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Computer Engineer · AI Researcher

Ahmad
Firas

Building AI systems for uncertain environments — from UAV autonomy research to enterprise agentic workflows.

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Ahmad Firas
Now
Developer I
First Solar · Jun 2026
Research
LION Lab · CPHS Lab
University of Toledo
Degree
B.S. CS & Engineering
GPA 3.23 · 2026
Focus
Agentic AI · UAV · MLOps
About

Chasing the gap between what AI can do in a lab and what it actually does when someone's counting on it.

Computer Science & Engineering graduate from the University of Toledo. My work spans autonomous drone systems, enterprise AI, sports analytics, and data engineering. Not by design, but by instinct: I go where the hardest problems are.

Three things I believe
01Interdisciplinary by instinct

The skill that transfers between fields isn't domain knowledge — it's knowing how to ask the right question when you don't have home-field advantage.

02Human-in-the-loop by design

A system someone can't override isn't autonomous — it's unpredictable. The recovery mechanism is part of the design, not an afterthought.

03Deployment from line one

Real edge cases, latency requirements, stakeholders who need to understand the output. That pressure makes the work honest.

Education
University of Toledo
B.S. Computer Science & Engineering
2021 – 2026 · Graduated · GPA 3.23
Machine LearningNeural NetworksDatabasesSoftware Eng.Embedded Systems
Experience

Where the work actually happened.

Full-time
Developer I
First Solar · Perrysburg, OH
First Solar logo
Jun 2026 – Present
+
Oracle Cloud VBCS & OIC developmentREST API & web service integrations
Internship
Sports Analytics & Data Science Intern
Toledo Athletics · Toledo, OH
Toledo Athletics logo
Oct 2025 – Present
+
ML-powered roster efficiency modelsDOMO dashboards for coaches & admins
Internship
Microsoft Solution Developer
First Solar · Perrysburg, OH
First Solar logo
Jan 2026 – May 2026
+
Agentic AI solutions in Copilot StudioAutomated Power Automate workflows
Research Co-Op
Undergraduate Researcher
LION Lab · CPHS Lab · University of Toledo
LION Lab · CPHS Lab logo
May – Dec 2025
+
72.8% zero-shot UAV deployment via MAML97.3% HITL success at sub-100ms
Industry Project
Senior Design Team Lead
Grange Insurance × UToledo · Toledo, OH
Grange Insurance × UToledo logo
Aug 2024 – May 2025
+
R² = 0.982 · 26% over GLM baseline75% reduction in manual review
Co-Op
Database Engineer Co-Op
Park Place Technologies · Toledo, OH
Park Place Technologies logo
May – Aug 2023
+
15% faster incident response95% data integrity rate
Part-time
IT Student Assistant
The University of Toledo · Toledo, OH
The University of Toledo logo
Oct 2022 – Feb 2023
+
60% fewer recurring IT issues100% FERPA & HIPAA compliance
Bodies of Work

Each project a different operating condition. Click any card for the full case study.

Graph-Based RL for UAV Autonomy

AUTONOMY · 01

Graph-Based RL for UAV Autonomy

73% zero-shot success across 1,000+ environments

Graph-Based RLMAMLGNN/GATPINNROS 2Jetson Orin NXArduPilotAirSim
DeepFlyer

RESEARCH TOOLS · 02

DeepFlyer

80% PPO success over 1M training steps; <1s Gazebo cold-start

PPOROS 2GazeboStable-Baselines3ReactMLflow
4-Pillars Taxonomy

ACM CSUR · 03

4-Pillars Taxonomy

37 incidents · 127 sources · ACM Computing Surveys, under review

Taxonomy DesignLiterature ReviewAI Safety
Homeowner Loss Prediction

MLOPS · 04

Homeowner Loss Prediction

R² = 0.982 · 26% over GLM baseline · 75% reduction in manual review

XGBoostAirflowMLflowAWS S3/EC2PanderaPrometheusHyperoptSHAP
Security Discovery Tool

INFRASTRUCTURE · 05

Security Discovery Tool

15% faster response · 95% data integrity · zero data loss across 3 sources

PostgreSQLpgAdminActive DirectoryCisco AMPMicrosoft DefenderSQL
DeepTruth

HACKATHON · 06

DeepTruth

#1 Best Use of MongoDB Atlas · 9,500+ training points in 24 hours

Gemini AIDistilBERTDjangoReactMongoDBChrome Extension
Camel Car

EMBEDDED · 07

Camel Car

24th overall · #1 Most Innovative · AIChE 2025 ChemE Car

ArduinoPressure SensingSolenoid ControlEmbedded CCalibration
Batting Cleanup

CIVIC TECH · 08

Batting Cleanup

In production: <10ms geospatial queries across 10,000+ city assets

DenoPostGISCloudflare WorkersDrizzle ORMDockerHono
Champions Complex Digital Campaign

ATHLETICS · 09

Champions Complex Digital Campaign

74,000 sq ft · 450+ athletes · 6-stage donor psychology journey

Web StrategySidearm SportsDonor UXInformation ArchitectureDigital FundraisingBrand Strategy
Toledo Athletics Onboarding Portal

INTERNAL TOOLS · 10

Toledo Athletics Onboarding Portal

14-table schema · serverless edge deployment across 5 service tiers

Cloudflare WorkersHonoReactCloudflare D1Workers AITypeScript
Toledo Football IQ

SPORTS ANALYTICS · 11

Toledo Football IQ

10-stage CV pipeline · 90%+ field-marking accuracy · 18+ structured metrics

YOLOByteTrackRTMPoseFastAPIReactPostgresCloudflare R2MLflow
Field Notes

Thinking in public — dispatches from the edge of AI, robotics, and real-world systems.

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Browse All Field Notes ↗
Research

Published work and ongoing investigations.

ACM Computing Surveys · Under Review · 2025

AI Failure Taxonomy for
Autonomous Systems

A four-pillar taxonomy of AI failures in safety-critical autonomous environments. Synthesizes 37 documented incidents across 127 sources, formalizing how data-environment mismatch, oversight gaps, distributional brittleness, and multi-agent instability compound under operational stress.

4-Pillars AI failure taxonomy
37
AI failures analyzed
127
Sources reviewed
4
Pillars in taxonomy
2025
ACM CSUR submission
01Data-Environment Mismatch

Training distributions that diverge from deployment conditions. The initiating mechanism in 18 of 37 documented failures.

02Oversight-Gap Amplification

Monitoring blind spots that allow small deviations to compound undetected until failure becomes irreversible.

03Distributional Brittleness

Systems that perform on benchmarks but fail at the boundary of their training manifold under novel real-world inputs.

04Multi-Agent Instability

Emergent failure modes from agent interactions producing unsafe equilibria that are absent in single-agent testing.

Capabilities

Technical stack built across research, industry, and deployment.

Languages
PythonJavaScriptTypeScriptC++JavaSQL+5
ML & AI
PyTorchTensorFlowscikit-learnRLMAMLGNNs+9
MLOps & Data
AirflowMLflowPandasNumPyAWSAWS S3+11
Robotics
ROS 2GazeboGazebo FortressArduPilotOpenCVYOLO11+10
Web & Edge
ReactNode.jsExpressFastAPIDjangoCloudflare Workers+6
Databases
PostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBSQLitePostGISpgvector+5
Microsoft
Azure AICopilot StudioPower AutomatePower BIM365SharePoint+1
Awards & Recognition
AIChE Chem E Car Poster & Presentation
AIChE · Worldwide
Nov 2025+
Most Innovative Car Design
AIChE Chem-E Car · Worldwide
Nov 2025+
USRCAP Research Fellowship
$3,000 · Graph-Based RL UAV Research
May 2025+
AIChE Chem E Car – Regional
3rd Place · AIChE Regional
Mar 2025+
Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
RocketHacks 2025 · Deep Truth
Mar 2025+
Professional Affiliations
IEEE & AESS
Member
Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers / Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society
+
AIChE / Chem-E Car
Team Member & Competitor
American Institute of Chemical Engineers — University of Toledo Chapter
+
Pi Sigma Epsilon
Member
National Co-Educational Professional Fraternity — Sales, Marketing & Management
+
Toledo Athletics
Data Science Intern
University of Toledo Department of Athletics
+
Certifications
BO
Black Opal · Quantum Computing
Superposition

Qubit state manipulation, superposition principles, and measurement postulates. Foundational for quantum circuit design and quantum-enhanced autonomous systems research.

Quantum ComputingQubitsSuperpositionQuantum Circuits
NowUpdated · May 2026

What I'm actively learning, building, and chasing outside of work.

Learning
In Progress
Drive AI Transformation in Your Organization
Microsoft · Course AB-731T00-A
Oracle Cloud Foundations Associate
Oracle · Certification prep underway
Building
Active
Student Athlete Health Insurance Site
Toledo Athletics
Athletics Onboarding Website
Toledo Athletics
Football Performance Metrics: CV Model
Computer Vision · In progress
Pursuing
Upcoming
Developer I · First Solar
Offer accepted · Starting June 1, 2026
Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader
Exam prep underway
Contact— Let's talk about building something real.
Available · Toledo, OH

Open to roles in AI research, ML engineering, and data science.

Whether it's a full-time opportunity, research collaboration, or just a conversation about autonomous systems — I'm listening.

SEND →firas.azfar@gmail.com
Open toAI ResearchML EngineeringData ScienceRobotics & AutonomyComputer VisionSports AnalyticsFull-Time RolesResearch Collab
Channels
Location
Toledo, OH
Response
Within 24 hours