Khaled Kamal Saab
950 Marietta St., Apt. 2217| Atlanta GA 30318 | 404 834-3531 | [email protected]| U.S. Citizen
https://www.prism.gatech.edu/~ksaab3/
Education
 Stanford University
PhD student in Electrical Engineering
 Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA (Overall GPA: 4.0)
B.S in Computer Engineering
 Lebanese American University | Byblos, Lebanon
 American Community School at Beirut
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Autumn 2017 – Present
Fall 2014 - Spring 2017
Fall 2013 - Spring 2014
1998-2013
Research
Publications:
[1]. K. K. Saab and S. S. Saab, Jr., “A Stochastic Newton-Raphson Method with Noisy Function
Measurements,” IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol 23, no. 3, pp. 361 – 365, 2016.
o
Keywords— Newton-Raphson method, stochastic optimization, noisy function measurements
[2]. K. K. Saab and S. S. Saab, Jr., “Application of an Optimal Stochastic Newton-Raphson Technique to
Triangulation-Based Localization Systems,” IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation
Symposium, pp. 981 – 986, April 2016, Savannah, GA.
o
Keywords— Relative location; anchor free; localization; stochastic optimization
[3]. S. S. Saab, Jr. and K. K. Saab, “A Positioning System for Photodiode Device Using Collocated
LEDs”, IEEE Photonics Journal, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 1-16, Oct. 2016, DOI: 10.1109/JPHOT.2016.2611441.
o Keywords— Positioning system; visible light communications; light-emitting diode; received signal strength
[4]. K. K. Saab, “Estimation of Cluster Centroids in Presence of Noisy Observations”, 2016 IEEE MIT
Undergraduate Research Technology Conference, Nov. 4-6, 2016, Cambridge, MA.
o Keywords—machine learning; clustering; noise, k-means algorithm; stochastic optimization
[5]. A. Clements, N. Almakhdhub, K. K. Saab, J. Koo, P. Srivastava, S. Bagchi, and M. Payer,
“Protecting Bare-metal Embedded Systems with Privilege Overlays”, 2017 IEEE Symposium on
Security and Privacy, May 22-24, San Jose, CA. (ACCEPTED)
o Keywords—Network security; embedded systems; internet of things
Projects:
[P1] Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) at Purdue University under Professor S.
Bagchi’s supervision (Summer 2016)
o Brief Description: I developed three realistic embedded software applications and experimentally showed
the affect EDiVirt has on the performance and security of embedded systems. EDiVirt is a virtualization
layer for embedded systems to enable security solutions on embedded systems which were originally
designed for desktop systems.
o Keywords— Cybersecurity, embedded systems, software diversification, memory virtualization
[P2] Opportunity Research Scholars (ORS) Program at Georgia Tech under Professor M. Davenport’s
supervision (Fall 2015 – Spring 2016)
o Brief Description: Our goal was to help prevent the formation of pressure ulcers for wheelchair users. We
deployed pressure sensors on wheelchairs and determined a correlation between sitting behavior and
pressure ulcer formation using signal processing and machine learning techniques.
o Keywords— Signal Processing, machine learning, classification, supervised learning
[P3] Communication Project (a design project in Communication Systems by Professor Gordon Stüber
at Georgia Tech). (Fall 2016)
o Brief Description: Numerically simulated a cellular CDMA-based navigation system proposed in a paper
that received best paper award in 2016 IEEE/ION PLANS. The system employs CDMA base transceiver
stations (BTS) with an auxiliary mapping receiver, which is used to estimate the BTS clock biases, and
utilizes the estimates BTS clock biases and the pseudorange measurements to estimate the position and
clock bias of a navigating receiver. Beyond the work presented in this paper, the impact of mapping
receiver clock bias error on the navigation solution is studied, and intuitive solutions are also presented to
overcome some of the proposed system setup restrictions.
o Keywords— Navigation, signals of opportunity, cellular CDMA, software-defined radio
Presentations:
[P1] I presented our paper “Application of an Optimal Stochastic Newton-Raphson Technique to
Triangulation-Based Localization Systems” at the IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation
Symposium, in April 2016 in Savannah, GA.
[P2] I presented my paper “Estimation of Cluster Centroids in Presence of Noisy Observations” at the
2016 IEEE MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference in November 2016 at MIT.
[P3] I presented my work on finding security solutions for embedded systems and the Internet of Things
at the 2016 SURF Research Symposium at Purdue University.
[P4] My team and I gave a poster presentation on finding correlations between in-seat positions and
pressure ulcer formation for wheelchair users at the 2016 ORS Research Symposium at Georgia
Tech.
Selected Courses
[C1] Feedback Control Systems (Dr. Vijay Madisetti) [ECE 3550]
o Subjects: feedback configurations, PID, lag/lead compensators, tracking, disturbance rejection, root-locus,
bode plots, system stability, state-space realizations.
[C2] Communication Systems (Dr. Gordon Stüber) [ECE 4601]
o Subjects: probability and random processes, baseband pulse transmission, digital baseband transmission,
spread spectrum modulation, information theory.
[C3] Computer Communications (Dr. George Riley) [ECE 3600]
o Subjects: physical layer, data link layer, circuit switching, network layer, LANs, transport layer,
internetworking, ATM networks.
[C4] Signals and Systems (Dr. John Barry) [ECE 3084]
o Subjects: frequency-domain signal analysis, transfer functions, frequency responses, time-domain
characterizations of linear systems, discrete-time representations of continuous time signals, Laplacedomain signal analysis, Laplace-domain characterizations of linear systems.
[C5] Computer Architecture, Concurrency, and Energy (Dr. Sudhakar Yalamanchili) [ECE 3056]
o Subjects: ISA, pipelining, memory systems, concurrency, parallelism, I/O architectures, energy and power
dissipation.
[C6] Physical Foundations of Computer Engineering (Dr. Vincent Mooney) [ECE 3030]
o Subjects: physics of CMOS based computation, performance, energy, robustness/error, semiconductor
physics, physical limits of CMOS circuits.
[C7] Mathematical Foundations of Computer Engineering (Dr. Douglas Blough) [ECE 3020]
o Subjects: iteration, recursion, combinatorics, probabilistic methods, trees, lists, sets, graphs, context-free
grammars, advanced algorithms.
[C8] Circuit Analysis (Dr. Mary Ann Weitnauer) [ECE 2040]
o Subjects: RLC circuits, node/loop analysis, Thevenin/Norton theorems, linearity, superposition, ideal opamps, steady state, frequency response, bode plots, laplace transform, power analysis.
o Included an in-class lab using the myDAQ.
[C9] Engineering Software Design (Dr. George Riley) [ECE 2036]
o Subjects: Defining/implementing classes, constructors, destructors, etc., member functions, virtual
functions, argument passing, managing dynamic memory, inheritance, subclassing, gdb, valgrind,
templates, smart pointers.
o This was a class in C++ that used the mbed microcontroller for projects.
[C10] Programming Hardware/Software Systems (Dr. George Riley) [ECE 2035]
o Subjects: ISA datapaths, controller, storage, procedural/data abstraction, compilation, assembly, file
systems, I/O, exception & interrupt handlers, embedded software, software performance, reliability.
o This was a class in MIPS assembly and C that included a lab. Mbed microcontroller used for embedded
software design.
[C11] Intro to Signal Processing (Dr. David Anderson) [ECE 2026]
o Subjects: Digital signals, sampling, Fourier series, moving average filters, frequency response, DFT, Ztransform, recursive filters.
o This class included a lab in MATLAB.
[C12] Digital System Design (Dr. Sung-Kyu Lim) [ECE 2020]
o Subjects: switch design, Boolean algebra, gate design, building blocks, number systems, arithmetic, latches
and registers, counters, state machines, memory, datapaths.
[C13] Digital Design Lab (Dr. Thomas Collins) [ECE 2031]
o Subjects: combinational design for FPGAs, VHDL, state machines, assembly, logic analyzer, hardware
design of simple computer, examination of timing issues, simulation & implementation .
Hands-on Experience
o Senior Design Project: “Proper Techniques for a Perfect Squat: An Automatic Guidance System”:
To use sensors and embedded devices to automatically give guidance on how to improve squat
form. This will be attained by studying the universal characteristics of a squat form that prevents
injuries, extract relevant features, measured with off-the-shelf components, such as pressure
distribution on feet. The measured data will be compared with formed data clusters associated with
perfect squat. This project will include deployment of sensors, programming embedded systems,
signal processing, and machine learning. (Fall 2016-Spring 2017)
o Digital Design Group Project: Built a simple computer using VHDL on an Altera Cyclone 2 DE2
board and implemented functions to move a robot to desired locations, scan and store object
locations, and traverse to localized objects in a sequential manner. (Spring 2015)
o Programming HW/SW Systems Project: Programmed the pacman game in the C language and built
circuit with ARM mbed, accelerometer, μLCD, pushbuttons, speaker and SD card slot to play the
pacman game. (Spring 2015)
o Digital Design Train Controller Project: Developed a state machine as a controller of two trains
on shared track segments with collision avoidance using VHDL on an Altera cyclone 2 DE2
board. (Spring 2015)
o Remote Control Light with Arduino: Set up a remote controlled lightbulb using an Arduino Uno
microcontroller, IR receiver, IR remote, relay switch, LEDs, wires, and a lightbulb. (Fall 2015)
o Physics Research Project for the IB Diploma: Finding an algorithm to determine the position of a
tuning key, of a plucked string instrument, to a desired fundamental frequency. (Senior Year 2013)
Community Service
o Began a yearlong classroom that met once a week to demonstrate and explain simple concepts in
physics and chemistry to underprivileged students through numerous science experiments.
(Senior Year 2013)
o Initiated a yearlong outdoors program that involved training underprivileged students basketball
and soccer at a public school in Beirut, Lebanon. (Junior Year 2012)
o 100 hours of Community Service at the American Community School of Beirut
Athletic Skills
o Basketball: Joined the High School basketball team throughout all high school then continued at
the Lebanese American University throughout my first year.
o Swimming: Joined the high school swimming team in grades 8 and 10.
o Band: Was on the school band from grade 6 until grade 11; played the saxophone.
o First Aid: Joined the High School First Aid team from grades 9 to 12; became leader in grade 10.
Programming Skills
o Java, Matlab, C, C++, Assembly, VHDL, HTML
Awards/Honor Societies
o ECE Senior Scholar Award – awarded to the seniors with the highest cumulative GPA in the school
of ECE at Georgia Tech
o Member of National Society of Collegiate Scholars
o Student member of IEEE
o Faculty Honors at Georgia Tech: Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016
o Distinguished List, Lebanese American University, Year of 2013-2014
o Most Valuable Player award in the basketball tournament held in Lisbon, Portugal, Junior Year
2012
o Best Idea in Brainstorming Competition at the MIT IEEE Undergraduate Research and Technology
Conference, November 2016
o Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Purdue University, 2016