Dr. Raja Majid Mehmood and Team Publish in IEEE ACCESS

The Research and Postgraduate Centre congratulates Dr. Saif Kifah and Dr. Raja Majid Mehmood (corresponding author) from the School of Computing and Data Science on their research published in IEEE ACCESS, a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal covering all IEEE fields of interest.

Entitled “Improving the Classification Performance of Asphalt Cracks after Earthquake with a New Feature Selection Algorithm”, the research comes at a time when large-scale earthquakes pose significant risks to infrastructure, including highways crucial for post-disaster relief efforts. Following the devastating earthquakes in Turkey on 6 February 2023, Dr. Raja conducted rigorous field studies in severely affected provinces. His team collected images detailing the condition of asphalt cracks on highways, crucial for determining urgent maintenance needs. Through meticulous labeling and dataset creation, images were categorized as requiring immediate attention (Major) or not (Minor).

To optimize classification accuracy, the researchers employed advanced techniques beyond traditional softmax algorithms. Notably, Dr. Raja introduced the Combined Metaheuristic Optimization-Relieff (CMO-R) algorithm, designed to elevate classification performance to unprecedented levels. Extensive experiments using popular pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models showcased remarkable results. The VGG16 model, in particular, achieved an impressive accuracy of 80.32%, demonstrating robust performance without succumbing to overfitting.