Cyber-Physcial Systems Graduate Featured on Popular Local Media Podcast, The MocoShow

Orginally published by The MoCo Show and Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering

Meet Alim: A 19-Year-Old University of Maryland Engineering Graduate

At just 19 years old, Northwest High School alum Alim Saidkhodjaev walked across the stage in May 2025 to receive his engineering degree from the University of Maryland (UMD), becoming one of the youngest graduates of UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. His achievement reflects what is possible when student drive and talent meet academic opportunity, mentorship, and hands-on learning from the Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering Program, Montgomery College Dual Enrollment, and Montgomery County Public Schools.

Alim’s story in Montgomery County began when he moved from Uzbekistan to Maryland at age five. “I spoke zero English. I remember sitting in the corner and crying in Kindergarten because everyone was speaking English, and I didn’t understand a single word,” he recalled. Yet Alim quickly accelerated academically. By his freshman year at Northwest High School, he enrolled in Montgomery College's Dual Enrollment program.

The Dual Enrollment program allows qualified Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) students to complete high school requirements while simultaneously taking college courses to work toward, or even earn, an associate degree by graduation at no cost. Through this program, Alim attended college classes while in high school and earned an associate degree at Montgomery College by the time he graduated from Northwest High School in May 2023.

Planning his next steps after high school, Alim’s Dual Enrollment advisor encouraged him to explore UMD’s engineering programs available at the Universities at Shady Grove, where he first encountered Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE). Although interested in software development, Alim recognized shifts in the job market and wanted a broader education that blended hardware, software, and real-world engineering. CPSE offered exactly that. With support from the CPSE program advisor, Alim enrolled as a junior in the program that fall.

Before starting his first semester, Alim joined CPSE’s five-week Jumpstart Summer Program, collaborating on hands-on projects with other high school and community college students. He gained experience with microcontrollers, sensors, electronics, and computer vision to collaboratively build an automated trash-sorting system.

As a student, the faculty immediately noticed Alim’s natural engineering instincts and classroom presence. “Alim was one of the best students I ever had. He paid remarkable attention in class, always engaged in questions, answers, and discussions,” Dr. George Zaki, his instructor in hardware/software security, said. Another instructor, Dr. Nestor Tiglao, added, “He was very interested in advanced technologies, embedded systems, and machine learning.” His strong STEM foundation, programming skills, and ability to apply classroom concepts to practical
problems made him stand out early.

As he progressed in the program, Alim found an environment structured around student-driven innovation and in-depth faculty mentorship. Instructors in UMD CPSE, all with PhDs, encourage students to select projects aligned with their interests, while providing guidance throughout the process.

Dr. Tiglao explained, “Our job is to mentor them so the problem is well-defined, achievable, and tied to state-of-the-art research. We ask how we can add on to existing solutions to make them more efficient and reliable.”

This philosophy shaped Alim’s first capstone project, inspired by his internship at Euclid Techlabs, which grew diamonds in the lab. He aimed to improve the efficiency of the company’s modeling workflow. CPSE supported him by obtaining a Creality 3D scanner and helping him develop a three-dimensional model to analyze the macrostructure of the diamonds. Those resources are now available to CPSE students.

For his second capstone project, Alim joined a project that began the previous semester with Michael Harris, Jaelyn Hui, and Reta Gela. The team worked on a smart wheelchair conceptualized and led by fellow student Michael Harris, aiming to design a system operable through voice commands, facial inputs, and a touchpad joystick. After three weeks of intensive troubleshooting, the students finally succeeded in getting the wheelchair’s wheels to spin on command. That was the moment Alim thought, “This is real engineering.”

The team, along with their professor, Dr. Jerry Wu, went on to publish an academic paper about the project titled PowerGlide: An Open-Source Wheelchair Conversion System with Multi-Modal Control.

Beyond coursework, Alim and other students in the program gained direct access to local companies and organizations. In their machine learning classes, instructors partnered with startups and industry organizations, allowing students to build full machine learning pipelines and present their work in professional settings.

“We propose working solutions, and if the results are useful, the companies tell us. We have a lot of success stories,” Dr. Tiglao said.

One such success includes a paper Alim co-published with Ryan’s Place Foundation titled Multimodal Clinical Prediction Framework for Health Outcomes of Patients with Cerebral Palsy: A Machine Learning Approach, in which machine learning models were developed to help healthcare workers predict outcomes for cerebral palsy patients. The project was so impactful that the clinic is continuing the work with another CPSE student on staff.

“Alim’s story speaks to the training we give our students,” Dr. Tiglao said. “They are industry-ready and future-proof. Even with AI and new technologies, we will always need engineers capable of building smart, reliable systems.”

Today, Alim works full-time as a research engineer at Euclid Techlabs in Beltsville, where he applies his scientific expertise and background in electrical and computer engineering to diamond technology projects. His work includes contributing to groundbreaking, Department of Energy–sponsored research as well as a NASA-affiliated project focused on developing diamond power electronics for space applications.

Alim credits the CPSE program with giving him the most essential skill of all: the ability to rapidly learn unfamiliar tools, technologies, and systems. He said, “A lot of what I do now involves quickly learning something new, applying it, and moving on to the next challenge.”

Dr. Romel Gomez, the program director, shared, “Alim exemplifies the philosophy of the CPSE program to instill students with a rigorous foundation in the engineering discipline, enhance ownership of knowledge through hands-on experimentation, develop the skills to solve problems, and learn how to learn.”

Looking back on his journey, Alim says CPSE and the opportunities leading up to it transformed him. “I’m a completely different person than I was at the start. I gained confidence. Two years ago, I would have been sitting in the corner of a class, and no one knew my name.” Now, Alim’s experience can be an example to many.

Alim’s path is a testament to what is possible when determination meets support, and a powerful reminder that CPSE, Dual Enrollment, Montgomery College, and MCPS together open doors for students ready to take their next step.

Students, academic partners, or industry organizations interested in getting involved or learning more about the Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program offered at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) Rockville campus:

Please email CPSE at es-sg@umd.edu or visit their website: https://shadygrove.ece.umd.edu/

You can also follow the Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program at USG on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, YouTube, Flickr, or Facebook.

Published February 3, 2026