Prof. Dr Yasar Ayaz is the Founding Chairman and Central Project Director of the National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) located at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad. In 2010, he established the Department of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence at NUST, where he presently serves as a full Professor. Dr Ayaz holds Adjunct Professor titles at Tohoku University, Japan, and China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing.

He has authored over 150 international publications and received best paper awards in 2013 in Sydney, Australia, and in 2018 in London, UK. He possesses three product design patents, with additional patents under review. Dr. Ayaz has delivered over 60 invited and keynote talks in countries including the USA, Japan, UK, South Korea, China, Italy, Belarus, and Norway. 

Among his recognitions, he has received the President’s Gold Medal, University Best Teacher Award, and SMME Best Researcher Award at NUST. He is a recipient of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) Engineers’ Excellence Award in the Techpreneur category. Furthermore, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by IEEE Islamabad Section and received the President’s Award for Pride of Performance in 2021.