Muhammad Shayan Nazeer

Research Assistant @ Khwarizmi Lab

Hi 🦌. I am a third year PhD student at UMass Amherst. I work with Taqi Raza on next-generation cellular network architecture. My work is rooted in systems thinking: I design, analyze, and build large-scale networked systems with a focus on correctness, scalability, and clean architectural separation. My research rethinks the cellular core as a cloud-native, AI-native distributed system, where control-plane logic, persistent state, and data movement are explicitly decoupled. I study 3GPP specifications not as static standards, but as system designs, identifying hidden coupling, implicit assumptions, and scalability bottlenecks. Based on this analysis, I build reference architectures and prototypes that apply modern distributed systems principles to real cellular deployments. Beyond academic design, I have hands-on experience implementing and validating systems in realistic environments, including 5G core stacks, SDR-based testbeds, and production-grade cellular platforms. My work spans architecture, protocol design, and implementation, with an emphasis on making complex systems simpler, more debuggable, and more robust under scale and mobility.