KKU-SSAS: Autonomous Industrial Hydroponic System
Commercial-grade autonomous agricultural system with dual-mode edge gateway, closed-loop environmental control, and distributed fleet coordination.
Cairo, Egypt
Mohammed MokhtarAI Software Engineer
I build applied AI systems end to end — from retrieval-augmented LLM assistants and computer vision pipelines to the embedded firmware and backend services that put them to work in the real world.
About
Engineer, researcher, mentor.
- 60%
- less routine admin workload from a production RAG assistant
- 250+
- university students mentored in algorithms & data structures
- 1
- research paper under review, with King Khalid University
Most recently I engineered a production RAG assistant at Helwan National University that now answers routine student and administrative questions around the clock, and led the IoT and firmware work for KKU-SSAS, an autonomous hydroponic system developed in collaboration with King Khalid University. The research paper describing that system is currently under review.
I care about systems that keep working when conditions are not ideal: offline-first edge devices, fail-safe control loops, and clean, maintainable backend services. Outside engineering, I have mentored 250+ university students in algorithms and data structures and volunteered in logistics for rural medical convoys across Egypt.
Open to full-time AI / software engineering roles, research positions, and graduate scholarships.
Experience
Industry & research roles
IT & AI Systems Engineer
Helwan Tech Plus (Helwan National University)
Engineered and deployed a production RAG-based AI assistant and knowledge retrieval hub using Llama 3 and FastAPI, centralizing access to academic archives and university administrative policies.
- Automated responses to routine student and administrative inquiries, cutting routine administrative workload by 60%
- Provided 24/7 self-service knowledge access, significantly reducing physical call queues and processing times
Lead Autonomous Systems & IoT Engineer
King Khalid University (Collaboration)
Architected the autonomous closed-loop firmware and dual-mode edge telemetry infrastructure for the Smart Saudi Agricultural System (KKU-SSAS), maintaining continuous environmental stabilization in arid agricultural conditions.
- Engineered deterministic PID control loops on dual-core microcontrollers to stabilize pH and EC parameters offline
- Authored research paper on closed-loop hydroponic telemetry and environmental regulation, currently under review
AI Engineering Intern
Information Technology Institute (ITI)
Implemented evolutionary computing algorithms and advanced genetic optimization routines to resolve non-linear objective functions where standard gradient descent methods diverge.
- Modeled non-linear search spaces using customized genetic selection and crossover heuristics to improve parameter convergence
AI Research Intern
Qayedny
Orchestrated automated recruitment workflows and talent matching pipelines using LangGraph, n8n, and custom NLP parsers to streamline student-startup hiring funnels.
- Engineered an intelligent semantic matching system connecting student candidates with startups based on parsed resume vectors
- Eliminated manual data entry across incoming application funnels via multi-step agentic workflow graphs
Projects
Selected work
Systems I designed and built, with write-ups covering the problem, architecture, results and lessons learned.
Risk AI: Predictive Industrial Hazard & Gas Monitor
Real-time IoT and predictive hazard dashboard analyzing rate-of-change atmospheric trends to detect toxic gas leaks prior to threshold breach.
Intelligent SDN: Adaptive Traffic Engineering & Load Balancing
Adaptive Software-Defined Networking controller implementing real-time link congestion detection, elephant flow rerouting, and multipath load balancing.
VisionCaption: Multimodal Vision-Language Generation Platform
End-to-end deep learning pipeline combining vision encoders and autoregressive language decoders for high-fidelity image narration.
More projects
- NutqAI: Speech & Phonetic Articulation Assessment
Phonetic alignment and acoustic analysis engine designed to evaluate pronunciation and provide structured speech therapy assistance.
- Installment CRM & Commercial Lifecycle ERP
Commercial financial lifecycle system managing customer installments, contract schedules, payment auditing, and risk scoring.
Research
Publications & research interests
Closed-loop control and fault-tolerant edge architectures for precision agriculture, developed in collaboration with King Khalid University.
Autonomous Closed-Loop Hydroponic Telemetry and Dual-Mode Environmental Regulation (KKU-SSAS)
Mohammed Mokhtar
Abstract
Precision closed-loop agriculture in arid and hyper-arid climates requires uncompromising continuous monitoring of chemical and thermodynamic parameters. In this research, developed in collaboration with King Khalid University, we present the architecture, firmware methodology, and deployment validation of KKU-SSAS (Smart Saudi Agricultural System). The system introduces a dual-mode operational topology: Standalone Direct Mode executes autonomous on-device PID regulation of pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and water temperature on dual-core ESP32 hardware with hardware-level safety interlocks, while Fleet Gateway Mode orchestrates multi-tower telemetry through an on-premise edge gateway running containerized microservices and local MQTT brokers. Experimental verification demonstrates continuous chemical stabilization within ±0.08 pH and ±0.05 mS/cm EC tolerance bands, with complete operational continuity maintained during sustained network disconnects.
Research interests
Autonomous Closed-Loop Agricultural Telemetry
Investigating deterministic control algorithms, multi-sensor feedback loops (pH, EC, dissolved oxygen, thermal gradients), and fail-safe actuation on resource-constrained microcontrollers.
Edge Gateway & Distributed Fleet Telemetry
Architecting dual-mode decentralized edge topologies capable of operating fully autonomous PID loops locally during network blackouts while aggregating real-time telemetry over industrial MQTT when connected.
Skills
Technical toolkit
AI / Machine Learning
Generative AI & LLMs
Computer Vision
Backend & Distributed Systems
Data & Databases
Software Engineering & DevOps
IoT & Embedded
Tooling & Research
Training
Programs, certifications & hackathons
HCIP AI Advanced Specialized Engineering Program
Huawei Academy (Port Said University) · Training
NLP Engineering & Transformer Adaptation
National Telecommunication Institute (NTI) · Training
Computer Vision Engineering & Deep Spatial Architectures
National Telecommunication Institute (NTI) · Training
Smart Systems & Edge AI Hackathon
Technology Innovation Hub · Hackathon
- Engineered on-device anomaly classification achieving sub-50ms local inference latency
- Formulated sleep cycle heuristics extending battery runtime to 30+ operational days
Data Engineering & Scalable Ingestion Pipelines
Digital Egypt Pioneers Initiative (DEPI) · Training
Leadership
Leadership & volunteering
Head of Problem-Solving Committee
Pixels Egypt
Trained 250+ university students all around Egypt in algorithms and data structures, fostering competitive programming talent across multiple faculties.
Deputy Logistics Organizer
Resala Charity Organization
Directed medical convoy logistics delivering clinical consultations, screenings, and critical pharmaceutical supplies to thousands of residents across remote Egyptian villages.
Student Union Chair – Family Committee
Helwan National University
Unified student cohort initiatives across academic departments, facilitating smoother administrative dialogue and organizing wide-reaching campus events.
Contact
Let's talk.
Open to full-time AI / software engineering roles, research positions, and graduate scholarships. The fastest way to reach me is email.
muhammedmukhtar822@gmail.com