Dr. Mufti Mahmud (KFUPM): Towards Explainable AI Models for Improving Quality of Life in the Era of Society 5.0

Dr Mufti Mahmud is a Professor at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, where he directs the Cognitive Computing and Brain Informatics research group. Previously, at Nottingham Trent University (UK), he led research initiatives and served in key administrative roles, including coordinating the Computer Science Research Excellence Framework unit and directing the Cognitive Computing & Brain Informatics research group. A recipient of the 2021 VC Outstanding Researcher Award and a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellow, Dr Mahmud has secured around £4 million in research funding from reputed funding agencies like the European Union and the British Council. With over 400 peer-reviewed publications, he is ranked among the top 2% cited scientists in Computer Science since 2021. He holds significant leadership positions in learned societies, including chair (2023-2024) and vice-chair (2020-2022) of IEEE CIS Intelligent Systems Application Technical Committee and a member of the Brain Informatics and CIS Health Systems Technical Committee, and an elected Board of Governors of APNNS (2025-2026). He serves as an editor for journals like Cognitive Computation, Brain Informatics and Frontiers in Neuroscience. He has chaired numerous international conferences, including ICONIP 2024, IEEE/WIC WI-IAT 2025, the Brain Informatics (2020-2022), and the Applied Intelligence and Informatics Conference (2021 onwards). He is the chief editor of book series including Applied Intelligence and Informatics book series with Springer-Nature, Smart Health System with CRC Press and Decentralised Systems and Future Internet with Scrivener/Wiley. Dr Mahmud is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and a senior member of IEEE and ACM, with memberships in BCS, INNS, APNNS, APA, and Sigma Xi.