Ahmed Abdo
Riverside,California
Summary
I have a background in secure automated and autonomous systems using sensor fusion and machine learning. I offer a combination of unique skills and competencies which I have developed through a lengthy and rewarding career. I have honed different hardware and software development skills while being proficient in critical thinking. In previous roles, I have contributed to organizational improvements, collaborative team efforts and attainment of key business targets.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Staff
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11.2022 - Current
- Conduct advanced research in cybersecurity in the space systems to develop innovative solutions that address critical challenges.
- Design, prototype, and evaluate new technologies, tools, or methodologies that align with JHU APL's mission and strategic goals.
- Stay at the forefront of technological advancements by continuously exploring and integrating emerging trends and technologies.
Part Time Lecturer
Southern Institute of Technology
04.2024 - 07.2024
- Teach a comprehensive course on Network Security and Defense to undergraduate students.
- Develop and structure course materials to align with current industry standards and best practices.
- Create assignments, exams, and projects to assess students' understanding of key concepts.
- Foster a dynamic and interactive classroom environment to encourage student participation.
- Provide guidance and support to students to help them understand complex security concepts.
Research Assistant
University of California
09.2016 - 10.2022
- Worked on modelling and simulation different V2X schemes.
- Designed secure automated and autonomous systems based on machine and deep learning.
- Designed ROS nodes to perform physical attacks mitigation by communicating with other nodes by sending or receiving messages including sensor data.
- Reviewed different literature in cyber physical systems security and IoT.
- Collected, and arranged research data to create representative graphs and charts highlighting results for presentations.
- Developed macros, special formulas and other actions to produce reliable and consistent statistical reviews.
- Planned, modified and executed research techniques, procedures and tests.
Graduate Research Assistant Intern
Los Alamos National Lab
01.2020 - 09.2020
- Worked on designing physical unclonable circuits (PUFs) using ZYNQ Xilinx FPGA.
- Developed standard and AXI IP cores for Network interface, Microcontroller interface, etc.
- Developed (PS) using either ZYNQ processor or Micro-Blaze soft processor.
- Developed data logging applications based on Ethernet and serial connections using VIVADO SDK.
- Developed secure communication servicers based om quantum and post quantum cryptographic applications.
Teacher Assistant
University of California
01.2018 - 03.2018
- Assessed student assignments to check quality and completeness before submission for grading
- Assisted and mentored students in groups of up to 4 by reviewing lesson teachings and experiments.
- Provided support to help students with special needs learn and grow
System Integrator and Control Systems Engineer
Dynalectric
10.2011 - 09.2016
- Responsible for electrical design, instrumentation and equipment specification, start-up and technical support of PLC based hardware and software systems.
- Managed instrumentation and related design components through innovative drafting and planning.
- Designed and tuning PID controller.
- Worked with different types of sensors (Temperature, pressure, flow, etc.).
Education
Certificate - Advanced Cybersecurity Program
Stanford School of Engineering
Stanford, CA03.2023
Ph.D. - Electrical Engineering
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA09.2022
Master of Science - Electrical Engineering
California State University - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA07.2015
MBA - International Business Management
Coleman University
San Diego, CA09.2013
Skills
- Experience with Xilinx Zynq FPGA programming (VIVADO, VHDL, SDK)
- Experience with Microcontrollers programming (ATmega, Teensy 20, Arduino, etc)
- Experience with Siemens and Allen Bradley Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs)
- Working with different Industrial Networks protocols like (Ethernet/IP, Modbus TCP/IP, CANBus) for communications
- Programming Linux Kernel Modules for embedded systems devices
- Familiar with windows Kernel programming for (Memory, Timers, system thread and file handling)
- Familiar with hardware security modules (Arm Trust-Zone controller)
- Communications Simulations (Opnet , Omnet)
- Familiar with deep learning platforms such as TensorFlow, Keras and PyTorch
- Developing perception system using sensors such as GPS, Radar, LiDAR, Camera, etc
- Developing applications using image and computer vision libraries (OpenCV)
- Experience with deep reinforcement learning deployed on robotics platform
- Experience with robotic control algorithms such as Kalman filters and PID controllers
- Experience with Urban Mobility simulations (SUMO, Veins, VENTOS)
- Experience with autonomous vehicles simulations (CARLA, LGSVL)
- Utilizing ROS (Melodic/Kinetic) with robotic systems including nodes, messages,etc
- Utilizing robot simulation tools such as Gazebo
- Implementing secure systems using cryptographic algorithms (AES, Hashing, DES, elliptic curve)
- Design electrical and control circuits using PLC, HMI, smart relay, AC drives and soft starts
- Software & Programming: C/C, Python, MATLAB, SQL, VB script, XML
- Experiment development
- Project management
Accomplishments
- Abdo, A., Malek, S.M., X. Zhao, & Abu-Ghazaleh, N.B., "AVMon: Securing Autonomous Vehicles by Learning Control Invariants and Residual Prediction", Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (VehicleSec 2024), Co-located with NDSS Symposium 2024. (best paper award (ZOOX AutoDriving Security Award)).
- Abdo, A., Chen, H., X. Zhao, G. Wu, & Feng, Y., "Cybersecurity on Connected and Automated Transportation Systems: A Survey", IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, January 2023.
- A. Abdo, G. Wu, Q. Zhu, and N. Abu-Ghazaleh, "CVGuard: Mitigating Application Attacks on Connected Vehicles",IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022.
- Abdo, A., Malek, S.M., Qian, Z., Zhu, Q., Barth, M.J., & Abu-Ghazaleh, N.B. , "Application level attacks on Connected Vehicle Protocols", RAID, 2019.
- A. Abdo, G. Wu and N. Abu-Ghazaleh, "Secure Ramp Merging using Blockchain",IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2021.
- X. Zhao, A. Abdo, X. Liao, M. Barth and G. Wu, "Evaluating Cybersecurity Risks of Cooperative Ramp Merging in Mixed Traffic Environments",IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 2022.
- X. Liu, B. Luo, A. Abdo, N. Abu-Ghazaleh and Q. Zhu, "Securing Connected Vehicle Applications with an Efficient Dual Cyber- Physical Blockchain Framework", IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2021.
- Ahmed Abdo and Guoyuan Wu and Nael Abu-Ghazaleh (2024). VEhicular Secure Network Open Simulator (VESNOS): A Cyber-security oriented co-simulation platform for connected and automated driving, Proceedings of the 38th ACM SIGSIM Conference on Principles of Advanced Discrete Simulation.
Certification
- SIEMENS STEP 7 PLC & SCADA (2008).
- WonderWare applications server (2012).
- WonderWare system platform (2012).
- AutoCAD 2D (2014).
- Access 2010: Forms and Reports in Depth (2014).
- ASP.NET Essential Training (2015).
- Java Swing (GUI) (2015).
- Java Essential Training (2014).
Honors & Awards
- ZOOX AutoDriving Security Best Paper Award (2024). NDSS.
- CSULA Dean’s list (2014).
- CSULA Special Recognition in Graduate Studies award (2014).
- Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (2015).
- UCR Dean's Distinguished Fellowship Award (2016).
- UCR Recognized Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi (2021).
Research Interests
- Machine learning (esp reinforcement learning) for security and hardware
- Security of computer architecture and cyber-physical systems
- Trusted execution environments, side channels
Services
Reviewer/External Reviewer:
- IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2024.
- 2023 IEEE 26th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC).
- 2023 SAE International Journal of Connected and Automated Vehicles.
- IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2022.
- IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2021.
Timeline
Part Time Lecturer
Southern Institute of Technology
04.2024 - 07.2024
Senior Staff
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11.2022 - Current
Graduate Research Assistant Intern
Los Alamos National Lab
01.2020 - 09.2020
Teacher Assistant
University of California
01.2018 - 03.2018
Research Assistant
University of California
09.2016 - 10.2022
System Integrator and Control Systems Engineer
Dynalectric
10.2011 - 09.2016
- SIEMENS STEP 7 PLC & SCADA (2008).
- WonderWare applications server (2012).
- WonderWare system platform (2012).
- AutoCAD 2D (2014).
- Access 2010: Forms and Reports in Depth (2014).
- ASP.NET Essential Training (2015).
- Java Swing (GUI) (2015).
- Java Essential Training (2014).
Certificate - Advanced Cybersecurity Program
Stanford School of Engineering
Ph.D. - Electrical Engineering
University of California, Riverside
Master of Science - Electrical Engineering
California State University - Los Angeles
MBA - International Business Management
Coleman University
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