Computer Science student at Wilfrid Laurier University building practical systems across robotics & embodied AI, data engineering, cloud infrastructure, and payments.
I enjoy the part of software delivery where a loosely defined problem becomes clear requirements, measurable success criteria, and working software.
🌐 Portfolio: ahmedsohail2003.github.io — the five-project WorkCell series on one page, with demos.
One robot (SO-ARM100 in MuJoCo), one manipulation task, taught five different ways — with honest measurement throughout. Every project below shares the same simulated work-cell, publishes its datasets/models, and reports failures as carefully as successes.
| WorkCell series | Approach | Headline result |
|---|---|---|
| Part A · Sim2Cell | Imitation learning (ACT) + domain randomization | 90% success, 87–100% robust under randomization — incl. finding & correcting a false "0% collapse" caused by an eval-harness rendering bug + a claim-by-claim ACT-paper reproduction report |
| Part B · TalkToTheCell | Vision-language-action (SmolVLA 450M fine-tune, free-tier GPU) | 0% → 90%, commanded in natural language; the same dataset moved ACT −15 and SmolVLA +35 — a two-sided architecture-vs-data study |
| Part C · GraspSight | Classical perception: RGB-D → point cloud → 6-DoF pose → grasp | 20/20 end-to-end picks, 0.58 mm ICP pose error, 0.32 mm hand-eye calibration |
| Part D · PolicyForge | Reinforcement learning + from-scratch world model | World-model planner solves Reach in 8k env steps (37× fewer than PPO); contact-rich Lift solved via a 4-stage reward-design study |
| Part E · CellOps | ROS 2: SLAM + Nav2, C++ grasp service | 12/12 Nav2 goals on a self-built SLAM map; Part C's estimator ported to C++ at 0.000 mm parity, 3.3× faster, served over ROS 2 |
| Datasets & models | 4 published LeRobot datasets + 5 model cards on 🤗 | Every result above is reproducible from public artifacts |
Upstream open source: two open pull requests to LeRobot, currently under maintainer review — #4174 (Windows Hub path normalization) and #4177 (safe video-backend selection) — plus independent Windows verification of #4121.
An end-to-end data product for a residential painting business:
- 22 functional requirements, user flows, and measurable acceptance criteria
- Python ETL with pandas, SQLAlchemy, watchdog, and automated tests
- Azure SQL provisioned through Bicep and Azure CLI
- Typed SQL reporting views and a .NET Blazor/Dapper analytics dashboard
- Privacy-safe, fixed-seed synthetic demo data
A four-person academic project comparing symbolic and generative AI agents:
- Simple, Minimax, Alpha-Beta, and Gemini-powered players
- My ownership: Gemini prompt construction, response validation, corrective re-prompting, and evaluation
- Metrics for search nodes, real API requests, first-try validity, and retries
- Python test suite and GitHub Actions CI
An educational e-Transfer-style system built as two Spring Boot microservices:
- REST-based account and transfer services with separate data ownership
- Account, amount, currency, and insufficient-funds validation
- Saga-style compensation when a credit fails after a debit
- 45 JUnit, Mockito, and MockMvc tests
- OpenAPI, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, and CI
Languages: Python, SQL, Java, C#/.NET, JavaScript, C/C++
Robotics & ML: PyTorch, LeRobot, Hugging Face, MuJoCo, RL (PPO/SAC), world models, VLA fine-tuning (SmolVLA), 6-DoF grasping, sim-to-real methodology
AI and data: Google GenAI SDK, prompt engineering, pandas, NumPy, SQLAlchemy, ETL pipelines, statistical evaluation
Cloud and backend: Azure SQL, Bicep, Azure CLI, Spring Boot, REST APIs, Dapper, Docker, Kubernetes
Delivery: Requirements analysis, user flows, acceptance criteria, technical documentation, relational modelling, Git/GitHub
- Building AI prototypes with observable quality and explicit fallback behaviour
- Designing trustworthy data workflows from raw ingestion through decision-ready reporting
- Learning distributed-systems and payments concepts through testable projects
- Email: ahmedsohaill2003@gmail.com
- GitHub: @ahmedsohail2003