Network & infrastructure engineerGiza, EgyptOpen to work

Mohammed Ashraf

From the fibre to the failover. I've spliced fibre to 0.00 dB, configured Cisco networks on production hardware, and led the build of a system that moves a website to a backup server in 14 seconds. The demos below run on my own Linux server, so you can try them.

Break my failover demo ↗ Email me

Career trace

λ 1550 nm5 dB/div2021 → now7 events

An OTDR fires light down a fibre and plots what comes back, so every connector and splice shows up as an event. This one plots my career. Event 4 is a real splice: at 0.00 dB it doesn't show on the trace at all.

1Launch2021Started Electronics & Communications Engineering at Helwan University. First build: an Arduino smart garage.
2ReflectiveJun 2022Summer training, Helwan University: six circuit designs in Proteus, with PCB layouts in ARES.6 circuits
3ReflectiveAug 2023Systel Telecom: VLANs, OSPF and spanning tree on real Cisco switches and routers.
4SpliceJul 2024Telecom Egypt: fusion splicing and OTDR testing, and a visit to a live base station.0.00 dB
5Reflective2025–26NetShield-E, as technical lead: automatic failover, measured on Raspberry Pi hardware.14.0 s
6Reflective2026Delivered ClinicHub to a dental clinic, and put Wain and AI Mohammed on my own server.10+ services
7Fibre endNowGraduated in 2026. Open to new opportunities.open to work

01 · Work

Systems you can open and use

Four of these are live on my own server: break the failover, run a clinic, follow a friend to a meetup, or text the AI version of me. Each case study covers the problem, what broke along the way, and what I measured.

F01

NetShield-E

Graduation project · 2025–26 · Technical lead

Replay · measured test · 2× speed 14.0 s

00.0snginx stopped on VM1 (fault injected)
~06.7shealth probes fail -> confirming
~12.7sstill down after 6 s window -> fail over
~12.7sssh pi4 'systemctl start nginx'
14.0sbackup is serving the site [ok]

A replay, at 2× speed, of the measured Phase 2 test: primary down to backup serving in 14.0 s, with nobody touching a keyboard.

Automatic failover for a small network. Health probes catch a dead server, SSH starts the standby and DNS moves the traffic, with nobody touching a keyboard.

Failover: 14.0 s on real hardware, target under 30 s
Availability: 99.97% in testing, target 99.9%
Detection: Probes every 5 s, then a 6 s confirmation window
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 5 controller, Pi 4 hot standby
Team: 5 students, with industrial partner Ghaymah Systems

Break it live ↗ Case study

F02

ClinicHub

Delivered to a dental clinic · 2026

Demo clinic · resets hourly

A bilingual Arabic and English clinic system: patients, appointments, invoicing and a double-entry ledger. I handed it over with a cutover runbook and a staff guide, and it runs on my server.

In production: megadental.m-ashraf.com, the clinic's own system (staff sign-in only)
My role: Requirements with the staff, data migration, deployment and documentation
Users: Reception, accountant and admin, each with their own permissions
Validated: Against the clinic's real exported data: 2,247 records
Stack: Python, Flask, SQLite, Waitress, Caddy for HTTPS

Try the live demo ↗ Case study

Sign in with one click as admin, reception or accountant (password demo). It's a made-up clinic with a full month of activity, reset every hour.

F03

Wain

Product · 2026 · Live, pre-launch

Film on the case study · 1:38

A real-time meetup app. Friends share one link and watch each other arrive on a live map, right down to the last 50 metres.

My role: Product design, testing and deployment, with an AI-assisted build
Platforms: Web and Android
Backend: Node.js and SQLite on my own server, moved off Supabase and Vercel
Status: Live at wain.m-ashraf.com, pre-launch

Open the live app ↗ Film & case study

F04

AI Mohammed

Personal project · 2026 · Runs on my server

The bot's real reply to /start

A Telegram bot that replies in my own texting style. It reads photos, transcribes voice notes and can answer in my cloned voice. When one AI provider fails, the next one takes over: the NetShield-E idea, applied to AI.

Channel: Telegram, @MohammedPhase2bot
Understands: Text, photos, stickers and voice notes, in English or Egyptian Arabic
Failover: A ladder of AI providers: the first one that answers wins
Running: Since July 2026, on my server under its own Linux user

Chat on Telegram ↗ How it works

It's a bot, and it introduces itself as the AI version of me. Chats are logged on my server, so please don't send anything private.

F05

Fibre, Cisco and the field

Telecom Egypt 2024 · Systel Telecom 2023

Fig 5.1 · Telecom EgyptMy splice: 0.00 dB loss
Fig 5.2 · Telecom EgyptEXFO MaxTester for OTDR traces
Fig 5.3 · Site visitInside a live base-station cabinet
Fig 5.4 · Systel TelecomA Cisco switch and three routers

Fusion splicing and OTDR testing at Telecom Egypt, a visit to a live base station, and VLANs, OSPF and spanning tree on real Cisco gear at Systel Telecom.

See the field work

Also built

F06

How this site runs

Lab 01 · Self-hosting

One ARM server in Oracle Cloud: Caddy with automatic HTTPS, every app under its own Linux user, nightly backups and a one-command deploy.
F07

Smart Garage

Robotics workshop · 2021

An Arduino car park: IR sensors count cars in and out on a 7-segment display, with a servo gate and a heat alarm. Hand-written embedded C++.
F08

Optical & RF simulation

OptiSystem · CST · 2024

A 2 km, 1550 nm free-space optical link with LG-mode multiplexing (Q above 14.6), and 2.4 GHz monopole antenna sweeps.

02 · About

From the fibre to the server

I graduated in Electronics & Communications Engineering from Helwan University in 2026. My hands-on work runs from the physical layer, splicing and testing fibre, through Cisco routing and switching, up to Linux servers and the automation that keeps them running.

Experience & education

2021 Started Electronics & Communications Engineering Helwan University, Faculty of Engineering · first build: an Arduino smart garage
Jun – Jul 2022 Summer training, electronics workshop Helwan University · six circuit designs in Proteus with PCB layouts in ARES: an adjustable power supply, a traffic light, a ring counter, a BCD adder, a relay lamp timer and a digital voltmeter
Aug – Sep 2023 Network & cybersecurity intern Systel Telecom · Smart Village, Giza · VLANs, OSPF and STP on Cisco gear L2–3
Jul – Aug 2024 Telecom engineering intern Telecom Egypt (WE), Training Sector · Nasr City, Cairo · fusion splicing and OTDR testing L1
2025 – 2026 Technical lead, NetShield-E Graduation project · Helwan University with Ghaymah Systems · team of 5 L2–3L4–7
2026 Graduated, and running my own server B.Sc. Electronics & Communications Engineering · ClinicHub, Wain and AI Mohammed run on it L4–7

Skills, layer by layer

L1Fibre & telecomFusion splicing · OTDR and optical power (EXFO) · ODF · GSM, UMTS, LTE and 5G architecture · IMS
L2–3NetworkingCisco IOS routing and switching · VLANs · STP · OSPF · static routing · TCP/IP · subnetting (VLSM, CIDR) · Packet Tracer
L4–7Systems & servicesLinux (Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS) · systemd · Nginx · Caddy · dnsmasq · DNS · DHCP · Docker and Compose · SSH automation (Paramiko) · VirtualBox · failover design · monitoring · backups

Code & tools: Python (basic) · embedded C/C++ (Arduino) · SQLite · Git · VHDL · MATLAB · Proteus · CST · OptiSystem · AI-assisted development
Languages: Arabic, native · English, professional · French, basic

03 · Contact

mohammed@m-ashraf.com

Email is the fastest way to reach me. Tell me about the role and I'll send the version of my CV that fits it: network & NOC, IT support, or fibre & transmission.

Request my CV Text AI Mohammed on Telegram ↗

AI Mohammed is my Telegram bot, not me. For a role or a project, email is best.

Based in: Giza, Egypt · Cairo time
Languages: Arabic and English
Open to: New opportunities