Being an analytical thinker paved the way for Dr Yaseen Khan to embark in his academic studies in the field of statistics, mathematics, leading him to the fascinating world of data science.
The focused, logical thinker graduated with his Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology from the Durban University of Technology (DUT) during the 2025 Autumn Graduation Ceremony, held on Saturday, 24 May 2025 at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban.
The Durban born Dr Khan had completed most of his schooling career in Estcourt and the Midlands area. After completing his high school he made the decision to move to Durban to concentrate on his tertiary studies, obtaining his Honours and BSc degrees in statistics, applied mathematics, leading to his doctoral degree at DUT.
“I am so excited to obtain my PhD and with an esteemed supervisor like Professor Surendra Thakur (Colin), the assistance of DUT and other academics, if it were not for them in terms of good mentorship, assistance and dedication, I would not have qualified,” he expressed.
Currently, Dr Khan is a researcher at the DUT Short Course Unit at DUT as well as works with ad hoc data science projects with external stakeholders. He has also expressed that he is applying for postdoctoral positions and he hopes to be successful in this arena.
Dr Khan, also known as the #FeesMustFall researcher, previously received Cum Laude and obtained the esteemed Dean’s Merit award when he graduated for his Master’s Degree in Information Communication Technology (MICT) from DUT in June 2020.
When speaking of his PhD journey, Dr Khan indicated that initially he had experienced some challenges whilst he was in the midst of his doctorate as he had registered for his academic study in the heart of COVID-19.
“There were some logistical challenges and administrative challenges until it got resolved. Then it was Twitter before it became X, I managed to get the data which I needed but it proved to be tricky because of the rebranding. Ultimately, it was just a matter of completing my PhD. I had to try and handle it with my responsibilities at home, proving that this journey was indeed a rollercoaster ride, but thankfully it has paid off,” he expressed.
In terms of his choice of topic for his dissertation, Dr Khan emphasised that in his master’s degree he had embarked on the Fees Must Fall campaign on Twitter data, so it was a natural decision for him to further continue on this topic, leading to his PhD.
“Dr Khan indicated that he wanted to go more in depth into his PhD study because machine learning, a field within artificial intelligence (AI), is also the heart of it. He further shared that he wanted to do something with data science and Prof Thakur had urged him to continue with this study, which he did.
“Although the PhD study was localised on COVID-19, misinformation is broad, so the study can be expanded to other points,” he explained.
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) speedily becoming immersed into the new way of working, looking ahead in terms of his research, Dr Khan shared that he is looking to incorporate that into his study, for example, he will look at either focusing on the elections, study the discourse on social media or on politics, or whatever the industry requires of him.
“I’m looking to work with different stakeholders to effectively build my IT knowledge, which changes rapidly. “If you are going to stick with just what you know you are going to be left behind,” he emphasised.
Dr Yaseen Khan’s title of PHD thesis is: A Data Science Analysis of the South African COVID-19 Infodemic on Twitter.
“The COVID-19 pandemic triggered not only a health crisis but also an ‘infodemic phenomenon’-which is an overwhelming spread of both accurate and false information. In South Africa, Twitter emerged as a key platform for sharing pandemic-related news and opinions, while also becoming fertile ground for misinformation and disinformation,” said Dr Khan.
His PhD study adopted a comprehensive data science approach to analysing the South African COVID-19 infodemic on Twitter employing machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP) and change point analysis (CPA) to achieve three primary goals: detecting Fake News, tracking sentiment shifts and identifying social bots. “This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of online misinformation spreads and provides practical tools to support policymakers, researchers and digital platforms in addressing infodemics. It represents a significant step forward in leveraging African-developed computational approaches to respond to region-specific challenges and in promoting more informed public discourse,” he explained.
Supervisor, Professor Surendra (Colin) Thakur expressed his immense, heartfelt congratulations to Dr Khan for his ‘grit’ he had put into his academic studies.
He further gave some context into Dr Khan’s thesis, saying: “The always-on, pervasive online world that we live in demands that we mitigate where information is spread or goes viral that is compromised, may be deemed as misinformation. On the other hand we also want to promote information that is humanising, and that is positive.” He further indicated that the challenge is discerning between falsehood and truthfulness.
“This is an algorithm approach to try to understand and distinguish between these two, vast different entities of knowledge,” he shared.
The exhilarating ceremony concluded with graduates of DUT, acknowledging their new responsibility of now carrying forward the lessons they have learned and how to apply them meaningfully and impactfully in the world.
Pictured: Professor Surendra Thakur and Dr Yaseen Khan.
Waheeda Peters
