Hi all, I am Muhammad, an experienced software engineer, data scientist, and product manager. I am currently pursing my Master of Science at Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University studying Public Policy, Management, and Data Analytics as a Cognizant Trust and Safety Scholar.

I have an interdisciplinary background both in technology and in policy. I have professionally been in the public interest technology/civic technology space, but I started my career as a DevOps Software Engineer at L3Harris in Texas. I worked on the NCCT program.

My research interests are in intelligent systems and cognitive robotics, and the use of robotics for industrial applications. I am especially interested in problems pertaining to autonomous vehicles, computer vision, routing and simulation, graph theory, network algorithms, game theory, and broader artificial intelligence, machine learning, and optimization approaches to their development.

Here is my CV.

Interests

• Cognitive robotics, intelligent systems, controls and dynamics, learning from the natural world
• Urban planning, sustainability, smart/connected cities, pedestrian friendly design, robust transportation networks
• Human centric design, computational social science, mechanism design
• Public interest technology/civic technology
• Digital governance and privacy, tech policy
• Diversity and inclusion efforts in STEM for those coming from marginalized, low-income, and first-generation families

Current

• I am currently working in Dr Sebastian Scherer’s AirLab group at the Robotics Institute. I am investigating the feasibility of drones for active thermographic inspection of aviation assets.

Past

• 2023 Emerging Technologies at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation, Research and Collaboration, Strategic Initiatives unit on Smart Cities and IoT program management.
• 2023 Product Manager Fellow at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity where I built MyFile NYC with New America Foundation’s Digital Impact and Governance Initiative.
• 2023 Project Manager for Students Using Data for Social Good club with CampaignZero.
• 2020 – 2022 DevOps Software Engineer and Scrum Master at L3Harris.
• 2020 Data Science Civic Digital Fellowship at the US Census Bureau’s Center for Behavioral Science Methods.
• 2019 Proactive Health Informatics (ProHealth) Research Experience for Undergrads (REU) where I worked on Human-Computer Interaction problems, namely with Dr Donald Williamson in his research of signal and speech processing studying the loss of hearing using machine learning.
• 2018 Automation Software Development at Ann Inc. where I used Selenium and TestNG to identify and address bugs for their mobile and desktop websites.

Other Stuff I Have Worked On

• My alma mater hosts an entirely student run hackathon each year, Lehman Hacks. In 2019 we brought in over 250 students from the NYC metro area. I gave an Intro to Data Science workshop with a colleague where I wrote and used this Kaggle notebook as a guide for teaching.

Social Media Presence

• In 2023 I was nominated by my director and career services advisor to speak about my internship experience at the [NYC Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation].
• In 2019 I participated in CUNY Tech Prep, which teaches students Full Stack Development (now expanded to include Data Science) in a bootcamp manner for free. I would not have gotten my first job without this! I appeared in a LinkedIn and Instagram post.

Endnotes

I completed my undergrad from the City University of New York Lehman College at the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. I was advised by Dr Liang Zhao and Dr Megan Owen.

I am a proud native New Yorker. I am a proponent of diversity and inclusion efforts, especially for those coming from marginalized, low-income communities, and first-generation families. I attended an Early College Initiative High School in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the country. Hostos-Lincoln Academy of Science prepares students for college by dual enrolling students at nearby Hostos Community College where students receive an Associates of Liberal Arts and Science in Liberal Arts within the normal 4 years of high school. With this, I was able to transfer to Lehman College and complete dual Bachelors in 3 years as I fulfilled the general education requirements. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I have received and goes to show communities can thrive if the resources are poured in.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. If there is someone you want to be introduced to, I am happy to assist.