Dr Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki

Associate Professor in Artificial Intelligence

Digital, Tech, Innovation & Business

Dr Benhur is an Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence at University of Staffordshire. He joined the University in 2003 as a student, completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees before obtaining his PhD in Computing Science in 2019, specialising in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. His doctoral research developed an AI-enabled framework for the prediction of critical health conditions within the context of Ambient Assisted Living, contributing to intelligent healthcare monitoring and early intervention systems.

His research focuses on machine learning techniques and their application across different sectors, with a particular emphasis on healthcare. He has been involved in several Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects, supporting businesses in integrating and implementing AI solutions. He has also contributed to regional innovation initiatives, including Staffordshire Digital Innovation Partnerships (SDIPs), the Staffordshire Connected & Intelligent Mobility Innovation Accelerator (SCIMIA), and the Advanced Digital Technology Innovation Accelerator (ADTIA), working closely with SMEs to develop intelligent, data-driven solutions.

Dr Benhur is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and has extensive experience in the design, development, and delivery of modules in Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has also served as Course Leader for BSc Artificial Intelligence, leading curriculum development and academic delivery within the programme, and currently acts as Course Manager for the EFREI programme, supporting and facilitating students from our partner institution during their studies at University of Staffordshire .

Since 2021, he has served as Programme Advisor for the Microsoft Learn for Educators Institutional Programme, supporting students and staff in achieving industry-recognised Microsoft Azure certifications.

He has published in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, contributing to research that bridges academic innovation with real-world application. He also has extensive experience supervising PhD projects in Artificial Intelligence and currently welcomes proposals from prospective doctoral candidates in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Computer Vision.

Professional memberships and activities

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SHEA)
Professional Member of British Computing Society (MBC)
Program advisor for Microsoft Learn for Educators Institutional Programme (MLEP)

Academic qualifications

PhD in Computing Science, Staffordshire University
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher and Professional Education, Staffordshire University.
MSc in Computer Science, Staffordshire University
BSc (Hons) in Computing Science, Staffordshire University

Expertise

Artificial Intelligence
Applied machine learning
Programming AI algorithm
Pattern recognition
Data Analytics
Ambient Assisted
Microsoft Azure AI and Data Analytics
Microsoft Power BI

Research interests

Artificial Intelligence
Applied machine learning
Pattern recognition
Smart systems
Data analytics, data mining

Enterprise and commercial interests

Benhur has worked extensively on several projects, researching and developing domain specific solutions. To name few:

Successfully implemented a new Data Capture and Modelling tool within the host business, enabling a solid foundation for the future use of Artificial Intelligence modelling in marketing campaigns.
Developed a solution integrating smart sensors into sporting headgear that can transmit and analyse the impact data to monitor health status of the players.
A Data Analytic solution for modelling demand patterns on health & social care systems based on cohorts of patient/service user groups.

He also has industrial experience as a software developer for the insurance software Warehouse.

Teaching

Machine Learning
Data Analytics Tools and Techniques
Enterprise Big Data Analytics
Software Development with Python
Decision Management
Robot Ethics in an AI world
Engineering Enterprise Application

Publications

Fieldhouse, S., Bastaki, B. B., Ledgerton, A., Clarke, P., & Lewis, T. (2025). Assessing the effectiveness of hospital cleaning using fluorescence: a proof-of-concept study and comparison with ATP testing. Journal of Hospital Infection, 166, 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.08.008

Lutta, P., Sedky, M., Hassan, M., Bastaki, B., & Aly, A. (2024). Towards a Practical IoT Forensic Process through a Simulated Smart Home Environment. Retrieved https://ssrn.com/abstract=4699694 (Preprint)

Bastaki, B. B., Sedky, M., Campion, R. C., & Atkins, A. (2023). Application of Artificial Intelligence in Ambient Assisted Living to Support Elderly People in Smart Homes (pp. 145–163). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26685-0_7

Bamaqa, A., Sedky, M., Bosakowski, T., Bakhtiari Bastaki, B. and Alshammari, N.O. (2022) 'SIMCD: SIMulated crowd data for anomaly detection and prediction', Journal of Expert Systems with Applications, 203, pp. 117475. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2022.117475

Bamaqa, Amna, Sedky, Mohamed and Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki (2022) ‘Reactive and Proactive Anomaly Detection in Crowd Management Using Hierarchical Temporal Memory’. International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing (IJMLC), 12 (1). pp. 7-16. ISSN 2010-3700

Lutta, P., Sedky, M., Hassan, M., Jayawickrama, U. and Bakhtiari Bastaki, B. (2021) 'The complexity of internet of things forensics: A state-of-the-art review', Journal of Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, 38, pp. 301210. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsidi.2021.301210

Hamid Reza Reza Sadeghi, Saeed Shiry Shiry Ghidary, and Benhur Bakhtiari Bakhtiari Bastaki,’A Method for Improving Unsupervised Intent Detection using BI-LSTM CNN Cross Attention Mechanism’ in Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Advances in Artificial Intelligence, 2020.

Afaf Almehmadi, Tomasz Bosakowski, Mohamed Sedky, and Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki ‘HTM Based Anomaly Detecting Model for Traffic Congestion’ in Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Cloud and Big Data Computing, 2020.

Amna Bamaqa, Mohamed Sedky, Tomasz Bosakowski, and Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki, ‘Anomaly Detection Using Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) in Crowd Management’ in Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Cloud and Big Data Computing, 2020.

Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki and Tomasz Bosakowski and Elhadj Benkhelifa, ‘Intelligent Assisted Living Framework for Monitoring Elders’ in Proceedings of 14th International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications, 2017.

External profiles

ORCID