ABUBAKAR ABID

Electrical Engineering PhD Candidate (770)-658-0700 a12d@stanford.edu linkedin.com/in/abid15

EDUCATION

Stanford University Palo Alto, CA

PhD in Electrical Engineering (research area: Machine Learning) Current
GRE Verbal: 170 / 170, Quantitative: 170 / 170
Awards: PD Soros Fellowship (2016), Stanford Graduate Fellowship (2016)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA

B. S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (GPA: 4.9/5.0) Summer 2016
M. Eng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (GPA: 5.0/5.0) Summer 2015
Awards: Draper Fellowship (2015), Eloranta Fellowship (2015), Tau Beta Pi Service (2014)
Provisional Patent: Tracheostomy Tube Monitoring Device (2015)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
PhD Student, Ada Poon, Stanford University Current
Project: Machine Learning on Datasets with Unordered (Permuted) Labels
Proposed a novel algorithm to efficiently perform least-squares regression with permuted labels
Proved that the algorithm converges to the true solution even in the presence of Gaussian noise
Demonstrated the algorithm on real-world examples from medical and genomic datasets.

PhD Student, James Zou, Stanford University Fall 2016

Project: Deep Convolutional Networks for Autism Diagnosis
Investigated whether deep learning could be used to diagnose autism based on fMRI scans
Built a 3D convolutional neural network in tensorflow, pretrained it using unsupervised
autoencoders, and then tested it on preprocessed fMRI images from the ABIDE dataset
Trained network showed ability to predict patient age and gender, but yielded lower accuracies
(~60%) than traditional machine learning techniques based on hand-engineered features
PhD Student, Independent Project, Stanford University
Fall 2016
Project: Machine Learning and Computer Vision for Extracting Data from Graphs
Used tesseract optical character recognition (OCR) library, along with clustering algorithms and
convolutional networks to extract (x,y) data from images of line graphs
Built a django web application to demonstrate the technology, available at: www.a12d.com/siphon

Research Engineer, Supply Inc, Menlo Park, CA

Summer 2015
Project: Design Optimal Phased Array System for Wireless Charging
Wrote software to run on distributed microcontrollers for a wireless charging system.
Conducted numerical simulations in MATLAB to design optimal phased array antenna system.
Other contributions included code for power management, signal tracking, and communication
protocols, which were written in C and assembly for tight speed constraints.

Researcher, George Verghese, MIT

2014 - 2015
Project: Using a Mechanistic Model to Estimate Lung Parameters from Capnography
Derived and tested an analytic, lumped-parameter model for respiration and lung behavior based on
noninvasive patient capnogram data and numerical analysis.
Provided a new assessment for asthma patients that is cheaper and easier to use than conventional
pulmonary tests. Results published in the 2015 IEEE EMBS Conference,

PUBLICATIONS

1. Abid, A.; Mieloszyk, R.J.; Verghese, G.C.; Krauss, B.S.; Heldt, T., Model-based estimation of pulmonary
compliance and resistance parameters from time-based capnography, in Engineering in Medicine and

Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE , vol., no., pp.1687-90,
25-29 Aug. 2015
 2. Abid, A.; Dighe, A.; Voldman, J. Chronic Neural Probes for Brain-Computer Interfaces, MIT EECScon
Undergraduate Research Conference, April 2014. [2nd place award]
3. Ghasemi, F; Eftekhar, A.; Abid, A.; Gottfried, D; Song, X.; Cummings, R.; Adibi, A. Toxin Detection Using
Nanofabricated Silicon Nitride Microrings at Visible Wavelength, 10th annual GT^2 symposium at Georgia
Tech, March 2013. [3rd place award]

FURTHER LEADERSHIP

Teaching Assistant, MIT 2014 - 2015

Taught two intermediate electrical engineering courses at MIT: 6.011 (Statistical Signal Processing)
and 6.021 (Cellular Biophysics)
Responsibilities included supervising laboratory sessions, conducting tutorials, grading, generating
test problems, and holding office hours.
Received very positive evaluations from students: 6.7/7.0 and 6.8/7.0
President of Biomedical Engineering Society, MIT 2014 - 2015
Increased presence of biomedical engineering on campus by organizing industry tours, publishing
guides with opportunities for students, arranging travel to conferences, and incorporating feedback
from students into club goals.
Co-founder and Product Developer, AOASoft, Boston, MA 2013 - 2014
Developed the full stack for a web donation platform and iOS-based kiosks to help more than 20
nonprofit organizations raise and manage electronic donations.
Oversaw iOS and Android developers in the creation of a mobile app to allow more than one
thousand donors to donate and receive updates through push notifications on their phones.
Mentor, Boston Mentorship Program, MIT 2012 - 2014
Co-founded a mentorship program at MIT focused on helping immigrant high-school students in
Boston through the college application process.
Over 3 years, our team mentored 150 students from 38 high schools with test prep, extracurricular
activities, and letters of recommendation.

SKILLS
Programming languages: Java, Python, Perl, C++, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Django, node.js
Machine learning and simulation: Tensorflow, Tesseract OCR, MATLAB, Mathematica
Fabrication: Altium PCB Designer, Eagle, 3D printing, Laser-cutting
Analytical background: 4-time USA Math Olympiad Qualifier, 2-time USA Physics Olympiad semifinalist
Languages: Urdu/Hindi (native), Arabic (2 yrs.)