A developer who designs or a designer who develops?
I was born in the fall of 1989 in Tehran, Iran. I was raised by two engineer parents who saw the benefits of teaching me problem solving techniques from an early age. I was privileged to have grown up building puzzles and playing with legos. I also got a computer when I was five years old and soon learned how to run commands to be able to play my favorite game, Gorillas.
In high school, I was into the theater club but also good at math and physics. I would write, direct and act in plays, also solve the advanced problems my teachers would give me. It was hard for me to know what path I should take as I knew I had an artistic side and a very eager problem solving side, as well.
I ended up going to the Computer Engineering department of Amirkabir University of Technology for my undergrad and it was there that I learned about this new evolving field called Human Computer Interaction (HCI). I started taking a couple of courses in the speciality and quickly realized I wanted to continue my graduate studies learning more about enhancing the human experience.
HCI was still very new in Iran, therefore I decided to apply to schools in the U.S. and Europe. The day I got my admission from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I ran around the house in excitement. My dream had come true!
