Hi, my name is

Md Abulkalam Azad

I build AI for what matters — cardiac imaging, robotics, and ready to go beyond.

PhD Researcher at NTNU working at the intersection of computer vision, deep learning, and ultrasound medical imaging — developing novel methods for myocardial motion tracking and strain analysis in echocardiography.

01.

About Me

I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging (ISB) at NTNU, Norway, developing AI-driven methods for echocardiographic analysis. My work sits at the intersection of computer vision, deep learning, and clinical cardiology.

Before my PhD I completed an Erasmus Mundus M.Sc. in Marine and Maritime Intelligent Robotics (jointly at UTLN and NTNU), interned at SINTEF Digital on 3D reconstruction with Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF), and worked 1.5 years as a Software Engineer at SAMSUNG R&D on Augmented Reality and various SDKs.

I hold a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from United International University, Bangladesh, with an Erasmus Mundus exchange and bachelor's thesis at Universität Bremen, Germany.

Research

Computer Vision Deep Learning Medical Imaging Point Tracking Vision Transformers NeRF Video Classification Underwater Imaging

AI/DL/CV/MLOps/Programming/Robotics

Python PyTorch OpenCV GitHub Scikit-learn CUDA C/C++ MLFlow W&B ROS Gradio Control Systems Docker FastAPI CI/CD Rust Kubernetes DVC
Expert Proficient Familiar Exploring
02.

Research

NTNU — PhD Research

Advancing Myocardial Function Imaging in Echocardiography using Vision Intelligence

Task 01
Done

Point Tracking for Motion Estimation

Develop a novel deep learning-based point tracking method for accurate tissue motion estimation across full cardiac cycles in echocardiographic sequences.

Task 02
Done

Multi-view Strain Estimation

Extend the automated strain estimation pipeline to multiple cardiac views, enabling regional myocardial strain analysis for comprehensive cardiac assessment.

Task 03
Plan

AI-Assisted Human-in-the-Loop

Explore an AI-assisted, human-in-the-loop system that enhances strain measurement accuracy and supports efficient clinical data annotation workflows.

Task 04
Ongoing

Clinical Validation

Validate the fully automated strain estimation pipeline across relevant patient cohorts to establish clinical applicability and reliability for cardiac diagnosis.

NTNU & SINTEF Digital — Master's Research

Vision-based 3D Scene Reconstruction for Underwater Robotics using Neural Radiance Fields

Task 01
Done

Underwater Visual Perception

Develop deep learning-based detection and segmentation methods for robust visual perception in challenging underwater environments with limited visibility and color distortion.

Task 02
Done

3D Reconstruction via NeRF

Adapt and implement Neural Radiance Fields for efficient 3D scene reconstruction from monocular video, in collaboration with SINTEF Digital's applied research infrastructure.

Task 03
Done

ROV Motion Planning & Control

Design and implement motion planning and closed-loop control algorithms for underwater ROV navigation, integrating visual feedback from the perception pipeline.

Task 04
Done

System Integration & Evaluation

Integrate perception and reconstruction modules into a unified pipeline and evaluate end-to-end performance in simulated and real underwater test scenarios.

03.

Publications

Also on Google Scholar · ResearchGate · ORCID

2025
Low Complexity Point Tracking of the Myocardium in 2D Echocardiography

Chernyshov A., Nyberg J., Holmstrøm V., Azad M.A., Grenne B., Dalen H., Aase S.A., Lovstakken L., Østvik A.

arXiv PreprintarXiv:2503.10431
2024
EchoTracker: Advancing Myocardial Point Tracking in Echocardiography

Azad M.A., Chernyshov A., Nyberg J., Tveten I., Lovstakken L., Dalen H., Grenne B., Østvik A.

Early Accept · Top 11% MICCAI 2024
2023
Multi-label Video Classification for Underwater Ship Inspection

Azad M.A., Mohammed A., Waszak M., Elvesæter B., Ludvigsen M.

OCEANS 2023Limerick, Ireland
2021
Layered Ensemble Learning for Effective Binary Classification

Azad M.A., Islam S., Farid D.M., Shatabda S.

IEMIS 2020Springer Singapore
2019
Big Data with Decision Tree Induction

Sabah S., Anwar S.Z.B., Afroze S., Azad M.A., Shatabda S., Farid D.M.

SKIMA 2019Maldives
04.

Projects

🫀

EchoTracker

Official implementation of the MICCAI 2024 paper. A deep learning framework for long-range myocardial point tracking in 2D echocardiography, enabling automated cardiac motion and strain analysis.

Python·PyTorch·Medical Imaging
★ 56
📍

PTEcho

A research pipeline and benchmark framework for evaluating point tracking algorithms on echocardiographic sequences — from classical optical flow to modern deep learning models.

Python·PyTorch·Benchmarking
🌊

MViST

Multi-label Vision Spatiotemporal Transformer for underwater ship hull inspection. Classifies multiple concurrent damage types from ROV video using Vision Transformers. Published at OCEANS 2023.

Python·ViT·Video Understanding
05.

Experience & Education

Work Experience

2023 — Present
PhD Researcher
  • Deep learning for myocardial point tracking and strain estimation in echocardiography
  • Published at MICCAI 2024 (top 11% early accept)
  • Open-source implementation with 56+ GitHub stars
Summer 2022
Research Intern — Computer Vision
SINTEF Digital · Trondheim, Norway
  • 3D reconstruction of challenging objects using Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF)
  • Research directly led to master's thesis project
2019 — 2021
Software Engineer
Samsung R&D Bangladesh · Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • AR Emoji, Galaxy Watch Face, Samsung IAP, Samsung DeX SDK development
  • Augmented reality and Samsung ecosystem features

Education

2023 — Present
Ph.D. in Ultrasound Medical Imaging
NTNU · Trondheim, Norway
Thesis: Advancing Myocardial Function Imaging in Echocardiography using Vision Intelligence
2021 — 2023
M.Sc. Marine & Maritime Intelligent Robotics
UTLN + NTNU · France & Norway  Erasmus Mundus
Thesis: Multi-label Video Classification for Underwater Ship Inspection (SINTEF Digital)
2015 — 2019
B.Sc. Computer Science & Engineering
United International University · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Erasmus Mundus exchange at Universität Bremen, Germany (10 months)
06.

Talks

Mar 2024
EchoTracker: Advancing Myocardial Point Tracking in Echocardiography
CIUS Final Conference 2024 · Trondheim, Norway
Aug 2023
From Scholar to Explorer: A Tale of Underwater Robotics and Erasmus Mundus Scholarship
United International University · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Jun 2023
Multi-label Video Classification for Underwater Ship Inspection
OCEANS 2023 Conference & Exposition · Limerick, Ireland
Jun 2023
MViST: A Multi-label Vision Spatiotemporal Transformer for Underwater Ship Inspection
NORA Annual Conference 2023 · Tromsø, Norway
07.

Get In Touch

I'm always open to research collaborations, academic discussions, and new opportunities. Whether you have a question or just want to say hello — feel free to reach out!

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