I had the good fortune of working closely with Jad while at Argo AI. His breadth of knowledge and ability to cut to the heart of complex problems made Jad an integral part of both the simulation and systems engineering, integration, and test (SEIT) teams. Jad’s most notable skill is his ability to grasp, reason about, and progress many complex topics at once. He simultaneously advanced the state-of-the-art in AV test strategy, simulation model fidelity, and traffic modeling. He did this by diving into the issues, defining plans, and motivating his teams. As a leader, Jad has a unique ability to recognize and foster the capabilities of his colleagues. I experienced this first hand as a part of his team to improve the fidelity of the tracking model used in simulation. With Jad’s guidance, we were able to produce key results on a large technical activity in weeks rather than multiple quarters. His streamlined approach to project management allowed the group to spend most of our time on design and implementation with limited but sufficient organization overhead. He is a systems thinker with the ability to apply his expertise in mathematics and statistics to testing strategy. He quickly identified issues with discrete sample-based test strategies and worked to close the gap through more meaningful scenario variations. He reasoned that discrete input sampling was prone to miss meaningful failures when the sampling was sparse relative to the volume the input space leading to that failure. He devised fuzzing-based methods to fill gaps between discrete samples and improve test coverage without excessive test burden. His proposals were both practical and effective. I’m confident in saying that Jad was one of the most committed and greatest contributors to the safety of the product. Jad successfully turned system analysis into actionable plans to improve both simulation and the system under test. He defined the modeling roadmap for all key AV simulation surrogates as well as the traffic model for all other actors in the simulated scene. Jad tied everything together into a cohesive validity framework - the foundation for all claims made from simulation results. This work also served as the playbook on when simulation is an appropriate method to test a specific feature or scenario. I’ve had few colleagues that I’ve enjoyed working with more than Jad. He is polite, considerate and personable in all his interactions. He is a constructive mentor, thoughtful leader, and collaborative teammate. This is perfectly balanced with his willingness to challenge existing methods and propose alternate solutions when improvements are necessary. Given the examples above and many more not listed, I strongly recommend Jad for a number of roles. He is capable of performing as an individual contributor and leader in software or systems engineering. He’s a problem solver. I learned a great deal working with Jad and he would be an impactful addition to any team.

I had the pleasure of having Jad as a manager in two different organizations, working in the simulation teams of both AID and Argo AI. His ability to be objective in every circumstance stands out, he has impressive in-depth technical knowledge as well as a great understanding of the simulation product and needs. As a manager, he strives to find the best workflows and keep the team pragmatic and efficient, focusing on what matters, always leading by example. He also cares a lot about the people working under him, he is always very empathic and honest, and his insightful advice has helped me a lot to grow professionally over the past years. Jad earns my highest recommendation, he is an excellent leader.

I had the good fortune of working closely with Jad while at Argo AI. His breadth of knowledge and ability to cut to the heart of complex problems made Jad an integral part of both the simulation and systems engineering, integration, and test (SEIT) teams. Jad’s most notable skill is his ability to grasp, reason about, and progress many complex topics at once. He simultaneously advanced the state-of-the-art in AV test strategy, simulation model fidelity, and traffic modeling. He did this by diving into the issues, defining plans, and motivating his teams. As a leader, Jad has a unique ability to recognize and foster the capabilities of his colleagues. I experienced this first hand as a part of his team to improve the fidelity of the tracking model used in simulation. With Jad’s guidance, we were able to produce key results on a large technical activity in weeks rather than multiple quarters. His streamlined approach to project management allowed the group to spend most of our time on design and implementation with limited but sufficient organization overhead. He is a systems thinker with the ability to apply his expertise in mathematics and statistics to testing strategy. He quickly identified issues with discrete sample-based test strategies and worked to close the gap through more meaningful scenario variations. He reasoned that discrete input sampling was prone to miss meaningful failures when the sampling was sparse relative to the volume the input space leading to that failure. He devised fuzzing-based methods to fill gaps between discrete samples and improve test coverage without excessive test burden. His proposals were both practical and effective. I’m confident in saying that Jad was one of the most committed and greatest contributors to the safety of the product. Jad successfully turned system analysis into actionable plans to improve both simulation and the system under test. He defined the modeling roadmap for all key AV simulation surrogates as well as the traffic model for all other actors in the simulated scene. Jad tied everything together into a cohesive validity framework - the foundation for all claims made from simulation results. This work also served as the playbook on when simulation is an appropriate method to test a specific feature or scenario. I’ve had few colleagues that I’ve enjoyed working with more than Jad. He is polite, considerate and personable in all his interactions. He is a constructive mentor, thoughtful leader, and collaborative teammate. This is perfectly balanced with his willingness to challenge existing methods and propose alternate solutions when improvements are necessary. Given the examples above and many more not listed, I strongly recommend Jad for a number of roles. He is capable of performing as an individual contributor and leader in software or systems engineering. He’s a problem solver. I learned a great deal working with Jad and he would be an impactful addition to any team.

I had the pleasure of having Jad as a manager in two different organizations, working in the simulation teams of both AID and Argo AI. His ability to be objective in every circumstance stands out, he has impressive in-depth technical knowledge as well as a great understanding of the simulation product and needs. As a manager, he strives to find the best workflows and keep the team pragmatic and efficient, focusing on what matters, always leading by example. He also cares a lot about the people working under him, he is always very empathic and honest, and his insightful advice has helped me a lot to grow professionally over the past years. Jad earns my highest recommendation, he is an excellent leader.

I had the good fortune of working closely with Jad while at Argo AI. His breadth of knowledge and ability to cut to the heart of complex problems made Jad an integral part of both the simulation and systems engineering, integration, and test (SEIT) teams. Jad’s most notable skill is his ability to grasp, reason about, and progress many complex topics at once. He simultaneously advanced the state-of-the-art in AV test strategy, simulation model fidelity, and traffic modeling. He did this by diving into the issues, defining plans, and motivating his teams. As a leader, Jad has a unique ability to recognize and foster the capabilities of his colleagues. I experienced this first hand as a part of his team to improve the fidelity of the tracking model used in simulation. With Jad’s guidance, we were able to produce key results on a large technical activity in weeks rather than multiple quarters. His streamlined approach to project management allowed the group to spend most of our time on design and implementation with limited but sufficient organization overhead. He is a systems thinker with the ability to apply his expertise in mathematics and statistics to testing strategy. He quickly identified issues with discrete sample-based test strategies and worked to close the gap through more meaningful scenario variations. He reasoned that discrete input sampling was prone to miss meaningful failures when the sampling was sparse relative to the volume the input space leading to that failure. He devised fuzzing-based methods to fill gaps between discrete samples and improve test coverage without excessive test burden. His proposals were both practical and effective. I’m confident in saying that Jad was one of the most committed and greatest contributors to the safety of the product. Jad successfully turned system analysis into actionable plans to improve both simulation and the system under test. He defined the modeling roadmap for all key AV simulation surrogates as well as the traffic model for all other actors in the simulated scene. Jad tied everything together into a cohesive validity framework - the foundation for all claims made from simulation results. This work also served as the playbook on when simulation is an appropriate method to test a specific feature or scenario. I’ve had few colleagues that I’ve enjoyed working with more than Jad. He is polite, considerate and personable in all his interactions. He is a constructive mentor, thoughtful leader, and collaborative teammate. This is perfectly balanced with his willingness to challenge existing methods and propose alternate solutions when improvements are necessary. Given the examples above and many more not listed, I strongly recommend Jad for a number of roles. He is capable of performing as an individual contributor and leader in software or systems engineering. He’s a problem solver. I learned a great deal working with Jad and he would be an impactful addition to any team.

I had the pleasure of having Jad as a manager in two different organizations, working in the simulation teams of both AID and Argo AI. His ability to be objective in every circumstance stands out, he has impressive in-depth technical knowledge as well as a great understanding of the simulation product and needs. As a manager, he strives to find the best workflows and keep the team pragmatic and efficient, focusing on what matters, always leading by example. He also cares a lot about the people working under him, he is always very empathic and honest, and his insightful advice has helped me a lot to grow professionally over the past years. Jad earns my highest recommendation, he is an excellent leader.