Our Team
Sherif Abdelwahed, PhD
Dr. Sherif Abdelwahed is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University where he teaches and conducts research in computer engineering, with specific interests in autonomic computing, cyber-physical systems, formal verification, and cyber-security. Before joining VCU in August 2017, he served as the associate director of the Distributed Analytics and Security Institute at Mississippi State University.
Before joining Mississippi State University, Dr. Abdelwahed was a research assistant professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and senior research scientist at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University, from 2001-2007. Dr. Abdelwahed attracted research funding from industry and government agencies throughout his academic tenure, including NSF, NASA, Boeing, ONR, PNNL, ERDC DARPA, Microsoft, and Qatar Foundation, with more than 12 million dollars awarded covering 20 significant projects. He also established the first NSF I/UCRC center at Mississippi State University, the Center for Autonomic Computing.
PhD Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto
Patrick Martin, PhD
Dr. Patrick Martin is an Assistant Professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research develops the mathematical principles, algorithms, and computational architectures that enable the safe, reliable deployment of distributed, autonomous cyber-physical systems (CPS).
Dr. Martin is particularly interested in researching solutions that enable humans and autonomous CPS to collaborate in complex missions. His research applications span intelligent transportation, disaster response, and performing arts. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and member of the IEEE Robot Task Representation standard working group. As part of the VCU OpenCyberCity research team, Dr. Martin leads the design, research, and development of the Intelligent Transportation System. Additionally, Dr. Martin leads the design and development of OpenCyberCity’s distributed communication architecture and experiment orchestration platform.
BS Physics and Applied Mathematics, Hampden-Sydney College
MS Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland College Park
PhD Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Maher Al Islam
Maher Al Islam completed his undergraduate studies in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. His prime research interests lie in cyber security, machine learning and control systems. Currently, he is working on a smart water distribution system. He has previously worked with Dr. Carol Fung in game theory implementation for DDoS mitigation. He has good hands-on experience with Matlab, Python and Wireshark.
PhD Student Electrical & Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
BS Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka
Lauren Linkous
Lauren Linkous has extensive experience with programming, data processing, and 3D modeling and printing. She began working with Cyber Physical Systems in undergrad with small, ambulatory robots and 3D printed prosthetics. Her graduate studies incorporate using the Internet of Things, machine learning, and processing sensor data in both the Medical Device Security and OpenCyberCity testbeds. Lauren builds her own data collection/monitoring systems from open-source hardware and custom software. Her current work involves digital simulation of physical environments for validating closed loop control systems.
BS Electrical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
BS Physics, Virginia Commonwealth University
Mostafa Zaman
Mostafa Zaman's graduate work has focused mainly on incorporating a machine learning method to deal with uncertainty in various areas of a smart city. He has also aided in teaching undergraduate and graduate students in his graduate studies, such as digital logic design, industrial automation, C and C++ programming, digital systems, introduction to the cyber-physical system, etc. His principal research focuses on building an uncertainty-aware decision support system in different aspects of smart cities and analyzing analytical data applications using python. He also focused on constructing Smart Building and Smart Water distribution systems on the OpenCyberCity testbed and performing data analytics.
PhD Student, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
BS Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology
Nathan Puryear
Nathan Puryear is a PhD student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at VCU, and his research focuses on cyber physical system modeling and control. He received his BS in Computer Engineering from VCU in 2019, and has worked as a research assistant at the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM) in addition to VCU.
Nathan is responsible for the development and implementation of the data collection and processing pipeline for the OpenCyberCity project, including the deployment of physical nodes and sensors, as well as on-premise and cloud services. For the OpenCyberCity VirtualLab project, Nathan is responsible for the metamodel development and orchestration implementation, including integration with the existing OpenCyberCity architecture.
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
VIP Undergraduate Students
David Wells
David Wells is a 4th year Computer Engineering Student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joining the team in the Fall of 2022, he has previous experience with various different programming languages, web-based design, as well as hardware design.
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program here at VCU grants undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in research projects under faculty and graduate students in order to gain more experience while earning technical or free elective credits.
William Simms
William Simms is a 4th year Computer Engineering Senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joining the team in Fall of 2022, he has had previous experience with application development as an intern at Automatic Data Processing (ADP).
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
Ahmed Malik
Ahmed Malik is a 2nd year Computer Engineering student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Ahmed is a hardworking and dedicated individual who is always striving for excellence in his academic pursuits. He is known for his strong analytical and problem-solving skills, which have helped him excel in his coursework and projects. He joined the team right when it started, and has been a valuable member since.
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
Max Hofmeyer
Max Hofmeyer is a 2nd year Computer Engineering student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joining the team in Fall of 2022, he came in with a background in cloud architecture and web development.
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
Akshita Ramesh
Akshita Ramesh is a 1st year Computer Engineering Student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joining the team in Fall of 2022, she comes in with a background in robotics as well as previous experience with various programming languages, computer networking, and web development.
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jacob Alachnowicz
Jacob Alachnowicz is a 1st year Electrical Engineering student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He joined the team in the Spring of 2023, and has experience with Computer-Aided Design and multiple programming languages.
BS Electrical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
Zaid Ahmad
Zaid Ahmed is a 1st year Computer Engineering student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joining the team in Spring 2023, he brings an eager to learn attitude to the team.
BS Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University