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Lab / Team

The people behind the work.

Faculty, researchers, collaborators and alumni who keep the lab running across digital health, AI and social business.

Faculty

Principal investigators.

Dr. Ashir Ahmed

Dr. Ashir Ahmed

Associate Professor | Principal Investigator

Frugal technologies for social goals: digital health, ICTD, social business, reverse innovation, post-SDGs.

Profile from the existing website

Dr. Ashir Ahmed is an associate professor at the faculty of information science and electrical engineering at Kyushu University in Japan. His research focuses on developing frugal technologies to achieve social goals, and he has established the Global Communication Center (GCC) within Grameen Communications in Bangladesh to pursue this mission. Dr. Ahmed's research team at Kyushu University has developed numerous national and international projects, including GramHealth, a $300 portable clinic for unreached people, GramCar, a ride-sharing model for rural and urban female communities, GramAgri, an ICT-based farming and marketing platform, and GramClean, a sustainable community cleaning initiative.

Dr. Ahmed is a core contributor to the Yunus and Shiiki Social Business Research Center at Kyushu University, where he promotes social businesses to Japanese organizations and has assisted in creating a number of social businesses, such as Grameen Euglena and Grameen SunPower. He is also the founder and CTO of SocialTechJapan, a social business company that develops and deploys technologies to solve social issues. In addition, he organizes an international conference on "Healthcare, SDGs and Social Business" since 2017.

Dr. Ahmed received his Ph.D. from Tohoku University in 1999 and has worked with Avaya Labs (former Bell Labs) and NTT Communications, Japan. He has authored two books on ICT and social business in Japanese and co-authored over 100 scientific papers. Dr. Ahmed is a popular speaker at international events on digital health, ICTD, social business, reverse innovation, and post-SDGs. He has received numerous national and international awards since childhood and enjoys cooking, writing books on ICT for development and social business, and performing as an MC for cultural shows.

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Researchers

PhD, master's, and RAs.

Abdullah Al Noman
Abdullah Al Noman
Doctoral Student | 1st Year

A Study on AI-Assisted Non-Invasive Blood Platelet Count Measurement for Resource-Constrained Healthcare Systems

Profile from the existing website

Abdullah Al Noman is a researcher and engineer specializing in medical technology and digital healthcare solutions. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) from North South University, where he excelled academically and served as a Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor, gaining experience in system design and troubleshooting.

Currently, Abdullah is pursuing advanced studies at Kyushu University, in Japan. His research focuses on developing an AI-Spectroscopy-Based Non-Invasive Device for Platelet Count Measurement, a cutting-edge solution aimed at revolutionizing diagnostic healthcare. His work explores the integration of spectroscopy and artificial intelligence to create affordable, non-invasive medical devices, with a particular focus on improving accessibility in resource-limited regions.

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Ijomah Remijus Chukwunwike
Ijomah Remijus Chukwunwike
Research Student
Profile from the existing website

Ijomah Remijus Chukwunwike is a passionate engineer and self-driven researcher from Nigeria, specializing in medical technology and digital healthcare solutions. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria, and later worked as the lead frontend engineer at a fintech company focused on digital banking platforms.

He has strong proficiency in React.js , Next.js , TypeScript , and Tailwind CSS , with extensive experience translating complex Figma designs into accessible, responsive user interfaces across various devices and browsers. He is also skilled in consuming RESTful APIs , enabling seamless integration between frontend interfaces and backend systems.

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Prajat Paul
Prajat Paul
Doctoral Student | 3rd Year

Doctoral student researching speech-based clinical NLP and EHR systems for low-resource languages

Profile from the existing website

Mr. Prajat Paul is currently a Doctoral Student at the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering at Kyushu University, Japan. He pursued his undergraduate education at the National Institute of Technology Durgapur (India), majoring in Electronics and Communication Engineering under the ICCR scholarship provided by the Government of India. His current research endeavors at the SocialTech Lab are being supported by the Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Scholarship funded by the Government of Japan.

Mr. Paul’s research aims to explore the implementation of a speech-based healthcare information extraction system as a supplementary module of the conventional Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Focusing on low-resource languages (LRLs), specifically Bangla, this system aims to assist people with text illiteracy by extracting and classifying important medical information from spoken language. The goal is to create more comprehensive EHRs, leading to improved healthcare efficiency and offering doctors predictive support for clinical decision-making.

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Manan Shah
Manan Shah
Doctoral Student | 3rd Year
Profile from the existing website

Mr. Shah recently started as a PhD student at Kyushu University's Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Computer engineering from the University of Mumbai (India). Mr. Shah's research interests are on investigating the use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in the creation of Digital Healthcare Systems. His current research focuses on the use of developing algorithms to interpret audio data and understand medical problems, as well as provide individualized medical prescriptions to improve the quality and reach of healthcare services. He aims to work with machine learning and data science techniques to provide clinicians with a reliable set of eyes and assist them in making informed judgments.

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Mohammad Bilal Firoz
Mohammad Bilal Firoz
Doctoral Student | 3rd Year
Profile from the existing website

Bilal has joined as a research student at the Graduate school of Information Science and Electrical Engineering at Kyushu University. Before joining he completed his Masters in Engineering Management and Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering at the Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, University of Engineering Technology, Taxila (Pakistan). Bilal's research interests include the development and implementation of a unified UI/UX design scheme for digital health systems that is able to overcome the common issues in the usability of digital health applications. UI/UX design is the most ignored aspect of healthcare delivery applications in general and makes it hard to use for both patients and caregivers. He aims to research groups that are not focused on such as the elderly and explore the use of machine learning to create tools that can make the process easier for developers.

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Md Jobayer Hossain Chowdhury
Md Jobayer Hossain Chowdhury
Doctoral Student | 1st Year
Profile from the existing website

Jobayer is a passionate researcher from Bangladesh, with a strong focus on the intersection of healthcare, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), and Digital Twin technologies. Driven by a deep interest in transforming healthcare systems, He explores how emerging technologies can enhance patient care, improve medical outcomes, and streamline healthcare delivery. With a keen eye for technological advancements, Jobayer is dedicated to advancing research in these cutting-edge fields, leveraging AI, AR/VR, and Digital Twin models to create impactful solutions for the healthcare industry.

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Wang Wanqing
Wang Wanqing
Research Student
Profile from the existing website

WANG WANQING is currently a research student at Kyushu University. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Computer Software Engineering from the School of Software Engineering at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China. She specializes in C and Java.

Before entering Kyushu University, WANG WANQING participated in a project and published a review paper titled "Garbage Image Classification based on Deep Learning" in the Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Data Science, Advanced Algorithm, and Intelligent Computing (DAI 2023).

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Collaborators

Partners across institutions.

Academic

Prof. Naoki Nakashima

Medical Information Center, Kyushu University | Health Informatics

Hospital

Dr. Md. Jobayer Chisti

ICDDR,B | Child Health

Public Health

Dr. Md. Moshiur Rahman

Hiroshima University | Public Health

Academic

Dr. Forhad Hossain

Sophia University | Health Informatics

Maternal Health

Dr. Kimiyo Kikuchi

QAOS, Kyushu University | Maternal and Child Health

International

Dr. Faiz Shah

AIT, Thailand | Public Health, Health Entrepreneurship

Academic

Dr. Mariko Nishikitani

Kyushu University | Occupational Health

Public Health

Dr. Jiaur Rahman

Hiroshima University | Public Health

Industry

Dr. Nizam Ahmed

Synesis IT | Public Health

Digital Health

Dr. Rafiqul Islam Maruf

Medical Information Center, Kyushu University | Digital Health

Social Business

Dr. Rafiuddin Ahmed

University of Dhaka | 3ZERO, Social Business

Alumni

An indexed alumni directory built for growth.

Featured profiles stay visual while the full alumni list is grouped alphabetically, so the page remains easy to scan as the lab grows.

18
Total
13
With photos
10
Groups

Featured alumni

Dr. Mohamed Mehfoud Bouh
PhD | Associate

Dr. Mohamed Mehfoud Bouh

Recently graduated; continuing as a lab associate

Dr. Forhad Hossain
PhD

Dr. Forhad Hossain

Now at Sophia University

Shaira Tabassum
Alumna

Shaira Tabassum

Now at NTNU, Norwegian University of Science & Technology

Md. Nazmul Hossain
Alumnus

Md. Nazmul Hossain

Now at the University of Dhaka, Faculty of Business Studies

Mehdi Hasan
Alumnus

Mehdi Hasan

Remote healthcare error detection

Kazi Mozaher Hossein
Alumnus

Kazi Mozaher Hossein

ICT for poverty reduction

Full directory

Open a letter group to view alumni in that section.

F1 alumnus+

Dr. Forhad Hossain

PhD

Now at Sophia University

I1 alumnus+

Iqbal Hossain

Alumnus

Healthcare data visualization

J2 alumni+

Jecinta Kamau

Alumna

Mobility-as-a-Service research

Jason Wang

Alumnus

Lab graduate

K1 alumnus+

Kazi Mozaher Hossein

Alumnus

ICT for poverty reduction

M3 alumni+

Dr. Mohamed Mehfoud Bouh

PhD | Associate

Recently graduated; continuing as a lab associate

Md. Nazmul Hossain

Alumnus

Now at the University of Dhaka, Faculty of Business Studies

Mehdi Hasan

Alumnus

Remote healthcare error detection

N1 alumnus+

Nadia Rahman Peeya

Alumna

Lab graduate

R2 alumni+

Ryota Oba

Alumnus

Lab graduate

Ryo Takahashi

Alumnus

Lab graduate

S2 alumni+

Shaira Tabassum

Alumna

Now at NTNU, Norwegian University of Science & Technology

Soichiro Yoshida

Alumnus

Lab graduate

T4 alumni+

Tanvir Rahman Khan

Alumnus

NCD wellness scoring

Tatsuya Matsumoto

Alumnus

Lab graduate

Taka Yanagi

Alumnus

Lab graduate

Tomohito Shimura

Alumnus

Lab graduate

Y1 alumnus+

Yosuke Imamura

Alumnus

Lab graduate