Connor Pham - Generative AI Engineer | Cyber-Physical Systems

About

I'm a Software Engineer with 3+ years of experience developing and integrating safety-critical, software-intensive systems for automotive applications. My expertise spans from low-level embedded firmware to cloud-based AI deployment, with a proven track record of transitioning research innovations into robust, validated systems.

Competing at Bladesports 2022

I hold an M.Eng. in Cyber-Physical Systems from Vanderbilt University and combine deep technical skills in C/C++ and Rust with applied expertise in generative AI, formal verification, and DevOps infrastructure. My work focuses on ensuring reliability and deterministic performance in resource-constrained, high-stakes environments.

Key Strengths

Applying emerging technologies to real-world problems, with a focus on cyber-physical systems, edge AI, and compliance in safety-critical environments.

Compliance & Safety-Critical Engineering: Hands-on with ISO 26262, ASPICE, and MISRA; root-cause analysis with Lauterbach TRACE32 and GDB to meet regulatory and reliability requirements.
Edge & Generative AI: Deploying generative and Mixture-of-Experts models on constrained hardware, with formal neural network verification (alpha-beta-CROWN) for fault-tolerant autonomous decision-making.
Cyber-Physical & Real-Time Systems: Developed and validated low-level C/C++ software for safety-critical automotive systems (electric power steering), requiring high reliability and deterministic performance.
End-to-End Ownership: Full-stack experience from firmware for microcontrollers (RH850, ARM) to CI/CD pipelines and validation systems (HIL/SIL), reducing integration time by 50%.

Beyond Engineering

Outside of software development, I'm a hobbyist bladesmith and metalworker. I compete in Bladesports competitions, where precision craftsmanship meets hands-on problem solving—skills that translate directly to my approach in engineering: attention to detail, iterative refinement, and building reliable systems from the ground up.

Name Origin

Grew up watching The Terminator franchise. Now I build AI 🤖

Education

Vanderbilt University

M.Eng. in Cyber-Physical Systems | 2026

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

M.Eng. in Energy Systems | 2023

B.Eng. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering | 2022

Nguyen Khuyen (High School) Prison

High School Diploma | 2017

AKA "Nguyen Khuyen High School", notorious for its high-pressure, strict, military-like and iron discipline.

Work Experience

Generative AI Engineer

Vanderbilt University, College of Connected Computing

April 2026 – Present

Building and integrating generative and agentic AI into real-world workflows; deploying LLM-based tooling and infrastructure for university-wide research and educational use cases.

Generative AI LLMs Edge AI Python Cyber-Physical Systems

Research Engineer

Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University

May 2025 – April 2026

Researched Mixture-of-Experts architectures and formal neural network verification for fault-tolerant AI in safety-critical embedded systems. Developed Rust-based test frameworks and bridged AI/ML capabilities with cyber-physical systems safety requirements.

Neural Network Verification Mixture-of-Experts Rust PyTorch Formal Methods AI Safety

Classroom Technology Staff

Vanderbilt University IT Department

February 2025 – August 2025

Part-time technical support role managing classroom AV systems, troubleshooting audio-visual equipment, and providing technology assistance for academic events.

AV Systems Technical Support Troubleshooting Event Support

Embedded Software Engineer, Senior Software Integrator, Bitbucket Admin

Bosch Global Software Technologies Vietnam

April 2023 – December 2024

Full-cycle embedded software development and integration for safety-critical automotive systems. Led CI/CD pipeline development using Jenkins, achieving 50% reduction in system integration time. Designed and executed integration tests for RH850-based automotive ECUs, and developed power steering systems for Subaru and Honda OEMs. Administered Bitbucket repositories and JIRA for 5+ automotive projects.

Embedded Systems (RH850, ARM) C/C++ AUTOSAR HIL/SIL Testing Jenkins CI/CD MATLAB/Simulink ISO 26262 Functional Safety

Key Achievements:

Spot Award Q4 2024: Core team member in developing Subaru-Mainpath software platform for BEV projects (2027-2029)
Spot Award Q3 2023: Performed on-site reprogramming of 500 ECUs at Honda Thailand plant, minimizing production downtime
Implemented Splunk analytics for system monitoring, reducing integration time by 50%
Played key role in ASPICE pre-production audits for automotive software quality standards
Contributed to department training and training coordination initiatives

Technical Skills

Programming & Languages

C/C++ Rust Python MATLAB/Simulink Bash/Shell

Embedded Systems

ARM RH850 RTOS AUTOSAR FreeRTOS

AI/ML & Data Science

PyTorch Mixture-of-Experts LLMs (Llama 3) Formal Verification Neural Network Verification

DevOps & Cloud

Jenkins GitHub Actions Docker Kubernetes Terraform

Tools & Platforms

Git/Bitbucket Lauterbach TRACE32 GDB Splunk Grafana

Standards & Processes

ISO 26262 ASPICE MISRA HIL/SIL Testing Agile/Scrum

Awards & Publications

Bosch Awards

Spot Award Q4 2024

November 14, 2024

Recognized for setting up infrastructure for the "Subaru Main Path" to enable development of projects based on the BEV platform.

Spot Award Q3 2023

October 10, 2023

Recognized for exemplary contribution to on-site software reprogramming at the Honda plant in Thailand, minimizing production downtime.

Department Training Certificate

November 2024 – HCM, Vietnam

Recognized for conducting Department Internal Training on "Basic Software Training" and supporting as Training Coordinator.

Research Publications

Monitoring and Adaptive Controlling Voltage in Rooftop Solar Power Systems

2021

Authors: Pham, M.Q., Dang, M.D., and others

Research focused on developing a mini SCADA system to monitor and control voltage in rooftop photovoltaic systems. Addresses the paradoxical overvoltage problem that emerges as PV installations increase, providing solutions for stable real-time control in cyber-physical systems.

Control Systems Solar Power SCADA Cyber-Physical Systems

Study of PWM Performance for Five-Level Active Neutral Point Clamped Inverter

2024

Authors: Pham, M.Q., and Van Nguyen, N.

Published in "AETA 2022—Recent Advances in Electrical Engineering and Related Sciences" (Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 1081, Springer). Studies Active Neutral Point Clamped (ANPC) converters for low- and medium-voltage applications, implementing Carrier-based Sine PWM control schemes for voltage balancing with Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET switches.

Power Electronics PWM Inverters Springer

Featured Projects

Rust-CUDA Compiler Contributions

View PRs

Open-source contributions to Rust-CUDA compiler infrastructure

Contributed 2 merged PRs fixing critical memory management bugs in Rust-CUDA compiler. PR #289: Fixed undefined behavior by replacing incorrect LLVMBuildPointerCast with proper LLVMBuildAddrSpaceCast for GPU address space transitions. PR #293: Implemented compile-time constant memory overflow detection with 64KB limit validation, detailed diagnostics, and --use-constant-memory-space flag.

Rust CUDA LLVM Memory Safety Compiler Development GPU Computing

V-HSM: Virtual Hardware Security Module for CAN Bus

View on GitHub

Automotive security simulator for autonomous vehicle CAN bus networks

Virtual Hardware Security Module built in Rust simulating 9-ECU autonomous vehicle CAN bus with HMAC-SHA256 MAC authentication and CRC32 verification. Features secure boot, protected memory, attack detection with emergency shutdown, and real-time security monitoring dashboard. Implements threshold-based intrusion detection with structured error handling.

Rust Automotive Security CAN Bus Cryptography Embedded Systems Safety-Critical

Mixture-of-Experts Research

View on GitHub

Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University

Research on Mixture-of-Experts architectures for fault-tolerant AI in safety-critical systems. Implementing formal neural network verification with alpha-beta-CROWN to guarantee robustness. Achieved 100% verification success on test samples with formal robustness certificates for classification.

Python PyTorch MATLAB Formal Verification alpha-beta-CROWN Neural Network Safety

Adaptive Cruise Control System

View on GitHub

Closed-loop control system with automated CI/CD and monitoring

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system built with MATLAB/Simulink and ROS. Automated testing via GitHub Actions, real-time monitoring with Grafana dashboards, and timestamped PDF reports for vehicle simulations.

MATLAB/Simulink ROS GitHub Actions Grafana CI/CD

Secure Surveillance System

View on GitHub

Memory-safe surveillance system for edge devices

Security-focused camera system in Rust emphasizing memory safety and performance for edge computing. Demonstrates low-level system design with secure coding practices.

Rust Embedded Systems Memory Safety Edge Computing

LLM Code Documentation Tool

View on GitHub

LLM-powered code documentation automation

AI tool using locally hosted Llama 3 for automated code documentation and commenting. Demonstrates practical LLM deployment for real-world software engineering.

Python Llama 3 LLMs NLP

Flashlight UI - FreeRTOS System

View on GitHub

Distributed FreeRTOS system with real-time scheduling

Distributed embedded system combining Tiva TM4C1294 microcontroller with Raspberry Pi 4 running FreeRTOS. Features mutex synchronization, semaphores, and intelligent PWM brightness control with USB serial communication.

C++ FreeRTOS PlatformIO Embedded Systems Raspberry Pi

Get In Touch

I'm always interested in discussing embedded systems, AI safety, and innovative projects.

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Note: I tailor my resume for each position. Please reach out for a resume tailored to your specific role!