Tasfia Nuzhat
Ph.D. Student, Industrial Engineering & Management Systems · University of Central Florida
📍 Orlando, FL
About
Research
I am a Ph.D. student in Industrial Engineering & Management Systems at the University of Central Florida, where I work in the Complex Adaptive Systems Lab under the supervision of Dr. Niloofar Yousefi. My research develops multi-objective optimization methods for generative diffusion models, with a broader interest in trustworthy and controllable generative AI.
I am also expanding my work into AI safety, reasoning, and alignment for tool-using LLM agents. As part of this effort, I collaborate on NEXUS, a runtime safety framework that monitors agent behavior and intervenes before potentially unsafe actions are executed. Before beginning my Ph.D., I spent two years as an AI engineer developing LLM-based retrieval, information-extraction, and scientific knowledge systems for pharmaceutical research.
- Multi-Objective Optimization & Generative Diffusion
Constrained molecule generation with motif-aware tokenization and role-aware corruption (MoCDiff, MotifRole-Diff). - AI Safety, Reasoning & Alignment
Collaborative work on runtime monitoring and intervention for tool-using LLM agents; safety under multi-agent composition (NEXUS, ChannelGuard, CAREBENCH). - Trustworthy & Biomedical AI
Temporal-conflict resolution in language models and biomedical document classification under limited data (Parametric Temporal Conflict, R-GAT).
Experience
Experience
UCF · Dept. of IEMSSpring & Fall 2026
Graduate Teaching Assistant · Orlando, FL
STA3032 Probability & Statistics · grading, office hours
UCF · Complex Adaptive Systems LabSummer 2026
Graduate Research Assistant · Orlando, FL
Generative diffusion & multi-objective optimization; AI safety, reasoning & alignment. Advisor: Dr. Niloofar Yousefi
Delineate Inc.Nov 2023 – Dec 2025
AI Engineer (Remote) · Boston, MA
LLM-powered retrieval & extraction over pharmaceutical literature; RAG
Universiti Tenaga NasionalDec 2024 – Dec 2025
Graduate Research Assistant · Malaysia
Predictive ML for material-property analysis & nanomaterials; led a Q1 journal review
Education
Education
University of Central FloridaJan 2026 – Present
Ph.D., Industrial Engineering & Management Systems · CGPA 4.00/4.00
Advisor: Dr. Niloofar Yousefi
Chittagong Independent UniversitySep 2017 – Sep 2021
B.Sc., Computer Science & Engineering · Chittagong, Bangladesh
Publications
Publications
Full list on Google Scholar.
First-Author
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MoCDiff: Efficient Motif-Constrained Discrete Diffusion for Molecule Generation
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MotifRole-Diff: Risk-Optimal Role-Aware Corruption for Masked Molecular Graph Diffusion
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A Review on Machine Learning in Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes from Wastewater: Current Trends and Future Directions
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A Multi-Scale Hyper Representation Network for Semantic Segmentation of Pulmonary Circulation Vessels in Pathology Assessment
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Artificial Magnetic Conductor Unit Cell Design Using Machine Learning Algorithms
Co-Authored
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NEXUS: Structured Runtime Safety for Tool-Using LLM Agents
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R-GAT: Cancer Document Classification Leveraging a Graph-Based Residual Network for Scenarios with Limited Data
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Microwave Imaging: CPW-Fed Microstrip Patch Antenna with Defected Ground Plane Operating in ISM Band for Breast Tumor Detection
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Right Knowledge, Wrong Answer: Characterizing Parametric Temporal Conflict in Open-Weight Language Models
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ChannelGuard: Safe Models Do Not Compose into Safe Multi-Agent Systems
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CAREBENCH: When Correct Diagnoses Come from Unsafe Reasoning
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PEFT A2Z: Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning Survey for Large Language and Vision Models
Capabilities
Skills
Generative & Deep Learning: diffusion models (discrete / graph) & multi-objective optimization, generative modeling for molecules, large language models, fine-tuning & PEFT (LoRA), RAG, GANs, graph neural networks, computer vision (segmentation, detection, image translation)
Trustworthy & Applied ML: uncertainty quantification, explainable AI, LLM evaluation & safety / alignment benchmarking, predictive modeling for clinical and materials-science data
Programming & Tools: Python, C/C++, JavaScript, SQL, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers, Git
News
Recent updates
Sep 2026
NEXUS (structured runtime safety for tool-using LLM agents) accepted to AACL-IJCNLP 2026.
Jul 2026
Submitted ChannelGuard to KDD 2027, plus three papers to AAAI 2027: MotifRole-Diff, CAREBENCH, and Parametric Temporal Conflict.
May 2026
First-author paper MoCDiff accepted as a poster at the ICML 2026 GenBio Workshop.
Jan 2026
Began my Ph.D. in IEMS at UCF's Complex Adaptive Systems Lab, advised by Dr. Niloofar Yousefi, and began teaching STA3032 as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.
Oct 2025
First-author review ML in Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes published in Journal of Water Process Engineering (Elsevier, Q1).
Service
Peer Review
- Reviewer, ICML 2026 Workshop on Generative & Agentic AI for Biology (GenBio)
- Reviewer, NeurIPS 2026 Women in Machine Learning Workshop