Zakaria Shams Siam

PhD Student

Department of Computer Science

University at Albany, State University of New York

Zakaria Shams Siam is a PhD student and Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Computer Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY. His PhD research focuses on machine learning and optimization. His research interests span Bayesian optimization, bandit algorithms, experimental design, and graph neural networks with applications in computer vision, medical imaging, and drug discovery. His work has appeared in top-tier peer-reviewed venues, including AAAI and AAMAS.

Mr. Zakaria earned his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Computer Science and Engineering and a minor in Mathematics from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North South University, Bangladesh. He was a full-time Lecturer (on leave) in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Presidency University, Bangladesh.

Mr. Zakaria has served as a researcher with the Qatar University Machine Learning Group and has also worked as a research and teaching assistant in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as the Department of Mathematics and Physics at North South University, Bangladesh.

Research Interests

Machine Learning & Bandit Optimization: Bayesian optimization, bandit algorithms, experimental design.
Graph ML & Sequential Decision-Making: Graph representation learning, graph neural networks, graph-based bandits.
AI for Medical Imaging & Drug Discovery: Computer vision and medical imaging, drug discovery.

News

Dec. 2025: Paper "Multi-Objective Coverage via Constraint Active Search" is accepted by AAMAS-2026 conference! In this work, we formulate the new multi-objective coverage problem where our goal is to identify a small set of representative samples whose predicted outcomes broadly cover the feasible multiobjective space. This problem is of great importance in many critical real-world applications, e.g., drug discovery and materials design.
Dec. 2025: Invited to serve on the Program Committee for the AI for Sciences Track at ACM KDD 2026.
Dec. 2025: Flying to San Diego to attend the NeurIPS-2025 conference!
- I will poster-present our AAAI-2026 work "Quantum Non-Linear Bandit Optimization" at the OPT workshop. Happy to talk with you on Saturday December 6!
- I'm serving as a Student Organizer for the AI Virtual Cells and Instruments: A New Era in Drug Discovery and Development (AI4D3-2025) workshop. Based on FDA's new plan to phase out animal testing requirement, our workshop encourages more discussion on AI virtual cells and instruments. See you this Saturday December 6!
Nov. 2025: Happy to give a PhD spotlight talk on our AAAI-2026 Paper "Quantum Non-Linear Bandit Optimization" at the 2025 AI Plus Foundational AI Day, University at Albany (SUNY).
Nov. 2025: Paper "Quantum Non-Linear Bandit Optimization" is accepted by AAAI-2026 conference! In this paper, we propose a new non-linear bandit algorithm that enjoys quantum speed-up!
Aug. 2025: Invited to serve on the Program Committee of the 40th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-26).
Aug. 2024: Hello Albany, New York! I've moved from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Albany, NY to start my PhD in Computer Science!

selected publications

Multi-Objective Coverage via Constraint Active Search (Accepted at AAMAS 2026)

Quantum Non-Linear Bandit Optimization (Accepted at AAAI 2026)

Improving MRI Resolution: A Cycle Consistent Generative Adversarial Network-Based Approach for 3T to 7T Translation