Bilal Zaka

IT professional, academic manager, teacher and researcher. 
Focus areas: Dev Ops | Information System Development | Network & System Management | E-learning | Data Science | Machine Learning | LLM use cases

Brief Biography

Bilal is an experienced IT professional, academic manager and researcher, presently working as Head of IT Services at COMSATS University Islamabad Pakistan. Prior to his current assignment he worked as Director of Virtual Campus and General Manager IT with COMSATS University. Bilal provides consultancy services to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan as member of various technical committees. He is also collaborating with Prof. Maurer (ISDS TU Graz, Austria) on projects related to information management systems (Austria-Forum, Net-Interactive Documents). Bilal had the opportunities to work on software development, network design/management and security auditing projects at various levels. Bilal possess a rich combination of technical, research and management experience with an outstanding record of starting new projects. Bilal did his PhD in Informatics from the Graz University of Technology - Austria, and his first professional degree is from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan with majors in Electronics. Bilal’s professional career spans over 20 years and his work is acknowledged and appreciated at national and international levels.

Current work areas: Development and improvements in information systems and data stores using DevOps best practices. Use of AI (machine learning) to enhance capabilities of conventional information systems and unlock the value of structured and unstructured data.

Email: bilal.zaka@gmail.com || Phone: +92 307 589 0009

Link to curriculum vitae  [One Page]     [Full]

 

 

NID Documents and System Guide Videos.

Updated NID Administrator/Editor Manual (25 June, 2023) 

How to add, manage categories/subcategories and upload/manage NID documents? 

How to add a Table of Contents in NID document? 

How to apply object detection and enhance search index of NID document? 

 

Publications

  • Zaka, B.; Emerging Technologies in Digital Libraries: Net Interactive Document (NID) Experiences and Prospects. IPSI Bgd Transactions on Internet Research, Vol. 18, No. 2, July 2022, pp. 70-76. ISSN 1820 - 4503
  • Zaka, B. and Maurer, Hermann; Web Sites Need Much More User-Driven Interactivity. IPSI Bgd Transactions on Internet Research, Vol. 18, No. 2, July 2022, pp. 64-69. ISSN 1820 - 4503
  • Maurer H., Zaka B., Eisenberger S. (2021) Passively Acquiring Information Must End. In: EuroSPI 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1442. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85521-5_11
  • Zaka, B. (2020) Digital Transformation: Prioritizing Data Localization. SOUTHVIEWS by South Centre No. 206, 25 September 2020. https://www.southcentre.int/southviews-no-206-25-september-2020/
  • Zaka, B., Maurer, H., and Delilovic, N. (2020). Investigating Interaction Activities in Digital Libraries: The Networked Interactive Digital Books Project. IPSI BgD Transactions on Internet Research Jouranl, Volume 16 (1) ISSN 1820 - 4503, January 2020.
  • Maurer, H., Delilovic, N. & Zaka, B. (2019). Libraries of Interactive Books as Powerful Tool for Information Communication. In J. Theo Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 1353-1359). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 14, 2019 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/210270/
  • Ellahi, A., Zaka, B., & Sultan, F. (2017). A Study of Supplementing Conventional Business Education with Digital Games. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Vol.  20 (3), 195–206. ISSN 1436-4522 (online) and 1176-3647 (print)
  • Ellahi, A., Sultan, F., Zaka B. (2016) Digital Game Based Learning in Business Management Education: A Step from Entertainment to Digital Literacy. European Journal of Business and Management Vol.8, No.22 2016 ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
  • Ellahi A. & Zaka B., (2015). Analysis of Higher Education Policy Frameworks for Open and Distance Education in Pakistan. Sage Publications Inc. Evaluation Review, April 2015 Vol. 39(2) 255-277 DOI:10.1177/0193841X15570046 erx.sagepub.com
  • Qureshi, M. F, Shah S. M. A & Zaka, B. (2014). Towards providing better Distance Education: A roadmap for universities, Journal of Strategy and Performance Management, Volume 2, Issue 2, pages 67-78, ISSN 2308-7730.
  • Nawaz, M., Hussain F., & Zaka B., (2013). Review of E-Learning Methodologies in Pakistan. World Applied Sciences Journal 28 (4): 425-439, 2013 ISSN 1818-4952 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.28.04.1788
  • Nawaz, M., Hussain F., & Zaka B., (2013). Quality Assurance in E-Learning: Study of E-Learning Practices in Pakistan. World Applied Sciences Journal 28 (2): 236-249, 2013 ISSN 1818-4952 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.28.02.1790
  • Kappe, F., Zaka, B., & Steurer, M. E. (2009). Automatically Detecting Points of Interest and Social Networks from Positions of Avatars in a Virtual World. International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, IEEE DOI: 10.1109/ASONAM.2009.66
  • Kulathuramaiyer, N., & Zaka, B. (2009). Integrated Multimodal Copy-Paste Checking.   Journal of Software (JSW), Vol. 4, No. 6, August 2009, ISSN 1796-217X
  • Zaka, B., Steurer, M. E., & Kappe, F. (2009). Framework for Extending Plagiarism Detection in Virtual Worlds. In proceedings of Third International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, IEEE DOI: 10.1109/RCIS.2009.5089268
  • Zaka, B. (2009). Empowering plagiarism detection with a web services enabled collaborative network. Journal of Information Science and Engineering, Vol. 25, No. 5, September 2009, ISSN: 1016-2364
  • Zaka, B., Safran, C., & Kappe, F. (2009). Use of similarity detection techniques for adaptive news content delivery and user profiling. Book Chapter: Advances in Semantic Media Adaptation and Personalization, Volume 2, CRC press, ISBN: 978-1-4200-7664-6, http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/abs/10.1201/9781420076653-c11
  • Zaka, B., & Safran, C. (2008). Emerging Web Based Learning Systems and Scalability Issues. In proceedings of International Conference on Information Technology in Education, CSSE Dec. 2008 Wuhan China, Pp.889-892, DOI: 10.1109/CSSE.2008.187
  • Safran, C., &  Zaka, B. (2008). A Geospatial Wiki for m-Learning. In proceedings of International Conference on Information Technology in Education, CSSE Dec. 2008 Wuhan China, Pp.109-112, DOI: 10.1109/CSSE.2008.188
  • Zaka, B., Kulathuramaiyer, N., Balke, T., & Maurer, H. (2008). Topic-Centered Aggregation of Presentations for Learning Object Repurposing. Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Nov. 2008 Nevada USA, Published by AACE, Pp. 3335-3342, Online: https://www.learntechlib.org/p/30141/
  • Kulathuramaiyer, N., Zaka, B.,  & Helic, D. (2008). Integrated Copy-Paste Checking: Design and Services. In proceedings of Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, ICALT July 2008. Pp.519-523, DOI: 10.1109/ICALT.2008.312
  • Zaka, B., Safran, C., & Kappe, F. (2007). Personalized Interactive Newscast (PINC): Towards a Multimodal Interface for Personalized News. In proceedings of Second International Workshop on Semantic Media Adaptation and Personalization, SMAP 2007 London UK, Pp. 56-61, ISBN: 0-7695-3040-0, IEEE DOI: 10.1109/SMAP.2007.36
  • Zaka, B., & Maurer, H. (2007). Service Oriented Information Supply Model for Knowledge Workers. In proceedings of 7th International Conference on Knowledge Management, i-KNOW Sep. 2007 Graz Austria, Pp. 432-439.
  • Maurer, H., & Zaka, B. (2007). Plagiarism – a problem and how to fight it. Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, EdMedia 2007 Vancouver Canada, Published by  AACE, 4451-4458, https://www.learntechlib.org/p/26021/
  • Maurer, H., Kappe, F., & Zaka, B. (2006). Plagiarism- a Survey. Journal of Universal Computer Science, Volume 12, Issue  8, Pp.   1050-1084, ISSN 0948-695x, DOI: 10.3217/jucs-012-08-1050
  • Zaka, B., Safran, C., & Kappe, F. (2006). A blended learning approach in the news domain. Proceedings Book: Current Developments in Technology-Assisted Education, Published by FORMATEX, Badajoz, Spain Pp. 1027-1031, ISBN 84-690-2472-8