My B.Sc. and M.Sc. studies were in Theoretical Computer Science and Machine Learning in the University of Tehran and Sharif University of Technology. I have worked on a wide range of problems from robotics to optical character and face recognition. My M.Sc. thesis, focused on graph based semi-supervised learning algorithms, was inspired by scarcity of labeled information, a problem often present in the biomedicine world as well. My Ph.D. research, naturally, was focused on identifying structures in large datasets where the labels (correct answers) were completely unknown. I am now holding a scholarship from Quebec’s government to spend the last part of my Ph.D. work at Stanford, applying my theoretical work to real-world biological datasets. Here, we are developing generalized linear models based algorithms for learning across multiple high-throughput biological assays of the same patient cohort. This strategy has so far been very successful for timing the gestation of pregnancy. I am now working on finalizing my thesis and transitioning into a more independent career phase as a postdoctoral fellow.

I love learning new languages (4 and counting) and mountain biking.