Explainable AI: Object Recognition With Help From Background
Raza Hashmi, Qiang Li. (2022). "Object Recognition With Help From Background." ICLR CSS Workshop.(1)
Curriculum Vitae
⬇️Professional Profile
Product Leader & ML Researcher with 8+ years of experience bridging research concepts with scalable software products. Expert in turning ambiguous problems into shipped systems—specializing in uncertainty estimation, privacy algorithms, and incentive-aligned metrics. Proven track record of leading product vision, managing engineering teams, and publishing research in top-tier venues.
Core Competencies
Product Leadership
ML Research & Analytics
Technical Stack
Work Experience
Head of Product
Leading SHAPE’s vision to become a science-backed intelligence platform for organizational health.
- Strategic Vision: Drove the roadmap for core features including survey intelligence, multi-level reporting, and AI integrations.
- Scale: Launched partner portals and admin tools to support thousands of employees globally.
- Impact: Validated the platform across diverse industries, establishing it as a self-sustaining HR intelligence solution.
Product Manager
Founding member developing a global framework to measure organizational flourishing.
- AI Framework: Prototyped an AI-driven compliance framework to process client evidence and assign flourishing levels.
- Metric Design: Combined internal data (surveys, policies) with external signals (ESG, sentiment) to create a holistic measurement standard.
Technical Product Lead
Architecting the technical foundation for privacy and scale.
- Privacy Algorithms: Designed advanced mathematical approaches for survey anonymity without compromising utility.
- Reporting Engine: Led development of data caching pipelines and role-based permissions for complex enterprise reporting.
- Dynamic Hierarchy: Scaled platform to support multi-layered reporting for global conglomerates.
Product Innovation Manager
Moving beyond averages to nuanced analytics.
- Scoring Methodology: Pioneered proprietary scoring systems to provide a holistic view of employee feedback.
- UX/Onboarding: Developed tools for enhanced org-mapping and survey configuration to drive adoption.
Technical & Data Analyst
Laying the groundwork for the platform.
- Engineered initial product infrastructure covering survey logic and admin workflows.
- Oversaw early client deployments and gathered user feedback for iterations.
Machine Learning Researcher
Investigating interpretability and performance (Supervisor: Dr. Asim Karim).
- Investigated novel neural network architectures focusing on model interpretability.
- Publication: Co-authored ["Explainable AI: Object Recognition With Help From Background"](/publications/2022-04-29-object-recognition-with-backgrounds) (ICLR 2022 CSS Workshop).
Product & Data Analyst
- Worked on core user features for capturing emotional feedback (sliders, emojis).
- Developed data structures for emotional tagging and sentiment analysis.
Research Assistant (Econ/Finance)
- Supported research on financial inclusion and economic development.
- Conducted data analysis and policy evaluation for academic publications.
Education
BSc (Hons) in Economics 2016
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Graduation with High Distinction • Dean’s Honours List (2012-2016)
Publications
Experiments & Insights
A collection of projects and ideas that provided valuable lessons.
Adversarial Label Learning: Training a Predictive Network with a Label-based Adversary
Failed ideas at Pakistan, Lahore
I Gave an LLM a Holographic Brain — Here’s What Actually Worked (and What Didn’t)
Experimental idea at Pakistan, Lahore