Muhammad Akbar Khan

MS Applied Mathematics researcher at NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, supervised by Dr. Fahim Raees. I develop physics-informed neural networks and neural operators for solving partial differential equations, with applications to interface-tracking problems in computational fluid dynamics and thermal analysis of building materials.

Seeking fully-funded PhD positions for Spring 2027

Muhammad Akbar Khan

News

Research

My research focuses on integrating deep learning with classical numerical methods for solving partial differential equations. Specifically, I study how physics-informed neural networks can be designed and trained to accurately capture evolving interfaces governed by the level-set advection equation—a problem central to computational fluid dynamics. I am interested in understanding and improving PINN training dynamics through architecture design, loss balancing, and regularization strategies, and I aim to extend these ideas to neural operator frameworks for broader PDE applications.

Physics-Informed Neural Networks

Training strategies, loss balancing, causal weighting, and architectures (RFF, modified MLPs) for accurate PDE solutions.

Level-Set Methods

Neural network approaches to interface tracking and advection in computational fluid dynamics.

Neural Operators

Operator learning (DeepONet, FNO) for cross-domain PDE solving and surrogate modeling.

Scientific Computing

Numerical methods for PDEs, optimization, and gradient-based methods for scientific applications.

Computational Heat Transfer

Physics-informed neural operators for thermal analysis of building materials in hot-dry climates, with applications to climate-resilient construction.

Publications

Published

A Systematic Study of Physics-Informed Neural Networks for the Level-Set Interface Advection

Muhammad Akbar Khan and Fahim Raees

Machine Learning: Science and Technology, IOP Publishing, 2026 — doi:10.1088/2632-2153/ae8b74 — Published July 2026, Gold Open Access, CC BY 4.0

A 69-experiment ablation study of PINNs for the level-set advection equation across four benchmarks: linear translation, solid-body rotation, reversed vortex deformation, and the Zalesak rotating slotted disc. Key findings include an 82× error reduction via eikonal weight tuning, a novel RFF–eikonal joint design constraint, and state-of-the-art results on RV (T=8, 0.63%) and ZD (0.13%), outperforming PirateNet (Mullins et al., 2025) using a standard tanh network.

Under Review

A Physics-Informed Neural Operator for Thermal Ranking of Low-Cost Wall Materials in Hot-Dry Climates

Muhammad Akbar Khan and Fahim Raees

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Elsevier, 2026 — Manuscript ID HMT-D-26-04702 (under review)

A two-stage framework combining a Crank–Nicolson FDM solver under diurnal solar forcing and a PINO/FNO surrogate for parametric thermal analysis of five indigenous Sindh wall materials across a nine-dimensional parameter space (1500 LHS samples). The trained PINO attains a 0.201 K MAE on peak inner-surface temperature while preserving the FDM material ranking exactly; trained on 150 samples it matches a data-only FNO trained on 300, and it reproduces the ISO 13786 time lag and decrement factor to 0.99 h and 0.010.

Education

2024 — 2026

MS Applied Mathematics

NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

Thesis: A Systematic Study of Physics-Informed Neural Networks for the Level-Set Interface Advection

Supervisor: Dr. Fahim Raees

Developed a PINN framework for the level-set advection equation and conducted a systematic 69-experiment study across four benchmark problems, identifying a novel RFF–eikonal joint design constraint that achieves an 82× error reduction.

Technical Skills

Python PyTorch NumPy Matplotlib SciPy Pandas LaTeX Google Colab Git / GitHub PostgreSQL Jupyter

Contact

I am actively seeking fully-funded PhD positions (Spring 2027) in scientific machine learning, with a focus on physics-informed methods and neural operators for PDE modeling. If you are interested in my work or have opportunities, I would be glad to hear from you.

Email
akbar.bsma1337@gmail.com · khan.pg4200844@cloud.neduet.edu.pk
ORCID
0009-0001-7956-0080
GitHub
AkbarTheAnalyst