CTO at Privii M.S. Computer Engineering · CSUN ’26

Sara Aly

Engineering intelligent systems that connect hardware and software.

Embedded AI and ML researcher. I build deep learning that runs on-device — from multimodal biomedical monitoring on an ESP32-S3 to clinical AI systems where every output is traceable to its source.

Synthetic signals, rendered live in your browser Thesis → multimodal biomedical monitoring at the edge
Based inLos Angeles, CA
FocusEmbedded AI · Edge ML
RecognitionIEEE ICHI 2026 · Best Paper
Local time—
4.00 M.S. GPA · CSUN
04 Peer-reviewed papers
Best Paper IEEE ICHI 2026
1st CSUNposium 2026 · M.S. thesis
01About

Research that ships to silicon.

I work at the intersection of embedded systems, machine learning, and hardware–software co-design — with peer-reviewed publications in edge ML and distributed learning.

I’m a Computer Engineering M.S. graduate from California State University, Northridge (GPA 4.0, ARCS Fellow, May 2026).

My thesis on on-device multimodal biomedical monitoring received the IEEE ICHI 2026 Best Paper Award and the CSUN Distinguished Thesis Award — university-wide, one of four recipients from eighteen theses across all nine colleges — with a patent-pending EdgeGuard adaptive learning framework deployed on ESP32-S3.

I am now CTO at Privii, leading engineering for an AI-powered clinical operations platform, while continuing graduate research at CSUN.

Currently

  • BuildingCTO at Privii — AI-powered clinical operations, from pre-visit readiness to EHR documentation
  • ResearchingGraduate Research Assistant at CSUN — hybrid CNN–Transformer architectures for image restoration
  • Open toResearch collaborations and freelance work via Upwork and Fiverr
  • BasedLos Angeles, California

Research
interests

My research sits at the intersection of multimodal wearable sensing, affective computing, and embedded AI — particularly the computational modeling of latent psychological states, including perceived stress, anxiety, emotional arousal, and cognitive load, from continuous physiological signals, using deep learning architectures deployable on resource-constrained hardware.

  • Self-supervised and label-efficient representation learning for biosignals
  • Hardware–software co-design for edge AI and TinyML
  • On-device adaptive and continual learning for personalized health modeling
  • FPGA- and SoC-based acceleration of deep learning inference
  • Distributed and federated learning for privacy-preserving health AI
  • Affective computing, digital mental health, and wearable health monitoring
02Research

Deep learning on the body, not the cloud.

★ ICHI 2026 Best Paper M.S. Thesis Patent pending

Hardware-Aware Edge Deep Learning for Multimodal Biomedical Monitoring

A multi-task CNN–SE–Transformer running entirely on an ESP32-S3 for real-time ECG arrhythmia, stress, and activity classification — with on-device adaptive learning and motion-aware alerting. No cloud required.

  • Multimodal input — ECG, PPG, IMU and GSR in 10-second windows
  • EdgeGuard — patent-pending, safety-gated on-device adaptation
  • Recognition — ICHI Best Paper, CSUN Distinguished Thesis, CSUNposium 1st place
INPUT · 5 × 1000 ECG PPG IMU GSR BACKBONE CNNFEATURES SEATTEND TransformerCONTEXT Stress Activity Arrhythmia Alert MULTI-TASK HEADS · TRAINABLE ON-DEVICE EDGEGUARD · SAFETY-GATED UPDATE LOOP
112,552 parameters Deployed uncompressed on ESP32-S3
03Experience

Where I’ve built.

  1. Privii
    • Leading technical architecture and engineering strategy for an AI-powered clinical operations platform automating encounter preparation, care plan execution, and patient follow-through across the primary care cycle.
    • Directing development of autonomous AI workflows for pre-visit readiness, medication reconciliation, exception routing, and EHR documentation — implementing safety-first clinical AI principles where all output is source-attributed and no clinical decisions are fabricated.
    • Overseeing the dual-product architecture: a provider-facing digital care team that reduces administrative burden, and a patient-facing health engagement layer that maintains care continuity between visits.
  2. California State University, Northridge
    • Researching hybrid CNN–Transformer architectures for image restoration (denoising, deblurring, dehazing); two journal papers in progress.
    • Implemented and benchmarked Vision Transformer (ViT) models within Kubernetes clusters for scalable ML experimentation.
  3. California State University, Northridge
    • Designed fault-tolerant backup control architecture for autonomous drone navigation, inspired by the NASA Mars Helicopter; presented at Armstrong Flight Research Center.
    • Modeled failure scenarios and hardware redundancy mechanisms to improve robustness under embedded hardware faults.
  4. California State University, Northridge · Advisor: Dr. Shahnam Mirzaei
    • Designed and deployed MESA-Net, a 112,552-parameter multi-task CNN–SE–Transformer, uncompressed on an ESP32-S3 microcontroller for simultaneous ECG arrhythmia, stress, and activity classification — fully on-device with no cloud dependency, at a measured 0.54 W for the complete sensing system.
    • Implemented on-device adaptive learning in C++ (~1,200 lines) using head-only backpropagation (4,984 trainable vs. 107,568 frozen parameters), achieving a 715× reduction in activation storage over full backpropagation; patent pending.
    • Evaluated with subject-wise splits and leave-one-subject-out cross-validation across 65 subjects (arrhythmia 92.4% accuracy), rather than window-level splits.
    • Paper accepted at IEEE ICHI 2026; awarded Best Paper Award.
  5. California State University, Northridge
    • Implemented distributed dual coordinate ascent algorithms in a ring-network topology for multi-node machine learning optimization.
    • Developed mathematical convergence models for distributed training under data and communication noise; results published at Asilomar 2025.
  6. ConXtech
    • Designed Power BI dashboards analyzing historical project cost estimates, reducing manual reporting overhead.
    • Built automated data pipelines using Excel, Access, and DAX formulas for real-time project analytics.
    • Created interactive visualizations used by engineering and project management for faster decisions.
  7. PM Accelerator
    • Built scalable backend architecture using AWS RDS, PostgreSQL, and Django supporting multi-user data exchange.
    • Developed dynamic scheduling and mentorship tracking frontend using React.
  8. California State University, Northridge
    • Graded and provided detailed feedback on 100+ weekly assignments; held one-on-one office hours to support student understanding.
    • Assisted with classroom management, progress monitoring, and course logistics.
  9. Unipal
    • Developed structured datasets covering universities, retail, and student services to support product launch.
    • Translated survey responses into statistical insights and visual dashboards for product and business teams.
  10. American University of Bahrain
    • Provided structured tutoring for undergraduate engineering courses with emphasis on problem-solving methodology.
  11. The Nourishers · Bahrain
    • Automated the monthly newsletter and email workflows; improved subscriber engagement.
    • Collected and analyzed data on organizations and health-sector companies across the Gulf region.
    • Ran email and marketing campaigns with automation tools to grow sponsor participation.
Select a role to expand Full resume ↗
05Publications

Peer-reviewed & forthcoming.

Earlier publications appear under former names: Ali, S. and Abdelhakeem, S.K.

2026

MESA-Net: Multimodal Edge Sensing and Adaptation for Real-Time Biomedical Monitoring on Resource-Constrained Devices

S. Aly and S. Mirzaei

In preparation for IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics

Journal · In preparation
2026

Hardware-Aware Edge Deep Learning for Multimodal Biomedical Monitoring on Resource-Constrained SoCs

S. Aly and S. Mirzaei

2026 IEEE 14th International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI), Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2026, pp. 1037–1046

★ Best PaperPublished
2026

TERM: Trustworthy Embodied Robotics Modeling with Inference Reasoning

S. Aly et al.

Submitted to Science of Physical AI Safety Workshop, CoRL 2026

Under review
2026

Hardware-Accelerated Deep Learning for Multimodal Biomedical Monitoring with On-Device Adaptive Learning on Resource-Constrained Edge Devices

S. Aly

M.S. Thesis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, California State University, Northridge, 2026

2025

Distributed Dual Coordinate Ascent in a Ring Network for Distributed Machine Learning Process

M. Cho, S. Ali, M. Asadinia, L. Lai, and W. Xu

2025 59th Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Pacific Grove, CA, USA, 2025, pp. 1806–1811

Accepted
2025

The Foot Can Do It: Controlling the “Persistence” Prosthetic Arm Using the “Infinity-2” Foot Controller

P.L. Bishay, G. Funes Alfaro, I. Sherrill, I. Reoyo, E. McMahon, C. Carter, C. Valdez, N.M. Riyaz, S. Ali, A. Lima, A. Nieto, J. Tirone

Technologies, vol. 13, no. 3, p. 98, Mar. 2025

2023

Diagnosing Parkinson’s Disease Based on Voice Recordings: Comparative Study Using Machine Learning Techniques

S.K. Abdelhakeem, Z.M. Mustafa, H. Kadhem

In Proc. 6th International Conference on AI & Virtual Reality (AIVR 2022), Springer Nature, pp. 49–60, 2023

Conference
Links included where a permanent publication URL is available Google Scholar ↗
06Education

Computer engineering, twice.

M.S. Computer Engineering

California State University, Northridge · May 2026

4.00GPA

Thesis Hardware-Accelerated Deep Learning for Multimodal Biomedical Monitoring with On-Device Adaptive Learning — advisor Dr. Shahnam Mirzaei

  • IEEE ICHI 2026: Best Paper Award
  • Distinguished Thesis Award, CSUN — university-wide; 1 of 4 recipients from 18 theses across all 9 colleges
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Award, ECE Department
  • 1st Place, CSUNposium Research Competition (Poster)
  • Outstanding Student in Computer Engineering, Anagnost College of Engineering
  • Nominated as Commencement Speaker, Anagnost College of Engineering & CS
  • Distinguished Graduate Student, Honors Convocation
  • ARCS Fellowship — $9,000 stipend
  • Teaching Associate fee waiver: Spring 2025 – Spring 2026 · Dean’s List: Fall 2022 – Fall 2025
  • GRAD Center Conference Travel Funding · Thesis Support Committee Funding · STAR Funding
Deep LearningSystem-on-Chip DesignASIC DesignFPGA Systems

B.S. Computer Engineering

California State University, Northridge · 2024

3.94GPA
  • Summa cum laude
  • Outstanding Senior, ECE Department
  • Joe and Nancy Owens Engineering Annual Scholarship
  • Dean’s List: Fall 2022 – Spring 2024
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMachine LearningEmbedded SystemsSoftware Engineering
07Toolkit

From RTL to runtime.

Languages

  • Python
  • C++ · C
  • MATLAB
  • Verilog · SystemVerilog · VHDL
  • Java · C#
  • HTML · CSS

ML & AI

  • PyTorch · TensorFlow · scikit-learn
  • Deep learning · Transformers
  • TinyML · Edge AI
  • Model optimization
  • Distributed ML

Embedded & hardware

  • ESP32 · ESP32-S3 · Seeed XIAO nRF52840
  • Raspberry Pi · Jetson
  • ARM microcontrollers
  • FPGA · SoC design · Zedboard · Zybo
  • I²C · SPI · UART
  • PlatformIO · Arduino · Xilinx Vivado

Software & cloud

  • Django · React · REST APIs
  • PostgreSQL · MySQL · AWS RDS
  • Kubernetes
  • Power BI
  • Git · Bash · Azure DevOps · Jira
  • Multisim · PSpice · Synopsys VCS
08Beyond

Certifications & societies.

Certifications

.NET Full-Stack FoundationProfessional · 2024View ↗ CITI Program: Biomedical ResearchBasic/Refresher · Issued Apr 2026 · Expires Apr 2029 · ID 76295640Verify ↗ Six Sigma White BeltQuality management · 2024View ↗ Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AEDSafetyView ↗

Societies & memberships