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Hi! I’m Murad, a Roboticist, Educator, and Graduate Researcher

I am pursuing a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering and Data Science at the University of Washington, Seattle (August 2023 – Present). I also hold another Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona (August 2021 – August 2023), where I conducted research under the guidance of Dr. Salim Hariri and Dr. Pratik Satam on Secure Navigation and Perception of Autonomous Vehicles.

My research is centered in the field of robotics, where I aim to enhance robot navigation and perception using an anomaly behavior modeling approach. I employ machine learning and mathematical modeling techniques to characterize the normal behavior of robotic systems and identify deviations from this norm. These deviations allow me to detect anomalies and cyber-attacks against the system. My work bridges theoretical development and real-world applications, addressing areas like self-driving cars, quadruped robots, and quadcopters.

In addition, I explore alternative ways of autonomous navigation for mobile robots to minimize reliance on localization sensors. In my most recent project, I utilized reinforcement learning to train a quadruped robot to avoid obstacles and navigate indoors without using sensors. Check this video on YouTube!

I am passionate about teaching and continue to refine my skills as an educator through my roles as a Lead Instructor at BlueStamp Engineering, multiple Graduate Teaching Assistantships, and as a Mentor for the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Partnership for Proactive Cybersecurity Training (PACT) programs.

I have been extremely motivated by companion robots like Aibo and Pleo since my early childhood, which inspired me to develop a companion robot for myself, Leo!

My technical skill set includes Python, C++, microcontrollers (Arduino and compatible platforms), microprocessors (Raspberry Pi, Jetson), 3D modeling, precision soldering, and electro-mechanical hardware/ software integration.

This website contains my academic projects, hobby projects, and research progress. I am using this website as a repository of my learning process and an open-source platform to share the details of my projects.

Research |

Conference Papers

* mark denotes Joint First Authors/ Equal Contributions

An Open-source Sim2Real Approach for Sensor-independent Robot Navigation in a Grid

Murad Mehrab Abrar*, Souryadeep Mondal*, and Michelle Hickner

IEEE Int’l Conference on Robotics and Automation Engineering (ICRAE 2024), To appear

InsightPulse: An IoT-based System for User Experience Interview Analysis

Murad Mehrab Abrar*, Dian Lyu*, Yuetong Lu*, Jassie He*, Ruijun Xie, and John Raiti

IEEE Int’l Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (CIC 2024), To appear

Threshold-based Automated Pest Detection System for Sustainable Agriculture

Tianle Li*, Jia Shu*, Qinghong Chen*, Murad Mehrab Abrar, and John Raiti

IEEE Int'l Conference on Internet of Things and Intelligence System (IoTaIS 2024), To appear

An Anomaly Behavior Analysis Framework for Securing Autonomous Vehicle Perception

Murad Mehrab Abrar and Salim Hariri

20th IEEE/ ACS Int’l Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA 2023)

Quantized Transformer Language Model Implementations on Edge Devices

Md Wali Ur Rahman, Murad Mehrab Abrar, Hunter G. Copening, Salim Hariri, Sicong Shao, Pratik Satam, and Soheil Salehi

22nd IEEE Int’l Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2023)

An Autonomous Delivery Robot to Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus in Product Delivery System

Murad Mehrab Abrar, Raian Islam, and Md Abid Hasan Shanto

11th IEEE Int'l Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics, & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON 2020)

Design and Development of a Biologically Inspired Robotic Cat for Research and Education

Murad Mehrab Abrar, Raian Islam, and Md Abid Hasan Shanto

30th IEEE Int’l Conference on Computer Theory and Applications (ICCTA 2020)

Comparative Analysis of a Bifacial and a Polycrystalline Solar Cell Device Performances by Optimizing Effective Parameters Using PC1D

Raian Islam, Murad Mehrab Abrar

8th IEEE Int’l Conference on Smart Grid and Clean Energy (ICSGCE 2020)

Effect of Channel Length and Dielectric Constant on Carbon Nanotube FET to Evaluate the Device Performance

Md Abid Hasan Shanto, Naimur Rahman, Raian Islam, MI Chowdhury, Murad Mehrab Abrar, Safayat Al-Imam

4th IEEE Int'l Conference on Electronics, Materials Engineering and Nano-Tech. (IEMENTech 2020)

Layer Thickness Effect on Power Conversion Efficiency of a P3HT:PCBM-based Organic Solar Cell

Raian Islam, Murad Mehrab Abrar, Farhatul Hassan, Sifat Adnan

1st IEEE Int'l Conference on Advances in Science, Engineering and Robotics Tech. (ICASERT 2019)

Journal Article

GPS-IDS: An Anomaly-based GPS Spoofing Attack Detection Framework for Autonomous Vehicles

Murad Mehrab Abrar, Amal Yousseef, Raian Islam, Shalaka Satam, Banafsheh Saber Latibari, Salim Hariri, Sicong Shao, Soheil Salehi, and Pratik Satam

IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Under Review

News

Paper accepted at IEEE AICCSA 2023

Figure: Experimental setup of a laser pointer attack on the depth camera of QCar autonomous vehicle testbed

My paper titled “An Anomaly Behavior Analysis Framework for Securing Autonomous Vehicle Perception” has been accepted at the ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (IEEE AICCSA 2023). This work was funded by NSF. I am the lead author of this paper and my research was supervised by Dr. Salim Hariri. 

In this paper, I have developed a software algorithm based on Anomaly Behavior Analysis to detect perception sensor anomalies and cyber-attacks in autonomous vehicles. The performances of the framework were evaluated on real-world datasets collected from a laser attack experiment on the QCar autonomous vehicle testbed. 

Paper accepted at IEEE ICMLA 2023

Figure: Quantized Transformer Language Model Framework

Our paper titled “Quantized Transformer Language Model Implementations on Edge Devices” has been accepted at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (IEEE ICMLA 2023). This paper provided a comparative performance and resource usage analysis of BERT Large and its lightweight variant, MobileBERT on resource-constrained devices, like Raspberry Pi.

I co-authored this paper where I worked on the current sensing hardware and software to accurately estimate the power consumption and performance estimation by various Raspberry Pi devices.

Presented Research Poster at NSF Center of Cloud and Autonomic Computing's (NSF-CAC) Semi-Annual Meeting at The University of North Texas, November 2022

Got featured in the University of Arizona Department of ECE's display TV!

I worked as a Mentor for the Proactive Cybersecurity Training (PACT), and Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs at the University of Arizona, in Summer of 2022 and 2023. Here, I introduce undergraduates, minorities, and female students to my research area (Autonomous Systems and Cybersecurity) and help them in reading research papers and initiating projects. My mentorship work during Summer 2022 was featured in my department’s display TV! 

Received Graduate Research Assistantship at the University of Arizona (2021 - 2023)

Presented Research Paper at ICCTA 2020

Received Best Presenter Award at IEEE UEMCON 2020

Previous Works