Waleed Iqbal

Assistant Professor in Data Science, Northeastern University London.

I study how socio-economic inequalities surface in online behaviour — from search queries and platform engagement to scholarly publishing. My PhD, supervised by Dr. Ignacio Castro and Prof. Gareth Tyson in the Social Data Science Lab, measured how real-world inequalities travel through the digital traces people leave behind.

Previously, I worked at IHSAN Lab in Information Technology University Lahore, Pakistan with Prof. Dr. Junaid Qadir as affiliated researcher and teaching assistant, and supervised by him as Postgraduate Student (MS Computer Science).

I'm always open to collaboration in following research areas

Online Manifestation of Socio-Economic Inequality Computational Social Science Internet Measurement Bibliometrics & Science of Science AI for Teaching and Learning
✉ w.iqbal@{nulondon,qmul}.ac.uk
Waleed Iqbal

news

Sep 2026Paper accepted in Springer AI and Law: IslamicLegalBench: Evaluating LLMs' knowledge and reasoning of Islamic law across 1,200 years of Islamic pluralist legal traditions.
Jul 2026Received Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy UK (FHEA).
Jun 2026Completed Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice from Queen Mary University of London.
Sep 2025Co-PI on Neighbourhood Signals: Online Discussions and Crime — £23,794 from REPHRAIN under Safer Streets strand 3.
Jun 2025Promoted to Assistant Professor in Data Science (Teaching and Scholarship) at Northeastern University, remaining at their London Campus.
Apr 2025Delivered two lectures on Natural Language Processing for Northeastern University London's Global Postgraduate Taster Lectures.
Jan 2025Joined Northeastern University as Lecturer in Data Science, based at the London Campus.
Nov 2024Passed PhD viva at Queen Mary University of London (minor corrections).
Jul 2024Working paper on discourse similarity between elected politicians and constituents on arXiv: How Similar Are Elected Politicians and Their Constituents? Quantitative Evidence From Online Social Networks.
Sep 2023Recognised as UK Global Talent (Exceptional Promise) in Research and Academic Category by the Royal Academy of Engineering UK; granted a Global Talent Visa by the UK Government.
Sep 2023Paper accepted at IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies: Data-Driven Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Comprehensive Review.
Jul 2023Project accepted for presentation at COSENERS 2023, London: Exploring Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities in the Nextdoor Social Network.
Mar 2023Paper accepted at ICWSM 2023: Lady and the tramp nextdoor: Online manifestations of real-world inequalities in the nextdoor social network.
Mar 2023Project accepted for presentation at Data Native 2023, London: Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities in the Nextdoor Social Network.
Nov 2022Paper accepted at AINTEC 2022: Exploring Crowdsourced Content Moderation Through Lens of Reddit During COVID-19.
Sep 2022Appointed Teaching Fellow in Computer Science at the School of EECS, Queen Mary University of London.
Sep 2022Travel Grant accepted for ACM IMC 2022.
Sep 2022Poster accepted at IMC 2022: Exploring Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities.
Aug 2022Serving as Shadow Technical Program Committee Member for ACM IMC 2022.
Jun 2022Passed Stage Two (Second Year Progression) of my PhD at Queen Mary University of London.
Oct 2021Paper accepted in Springer SNAM: A Deep Dive into COVID-19-Related Messages on WhatsApp in Pakistan.
Aug 2021Paper accepted at ACM IMC 2021: Characterising the IETF Through the Lens of RFC Deployment.
Nov 2020Passed Stage One (First Year Progression) of my PhD at Queen Mary University of London.
Oct 2020Paper accepted at IEEE/ACM ASONAM 2020: First Look at COVID-19 Messages on WhatsApp in Pakistan.
Oct 2020Paper accepted in Frontiers in Big Data: Securing Machine Learning (ML) in the Cloud: A Systematic Review of Cloud ML Security.
Aug 2020Paper accepted in IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence: Leveraging Data Science To Combat COVID-19: A Comprehensive Review.
Jun 2020Passed Stage Zero (First Quarter Progression Exam) of my PhD at Queen Mary University of London.
Jan 2020Started as PhD Student in the Networks Research Group, School of EECS, Queen Mary University of London.
Oct 2019Editorial accepted in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review: Five Decades of the ACM SIG on Data Communications (SIGCOMM): A Bibliometric Perspective.
Aug 2019Graduated from Information Technology University, Lahore with MS Computer Science and Dean's Roll of Honor.
Mar 2019Paper accepted in Springer Scientometrics: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications in Computer Networking Research.
Jun 2018Successfully defended my MS thesis Analysis of Computer Networking Research: A Bibliometric Study with no further corrections.
May 2016Paper accepted at IEEE IWCMC 2016: Experimental Study of Link Quality in IEEE 802.15.4 Using Z1 Motes.
Apr 2016Poster paper accepted at ACM ICTD 2016: Bridging Educational Gaps through Volunteers: Implementation, Problems and Their Solutions.
Oct 2015Secured Graduate Student Fellowship at Information Technology University, Lahore for MS Computer Science — granted to the top 15% of the batch.

publications

2026
IslamicLegalBench: Evaluating LLMs' Knowledge and Reasoning of Islamic Law Across 1,200 Years of Islamic Pluralist Legal Traditions
Ezieddin Elmahjub, Junaid Qadir, Abdullah Mushtaq, Rafay Naeem, Ibrahim Ghaznavi, Waleed Iqbal
Artificial Intelligence and Law, 1-67
19 citations
2024
How Similar Are Elected Politicians and Their Constituents? Quantitative Evidence from Online Social Networks
Waleed Iqbal, Gareth Tyson, Ignacio Castro
arXiv:2407.03255
ARXIVPDF
2023
Data-Driven Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Comprehensive Review
Kashif Ahmad, Waleed Iqbal, Ammar El-Hassan, Junaid Qadir, Driss Benhaddou, Moussa Ayyash, Ala Al-Fuqaha
IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 17, 12-31
611 citations
DOI
2023
Lady and the Tramp Nextdoor: Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities in the Nextdoor Social Network
Waleed Iqbal, Vahid Ghafouri, Gareth Tyson, Guillermo Suarez-Tangil, Ignacio Castro
Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), 17, 399-410
18 citations
PDFARXIV
2022
Exploring Crowdsourced Content Moderation Through Lens of Reddit During COVID-19
Waleed Iqbal, Muhammad Haseeb Arshad, Gareth Tyson, Ignacio Castro
Proceedings of the 17th Asian Internet Engineering Conference (AINTEC), 26-35
18 citations
DOI
2022
Exploring Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities
Waleed Iqbal, Gareth Tyson, Vahid Ghafouri, Guillermo Suarez-Tangil, Ignacio Castro
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), 762-763
3 citations
DOI
2022
A Deep Dive into COVID-19-Related Messages on WhatsApp in Pakistan
R Tallal Javed, Muhammad Usama, Waleed Iqbal, Junaid Qadir, Gareth Tyson, Ignacio Castro, Kiran Garimella
Social Network Analysis and Mining, 12(1), 5
43 citations
PDF
2021
Characterising the IETF Through the Lens of RFC Deployment
Stephen McQuistin, Mladen Karan, Prashant Khare, Colin Perkins, Gareth Tyson, Matthew Purver, Patrick Healey, Waleed Iqbal, Junaid Qadir, Ignacio Castro
Proceedings of the 21st ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), 137-149
30 citations
PDF
2020
A First Look at COVID-19 Messages on WhatsApp in Pakistan
R Tallal Javed, Mirza Elaaf Shuja, Muhammad Usama, Junaid Qadir, Waleed Iqbal, Gareth Tyson, Ignacio Castro, Kiran Garimella
IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM)
37 citations
DOIPDF
2020
Securing Machine Learning in the Cloud: A Systematic Review of Cloud Machine Learning Security
Adnan Qayyum, Aneeqa Ijaz, Muhammad Usama, Waleed Iqbal, Junaid Qadir, Yehia Elkhatib, Ala Al-Fuqaha
Frontiers in Big Data, 3:587139
98 citations
PDFDOI
2020
Leveraging Data Science To Combat COVID-19: A Comprehensive Review
Siddique Latif, Muhammad Usman, Sanaullah Manzoor, Waleed Iqbal, Junaid Qadir, Gareth Tyson, Ignacio Castro, Adeel Razi, Maged N Kamel Boulos, Adrian Weller, Jon Crowcroft
IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence
350 citations
PDFDOI
2019
Five Decades of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM): A Bibliometric Perspective
Waleed Iqbal, Junaid Qadir, Saeed-Ul Hassan, Rana Tallal Javed, Adnan Noor Mian, Jon Crowcroft, Gareth Tyson
ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 49(5)
6 citations
PDFDOI
2019
A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications in Computer Networking Research
Waleed Iqbal, Junaid Qadir, Gareth Tyson, Adnan Noor Mian, Saeed-ul Hassan, Jon Crowcroft
Scientometrics, Springer
94 citations
PDFDOI
2016
Experimental study of link quality in IEEE 802.15.4 using Z1 Motes
Adnan Noor Mian, Sheeraz A Alvi, Raees Khan, Muhammad Zulqarnain, Waleed Iqbal
International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), IEEE
8 citations
PDFDOI
2016
Bridging Educational Gaps through Volunteers: Implementation, Problems and Their Solutions
Tabish Manzoor, Waleed Iqbal, Eisha Tir Razia, Samia Razaq
Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD ’16), ACM
1 citations
PDFDOI

→ Full list on Google Scholar. Citations updated 2026-11-11

teaching

  • 2027 LCSCI5208 Database Design · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2026/27
    Selected lectures
    Northeastern University London
  • 2027 LCSCI5205 Object-Oriented Design · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2025/26, 2026/27 Northeastern University London
  • 2027 LCOMP72124 Applied Data Engineering · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2026/27 Northeastern University London
  • 2027 DS4400 Machine Learning & Data Mining I · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2026/27 (US credit course for Northeastern Boston students) Northeastern University London
  • 2026 LDSCI7229 Advanced Data Engineering · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2024/25, 2025/26 Northeastern University London
  • 2026 LDSCI6211 Machine Learning & Data Mining II · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2025/26 Northeastern University London
  • 2026 LCSCI7225 Programming Design Paradigm · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2024/25, 2025/26 Northeastern University London
  • 2026 LCSCI7224 Web Services · Course Leader & Lecturer · 2024/25, 2025/26 Northeastern University London
  • 2026 ECS417U Fundamentals of Web Technologies · Demonstrator (2020/21) → Senior Demonstrator (2021/22) → Teaching Fellow / Co-lecturer (2022/23 – 2025/26) · 2020/21 – 2025/26 Queen Mary University of London
  • 2025 ECS637U / ECS757P Digital Media and Social Networks · Demonstrator (2021/22) → Teaching Fellow / Co-lecturer (2024/25) · 2021/22, 2024/25 Queen Mary University of London
  • 2022 ECS781A / ECS781P Cloud Computing · Demonstrator · 2020/21 – 2021/22 Queen Mary University of London
  • 2022 ECS780P Computer Programming · Demonstrator · 2021/22 Queen Mary University of London
  • 2022 ECS607U / ECS766P Data Mining · Demonstrator · 2020/21 – 2021/22 Queen Mary University of London

academic services

  • 2027 Senior Technical Program Committee Member AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
  • 2027 Working Group Member IEEE EDU P3722 Guide for Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education
  • 2026, 2025 Reviewer IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
  • 2025 Organizing Committee Member IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
  • 2025 Reviewer ACM The Web Conference (WWW)
  • 2025, 2023 Reviewer AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
  • 2022 Shadow TPC Member ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)
  • 2019 Reviewer Springer Scientometrics
  • 2019 Reviewer ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (CCR)

education