Said Al-Abri

Contact 4308 Shillham Court, 404-376-9892

Information Cumming, GA 30040 saidalabri@gatech.edu

Research Bio-inspired distributed autonomy algorithms, distributed derivative-free optimization

Interests algorithms.

Education Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, June 2019

• Thesis Topic: A Multi-Layer Swarm Control Model for Information Propagation
and Multi-Tasking.
• Georgia Tech Systems Research Laboratory, GTSR
• Advisor Fumin Zhang, Ph.D

University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

M.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science(Control Systems), May 2013
• Thesis Topic: Distributed Extremum Seeking And Cooperative Control For Mobile
Cooperative Communication Systems
• Advisor: Zhihua Qu, Ph.D

Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering (Communication and Signal Processing),

June 2009
• Advisor: Joseph Jervase, Ph.D

Research Post Doctoral Fellow Sep 2019 to now

Experience Georgia Tech Systems Research Laboratory,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Supervisor: Fumin Zhang, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Jan 2016 to July 2019
Georgia Tech Systems Research Laboratory,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Supervisor: Fumin Zhang, Ph.D.
Research Assistant October 2014 to June 2015
Advanced Computational Electricity Systems Laboratory,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Supervisor: Santiago Grijalva, Ph.D.
Research Assistant August 2011 to May 2013
Systems and Control Laboratory,
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
University of Central Florida
Supervisor: Zhihua Qu, Ph.D.

Publications 1. Z. Zhang, S. Al-Abri, W. Wu and and F. Zhang, ”Level Curve Tracking without
Localization Enabled by Recurrent Neural Networks”, submitted to the Conference
on Decisions and Control (CDC), 2020.

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 2. T. Lin, S. Al-Abri, S. Coogan and and F. Zhang, ”A Distributed Scalar Field
Mapping Strategy for Mobile Robots”, accepted in the International Conference
on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020.
3. S. Al-Abri and F. Zhang, ”Distributed Active Perception Strategy for Source
Seeking and Level Curve Tracking”, submitted to the Transactions on Automatic
Control, 2020.
4. S. Al-Abri and T. Lin and M. Tao and F. Zhang, ”A Derivative-Free Optimization
Method with Application to Functions with Exploding and Vanishing Gradients”,
the IEEE Control Systems Letters (CSL), 2020.
5. S. Al-Abri, S. Maxon and F. Zhang, ”A Multi-Layer Swarm Control Model for
Information Propagation and Multi-Tasking ”, Proceedings of the American Control
Conference, pages 4653-4658, 2019.
6. S. Al-Abri, W. Wu and F. Zhang, ”A Gradient-Free 3-dimensional Source Seeking
Strategy with Robustness Analysis ”, Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume
64, Issue 8, pages 439-3446, 2018.
7. S. Al-Abri and F. Zhang, ”A Distributed Level Curve Tracking Control Law for
Multi-Agent Systems ”, Proceedings of the 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and
Control, pages 2575 - 2580, 2018.
8. S. Al-Abri, S. Maxon and F. Zhang, ”Integrating a PCA Learning Algorithm with
the SUSD Strategy for a Collective Source Seeking Behavior ”, Proceedings of the
American Control Conference, pages 2479-2484, 2018.
9. S. Al-Abri and F. Zhang, ”Consensus on a Sphere for a 3-dimensional Speeding
Up and Slowing Down Strategy”, Proceedings of the 56th IEEE Conference on
Decision and Control, pages 1503-1508, 2017.
10. S. Al-Abri and Z. Qu, ”Autonomous Coverage Expansion of Mobile Agents via
Cooperative Control and Cooperative Communication”. Proceedings of the 14th
Toward Autonomous Robotic Systems conference, University of Oxford, UK.
Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Series: LNAI 8069, pages 222234,
2014.
11. H. Yousef and S. Al-Abri, ”Adaptive fuzzy tracking control of nonlinear systems
with input time delay”. IEEE 23rd International Symposium on Industrial Electronics
(ISIE), 2014, pages 35-39.
12. T. Jamil and S. Al-Abri, ”Design of a Divider Circuit for Complex Binary Numbers”.
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science, Vol II,
WCECS 2010.

Talks 1. ”A Multi-Layer Swarm Control Model for Information Propagation and Multi-
Tasking”, Student Seminar at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines
(IRIM), Georgia Institute of Technology, March 2019.
2. ”A Multi-Layer Swarm Control Model for Information Propagation and Multi-
Tasking”, Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) Student Conference, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, February 2019.
3. ”Communication-Free Strategy for Source Seeking and Level Curve Tracking”,
Decision and Control Lab (DCL) Symposium, Georgia Institute of Technology,
March 2018.
4. ”Bio-Inspired Autonomy for Mobile Sensor Network”, Georgia Tech Mathematics
and Applications Portal (GT MAP), Georgia Institute of Technology, November
2017.

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Student Awards • Best Three-Minute Presentation, the American Control Conference, Philadelphia,
USA, July 2019.
• Outstanding ECE Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, April 2019.
• Best Poster Award from the 2019 Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) Student
Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, February 2019.
• Fully supported scholarship for PhD study August 2014-August 2019
• Fully supported scholarship for Ms study August 2011-May 2013
• Certificate of Merit for the International Conference on Circuits and Systems, San
Francisco (USA) October 2010.
• Certificates of Distinction from the College of Engineering in semesters: Fall 2006,
Spring 2007 and Fall 2007
• Certificates of Honor from the College of Engineering in semesters: Spring 2005,
Fall2005, Spring 2006, Spring 2008 and Spring 2009.
• Certificates of academic excellences from Sultan Qaboos University in 2006, 2007
and 2008.

Teaching Teaching Assistant Spring 2019

Experience Feedback Control Systems (undergraduate level)
Instructor: Fumin, Ph.D
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Project Team Leader and Advisor Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Design and Implementation of Swarming Algorithms using Miniature Autonomous
Indoor Blimps
Instructor: Fumin, Ph.D
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Teaching Assistant Fall 2018
Networked Control Systems (graduate level)
Instructor: Pietro Pierpaoli, Ph.D
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Teaching Assistant Summer 2018 - Fall 2018
Stochastic Systems (graduate level)
Instructor: Fumin Zhang, Ph.D
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Teaching Assistant Spring 2017
Nonlinear Systems (graduate level)
Instructor: Fumin Zhang, Ph.D
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Instructor Summer 2013 - Spring 2017
Circuit Analysis, Control Systems (undergraduate level)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Sultan Qaboos University
Co-Instructor Fall 2009 - Spring 2011
Matlab for Engineering (undergraduate level)
Instructor: Nasser Al-Azri, Ph.D
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Sultan Qaboos University

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Service • Volunteer organizer in the 50th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and
European Control Conference, Orlando, Fl, USA. December 2012
• Member of training and outreach committee, Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University. August 2013-June 2014
• President of local IEEE society at Sultan Qaboos University. May 2008-May 2009

References Fumin Zhang, Professor

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Phone: 404-385-2751
Georgia Institute of Technology E-mail: fumin@gatech.edu
Magnus Egerstedt, Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Phone: 404-894-4468
Georgia Institute of Technology E-mail: magnus.egerstedt@ece.gatech.edu
Saif Al-Hiddabi, Associate Professor
Assistant Secretary General for Research and Scientific Programs, Phone: +
968-2230-5800
The Research Council of the Sultanate of Oman E-mail: hiddabi@trc.gov.om
Zhihua Qu, Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Phone: 407-823-5976
University of Central Florida E-mail: qu@ucf.edu
Yorai Wardi, Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Phone: 404-894-8326
Georgia Institute of Technology E-mail: ywardi@ece.gatech.edu
Molei Tao, Assistant Professor
School of Mathematics , Phone: 404-894-3711
Georgia Institute of Technology E-mail: mtao@gatech.edu
Samuel Coogan, Assistant Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Phone: 404-385-2402
Georgia Institute of Technology E-mail: sam.coogan@gatech.edu

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