Azeem Akbar

Muhammad Azeem Akbar is an Associate Professor and Adjunct Professor (Docent) of Software Process Improvement and Management in the Software Engineering Department at LUT University, Finland. He earned his Ph.D. in Software Engineering from Chongqing University, China, in January 2019, where he focused on requirements change impact analysis and management in global software development environments. Following his doctorate, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (July 2019 – September 2020), contributing to the “Automated Code Recommendation System” project. From September 2020 to August 2021, he served as a Senior Researcher at LERO – The Irish Software Research Centre, University of Limerick, where he worked on Huawei’s “Software Trustworthiness” initiative. He joined LUT University as a Postdoctoral Researcher in September 2021 and was promoted to Associate Professor in September 2023. He has published over 125 research articles in well-reputed journals and international conferences. His multidisciplinary research integrates software engineering with LLM, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing to address real-world challenges in modern software systems. His expertise can be broadly organized:

    1.Software Engineering: Akbar has made significant contributions to software requirements engineering, change management, DevOps, and global software development. He has developed maturity models, decision-support frameworks, and prioritization taxonomies to enhance software process efficiency and quality. His empirical and multivocal studies provide actionable insights into managing cloud-based and outsourced projects, aligning with the practical needs of globally distributed development teams.

    2. AI and LLMs in Software Engineering: His work explores the application of artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) to automate and optimize software engineering processes. This includes AI-driven code recommendation, defect prediction, test case generation, and requirements analysis. He also investigates the ethical implications and trustworthiness of AI tools in software engineering contexts, including recent work on the responsible use of generative AI such as ChatGPT.

    3. Emerging Technologies in Software Engineering: Akbar’s research extends to the intersection of software engineering and emerging technologies such as quantum computing, 6G, blockchain, IoT, and MLOps. He has proposed predictive and readiness models for quantum software development, developed secure frameworks for blockchain-enabled DevOps, and investigated intelligent systems for cybersecurity, healthcare, and smart cities. His work aims to guide organizations in adopting next-generation technologies through structured, evidence-based approaches.

Research interests

Research Projects and Grants

Akbar has been actively involved in securing and managing competitive research funding across multiple international collaborations. He has served as Co-Principal Investigator on several major funded projects, including the €3.2 million CRS – Code Recommendation System Improvement project funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China, and the €1.5 million Towards Zero-Touch Testing project supported by the Jiangsu-Nanjing Local Government. In partnership with Huawei Technologies and LERO (The Irish Software Research Centre), he contributed to the €75,000 Software Trustworthiness initiative. He also led key work packages in the €35,000 Social and Organizational Dynamics in Modern Software Teams project funded by Imam Mohammad Ibn-Saud Islamic University, and the €55,000 Intelligent Security project, in collaboration with King Saud University, focusing on AI-based secure software engineering.

Currently, he serves as Project Manager and Work Package Lead in the € 1.978 million Business Finland–funded 6GSoft project, advancing next-generation 6G software systems. In addition to these funded efforts, he has contributed to several high-quality EU research proposals, including HORIZON and Academy of Finland calls, gaining strong reviewer feedback and valuable proposal development experience. He remains actively engaged in several EU consortia for the upcoming HORIZON calls on software engineering, quantum technologies, AI/ML for Copernicus services, and emerging space technologies.