DrMuhammad Islam

Muhammad Islam, PhD, FHEA, is a Teaching Fellow (Academic Level B) in the School of Information Technology at Deakin University and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His academic work combines a strong commitment to teaching excellence, educational innovation and applied research in emerging computing technologies. His academic experience spans Deakin University, Swinburne University, Monash University and the University of Melbourne, with contributions across unit leadership, curriculum development, assessment design and collaborative academic practice. He also contributes to Deakin's international education partnerships, supporting the delivery of Information Technology programs with partner institutions in Sri Lanka and India.

At the core of Muhammad's teaching philosophy is a commitment to creating engaging, inclusive and practice-oriented learning environments that foster students' technical knowledge, critical thinking and professional capabilities. His teaching emphasises active learning, authentic and portfolio-based assessment, collaborative problem-solving and the responsible integration of Generative AI in education. Through his unit leadership responsibilities, he actively contributes to curriculum enhancement and continuous improvement in teaching and learning. As Unit Chair of Computer Systems (SIT111), he introduced targeted instructional videos and dedicated online guidance channels to clarify assessment expectations and strengthen student learning support. Developed through consultation with school leadership, these initiatives reflect his commitment to responsive, accessible and student-centred learning design. He also collaborates with academic colleagues and teaching teams to identify opportunities for curriculum and assessment improvement across Information Technology units.

Muhammad's commitment to teaching excellence has been recognised through the 2025 Deakin University Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment Teaching Excellence Award and his successful attainment of Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), meeting Descriptor 2 of the Professional Standards Framework. His teaching contributions have also received collegial recognition at Deakin, including acknowledgement for his contribution to a teaching team in 2023, while at Swinburne University he was nominated for recognition among educators achieving the highest student satisfaction ratings in 2022. Building on these experiences, his scholarship of teaching and learning focuses on authentic and GenAI-aware portfolio-based assessment, academic integrity and approaches that foster meaningful student engagement and practical competencies.

Alongside his educational contributions, Muhammad remains actively engaged in collaborative research spanning blockchain, privacy-preserving distributed systems, mobile collaborative computing, edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT). His current research explores cost-effective intelligent computing solutions for real-world applications, including smart waste management and early hazard detection using multimodal sensing and edge-IoT technologies. His scholarly contributions include publications in international journals such as Information Sciences and the IEEE Internet of Things Journal, alongside editorial and peer-review activities, including his role as a Review Editor with Frontiers in Blockchain. He also contributes to student research supervision and collaborative research initiatives. Muhammad welcomes opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaboration with academic and industry partners, particularly in emerging computing technologies and their practical applications.