Student Information
Graduate Student
Computer Science
Ira A Fulton Engineering
Long Bio
Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Arizona State University working on human-robot collaboration with over 4 years of research experience. Background in engineering low-cost socially assistive robots for autism therapy, preventing misuse of teleoperated robots, studies involving human-robot interaction, and preference-based reinforcement learning.
Education
M.S. Social Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan (April 2023) | Received MEXT Research Scholarship by Japanese Government | Awarded Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award
B.E. Electronic Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan (November 2017) | Achieved rank 5 in batch of 148
Research Interests
- Preference-Based Reinforcement Learning
- Human-Robot Interaction
Publications
- Taha Shaheen, Dražen Brščić, and Takayuki Kanda. 2024. Investigation of Low-Moral Actions by Malicious Anonymous Operators of Avatar Robots. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. 14, 1, Article 11 (March 2025), 34 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3696466
Presentations
Fall 2024: Graduate Teaching Associate for CSE 535 and CSE 543
Contributions to CSE 535 - Mobile Computing:
- Designed one out of the three major class projects. It focused on implementing minimax with alpha-beta pruning in a tic-tac-toe game that ran on devices with limited resources like mobile phones and smartwatches.
- Held weekly support sessions and office hours for students.
Contributions to CSE 543 - Information Assurance and Security:
- Delivered in-class lectures on ROS 1 and ROS 2 security features.
- Held weekly support sessions for students.
Fall 2023 and Spring 2024: Graduate Teaching Assistant for CSE 230
Contributions to CSE 230 - Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming under the guidance
- Delivered in-class lectures on cache size calculations, cache organization, hit and miss analysis, accessing algorithms, average memory access time calculations, and the design and operation of multilevel caches.
- Assisted two times a week in class with in-class challenges.
- Conducted online and offline office hours to provide individualized support to students.
- Graded midterms and final exams.
- Assisted with MIPS programming exercises on Zylab.
- Ensured academic integrity by utilizing Zybooks’ new similarity-checking system and generated summaries for reporting to the Office of Academic Integrity.
Honors / Awards
MEXT (文部科学省) Research Scholarship | Japanese government scholarship | April 2020 – August 2023
- Received full tuition and stipend.
- Selected on the recommendation of the Japanese Consulate General in Karachi after tests and an interview.
- One of only two people selected from Karachi in 2019.
Industry Positions
Graduate Trainee Engineer, Instrumentation and Control | Fatima Fertilizer Company, Sadiqabad, Pakistan | Nov 2017 – Nov 2018
- Completed training in field instrumentation, Bently Nevada vibration monitoring system, anti-surge control, Gas Turbine Generator operation, Waste Gas Boiler operation, Yokogawa DCS (Distributed Control System) and ESD (Emergency Shutdown), PLCs, process safety management elements, documentation, and work procedures.
- Managed day-to-day maintenance jobs at Offsites & Utilities and Nitric Acid plants.
