Reshma / Aligarh

Muhammad Anas Wajid is doing research in computer science from Aligarh Muslim University; the topic of his research is: Multi Model Information Access and Retrieval.

In simple terms, it means he is trying to find out what is in the mind of a netizen when he is sharing a post on social media. He does so by simply observing, listening and reading the posts, photos, videos and graphics that people share on social media.

He can also figure out as to what one did before sharing a post or what he would do after sharing the same.

The implications of his research have myriad possibilities and it’s because of this that Anas has been selected for research at IIIT Delhi under ACM India Aneveshan Setu Fellowship 2021.

This fellowship in instituted by Association for Computing Machinery, an industry conglomerate that connects PhD students with faculty in India’s top ranking science colleges like IITs and IISc, Bengaluru for exposure and intensive research and better exposure.

Anas is among 37 researchers from across the country to have been selected for this prestigious fellowship for 2021.

 Anas says, "the work of reading the mind of the person sharing a post has been going on since 2016.  However, the work of reading a person’s mind by analyzing the videos, photos and graphics he has shared on social media, is now reaching some conclusion.

“My research multi-model information access and retrieval will help us to get closer to such posts as much as possible,” he says. “We will get very close to figuring out the meaning of that post. Its biggest advantage is that we can understand the behavior of the person who has posted it.”

Explaining the applications of his findings, Anas says in case a person is thinking of harming someone or of himself, it can be detected and also prevented. Giving an instance, he said a student, who committed suicide three months ago, had shared a photo of a bird hanging from the wire on Facebook just before taking the drastic step.

Anas is pursuing his PhD under Professor Asim Zafar, chairman of the Department of Computer Sciences, AMU. Asim Zafar said that very few people across the country get the opportunity to do research in another institution under ACM Innovation Setu Fellowship.

Anas hails from Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh. His mother Kaiser Jahan is a teacher and elder brother Babu is a professor at the Banarsidas University, Lucknow.