Professional Member Spotlight
Dr. Muhammad Adnan Siddique
Written by: Madeleine Dawson, Content and Design Staff for IEEE GRSS
Chair of the Lahore Section GRSS Chapter
Dr. Muhammad Adnan Siddique is an assistant professor working at the Information Technology University (ITU) in Lahore, Pakistan, where he leads the GRSS Lahore chapter. He was the founding member since the chapter’s beginning in May 2023. He earned his PhD in Earth Observation and Remote Sensing from ETH Zurich in 2018 and went on to establish the Remote Sensing and Spatial Analytics (RSA) Lab in his current role at ITU. With an interdisciplinary background spanning remote sensing, environmental monitoring, telecommunications, and engineering, Dr. Siddique works on a range of diverse topics across the world of geoscience and remote sensing.
Please introduce yourself and give us a short background of who you are and what you do?
Basically, I began my training as a SAR person. I studied in Germany and Spain for an Erasmus Mundus Masters of Research degree, and later on, I obtained my PhD from ETH Zurich in Switzerland; most of that phase of my life was around SAR remote sensing. In 2020, I got a faculty position, and I set up a research group. I am trying to combine remote sensing aspects with spatial data science. I believe in diversifying expertise, to best focus on geoscience applications in an inter-disciplinary way. I am not just in SAR now, but I also use multispectral imaging, (e.g. for oil spill detection, and hazard monitoring). In Pakistan, we have problems related to frequent landslides, glacial lake outburst flooding, avalanches, as well as repeated oil spills in the Arabian Sea.
I also teach courses in remote sensing and spatial data science, and I try to combine the computing side of remote sensing with how to make things work from a data science and modeling approach. I am supported by students, and they keep me motivated – I push them a bit, and they push me more.
I currently have one PhD student who is working on landslides. Previously, I had four research assistants working on glacial lake monitoring for potential flooding. I have guided six master thesis students on several topics; three have graduated and three are still working. Each semester more students join my lab for short or long-term projects.
How long have you been a member? Tell us about your GRSS journey.
It started with a student membership back in 2012, when I attended my first IGARSS in Munich. I had not really planned to carry on the GRSS membership. I initially took it to get a reduction in the registration fee for the conference. I noticed upon attending IGARSS that being part of the GRSS community was something that I longed for without even knowing it. There was a sense of belonging here. I was a young student and wanted to belong. That is something that probably all young students wish for implicitly if not always explicitly. So, I wanted to belong to the group and participate in those discussions during the coffee breaks, it really inspired me to stay involved. Over time, I attended more conferences sponsored by GRSS and IEEE and kept going to events. Since 2020, I have been a regular professional member.
What inspired you to join GRSS?
It was IGARSS 2012, when I first attended a GRSS conference as a student member. From there, my journey continued to grow!
How has GRSS contributed to your professional growth?
GRSS offered me a platform for both networking and recognition. You may be doing amazing things and may be very brilliant in your field, but if you are not among the people who can appreciate as well as critically evaluate yourself, it loses some of its worth. I felt that GRSS was great there – it has helped me with my professional growth a lot! I signed up as a reviewer for IEEE Transactions as well as JSTARS later on. Then, I got more involved in the publication process. I really got the hang of how things are and should be. If I look at the various aspects of my professional career, I will always find links to some GRSS activity, whether it is publishing, making scientific hypotheses and discussing among the peers and getting feedback on it. It could be on the sidelines of a conference or a reception dinner, but I always know who to talk to. If I am stuck, I always know who the expert is that I can approach [because of the GRSS network].
GRSS has many ways of contributing back. This is also always one of the questions that people ask me when I try to convince them to take up the membership. It is hard to convince people why they should spend the money on the membership. If you are going to Disneyland, you can always explain the connection easily to where the investment is going. But my argument to this is that GRSS returns you more value, but not just in money. It invests in your own professional growth many times over by bringing forth favorable opportunities.
What advice would you give to individuals considering joining the GRSS community?
I would say that if you are close to making a decision, then hop on the bus! Don’t let a feeling drag you to miss out on the opportunity! Just hop on, and then you will see that you will really love it. There are too many opportunities, sometimes it is like a buffet for me. I cannot take all of what GRSS offers at once, but it is up to people to take what they like from GRSS. That could be participating in or contributing to technical or professional activities. There is a whole portfolio for that! There are also educational activities, publications, conferences, and symposia. There are too many things there that it is up to the people to see what they seek. Many people in the beginning may not know what is out there. Therefore, I say start attending and be a part of the community and afterwards you will be convinced yourself!
What has your experience been like leading a GRSS chapter? Any challenges and how have you addressed them?
The experience has been amazing. I love every bit of it. Two years have been completed, and I would like to nominate myself for another two years. I hope that I do get the chair position again.
The challenges are more tied to the region. In the developed part of the world, you may not have the same challenges that you have here. Of course, the membership is costly and feels more costly in the underdeveloped world even if there are some discounts. Therefore, the students who are very sure that they want to work in GRSS hop on the bus and take it. But some students who are not clear on what their majors will be, they do shy away a bit [due to cost of membership].
The other aspect is that geoscience and remote sensing is a very interdisciplinary thing. Some of the universities particularly in this part of the world are still quite in the monotony that has existed where remote sensing is more a part of the GIS world, which is more tooling and visualization of the data. But for example, if you work in ocean remote sensing you will be exploring or contributing to a scientific question at the end of the day while developing or improving the related technology. That sort of approach requires people to think outside of the box. I hope we progressively improve the curriculum to encourage cross-disciplinary work. I do get criticism at times, but I keep talking about the merits and strengths of merging different fields around the given science application. In Lahore chapter, I organize events where I can bring people from multiple backgrounds such as engineers, computer scientists, geophysicists, biologists, marine scientists for example. I also involve people from public policy.
Why do you think establishing a chapter in your region is important and how do you maintain cadence in membership?
The reason for founding the chapter was that there was no GRSS presence in the first place. At the moment, this is the only active chapter in Pakistan. We are making efforts to connect to more universities.
How do I maintain membership? A lot of effort of course! But how?
We held 11 events in the first year, and in the second year we did many as well. In the short span of a few years, we contributed to one conference track, and we held two workshops at two different universities. All events are designed to extend outreach, and thereby improve our membership base. We will continue further efforts and hope to keep expanding!
What has been achieved in your chapter that you are proud of?
There can be multiple things that I am proud of, but I am particularly proud of the number of different outreach events we have done and received positive feedback for. People have really started coming to events and have asked us to set up a GRSS track in their conferences. That is something that we achieved just within two years, and I am very proud of that. Overall, I am really supported by my amazing team through all of this.
What is your vision for the future of your chapter?
In the next year or two, one of my efforts is to increase membership further to nearby cities and other campuses. That is where I believe some people are not so aware of the opportunities. Also, I really want to achieve setting up further focus groups within my team and expanding interest in publishing in IEEE GRSS.
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