About
I take on technical work that does not sit neatly inside one discipline. Usually that means a problem where the hardware, the software, the measurement and the regulations all bear on each other, and no one specialist can carry it end to end. That is the work I am best at.
My background is in building instruments. For my bioengineering PhD I designed a precision optical platform that combined laser tweezers, force microscopy and quantitative phase imaging into a single measurement system, now a U.S. patent application. The calibration method I developed for it has been cited 135 times. Instrument work builds a particular habit: architect the whole system, calibrate it honestly, and find out fast whether the parts actually work together. I have approached everything since the same way.
I founded Heler LLC in 2016 and still run it. The work spans medical devices and digital health, optics and precision manufacturing, energy, and instrumentation. Some engagements are one hard technical problem. Others are full deployments: standing up production plants, handling cross-border sourcing and compliance, assembling multidisciplinary teams and staying with them through to operation. I am currently building a set of applied AI products under Heler as well.
What I work on
Solutions and systems engineering
Define the requirements, architect the solution, assemble the right specialists, and own delivery across hardware, software, measurement and compliance.
Optics, instrumentation and metrology
Quantitative phase imaging, interferometric microscopy, laser systems, and calibration at pico-Newton and nanometer sensitivity, including a 1 m3 instrument-test vacuum facility for the space industry.
Medical technology and regulated product
Feasibility and design-control readiness for medical devices, including a neurosurgical laser therapy platform, and privacy-aware digital health under HIPAA and GDPR.
Manufacturing and capital programs
Feasibility through installation and workforce ramp, including an EV battery assembly program that grew from a four-person feasibility team to more than 180 personnel across two plants.
Applied AI
Machine learning for scheduling and optimization, natural language interfaces, retrieval augmented generation, and agentic tooling now in development under Heler.
Credentials
Patent
Combined Optical Micromanipulation and Interferometric Topography. U.S. Patent Application 15/771,995 (2018). View
Publications
Three peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings. 176 total citations. Google Scholar ORCID
Sarshar, Wong & Anvari. Comparative study of methods to calibrate the stiffness of a single-beam gradient-force optical tweezers. Journal of Biomedical Optics 19(11):115001 (2014). 135 citations. DOI
Sarshar, Lu & Anvari. Combined optical micromanipulation and interferometric topography (COMMIT). Biomedical Optics Express 7(4):1365-1374 (2016). DOI
Xia, Upadhyayula, Nunez, Landsman, Lam, Malik, Gupta, Sarshar et al. Amyloid histology stain for rapid bacterial endospore imaging. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 49(8):2966-2975 (2011). DOI
Education
PhD, Bioengineering. University of California, Riverside, 2016. Dissertation
MS, Mechanical Engineering (Robotics, Mechatronics, BioMEMS). Iran University of Science and Technology, 2008.
BS, Biomedical Engineering. Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), 2007.
Certification
Project Management Professional (PMP), in progress, expected October 2026.
Recognition
Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship, Bourns College of Engineering, University of California, Riverside. SPIE Scholarship in Optics and Photonics. Three consecutive EHS Blue Ribbon lab-safety awards.
Service
Invited peer reviewer, Journal of Biomedical Optics and Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Member: SPIE, ACS, ASME, Biophysical Society, ASLMS.
Currently
Running Heler LLC, building a set of applied AI products including agentic software tooling and workflow automation, and continuing industrial and trade consulting engagements. If you are working on something complicated, I would be glad to hear about it.
Contact
Email s••••••@helerconsulting.com or connect on LinkedIn. The contact card includes the phone number and email.