Senior Algorithm Engineer, Edge AI · TDK — Grenoble

Building reliable systems, from silicon to signal.

Senior Algorithm Engineer at TDK in Grenoble, France. Firmware and embedded systems engineer with 5+ years across ARM Cortex-M/A, custom Yocto Linux, secure boot and OTA — and a PhD in signal processing and embedded AI from Université Gustave Eiffel, defended in 2026. Author of 10+ peer-reviewed publications.

Issam Sayyaf
Grenoble, France
5+
Years embedded
10+
Publications
18+
Projects delivered
PhD
Defended 2026

What I do

I.

Embedded Linux & Yocto

Custom Yocto BSPs, full boot chain (TF-A, OP-TEE, U-Boot), device tree, secure boot, SWUpdate OTA with A/B partitioning, KAS configuration.

II.

C/C++ Firmware

5+ years of embedded C/C++ on ARM Cortex-M and STM32 — drivers, BSP, real-time firmware, board bring-up.

III.

Kernel Drivers & Protocols

Linux kernel driver development. GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, ADC, CAN, USB — kernel and bare-metal implementations.

IV.

RTOS & Real-time

FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX — real-time scheduling and multi-task firmware architecture on microcontrollers.

V.

Signal Processing & Edge AI

Anomaly detection, autoencoders (AE, VAE, USAD), sensor fusion, ML deployment on resource-constrained MCUs.

VI.

Networking & IoT

SDN/OpenFlow, TCP/IP, BLE, Wi-Fi, 5G, GNSS — IoT sensor networks and wireless communication systems.

Selected projects

STM32MP157
Embedded Linux
STM32MP157 Yocto BSP

Complete boot chain, custom Yocto layers, kernel drivers and SWUpdate OTA with A/B partitions.

Muzziball
Shipped product
Muzziball — Secure Audio Device

Production Yocto with secure boot and OTA, real-time audio, embedded C++ server bridging BLE and Wi-Fi.

Anomaly detection
PhD research
Anomaly Detection for Navigation

Physics-informed AE/VAE/USAD models catching sensor faults in real time on embedded devices.

From the blog

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Notes on embedded Linux, firmware and signal processing — first articles coming soon.

Toolbox

Languages
C (advanced, 5+ yrs) · C++ · Python (advanced) · Bash · VHDL · LaTeX
Platforms
STM32 (Cortex-M & -A) · ARM Cortex-M · NXP i.MX93 · PYNQ-Z2 / Zynq SoC · board bring-up
Systems
Yocto / BitBake / KAS · Linux kernel drivers · device tree · boot chain (TF-A, OP-TEE, U-Boot) · FreeRTOS · Zephyr
Protocols
GPIO · I2C · SPI · UART · ADC · USB · CAN bus · BLE · Wi-Fi · 5G · GNSS
ML & DSP
PyTorch · TensorFlow · autoencoders (AE, VAE, USAD) · anomaly detection · IMU sensor fusion · edge deployment
Tools
Git / GitHub · CI/CD pipelines · Docker · automated testing · Linux (Ubuntu, Debian) · VS Code
Arabic — native English — fluent (C1) French — intermediate (B1)

Experience

2026 — Present

Senior Algorithm Engineer

TDK InvenSense— Grenoble, France
  • Developing Edge AI algorithms for MEMS sensors — ultrasonic and IMU (accelerometer, gyroscope)
  • Embedded systems development with Zephyr RTOS and Embedded Linux
  • ML deployment on resource-constrained targets — real-time C/C++ signal-processing chains
Apr — Oct 2026

Research Engineer — BLE Channel Sounding

Indoor positioning on Nordic nRF54L15 — Nantes, France
  • Real-time time-of-flight ranging algorithms (IFFT, MUSIC, ESPRIT) under Zephyr RTOS for BLE 6.0 Channel Sounding
  • Hardware configuration, antenna driving, ranging synchronization — production-grade C with code-coverage instrumentation
2023 — 2026

Doctoral Researcher

GEOLOC Laboratory, Université Gustave Eiffel — Nantes, France
  • Physics-informed anomaly detection for multi-modal navigation systems (IMU, GNSS, 5G)
  • Embedded ML deployment on resource-constrained microcontrollers
  • 10+ peer-reviewed publications in IEEE journals and conferences
  • Thesis defended June 2026
2021 — 2023

Embedded Linux Engineer

Industrial & consumer product projects — Remote, USA
  • 10+ production Linux drivers (IIO, serdev, platform) for MEMS and industrial sensors on STM32MP1 and NXP i.MX93
  • Full Yocto systems: meta-layers, BSP integration, device-tree bring-up, secure boot, SWUpdate OTA
  • Muzziball consumer audio device and truck monitoring platform (CAN, 5G, GNSS, FreeRTOS)
2020 — 2021

Teaching Assistant

Signal processing, electronics & embedded systems — Aleppo, Syria
  • Led 50+ lab sessions — 150+ students trained on instrumentation and sensor measurement methodology

Education

PhD, Signal Processing & Navigation
2023 — 2026
Université Gustave Eiffel, Nantes, France

Thesis: Physics-Informed Anomaly Detection for Multi-Modal Navigation Systems. Defended June 2026.

MSc, Telecommunications Engineering — 110/110 cum laude
2021 — 2023
University of Calabria, Italy — ranked 1st in graduating class

Thesis: Wireless Crack Detection Sensor using IoT & Acoustic Emission. 3 publications during the program.

BSc, Electronics Engineering
2014 — 2019
University of Aleppo, Syria — ranked 1st in graduating class

Telecommunications, electronics, signal processing and embedded systems.

Talks & teaching

Talk
IEEE APSCON 2024 — presented "Step Detection Enhanced by Anomaly Filtering for Pedestrian Navigation"
Talk
Conference presentations at IEEE I2MTC and IPIN — instrumentation, measurement and indoor positioning
Teaching
Teaching assistant for antenna design, microwave engineering and RF systems — 50+ sessions, University of Aleppo

Projects

Embedded systems & firmware
STM32MP157
STM32MP157 Yocto BSP

Custom Linux distribution: complete boot chain (TF-A, OP-TEE, U-Boot), Yocto layers, GPIO/I2C/SPI/UART drivers, device tree overlays, SWUpdate OTA with A/B partitions.

Yocto · STM32 · C · boot chain
View on GitHub →
Truck monitoring
Truck Monitoring BSP (2 versions)

Yocto BSP on STM32MP157 and NXP i.MX93: CAN bus driver, 5G modem integration, GNSS drivers, FreeRTOS on Cortex-M, KAS configuration.

STM32MP1 · i.MX93 · CAN · 5G
Muzziball
Muzziball — Secure Yocto, OTA & C++ Server

Production Yocto distribution with secure boot and SWUpdate OTA. PureData real-time audio, IMU/mic/speaker/LED drivers, embedded C++ server bridging BLE and Wi-Fi.

Secure boot · OTA · C++ · audio
Kernel drivers
Linux Kernel Drivers — IIO IMU & GNSS

IIO driver for the MPU-6050 (I2C, interrupts, sysfs) and a serdev driver for the u-blox NEO-M8N GNSS receiver with NMEA parsing.

Linux kernel · I2C · UART · IIO
Router reverse engineering
TP-Link Router Reverse Engineering

MT7628 SoC hardware reverse engineering: UART/SPI interface identification, SPI flash extraction with flashrom, Binwalk firmware analysis.

Reverse engineering · UART/SPI
View on GitHub →
Crack detection sensor
Wireless Crack Detection Sensor

MSc thesis: complete wireless sensor for structural crack detection via acoustic emission — hardware design, edge firmware, cloud integration.

IoT · acoustic emission · SHM
ESP32 IoT
Secure IoT System on ESP32

Smart-home IoT system with encrypted certificates and data, network security and privacy by design.

ESP32 · TLS · IoT security
PhD research
Anomaly detection
Anomaly Detection for IMU Pedestrian Navigation

Physics-informed framework with AE, VAE and USAD models detecting sensor faults in real time on embedded devices.

PyTorch · autoencoders · edge AI
View on GitHub →
5G LOS/NLOS
5G LOS/NLOS Detection with USAD

Unsupervised anomaly detection on 5G channel impulse responses to separate line-of-sight from NLOS and improve positioning accuracy.

5G · USAD · positioning
View on GitHub →
GNSS LOS/NLOS
GNSS LOS/NLOS Classification

Autoencoder-based classification of GNSS signal conditions, separating multipath-affected signals for urban navigation.

GNSS · autoencoders · urban nav
GNSS threat landscape
GNSS Threat Landscape Analysis

Real-world case studies of jamming, spoofing and meaconing across aviation, maritime and military domains. Published in IEEE J-ISPIN.

GNSS security · threat analysis
Jammertest dataset
GNSS Attack Dataset — Jammertest 2024

Open Zenodo dataset of GNSS signals under jamming, spoofing and meaconing — 845+ views, 227+ downloads.

Open data · jamming · spoofing
AI & networking
RoBERTa NLP
Contradictory Text Analysis — RoBERTa

Natural language inference classifying premise–hypothesis pairs. 82% test accuracy with a fine-tuned Hugging Face pipeline.

Transformers · NLP · Python
View on GitHub →
Breast cancer detection
Breast Cancer Detection (RSNA)

CNN-based deep learning pipeline for mammography screening on the RSNA dataset.

CNN · medical imaging · PyTorch
View on GitHub →
SDN load balancing
SDN Load Balancing for Video Streaming

Dijkstra and Bellman-Ford routing on a RYU SDN controller with OpenFlow, simulated in Mininet-WiFi with SUMO urban mobility.

SDN · OpenFlow · Python
View on GitHub →

Publications

10+ peer-reviewed journal and conference papers in navigation, anomaly detection and GNSS security.

Journal

Time-Series Anomaly Detection for Sensor Data: Models, Metrics, and Methodologies

IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 25, no. 24, pp. 43603–43619, 2025
Journal

GNSS Positioning Under Threat: Rising Risk to Existing Systems

IEEE Journal of Indoor and Seamless Positioning and Navigation, 2025
Conference

Step Detection Enhanced by Anomaly Filtering for Pedestrian Navigation

IEEE APSCON 2024
Dataset

GNSS Attack Dataset — Jammertest 2024

Zenodo open dataset — 845+ views · 227+ downloads
View all publications on Google Scholar →

Writing

Notes on embedded Linux, firmware and the occasional deep dive.

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Get in touch

For roles, collaborations or freelance embedded work — the fastest way to reach me is email.

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