Muhammad Ibtsaam Qadir
Muhammad Ibtsaam Qadir

Muhammad Ibtsaam Qadir

PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering · Purdue University

Building deep learning and multimodal AI systems that turn heterogeneous clinical data, spanning radiological and pathological images, electronic health records, genomics, and surgical videos, into actionable insights for diagnosis, prognosis, and precision medicine.

About

Multimodal AI and agents for clinical research

I am a PhD candidate working at the intersection of multimodal AI, medical imaging, and surgical data science, with a focus on pancreatic diseases across the cancer continuum: from precursor lesions to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). My research develops AI methods for preoperative diagnosis, risk stratification, and treatment planning, while also exploring the theoretical foundations, vulnerabilities, and scalability of vision-language models.

Beyond clinical AI, I work on autonomous AI agents for science and healthcare, developing systems that can reason across complex data and orchestrate clinical and scientific workflows. I am also interested in regulatory science and the translation of AI-enabled medical technologies into clinical practice.

I am advised by Dr. Fiona R. Kolbinger, and affiliated with the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health at TU Dresden in Dresden, Germany, and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Education

  • 2024 – Present

    PhD, Biomedical Engineering

    Purdue University, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering · West Lafayette, IN

  • 2024 – 2026

    Graduate Certificate, Regulatory Science for Medical Devices

    Purdue University, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering · West Lafayette, IN

  • 2019 – 2023

    BS, Electrical Engineering

    National University of Sciences and Technology (SEECS) · Islamabad, Pakistan

Research

Translational Clinical AI

Pancreatic Disease Management

Multimodal risk stratification for cystic precursor lesions and pancreatic cancer — predicting malignant progression and treatment planning from imaging, labs and clinical variables.

Surgical Data Science

Video understanding for minimally invasive surgery, vision-language models for intraoperative decision support.

Regulatory Science

What it should take to approve a medical AI device: study requirements across jurisdictions, and the gap between research and clinical translation.

Theoretical Machine Learning

The fundamental limits that bound large language models regardless of scale, and generalisation under distribution shift.

Scaling limitsDistribution shiftContinual learning

Publications

Selected Publications

Full publication list on Google Scholar. Author identifiers on ORCID.

Journal articles

  • EU's fragmented early-stage medical device study requirements need reform. Qadir MI, Wober J, McDonnell A, et al., Melvin T, Kolbinger FR. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2026. [View]
  • On the fundamental limits of LLMs at scale. Mohsin MA, Umer M, Bilal A, Memon Z, Qadir MI, et al., Cioffi JM. Transactions on Machine Learning Research, 2026. [View]
  • Prompt injection attacks on vision-language models for surgical decision support. Zhang Z, Qadir MI, Carstens M, et al., Kolbinger FR. npj Digital Surgery, 2026. [View]
  • Artificial intelligence in pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm imaging: a systematic review. Qadir MI, Baril JA, Yip-Schneider MT, Schonlau D, Tran TTT, Schmidt CM, Kolbinger FR. PLOS Digital Health, 2025. [View]
  • From marginal gains to clinical utility: machine learning-based percutaneous coronary intervention risk prediction models. Qadir MI, Hira RS, Kolbinger FR. European Heart Journal — Digital Health, 2025. [View]
  • Unmanned surface vehicle for intelligent water quality assessment to promote sustainable human health. Qadir MI, Mumtaz R, Manzoor M, et al., Charlesworth S. Water Supply, 2024. [View]

Preprints

  • Field strength-dependent performance variability in deep learning-based analysis of magnetic resonance imaging. Qadir MI, Schonlau D, Dydak U, Kolbinger FR. 2025. [View]

Conference papers

  • Channel prediction under network distribution shift using continual learning-based loss regularization. Mohsin MA, Umer M, Bilal A, Qadir MI, et al., Cioffi JM. 2026. [View]
  • Towards personalized management of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms with multimodal artificial intelligence. Qadir MI, Baril JA, Schonlau D, et al., Kolbinger FR. Journal of Clinical Oncology 43(16):e16461, 2025. ASCO Annual Meeting. [View]

News

Recent highlights

  • Jul 2026

    Comment out in Nature Biomedical Engineering

    On the fragmentation of early-stage medical device study requirements across the EU, and what reform would look like. Paper | Read more

  • Jul 2026

    Awarded Trainee Pilot Grant by IUSCCC

    To radiologist-AI collaboration for clinical management of IPMN patients. Read more

  • Jun 2026

    CBM Professional Development Award by Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

    To attend and present work at MICCAI 2026 happening in Strasbourg, France.

  • Mar 2026

    Two abstracts presented at AHPBA Annual Meeting 2026

    Multimodal prediction of textbook outcome after distal pancreatectomy and after pancreatoduodenectomy.

  • Dec 2025

    Abstract presented at RSNA Annual Meeting 2025

    Field strength-dependent performance variability in deep learning-based analysis of magnetic resonance imaging.

  • Jun 2025

    Awarded the Leslie Bottorff Fellowship for Clinical Immersion

    To pursue clinical immersion at IU Health University Hospital, with a focus on Diagnostic & Interventional Radiology and Surgical Oncology. Read more

  • Aug 2023

    AquaDrone won best project awards at COMPPEC 2023 and SEECS Open House 2023

    AquaDrone for Water Quality Assessment Read more

Awards & honours

  • IUSCCC Trainee Pilot Grant, IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, 2026
  • CBM Professional Development Award, Weldon School, Purdue University, 2026
  • Honourable Mention Award, IUSCCC Cancer Research Day, 2026
  • Travel Award for RSNA 2025, Purdue University Graduate Student Government, 2025
  • Leslie Bottorff Fellowship, Purdue University, 2025
  • Best Poster Presentation Award, IUSCCC Cancer Research Day, 2025
  • Prototype Development Grant, FICS, 2023

Contact

Get in touch

I am always open to discussing new research collaborations and opportunities.

Muhammad Ibtsaam Qadir
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN, United States

mqadir@purdue.edu

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