Safia Fatima

Ph.D. Researcher & Developer

About Me

I am a Ph.D. Researcher & Developer at Simula Research Laboratory and University of Oslo, Norway. My research focuses on self-healing software systems using adaptive learning. My areas of expertise include:

  • Self-Adaptive Systems & Reinforcement Learning
  • Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • Medical Imaging & Bioinformatics
  • Artificial Intelligence & Deep Learning

Here is the link to my resume.

Projects

Hierarchical LLM-Based Failure Recovery for Autonomous Driving

Ph.D. research project on using large language models for autonomous driving recovery

  • A hierarchical failure recovery framework that uses large language models (LLMs) to generate multi-step recovery plans when trained policies enter unsafe states.
  • Integrates recovery mechanism with a proximal policy optimization agent trained in the CARLA simulator.
  • Evaluates recovery success across four failure categories: collisions, lane departures, vehicle stalling, and speeding violations.

CRRL: A Causality-Based Reinforcement Learning Framework for the Autonomous System Recovery

Ph.D. research project on causality-based reinforcement learning for system recovery

  • A novel causality-based reinforcement learning framework for autonomous system recovery.
  • Addresses the challenge of recovering autonomous systems from failure states using causal reasoning.

Self Healing of a Mixed Autonomy Traffic System Using Reinforcement Learning and Attention

Ph.D. research project on self-healing traffic systems

  • A self-healing approach for mixed autonomy traffic systems using reinforcement learning and attention networks.
  • Focuses on recovery of traffic flow after disruptions in environments with both autonomous and human-driven vehicles.

Evaluation of Multi-Modal Brain MRI Images for Glioblastomas

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8994408/

Code repository for the published research paper

  • A method that incorporates a deep learning-based model U-Net to address brain tumor localization.
  • Utilizing BRATS2015 as the primary dataset for Brain MRI Images.
  • Presented and published in ICET’19 conference.

Experience

Simula Research Laboratory, Norway

https://www.simula.no/

Researcher & Developer

March 2022 - Present

  • Led doctoral research on “Towards Self-Healing Software Systems using Adaptive Learning”.
  • Proposed 3 novel scientific contributions in self-healing traffic systems, causality-based reinforcement learning, and LLM-based failure recovery for autonomous driving.
  • Gained extensive experience in simulated traffic system environments, reinforcement learning, attention networks, and large language models.
  • Applied software engineering best practices including version control, testing, and CI/CD while staying current with state-of-the-art AI advancements.

Odetta.ai, USA

https://odetta.ai/

Data Analyst

August 2021 - January 2022

  • Worked remotely as a data analyst and Python Scripter at a US-based company.
  • Working on projects related to data collection, data analytics, and web scraping.

FAST NUCES, Pakistan

https://nu.edu.pk/

Lecturer & Lab Instructor

January 2018 - January 2022

  • Promoted from Lab Instructor to Lecturer under the Computer Science Department.
  • Taught courses including computer architecture, software design & analysis, object-oriented programming, Introduction to Computing, Databases, and Digital Logic Design.
  • Supervised CS undergraduate projects in the fields of computer vision, deep learning, and time series analysis.

Education

University of Oslo, Norway

Ph.D. Computer Science

2022 - Present

Doctoral research on “Towards Self-Healing Software Systems using Adaptive Learning” at Simula Research Laboratory.

FAST NUCES, Pakistan

M.Sc. Computer Science (CGPA 3.44/4.0)

2016 - 2019

Research and projects related to bioinformatics, Medical Imaging, Graph Theory, Rough sets, and Analysis of Algorithms. Thesis: “Evaluation of Multi-Modal MRI Images for Brain Tumor Segmentation”.

FAST NUCES, Pakistan

B.Sc. Computer Science (CGPA 3.15/4.0)

2012 - 2016

Final Year Project was entitled “Data Dissemination for Bioinformatics: An Agent Migration Approach”.

Key Achievements & Duties

  • Sports Head - NUCES, Pakistan - January 2020-To Date
  • Faculty Head ACM-Student Chapter - NUCES, Pakistan - January 2020-To Date
  • Learning to Teach Online Certification - Coursera - July 2020-August 2020
  • 2 Bronze Medal (BSCS) - NUCES, Pakistan - August 2012-May 2016
  • Android Development Certification - NUCES, Pakistan - August 2012-May 2016
  • Vice-chairperson and International Member of ACM-Student Chapter - NUCES, Pakistan - August 2012-May 2016