My Schools

Narjes High School (Dr. Valli Ollah Nasr)

I got my diploma in Math and Physics in 1991 from this school. All those years in school are filled with good memories for me. The best friends I have , go back to school time.

Although I was a good student, I always welcomed any rebells againt teachers and postponing exams!

Closing down of school because of snow was my best wish. My brother and I stared at street lights from our windows to see if it is snowing. It was a real joy to cripple into balcony in chilly night weather to see that we have got enough snow to have a holiday and play with snow!

Shahid Beheshti (Melli) University   1991-1995

I got my Bachelor's in Statistics in 1995 from this university.When I started my studies , I was in love with my field but soon I was disappointed and rather terrified! The reason was:

- Due to the entrance exam in Iran, a perosn can not freely choose what he wants to study. It is mostly determined by his performance in the enterance exam called :" Konkoor". In our culture any engineering  field was considered better than science. So, my classmates had not chosen this field knowingly and willingly. This was the source of a cultural gap. I could never feel enough intimacy! I found lots of friends in other disciplines but never in my own!

- The Department professors with all respect I have for them were torturing us! " Statistics" is definitely a difficult field to study but when out of 20 students, 17 people get 3 out of 20, you go super terrified and suspicious!

My whole bachelor's was a nightmare! Every body had the same feeling and some never finished their studies as they were fired or quitted their studies.

Despite all these difficulties, I loved my university. It was at the bosom of mountains in the north of Tehran . It had a breathe-taking steep slope and was so wonderfully filled with flowers and beautiful natural surrounding! I never forget the good days that we all had lunch on the grass and escaped from the old gardener because of cutting flowers..........

At winter nights, when snowing .. you might even encounter wolves that had come down the mountains!

I finished my studies by submitting a research report on using the SAS statistical software and especially doing regression analysis which was awarded an excellent degree. My work was later duplicted by university to be used as a manual by students.

Amir Kabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic)     1995-1998

Before finishing my Bachelor's, I was accepted to the Master's program in Socio-economic Systems Engineering. It was a great acheivement because:

- Competition to enter the Master's program is really tense in Iran and only a small number can succeed. Especially considering the fact that I was changing my field of study.

- I wanted to be involved in a more practical field especially one I could use my statistical knowledge in it. My goal was to use the mathematical tools to address socio-economic issues. The interdisciplinary characteristic of this field was of ultimate importance for me.

Such an approach to the socio-economic problems was a brand new one and even the faculty were mostly centered on using Operation Research techniques to solve manufacturing issues. So, I had a lot of difficulty doing an interdisciplinary research. I decided to use system dynamics to model major parameters in a city and examine the effect of different policies and the interactions in the long run.

I defended my thesis in Feb. 98 while my hand was broken and I had to defend at the earliest to start my PhD as I was already admitted before finishing my Master's!

Despite the difficulties I encountered in my research at Polytechnic, I had a very good time there as the youngest Master's student at that time. I made a lot of friends at Bachelor's level as we were the same age!!