Saad Syed
Passionate about all things Digital Hardware! Looking to innovate in the field of ML Hardware, FPGA, or ASIC Design.
Experience
Aug 2025 - Ongoing
Waterloo, ON
Digital Design Engineer
UW ASIC Design Team
- • Leading the design of a lightweight RISC-V core with custom instructions and an AXI interface for integration into an analog ASIC project.
- • Implemented a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) module in Verilog, incorporating flip-flop synchronizers to handle clock domain crossing and prevent metastability.
- • Developed and executed verification tests using Cocotb, a Python-based testbench framework, as part of the team’s TinyTapeout ASIC flow.
Jan 2025 - May 2025
Dubai, UAE
Software Engineer (Co-op)
VCast Online
- • Led the full-stack development of a collaborative mind-map platform, enabling real-time feedback and map sharing, driving community engagement up by 25%.
- • Built and deployed a scalable SvelteKit + Node.js web app from scratch, integrating dynamic graph editing (Cytoscape.js), Google OAuth, JWT authentication, and enforced access control logic (owner vs viewer privileges).
- • Architected and integrated a Mongoose-based feedback system, enabling structured insights collection on nodes, edges, and the graph as a whole — improving data access times by 18%.
May 2024 - Aug 2024
Waterloo, ON
Technical Writer (Co-op)
Dematic
- • Developed comprehensive technical documentation for Dematic’s mechanical and control systems, enhancing user understanding and supporting the seamless integration of advanced automation technologies.
- • Authored detailed user manuals and technical guides for Dematic’s InSights logistics software, ensuring clarity in functionality and facilitating efficient software deployment across multiple industries.
- • Simplified complex engineering concepts for diverse audiences, enhancing usability and efficiency.
Jan 2023 - Apr 2023
Dorval, QC (Remote)
Technical Writer (Co-op)
Matrox Imaging | Zebra Technologies
- • Documented and tested new features added to the company's proprietary software, Matrox Design Assistant, which is a flowchart-based software allowing users to design their own imaging apps.
- • Collaborated with software engineers to document new functions and capabilities in the company's C Library (Matrox Imaging Library).
- • Worked with oXygen XML editor to make changes to the official company user manual and user reference which is sold to clients.