Farzad Nadiri

Farzad Nadiri

Software and robotics engineer focused on AI, computer vision, and autonomous systems.

Farzad Nadiri - Applied Scientist

Hi there 👋 I am Farzad,

I am an applied scientist with over a decade of experience designing, training, and deploying intelligent systems. My work sits at the intersection of research and production, where I formulate problems, build models and algorithms, and integrate them into reliable services that run at scale. I specialize in AI, NLP, computer vision, autonomous systems, and cloud platforms.

My background includes RoboCup humanoid soccer world and national championships, sensor fusion and localization for humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles, privacy preserving retrieval augmented generation systems for legal workloads, and platforms that serve hundreds of thousands of users and drive multi million dollar annual revenue. I enjoy working end to end, from data and modeling to deployment and monitoring, and I care about clear communication, collaboration, and measurable outcomes.

Let us connect and build something impactful together.

Current roles

  • Senior Software and ML Engineer, Quartech
  • PhD Student, Mechatronics, AI and Robotics, Simon Fraser University
  • Research Assistant, Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Lab, SFU

Focus areas

  • Applied machine learning and deep learning for perception
  • Language models and retrieval augmented generation for domain specific agents
  • Design and deployment of cloud based, production grade AI and agentic services

Technical skills

  • Languages: Python, C#, JAVA, C++, TypeScript, SQL
  • ML and data: machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, NLP, classical ML, NumPy, Pandas, scikit learn, OpenCV
  • Frameworks: PyTorch, ONNX, Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, LangGraph, experimentation and evaluation tooling
  • Platforms: .NET, FastAPI, REST APIs, microservices, Azure, AWS, AWS SageMaker, Azure ML, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Terraform
  • Applied domains: LLMs and AI agents, computer vision and perception, autonomous systems, telematics and behavior modeling, large scale web and cloud applications

Education

  • PhD Student, Mechatronics, AI and Robotics, Simon Fraser University, May 2024 to Present, Vancouver, Canada
    Research, perception and control for autonomous systems, sensor fusion and localization, swarm communication in multi robot systems, simulation to real validation using CARLA and physical platforms

  • M.Sc., Computer Science, AI and Robotics, Science and Research University, Jan 2020, Tehran, Iran
    Thesis, A Fusion of Inertial Measurement Unit Data and Bird’s Eye View Perspectives, focused on improving localization accuracy through sensor fusion, Code

  • B.Eng., Information Technology, Azad University, Parand, Dec 2014, Tehran, Iran
    Final project, Modular Software Framework for Humanoid Soccer Robots, including perception, behavior, localization, and motion modules, Code

Honors and awards

  • Special Graduate Dean’s Entrance Scholarship, Simon Fraser University, 44k CAD
  • Supported by the National Elites Foundation of Iran, 2020 to 2022
  • Best Student Research Award, four consecutive years, Research Week, 2011 to 2015, Tehran, Iran
  • Best Master Thesis Award, Science and Research University, Jan 2020

  • Referee Committee Member, ICT Challenge national competitions, Sharif University, Jul 2020, link

  • RoboCup, Teen Size Humanoid

    • World Championship, RoboCup 2015, Hefei, China, link
    • 3rd Place, RoboCup 2014, João Pessoa, Brazil, link
    • Championship, IranOpen International Competitions 2015, Tehran, link
    • Championship, IranOpen International Competitions 2013, Tehran, link
  • RoboCup, Kid Size Humanoid
    • 2nd Place, IranOpen International Competitions 2016, Tehran, link
    • Championship, IranOpen International Competitions 2015, Tehran, link

Selected research and applied projects

  • Autonomous driving perception and control
    Developed and evaluated look ahead and look down camera configurations for lane detection, localization, and control strategies in CARLA, with a focus on robustness under different road geometries and conditions, and on metrics such as lateral error and stability.

  • Sober and drunk driver detection with multimodal data
    Designed and trained classification models for real time driver sobriety detection using vehicle sensor and camera data, applying CNN and LSTM based architectures, feature engineering, and hyperparameter tuning to improve classification accuracy in a CARLA based simulation environment.

  • Modular humanoid soccer software framework
    Built a modular software stack for humanoid soccer robots, including vision, behavior, localization, and motion components, used on Teen Size and Kid Size platforms in RoboCup and IranOpen competitions.

  • Legal assistant based on LLMs and RAG
    Designed a privacy focused legal assistant for BC court and legal workflows, using LLMs and retrieval augmented generation, including legal document ingestion, retrieval and ranking pipelines, and evaluation of relevance and hallucinations, integrated into secure, production grade services.

  • Telemedicine and media streaming platforms
    Designed and implemented a telemedicine platform with real time video consults and e prescriptions, used computer vision models to detect low quality video frames during teleconsultations, and helped build streaming and VOD pipelines using WebRTC, FFmpeg, and HLS.

Research experience

  • Research Assistant, Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Lab, SFU, Jun 2024 to Present, Vancouver, Canada
    Supervisor, Professor Ahmad Rad, link

    • Formulate and study perception and control problems in autonomous driving, using look ahead and look down camera setups, with CARLA based experiments and quantitative evaluation
    • Design and evaluate sensor fusion and localization algorithms for autonomous robots, combining camera, IMU, and other sensors, with a focus on robustness and accuracy
    • Investigate decentralized swarm communication and collaborative decision making in multi agent systems, including communication protocols and coordination strategies
    • Plan experiments, collect and analyze data, and maintain research code that can be adapted into production oriented prototypes

  • Research Assistant, Autonomous Robots Lab, Jan 2011 to May 2016, Tehran, Iran

    • Designed and implemented the vision pipeline for object detection and tracking on humanoid robots, including color segmentation, feature extraction, and object classification
    • Developed the soccer behavior layer with field localization, obstacle avoidance, and team tactics, connecting perception to decision making and motion control
    • Implemented multi robot UDP communication for cooperation and coordination between agents, including message formats and synchronization strategies
    • Built and maintained multithreaded modules, such as the omnidirectional bipedal walk engine, I and O, motion designer, and balance control components
    • Contributed to building multiple 20 DOF humanoid platforms, Kid Size and Teen Size, used in international competitions

Work experience

  • Senior Software and ML Engineer, Quartech, Oct 2023 to Present, Vancouver, Canada

    • Led AI digital pathology initiatives for PHSA, using foundation model fine tuning and multiple instance learning to support diagnostic workflows and improve accuracy and efficiency
    • Built a privacy focused legal assistant using LLaMA based retrieval augmented generation tailored to the BC court system, including legal document ingestion, indexing and retrieval logic, and GPU accelerated deployment on dedicated servers
    • Developed a scalable web based application for the BC Ministry of Education, facilitating ECE training and certification by integrating with government systems, ensuring compliance with accessibility and security standards, and streamlining workflows for users across the province

  • Senior Software Engineer, Pacific Blue Cross, Jan 2023 to Sep 2023, Vancouver, Canada

    • Boosted the performance of a mapping software application serving more than one million users by about 25 percent through architectural refactoring and the integration of automated testing
    • Enhanced scalability and reliability by improving monitoring, refining data access patterns, and collaborating with cross functional teams on incident response and performance tuning

Certifications

  • Machine Learning Specialization, link
  • Structuring Machine Learning Projects, link
  • Improving Deep Neural Networks, link
  • Neural Networks and Deep Learning, link
  • Unsupervised Learning, Recommenders, and Reinforcement Learning, link
  • Supervised Machine Learning, Regression, and Classification, link
  • Advanced Learning Algorithms, link
  • International Spring School on humanoid soccer robots, link

Journal reviewing

  • Nature, Scientific Reports, Aug 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • Springer, Computational Intelligence Systems, Sep 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • Springer, Cognitive Computation, Feb 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • Springer, Supercomputing, Feb 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • Springer, Discover Applied Sciences, Feb 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • Springer, Discover Artificial Intelligence, Feb 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, Aug 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link
  • COJ Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, COJRA, Jul 2025 to Present, Vancouver, Canada, link

Volunteering

  • Teaching Assistant, Azad University, Apr 2011 to Jun 2012, Tehran, Iran