CV

Education, research and industry experience, publications, and technical skills.

Contact Information

Name Abbas Ali
Professional Title PhD Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Email mrabbas@umich.edu
Location Dearborn, Michigan
Website https://codewithabbas.github.io

Professional Summary

PhD researcher at the intersection of FPGA design and hardware security for cyber-physical systems, developing hardware fingerprinting for physical-layer device authentication that identifies embedded devices from the analog imperfections in their digital switching signals. Validated on production automotive ECUs and extending to drones and robotic platforms. Two years of industry experience in FPGA and RTL design before the PhD.

Experience

  • 2025 - Present

    Dearborn, MI

    Graduate Student Research Assistant
    University of Michigan-Dearborn
    NSF-funded research in the Information Systems, Security, and Forensics (ISSF) Laboratory under Prof. Hafiz Malik.
    • Hardware fingerprinting for physical-layer authentication of embedded devices
    • FPGA-based real-time intrusion detection for automotive and IoT systems
    • Electromagnetic and power side-channel analysis for tamper and counterfeit detection
  • 2022 - 2024

    United States (Remote)

    FPGA Engineer
    IntelliFPGA
    Design and verification of high-performance digital systems.
    • Migrated a legacy Altera codebase to VHDL for Intel Stratix 10 SoC, rebuilding DMA paths, AXI interfaces and IP blocks
    • Verification in ModelSim and Questa, using ILA to isolate divergence between silicon and simulation
    • SoC integration across AXI, DMA and the PS/PL boundary into DDR; synthesis and timing closure
  • 2021 - 2021

    Peshawar, Pakistan

    Embedded Systems Engineer Intern
    Chip Soul Technology

Education

  • 2025 - 2029
    PhD
    University of Michigan-Dearborn
    Electrical and Computer Engineering — anticipated December 2029
    • Computer Architecture
    • Reconfigurable Computing
    • Embedded Systems
    • Deep Learning
    • Pattern Recognition
  • 2018 - 2022
    BS
    University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar
    Electrical Engineering — CGPA 3.83/4.00, Gold Medalist

Awards

  • 2026
    1st Place, Student Poster Competition (Graduate Division)
    2026 CCAT Global Symposium on Mobility Innovation, Ann Arbor, MI

    For “A Lightweight IDS Framework Using FPGA-Based Hardware Fingerprinting on Zynq SoC”

  • 2022
    Gold Medal, Electrical Engineering
    University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar

    Top of the Electrical Engineering graduating class

  • 2021
    Teaching Assistant, FPGA Design and PCB Workshop
    University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar

Publications

Skills

Design (): SystemVerilog, Verilog, VHDL, RTL and logic design, Computer arithmetic, AXI / AXI-Stream, DMA, PS/PL, DDR, BRAM, IP block design, Synthesis, Static timing analysis, Timing closure
Verification and Debug (): Testbench creation, Functional simulation, Python-generated test vectors, ModelSim, Questa, ILA, Logic analyzers, PicoScope, SCPI test automation
Software (): C, C++, Python, Tcl, Shell, MATLAB, Linux, Docker cross-compilation, Git, PyTorch, Scikit-learn
Tools and Platforms (): Vivado, Vitis, Vitis HLS, ISE Design Suite, Zynq-7000/7020, Stratix 10 SoC, ZedBoard, PYNQ-Z2, Mimas V2 Spartan-6, Red Pitaya STEMlab, AD9467-FMC

Languages

English : Professional
Urdu : Native
Pashto : Native

Interests

Hardware Security: Device fingerprinting, Side-channel analysis, Counterfeit and tamper detection
Cyber-Physical Systems: Automotive and ECU security, Real-time intrusion detection, IoT security
Reconfigurable Computing: Machine learning on FPGAs, Hardware/software co-design, Real-time signal processing