  • Visiting Lecturer
    Military Institute of Science and Technology, Computer Science, Dhaka, Bangladesh2010 - 2010
  • Visiting Lecturer
    University of Asia Pacific, Computer Science, Dhaka, Bangladesh2010 - 2011
  • Lecturer
    Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Computer Science, Dhaka, Bangladesh2009 - 2011

NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Lead
    Human Technology Interaction2010 - present
  • Summer Research Intern
    Microsoft2015 - 2015
  • Community Member
    OpenStreetMap Foundation2010 - 2012

DEGREES

  • B.Sc.
    Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh
  • M.Sc.
    Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh
  • M.Sc.
    Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
  • Ph.D.
    Cornell University, Ithaca, United States

CERTIFICATIONS

  • Fellowship
    Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
  • Senior Fellowship
    Massey College, University of Toronto
  • Blue Sky Research Award, Runner Up
    AAAI HCOMP
  • Research Proposal Winner
    Facebook
  • Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
    ACM CHI
  • exploreCSR Award
    Google
  • Centennial Fellowship
    Fulbright
  • AI & Society Fellowship
    Microsoft2024 - present
  • Inclusion Research Award
    Google2023 - present

LANGUAGES

  • Arabic
  • Hindi
  • Bengali

AVAILABILITY

  • Masters Research or PhD student supervision
  • Collaborative projects
  • Media enquiries
  • Membership of an advisory committee
  • Join a web conference as a panellist or speaker
  • Industry Projects

INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

  • Institute for Pandemics (IfP)
  • Data Sciences Institute (DSI)
  • Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI)
  • School of Cities

TAGS