Computer engineer & scientist · Applied machine learning for healthcare

Albara AH RamliPh.D.

I develop machine learning methods that measure human movement from wearable sensors, with a focus on clinical gait assessment.

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at UC Davis Health. I hold a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Tripoli and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Davis. My research covers wearable sensing, gait analysis and deep learning, and I also build the software that brings this work into clinical use.

● Waist-worn accelerometer · vertical axis · 100 Hz
Acceleration over time · detected steps marked
Frequency spectrum · peak 1.8 Hz
Steps
0
Cadence
109 steps/min
Step length
0.68 m
Speed
1.2 m/s
Distance
0 m
Simulated signal, real processing. Steps are detected with a peak detector (dashed line: threshold), and the spectrum is a Fourier transform of the last five seconds. Both methods appear in my published work on patient recordings.
500+
citations on Google Scholar (h-index 8)
10
publications, including my dissertation
84,000+
users of my published apps
211
students mentored in 53 senior design teams

Contact

Get in touch

albara [at] ramli.net

Email is the best way to reach me. Calls and video meetings are available by appointment.

About

Background

I am a computer engineer and computer scientist. I received my B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tripoli, Libya, where I was supervised by Professor Shubat Senoussi Ahmeda (Owhida). I then received my M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the College of Engineering at the University of California, Davis, USA. Professor Xin Liu advised me for both degrees, and Professor Erik Henricson co-advised my Ph.D. Since 2023 I have been a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Neuromuscular Research Lab at UC Davis Health.

My research applies classical machine learning and deep learning to IoT devices, human activity recognition and healthcare systems. Much of it centers on Walk4Me, a system that converts wearable sensor data into digital outcome measures for children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and for patients with stroke or ALS.

I also have industry experience in IP/MPLS core networks and telecom billing systems, and I founded a software company. In my research I develop complete systems, from the sensor app and the models to the servers that run them.

Research interests

Applied machine learning Deep learning Gait analysis Human activity recognition Wearable sensing Digital health Internet of Things Network security Polyglot programming

Education

  • Ph.D.

    Computer Science · Applied Artificial Intelligence

    College of Engineering, University of California, Davis, USA

    Dissertation: Applied Machine Learning in Healthcare Systems: Classical and Deep Learning Approach for Gait Analysis and Activity Recognition (2023)

  • M.S.

    Computer Science · Polyglot Programming and IoT

    College of Engineering, University of California, Davis, USA

    Thesis project: SBR Polyglot and Peer Platforms on IoT over Networks (2018)

  • B.Sc.

    Computer Engineering · Networks

    Faculty of Engineering, University of Tripoli, Libya

    Graduation project: Peer to Peer Connection Over Local Network System (P2P COLNS) (2010)

Research

Selected research

Mainly AI for healthcare, along with earlier work in computer vision, video streaming, networking and security.

Main project · Healthcare AI

Walk4Me: telehealth community mobility assessment

An automated system for early diagnosis and for tracking disease progression. A single accelerometer worn near the body's center of mass records the child's gait, and machine learning models extract the spatiotemporal gait features used in clinical practice and distinguish children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy from typically developing peers. Results were validated against expert observers on the 6-minute walk test, the 100-meter run/walk and free walking.

  1. CaptureA wearable sensor records accelerometer and gyroscope data at 100 Hz
  2. DetectSteps and gait events are found automatically at walking and running speeds
  3. MeasureStep count, cadence, step length, speed and distance
  4. ClassifyClassical ML and deep learning models identify disordered gait and track its progression
Hz

Healthcare AI · Signal processing

FFT for rapid step and distance estimation in DMD

A fast Fourier transform method for estimating step count, step frequency, step length, velocity and distance from a waist-worn accelerometer, validated against ground truth and machine learning baselines.

Computer vision · Assistive tech

BWCNN: Blink to Word

A real-time convolutional neural network that translates eye-blink patterns into words, giving people with ALS a means of communication. Designed for IoT devices, with ResNet, DenseNet, InceptionV3 and SqueezeNet compared on accuracy and latency.

Healthcare AI · Stroke

Identifying stroke-related gait features

Deep learning models trained on multi-camera motion capture and force-plate data to identify key post-stroke gait impairments, distinguish the more affected limb from the less affected one, and assess whether force plates can be omitted. A related project detects hemorrhagic stroke in real time using wearable sensors.

Wearables · ICU

Human activity recognition for healthcare

A survey of activity recognition with wearable sensors, drawing on two of our systems: early mobility recognition for ICU patients and gait analysis for DMD.

Virtual reality · Networking

Motion prediction for 360-degree video

An Oculus-based platform that records viewers' head orientation and predicts where they will look next, so that only the relevant portion of the video is transmitted.

Reinforcement learning · Networking

Cross-layer congestion control and adaptive bitrate

A reinforcement learning framework that jointly learns adaptive bitrate and congestion control by modeling the interaction between the transport and application layers. Builds on my reproductions of Pensieve and Pantheon.

Other work

  • Privacy
    Device identification in wireless environments. A data-driven framework for estimating the number and type of devices transmitting nearby.
  • Security
    System security and policy protection. Consistency checking of security policies across companies that share one network, using the Bell-LaPadula and Biba models.
  • Systems
    SBR Polyglot. A platform for combining multiple programming languages in a single program (M.S. project).
  • Measurement
    The 2016 Dyn cyberattack. A measurement study of the network performance degradation caused by the attack.

Open-source code

Publications

Papers and other writing

The complete, up-to-date list is on Google Scholar.

  1. 2025

    Harnessing Fast Fourier Transform for Rapid Community Travel Distance and Step Estimation in Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

    Erik K. Henricson, Albara AH Ramli

    JournalSensors, 25(10), 3234

  2. 2024

    Gait Event Detection and Travel Distance Using Waist-Worn Accelerometers across a Range of Speeds: Automated Approach

    Albara AH Ramli, Xin Liu, Kelly Berndt, Chen-Nee Chuah, Erica Goude, Lynea B. Kaethler, Amanda Lopez, Alina Nicorici, Corey Owens, David Rodriguez, Jane Wang, Daniel Aranki, Craig M. McDonald, Erik K. Henricson

    JournalSensors, 24(4), 1155

  3. 2024

    Gait Characterization in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Using a Single-Sensor Accelerometer: Classical Machine Learning and Deep Learning Approaches

    Albara AH Ramli, Xin Liu, Kelly Berndt, Erica Goude, Jiahui Hou, Lynea B. Kaethler, Rex Liu, Amanda Lopez, Alina Nicorici, Corey Owens, David Rodriguez, Jane Wang, Huanle Zhang, Daniel Aranki, Craig M. McDonald, Erik K. Henricson

    JournalSensors, 24(4), 1123

  4. 2023

    Walk4Me: Telehealth Community Mobility Assessment, An Automated System for Early Diagnosis and Disease Progression

    Albara AH Ramli, Xin Liu, Erik K. Henricson

    PreprintarXiv:2305.05543

  5. 2023

    Applied Machine Learning in Healthcare Systems: Classical and Deep Learning Approach for Gait Analysis and Activity Recognition

    Albara AH Ramli

    DissertationPh.D., University of California, Davis

  6. 2022

    A Deep Learning Approach for Identification of Stroke-related Gait Features

    Albara AH Ramli, Theresa E. McGuirk, Xin Liu, Carolynn Patten

    AbstractResearch Symposium, Center for Neuroengineering & Medicine, UC Davis

  7. 2021

    An Overview of Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors: Healthcare and Artificial Intelligence

    Rex Liu*, Albara AH Ramli*, Huanle Zhang, Erik Henricson, Xin Liu (* equal contribution)

    ConferenceInternational Conference on Internet of Things (ICIOT 2021), pp. 1-14 130+ citations

  8. 2021

    Early Mobility Recognition for Intensive Care Unit Patients Using Accelerometers

    Rex Liu, Sarina A. Fazio, Huanle Zhang, Albara AH Ramli, Xin Liu, Jason Yeates Adams

    WorkshopArtificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) Workshop at KDD 2021

  9. 2020

    BWCNN: Blink to Word, a Real-Time Convolutional Neural Network Approach

    Albara AH Ramli, Rex Liu, Rahul Krishnamoorthy, Vishal I B, Xiaoxiao Wang, Ilias Tagkopoulos, Xin Liu

    ConferenceInternational Conference on Internet of Things (ICIOT 2020), pp. 133-140

  10. 2020

    An Automated System for Early Diagnosis, Severity and Progression Identification in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Machine Learning and Deep Learning Approach

    Albara AH Ramli, Alina Nicorici, Poonam Prasad, Jiahui Hou, Craig McDonald, Xin Liu, Erik Henricson

    Abstract7th Annual UC Davis Health Human Genomics Symposium

  11. 2018

    SBR Polyglot and Peer Platforms on IoT over Networks

    Albara AH Ramli

    Thesis projectM.S., University of California, Davis

  12. 2016

    Shooting a Moving Target: Motion-Prediction-Based Transmission for 360-Degree Videos

    Yanan Bao, Huasen Wu, Tianxiao Zhang, Albara AH Ramli, Xin Liu

    ConferenceIEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData 2016) 300+ citations

  13. 2016

    Viewing 360 Degree Videos: Motion Prediction and Bandwidth Optimization

    Yanan Bao, Huasen Wu, Albara AH Ramli, Bradley Wang, Xin Liu

    PosterIEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP 2016)

  14. 2007

    A series on programming with Turbo C++, Visual C++ and OpenGL

    Albara Ramli

    BooksIn Arabic, free to download with source code

Experience

Professional experience

Postdoctoral Scholar
Researcher
Teaching Assistant
Symantec
Hatif Libya
Founder
Aljeel Aljadeed
20102014201820222026
Career timeline since 2010. Grey: engineering roles before 2015. Dark: UC Davis and Symantec.
  1. Sep 2023 - Present

    Postdoctoral Scholar

    UC Davis Health · Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation · Neuromuscular Research Lab

    • Applied ML and AI to identify gait impairments in people with neuromuscular disorders, particularly muscular dystrophies.
    • Led data collection, processing and analysis under IRB-approved protocols, combining wearable sensor data with algorithmic modeling into digital outcome measures.
    • Developed and validated AI tools for quantitative gait analysis to support clinical trials, working alongside clinicians during patient visits.
    • Mentored undergraduate researchers and lab staff; presented at the Muscular Dystrophy Association's annual conference.
    • Selected for a UC system-wide initiative fostering interdisciplinary ALS research and international collaboration.
  2. Aug 2020 - Jun 2023

    Researcher

    UC Davis · Department of Computer Science · AI-based Sensing in Healthcare

    Classical and deep learning for IoT devices, human activity recognition and healthcare systems, leading to the Walk4Me system for DMD, ALS and stroke patients. Collaborations spanned the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in the Department of Neurology.

  3. Jan 2016 - Jun 2023

    Teaching Assistant, Senior Design Projects

    UC Davis · Department of Computer Science · ECS 193A/B

    Mentored 211 students in 53 teams through their capstone projects, took part in interactive grading for 635 students, and reviewed 520 client proposals. More under teaching.

  4. Jun 2017 - Sep 2017

    Software Developer, Intern

    Symantec · CSS Cyber Insurance · Mountain View, California

    Built a real-time, large-scale system for gathering and analyzing network data. Modeled cross-layer outages from active and passive measurements, IANA registries and Norton DNS logs, and developed a live measurement platform that baselines normal behavior for anomaly and outage detection.

  5. Jul 2013 - Oct 2014

    Computer Engineer

    Hatif Libya Communications · Billing Department

    Developed and improved the Oracle-based billing system, prepared the statistical reports used for management decisions, and kept sensitive data accurate and secure.

  6. May 2012 - Oct 2014

    Founder

    Attatweer IT & Communications Ltd

    Founded and managed a software company that built document management and archiving systems, training center and recruitment systems, and automated issuance of official documents. Clients included Mellitah Oil & Gas, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Economy.

  7. Jan 2011 - May 2012

    Internet Services Engineer

    Aljeel Aljadeed for Technology · Next Generation Network

    Configured and troubleshot DNS and AAA services for the national Next Generation Network.

  8. May 2010 - Jan 2011

    IP/MPLS Core Network Engineer

    Aljeel Aljadeed for Technology · Next Generation Network

    Member of the team that built the national next-generation telecommunications network. Reviewed and verified the high-level and low-level designs of the optical fiber topology.

Apps & products

Apps and web tools

Independent projects, most of them developed on a volunteer basis.

iOS · Android · Web

Qalun Mushaf series

مصحف القراء برواية قالون

Quran apps in the Qalun, Hafs and Shu'bah narrations, with a companion website for online reading and PDF download.

Android

Quine-McCluskey

A logic minimization tool for digital design students, based on the Quine-McCluskey method.

Web tools & community projects

Teaching & mentoring

Senior design, 2016 - 2023

ECS 193A/B · Senior design course

From 2016 to 2023 I was a teaching assistant for ECS 193A/B, the senior design course in Computer Science at UC Davis, where student teams build software for external clients. Besides advising teams, I developed the course infrastructure: the course website and client proposal system, a peer review system, a student-to-project matching tool, and automated scheduling of weekly meetings.

  • 211students mentored
  • 53teams advised to delivery
  • 635students in interactive grading
  • 520client proposals reviewed
One dot per student: 211 students in 53 teams (team sizes drawn evenly for simplicity).

Outside the course · Research projects

Research projects outside ECS 193 in which I mentored the student developers. They are not included in the figures above.

  • iCare
    Alzheimer's disease platform. An application that encourages exercise and a healthy diet among older adults at risk of cognitive decline. I mentored nine students in three teams: mobile (Flutter), web (React) and backend.
  • BioPortal
    Animal health data platform. A platform to connect, visualize, analyze and share animal health and management data. I mentored six students in mobile and web teams.
  • Covid-19
    Symptom Scientist platform. I mentored a team of two students who built a cross-platform mobile app in Flutter.
  • AIBridge
    Volunteer instructor. A one-week in-person course at UC Davis, organized by the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, in which undergraduates and non-technical graduate students complete their own AI projects.

Talks

Talks & presentations

  1. 2024PosterGait characterization in Duchenne muscular dystrophyUCSF Innovation Ventures · Reinvigorating Innovation in ALS
  2. 2024PosterGait characterization in Duchenne muscular dystrophyMDA Clinical & Scientific ConferencePosters
  3. 2022TalkA Deep Learning Approach for Identification of Stroke-related Gait FeaturesCenter for Neuroengineering & Medicine, UC Davis · Research SymposiumSlides
  4. 2022TalkEnsemble learningUC DavisVideo
  5. 2022TalkAI-based Sensing for Healthcare ApplicationsCenter for Neuroengineering & Medicine, UC Davis · Lunch and Learn series
  6. 2021TalkAn Overview of Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable SensorsInternational Conference on Internet of Things (ICIOT 2021)Video
  7. 2021DemoHuman Activity Recognition through Wearable SensorsHealth data science brown bag talk
  8. 2021DemoDMD patient identification and ICU patient activity recognitionUC Davis Medical Center Machine Learning Working GroupVideo
  9. 2020TalkBWCNN: Blink to Word, a Real-Time Convolutional Neural Network ApproachInternational Conference on Internet of Things (ICIOT 2020)Video
  10. 2020TalkAn Automated System for Early Diagnosis, Severity and Progression Identification in DMD7th Annual UC Davis Health Human Genomics Symposium
  11. 2019TalkBACTGAN: Automatic Configuration Tuning for Software Systems with Generative Adversarial NetworksIEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2019)Video

Service, honors & skills

Peer review, awards and skills

Peer review

  • IEEE Internet of Things Journal · since 2022
  • Sensors · since 2023
  • Journal of Sensors · since 2023
  • Applied Sciences · since 2024

Awards & honors

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship · Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, UC Davis School of Medicine
  • Ph.D. and M.S. Scholarship · Libyan-North American Scholarship Program, Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research
  • GGCS Graduate Program Fellowship · Department of Computer Science, UC Davis

Skills

AI, data & health
Classical MLDeep learningNLPLLMsPyTorchTensorFlowKerasscikit-learnPandasNumPyHIPAA
Languages
PythonJavaCC++C#JavaScriptSwiftPHPSQLVBAssembly
Web
ReactNext.jsNode.jsExpressFlaskSpring BootTailwindBootstrapD3.jsRESTGraphQL
Data stores
PostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBPrisma
Cloud & DevOps
AWS · EC2, Lambda, S3GCPAzureDockerKubernetesCI/CDLinuxNginxApacheGit
Certifications
CITI · Biomedical ResearchCITI · Good Clinical PracticeRed Hat RH124 / RH134 / RH254Cisco CCNAAlcatel-Lucent NRS I