Master’s Thesis Defense of Bilal Yahya Ahmed

The Department of Biomedical Engineering / College of Engineering / Al-Nahrain University held the master’s thesis defense of the student Bilal Yahya Ahmed on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, for his thesis entitled:

“Unlocking New Potential of Artificial Intelligence for Early Detection of Parkinson’s Disease”

The examining committee consisted of:

• Prof. Ali Hussein Ali – Chair

• Asst. Prof. Hadeel Qasim Wadi – Member

• Lect. Dr. Basma Abdul Sahib Fayhan – Member

Thesis Supervision:

• Asst. Prof. Sadiq Jafar Abbas – College of Engineering / Al-Nahrain University

Scientific Evaluation:

• Prof. Wajdi Sadiq Aboud – College of Engineering / Al-Nahrain University

• Asst. Prof. Noor Kamal Mohsen – College of Al-Khwarizmi Engineering / University of Baghdad

Linguistic Evaluation:

• Lect. Dr. Mais Adi Abdul Rasool – College of Engineering / Al-Nahrain University

Objectives of the Study:
This research aims to assist physicians in the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease using artificial intelligence techniques, thereby improving the chances of early intervention and quality of healthcare.

Methodology:
The study systematically evaluated ten machine learning algorithms, testing the models under three different training–testing split scenarios, and applying cross-validation (CV) to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of the performance assessment.

Findings:
The results showed that the CatBoost algorithm achieved outstanding performance with:

• Accuracy: 94.6%

• Sensitivity: 95.7%

• Classification precision: 97.7%

• Area Under the Curve (AUC): 0.978 with a 70–30 data split.

Conclusion:
The study demonstrated the efficiency of artificial intelligence in early Parkinson’s detection, confirming its potential as a supportive tool for clinicians in real-world practice.

The thesis was approved as it fulfilled the requirements for the Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.