Researcher profile
Ashkan Y. Zadeh
Human-centred XAI, NLP, and automated vehicles.
PhD Candidate at QUT and ARC Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions (AVR3)
Ashkan Yousefi Zadeh
Also published as Ashkan Y. Zadeh
Currently exploring
I research human-centred explainable AI for automated vehicles, with a focus on turning autonomous driving decisions into natural language explanations that people can understand, evaluate, and trust.
2023+
Doctoral research
AI & Automated Vehicles
Research focus
IEEE
Service and review
focus = "Human-Centred XAI"
domain = ["Automated Vehicles", "NLP"]
goal = "Trustworthy autonomous decisions"
Vision, lidar, scene context, and vehicle state.
Model evidence, causal structure, and decision context.
Natural language outputs designed for human understanding.
Human-centred evaluation and calibrated autonomy.
About
Research at the intersection of AI, language, and automated mobility.
I am a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at Queensland University of Technology, affiliated with the ARC Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions.
My thesis develops a model for generating human-centric explanations for automated vehicles. I connect Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence, Explainable AI, Natural Language Processing, and autonomous driving to improve transparency and trust in safety-critical systems.
I am supervised by Dr. Xiaomeng Li, Prof. Andry Rakotonirainy, Prof. Ronald Schroeter, and Prof. Sebastien Glaser.
01
Human needs
Designing explanations around how people interpret, question, and calibrate trust in AV behaviour.
02
Machine evidence
Connecting perception, decision context, and vehicle state to explanation content.
03
Language quality
Structuring natural language explanations that are clear, situated, and useful.
Supervision
Guided by experts in AI, road safety, HMI, and automated mobility.
My doctoral work is supervised by a multidisciplinary team across explainable AI, human-centred transport systems, and automated vehicle research.
Principal Supervisor
Dr Xiaomeng Li
Human Behaviour, Experimental Design, Data Analysis.
AVR3 profile
Supervisor
Prof Ronald Schroeter
Human-Machine Interaction, Road Safety, Automated Vehicle Design
AVR3 profile
Supervisor
Prof Sebastien Glaser
Intelligent Transport Systems, Automated Vehicle Design, Safety Deployment.
AVR3 profile
Research Interests
From perception data to explanations people can use.
My research interests combine automated vehicle sensing, computer vision, language models, NLP, and human-centred AI into one explanation pipeline.
01
Automated Vehicles and Computer Vision
Perception, scene understanding, sensor evidence, and driving context as the foundation for meaningful explanations.
02
LLMs and Natural Language Processing
Language generation, linguistic building blocks, and structured explanation content for AV decisions.
03
Human-Centred AI and Trust
Explanation design grounded in user needs, transparency, interpretability, and trust calibration.
Perception to explanation
Connects computer vision, vehicle state, and scene context to explanation-ready evidence.
How should AV decisions be represented, selected, and justified?
Which linguistic choices make explanations clearer and more actionable?
How do explanations affect attention, trust, and behavioural response?
How can explanation models support responsible autonomy in real contexts?
Explainable AI
Automated Vehicles
Human-Centred AI
NLP
LLMs
Human-Machine Interaction
Machine Learning
Trustworthy Autonomy
Publications
Selected publications.
Recent work across natural language explanations, psycholinguistic XAI design, and intelligent control for automated driving.
X-Blocks: Linguistic Building Blocks of Natural Language Explanations for Automated Vehicles
Ashkan Yousefi Zadeh, Xiaomeng Li, Andry Rakotonirainy, Ronald Schroeter, Sebastien Glaser, and Z. Zhu.
Read preprint
PsyLingXAV: A Psycholinguistics Design Framework for XAI in Automated Vehicles
Ashkan Yousefi Zadeh, Xiaomeng Li, Andry Rakotonirainy, Ronald Schroeter, and Sebastien Glaser.
Read paper
Integrated Intelligent Control Systems for Eco and Safe Driving in Autonomous Vehicles
A. Yousefi Zadeh, A. Jamali, R. Mallipeddi, and H. Khayyam.
Read paper
Fuzzy Adaptive Cruise Control with Model Predictive Control for Automated Driving
Z. Mehraban, A. Yousefi Zadeh, A. Jamali, R. Mallipeddi, and H. Khayyam.
Read paperExperience
Research, teaching, and professional service.
My experience combines doctoral research, engineering education, peer review, and technical committee activity.
Automotive CE Applications Technical Committee Member
IEEE Consumer Technology Society.
AdHoc Committee on Autonomous Vehicles
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.
Tutor
Teaching Computing and Data for Engineers at Queensland University of Technology.
Doctoral Researcher
AVR3, formerly CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology.
Peer Reviewer
Reviewing for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems and IEEE Access.
Python Developer
Server-side AI project development, deployment, and debugging at HeyvaAI.
Education and Awards
Academic foundation.
Computer science doctoral research built on mechanical engineering, dynamics, control systems, and intelligent mobility.
Education
- PhD in Computer ScienceQueensland University of Technology, 2023 - Present
- MSc in Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of Guilan, 2019 - 2022
- BSc in Mechanical EngineeringIslamic Azad University, 2013 - 2018
Awards and Recognition
- IEEE ScholarshipAcademia-Industry Summer School on Human-Centric AI-empowered Autonomy, 2024
- QUT Postgraduate Research AwardsARC Postgraduate Research Stipend and QUTPRA
- QUT Runner-UpVisualise Your Thesis Competition, 2023
Contact
Let us talk about explainable autonomy.
For research collaboration, XAI, autonomous vehicle explanation design, or academic enquiries, contact me directly.