Saad Zarif
Head of Development
Research & Engineering Lead
Saad Zarif leads software development and technical research at Fishing Mobile Foundation. His work focuses on marine navigation, geospatial systems, routing algorithms, chart-derived data processing, weather-related tools, and software intended to improve boating and fishing safety.
What the work covers
Marine route-planning algorithms
Route computation over marine navigation graphs, with candidate paths evaluated against distance, depth and hazard constraints.
Geospatial and navigational data processing
Ingesting, normalising and indexing coordinate, chart and depth data into forms the routing pipeline can query.
NOAA and nautical-chart-derived datasets
Working with publicly available NOAA chart and bathymetry products as the source for depth and charted-feature information.
Depth-aware navigation and shallow-water analysis
Reading soundings and charted depth attributes so a generated route accounts for shallow water rather than ignoring it.
Hazard and obstruction modeling
Representing charted rocks, wrecks, obstructions and other hazards as constraints in the navigation graph.
Channel-aware routing
Preferring charted channels and marked passage where a route would otherwise cross shoal, restricted or unsurveyed water.
Route safety analysis
Scoring candidate routes on hazard proximity and depth margin so the trade-offs behind a route can be inspected.
Large-scale navigation graph and navmesh processing
Building, simplifying and spatially indexing navigation graphs at regional scale rather than only for a single harbour.
Regression testing and route validation
Repeatable test cases that recompute known routes and flag any change in output between builds.
Comparative route evaluation
Comparing generated routes against one another and against external navigation references, region by region.
Marine weather and environmental data integration
Bringing wind, wave and weather information into routing and trip-planning decisions.
Fishing and boating safety technology
Safety-oriented product work: float plans, equipment and preparation checks, and information people can act on before they launch.
Marine routing, under test
Fishing Mobile Foundation is developing and evaluating routing approaches across multiple geographic regions. Those approaches are compared as routing profiles rather than as a single answer, because the profiles differ in what they optimise for: shortest-path routing on the one hand, and on the other a set of safety constraints drawn from navigational chart information — charted channels, water depth, shallow and unknown water, and charted hazards and obstructions among them.
The engineering process around that work is deliberately repeatable. Routing changes go through regression testing against a fixed set of known routes; generated routes are inspected visually on charts and maps; geospatial problems are debugged against the underlying chart and depth data rather than against the rendered line; and results are compared with external navigation references to see where the two disagree.
Status of this work
This is ongoing research and development. The routing approaches described here are not certified by any authority, have not been reviewed or approved by a maritime regulator, and have not been academically peer reviewed. They are not a substitute for official charts, a vessel's own navigation equipment, or the judgement of the person at the helm.
Fields this work sits in
- Marine Navigation
- Geospatial Computing
- Routing Algorithms
- Navigation Safety
- Nautical Charts
- Marine Weather
- Fishing Technology
- Boating Technology
Where this work happens
Fishing Mobile Foundation, Inc.
- U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- Florida not-for-profit corporation
- Website: fishingmobile.org
Fishing Mobile Foundation is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization developing technology for fishing, boating, marine navigation, weather awareness, and safer use of waterways. Organizational details, mission and community figures live on the About page; write to us through Contact.
Page maintained by Fishing Mobile Foundation, Inc. Last reviewed September 2026.