About me

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago, working with my advisor, Professor Sidharth Kumar. My research interests include high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, cloud computing, and software engineering. Specifically, I am engaged in advancing high-performance declarative analytics on GPUs and employing topological data analysis for brain fMRI datasets.

Interests

High-Performance Computing

Data Analytics

Cloud Computing

Software Engineering

Education

PhD (Candidate) in Computer Science

August 2023 - present
Dissertation: Declarative Analytics on Heterogeneous HPC Systems

PhD (Student) in Computer Science

August 2021 - August 2023
Graduate Research Assistant, Blazer Graduate Research Fellow

MS in Information Technology

2018
Jahangirnagar University (JU) · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Thesis: A RESTful E-Governance Application Framework for People Identity Verification in Cloud

BS in Information Technology

2016
Jahangirnagar University (JU) · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Project: EasyC: A Platform for Learning C Programming

Experiences

Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant

August 2023 - Cont.
  • Developed the first multi-node, multi-GPU Datalog engine for heterogeneous systems.
  • Designed topological clustering pipelines for high-dimensional brain connectivity data.
  • Performed GPU portability and power analysis of GPU-accelerated Datalog engines.
  • TA: CS 480 Database Systems, CS 455 Introduction to High Performance Computing.

Graduate Student Intern (WJ Cody)

May 2023 - August 2023
  • Enhanced Rosetta-Bench, a benchmark suite for evaluating parallel programming model performance.
  • Integrated HIP benchmarks and refined benchmark report generation.
  • Collaborated with HPC engineers on integrating the benchmark suite in HPC systems.

Graduate Research Assistant (Blazer Graduate Research Fellow)

August 2021 - August 2023
  • Built a GPU-accelerated relational algebra backend for Datalog-like applications.
  • Developed a visualization tool to create Kaplan Meier survival probability graph for cancer data analysis.
  • Designed a topological data analysis pipeline using persistent homology on rs-fMRI brain networks.

Assistant Programmer

June 2019 - August 2021
Department of ICT, ICT Division · Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Developed a web application visualizing e-File usage data across root-level government offices.
  • Led cross-functional teams in developing and delivering multiple e-Governance applications.
  • Integrated technology-driven solutions to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Software Engineer

December 2017 - June 2019
Cefalo · Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Developed and maintained five publications of this Norwegian media conglomerate in a global team.
  • Re-designed the digital subscription model that reduced the subscription completion time by 75% using Django REST framework and ReactJS.
  • Automated multi-tiered web application deployment process by designing a CI/CD pipeline.

Software Engineer

October 2016 - November 2017
Codalo · Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Developed a Education as a Service(EaaS) application.
  • Created real time fingerprint based attendance system with instant messaging service.
  • Designed a CI/CD pipeline for web application auto deployment.

Freelancer

April 2015 - August 2019
  • Developed custom plugins and data scrapper as per clients' requirements.
  • Worked on web and data driven application development on contractual and hourly basis.
  • Developed a web app to calculate height of the tide between high and low water.

Publications

Multi-Node Multi-GPU Datalog

Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Yihao Sun, Thomas Gilray, Kristopher Micinski, Sidharth Kumar
In ACM International Conference on Supercomputing 2025 (ICS 2025)
PDF Slide Code ICS 2025

Optimizing Datalog for the GPU

Yihao Sun, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Thomas Gilray, Kristopher Micinski, Sidharth Kumar
In 2025 the ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS 2025)
PDF Code ASPLOS 2025

Bruck Algorithm Performance Analysis for Multi-GPU All-to-All Communication

Andres Sewell, Ke Fan, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Landon Dyken, Sidharth Kumar, Steve Petruzza
In Proceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing in Asia-Pacific Region (HPCAsia 2024) (pp. 127-133).
PDF Code HPCAsia 2024

Scalable, interactive and hierarchical visualization of virus taxonomic data

Kashyap Balakavi, Rushitha Janga, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Don Dempsey, Elliot Lefkowitz, Sidarth Kumar
In 2023 IEEE Workshop on Visual Analytics in Healthcare (VAHC), in conjunction with IEEE VIS 2023
PDF Code VAHC 2023

The robustness of persistent homology of brain networks to data acquisition-related non-neural variability in resting state fMRI

Sidharth Kumar, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Gopikrishna Deshpande
In Human Brain Mapping (Q1 Journal)
PDF Code HBM 2023

Towards Iterative Relational Algebra on the GPU

Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Thomas Gilray, Kristopher Micinski, Sidharth Kumar
In 2023 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC 2023)
PDF Slide Code USENIXATC 2023

Accelerating Datalog applications with cuDF

Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Landon Richard Dyken, Oded Green, Thomas Gilray, Sidharth Kumar
In 2022 IEEE/ACM Workshop on Irregular Applications: Architectures and Algorithms (IA3 2022), in conjunction with SC22
PDF Slide Code IA3 2022

UALCAN: An update to the integrated cancer data analysis platform

Darshan Shimoga Chandrashekar, Santhosh Kumar Karthikeyan, Praveen Kumar Korla, Henalben Patel, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Mohammad Athar, George J Netto, Zhaohui S Qin, Sidharth Kumar, Upender Manne, Chad J Crieghton, Sooryanarayana Varambally
In Neoplasia by Elsevier (Q1 Journal)
PDF Code Demo Neoplasia 2022

A Resilient Fog-IoT Framework for Seamless Microservice Execution

Md Whaiduzzaman, Alistair Barros, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Md Razon Hossain, Colin Fidge
In IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC) - 2021, Chicago, IL.
PDF Slide SCC 2021

COVID-19: Update, Forecast and Assistant - An Interactive Web Portal to Provide Real-Time Information and Forecast COVID-19 Cases in Bangladesh

Md. Shahriare Satu, Md. Khalilur Rahman, Maksud Alam Rony, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Md. Jane Alam Adnan, Koushik Chandra Howlader, M Shamim Kaiser
In International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Development 2021 (ICICT4SD 2021).
PDF Code ICICT4SD 2021

A Privacy-preserving Mobile and Fog Computing Framework to Trace and Prevent COVID-19 Community Transmission

Md Whaiduzzaman, Md Hossain, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Shanto Roy, Aron Laszka, Rajkumar Buyya, Alistair Barros
In IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (IEEE JBHI, Q1 Journal)
PDF JBHI 2020

GDPR Compliance: Implementation Use Cases for User Data Privacy in News Media Industry

Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Shanto Roy, Arnab Kumar Shil, Tanjila Atik
In International Conference on Advances in Science, Engineering and Robotics Technology 2019 (ICASERT 2019).
PDF Slide Code ICASERT 2019

A RESTful E-Governance Application Framework for People Identity Verification in Cloud

Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Shanto Roy, Tanusree Sharma, Md. Whaiduzzaman
In International Conference on Cloud Computing - 2018, Seattle, WA.
PDF Cloud 2018

Combined approach of Tokenization and Mining to secure and optimize Big Data in Cloud Storage

Shanto Roy, Ahmedur Rahman Shovon, Md. Whaiduzzaman
In IEEE R10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10 - HTC) - 2017.
PDF R10 HTC 2017

Presentations

Declarative Analytics on Heterogeneous HPC Systems

Declarative Analytics on Heterogeneous HPC Systems

July 2025
PhD Dissertation Defense @ UIC
Member of HARP Lab and EVL
MNMGDatalog: A Scalable Multi-Node Multi-GPU Datalog Engine

MNMGDatalog: A Scalable Multi-Node Multi-GPU Datalog Engine

May 2025
GCASR 2025, Chicago
Poster presentation at GCASR 2025
Accelerating iterative joins toward a modern Datalog backend on GPU

Accelerating iterative joins toward a modern Datalog backend on GPU

May 2024
GCASR 2024, Chicago
Poster presentation at GCASR 2024
Join on GPU

Join on GPU

October 2023
Lecture @ CS 480 Database Systems, UIC
Guest lecture on join operations on GPU at UIC
Docking with Docker

Docking with Docker

February 2018
Team Project @ NHST Media Group, Oslo, Norway
Presented with Arnab Kumar Shil
An Optimized RESTful E-Governance Application Framework for People Identity Verification in Cloud

An Optimized RESTful E-Governance Application Framework for People Identity Verification in Cloud

September 2017
MS Thesis Defense @ Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh
Member of Mobile Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Group, JU
Easy C: A new method of learning C programming in the context of Bangladesh

Easy C: A new method of learning C programming in the context of Bangladesh

September 2016
BS Project @ Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh

Projects

  • Tradewinds - TradeWinds is the world’s biggest shipping news service, publishing both online news and a printed weekly newspaper, that covers shipping as a global industry. (developer)
  • Upstream - The leading global oil, gas and energy news resource. Covering the latest oil and gas news including shale, lng, drilling, exploration and production. (developer)
  • Recharge - Recharge provides business intelligence for the renewable-energy industries, that matter most to the wind and solar sectors. (developer)
  • Easy C - A real time web and mobile application to learn C programming language. (team leader and developer)
  • CBPen - A web application for penetration testing to expose vulnerabilities associated with the network. (developer)
  • ImageStego - ImageStego is an image steganography tool. (developer)
  • Powerlog, Bangla, Opener, AutoLike, CopyUSB - PyPI enlisted Python packages. (developer)
  • Type Speed - One minute typing test with popular 5000 English words. (developer)
  • Drumpad Web, Drumpad Android - Application to play virtual drums. (developer)

Awards

USENIX ATC Student Grant

2023
Awarded by the USENIX Association for conference attendance.

Blazer Graduate Research Fellowship

2021 - 2022
Awarded by UAB recognizing outstanding qualification for doctoral research.

Bangladesh-Sweden Trust Fund (BSTF) Travel Grant

2021 - 2022
Bangladesh Sweden Trust Fund · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Awarded by Economics Relations Division, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

National Science and Technology (NST) Fellowship

2016 - 2017
Awarded by Ministry of Science & Technology, Bangladesh for research excellence at graduate level.

University Merit Scholarships

2011 - 2015
Jahangirnagar University · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Awarded by Jahangirnagar University for academic excellence at undergraduate level.

Achievements

Top 3% contributor @ StackOverflow

2013 - present
Contributing regularly at StackOverflow and have more than 13,000 reputation.

3rd @ Computational Research Symposium Poster Presentation 2025

April 2025
Presented poster on our multi-node multi-GPU Datalog engine.

Winner @ oneAPI Hackathon: CUDA to SYCL Migration 2023

October 2023
Ported CUDA project to SYCL with automatic and manual interventions.

1st @ Hackerrank Python & Security Domains

July 2016
Solved all challenges in both Python and Security domains on Hackerrank.

7th @ IEEEXtreme Programming Competition 9.0

October 2015
Achieved 7th position out of 2,477 teams.

Services

Judge @ UIC Undergraduate Research Forum 2024

April 2024

Judge @ UAB Research Expos (Fall 2021 – Spring 2023)

November 2021 – April 2023
Served as a judge of UAB undergraduate Research Expos

Volunteer @ The World Games 2022, Birmingham, USA

July 2022
Served as a volunteer at the The World Games 2022.

Journal reviewer @ Sustainable Cities and Society (SCS)

November 2021

Webmaster @ IEEE SB JU

May 2015 - October 2017
I was responsible for development and maintenance of IEEE Student Branch, JU website.