Pushing the AI technology envelope
FROM humble beginnings as a young boy fascinated by household electronics to working on projects using groundbreaking artificial intelligence, Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi is at the cutting edge of a technological revolution.
It’s been an ongoing journey of discovery for the James Cook University Associate Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, who was once affectionately dubbed “Mr Engineer” by his parents as a youngster growing up in Iran.
“I liked working with anything that had keys and a screen,” he said.
“I started with a big calculator at my dad’s shop and remember being fascinated by the numbers and how it could add up.
“Later on, one of my cousins showed me his computer and some very basic programming, which really opened up a new world for me.”
Excelling at maths and physics in school and looking to further his interest in electronics, Mostafa was admitted in an engineering degree at Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University, one of the top Universities in the country.
It was here that Mostafa was introduced to high-end computer architectures and programming as he sought to unlock the potential of what machines could really do.
“I studied computer systems and novel hardware technologies and developed novel arithmetic circuits in an emerging hardware technology called Quantum Cellular Automata,” he said.
“At the same time, I was amazed by the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“In one of my first projects
I developed with the help of one of my friends, we created a neural network that could identify, with a very high accuracy, gender from a one second spoken digit.”
Mostafa completed his Master of Engineering in Computer Architecture with a commended thesis in 2009.
The following year, he was awarded an Australian International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and the Australian Postgraduate Award to pursue a PHD in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide.
“My PHD focused on neuromorphic computing, which is basically looking at how neurons and the synapses in the brain process information,” Mostafa said.
“They usually encode information in what’s known as spikes, which are electrical pulses or signals that are transmitted between billions of neurons in the brain.
“So neuromorphic computing is trying to replicate those brain behaviours in silicon through electronic chips. But even the biggest supercomputer still can’t compete with the human brain in terms of learning and processing.”
As part of his neuromorphic research, Mostafa travelled to Switzerland for a stint as a visiting PHD student in the Neuromorphic Cognitive System group at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology between 2012 and 2013.
He then returned to Australia the following year where he completed his PHD, earning the Doctoral Research Medal and the Adelaide University Alumni Medal.
Later, he became a post
doctoral fellow in a joint industry-university project between the University of Adelaide and Australian Semiconductor Technology Company, working in the area of smart sensors for biomedical applications.
2015 saw Mostafa become a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering before arriving at JCU in 2016 where he continues to teach and research in areas such as neural-inspired computing, hardware acceleration of machine
learning algorithms, deep learning and nanoelectronics.
During his time at JCU, Mostafa has been involved in several groundbreaking projects involving artificial intelligence (AI), including the development of a deep-learning computer algorithm that assists in the treatment of lower back pain, using AI to accurately predict sediment distribution on the Great Barrier Reef (a world first), developing a smart system to use satellites and machine learning to detect diseases in sugarcane, developing tools and
techniques for improved aquaculture farm decision support and using precise AIenabled robotic weed control to reduce herbicide usage on cane farms.
But despite the many accolades for his work, at heart, Mostafa is still just a kid who likes to tinker.
“Research and science can take you to places where you would never think to go. I’ve visited so many countries and labs and have taught many people,” he said.
“It’s been a great journey so far.”