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Behrooz Parhami's Personal Page

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Page last updated on 2018 July 28

This page contains information about Professor Parhami's life outside his profession. Each of the following links either leads to a section further down on this page or to a separate page associated with the named topic or activity. A number of sections on this page are under construction and will be completed over time.

Personal Blog, including list of books read/heard
Photos
Family
Mentors
Other People, including former classmates and teachers
Hobbies
Favorite Quotes
Poetry
Likes and Dislikes
Pet Peeve: Vehicles on UCSB campus walkways
Virtual Retirement

Photos

Here are some photos of B. Parhami. One photo per decade, beginning with the 1950s, is included. B. Parhami, 1950s B. Parhami, 1960s B. Parhami, 1970s B. Parhami, 1988 B. Parhami, 1997 B. Parhami, 2007

Other photos will be added in the near future.

Family

Sepand, 2000 Sepideh, 1999 Sepehr, 2000 Sepand, Sepideh, Sepehr, 2009

Children, Shown above in circa-2000 school photos and in 2009. As of spring 2009:
Sepehr (born 1984), right, is a UCSB alumnus in economics/mathematics (BA).
Sepand (born 1986), left, is a UCSB alumnus in computer engineering (MS).
Sepideh (born 1994), middle, is a 10th-grader at Dos Pueblos High School.

Parents: Salem (see under mentors, below) and Kowkab.

Sisters: Behnaz, Mahnaz, and Farnaz.

Mentors

Salem Parhami

Salem Parhami (1922-1992) -- Known to family and friends as "Mr. Engineer," Salem Parhami was a decent, hard-working, and industrious man whose 40+-year career included periods of employment as electrical engineer, engineering manager, educator, college administrator, and industrial consultant, before he retired to pursue his technical hobbies and freelance consulting. His encyclopedic knowledge and logical reasoning skills led relatives and acquaintances of diverse backgrounds to seek his advice on technical problems, writing projects, and sociopolitical matters. He authored 10 technical books in Persian and translated another two from English into Persian. All 12 volumes were highly successful and served as textbooks in Iranian universities for many years. He also authored a comprehensive English/Persian dictionary of electrical, electronics, and computer engineering terms, published a collection of puzzles and other diversions for children, and compiled a book of folk songs from his beloved Kurdistan province. His clever solutions to mathematics and science problems, derived over long hours of discussion and help with high-school homework, facilitated Professor Parhami's development in these areas and greatly influenced his subsequent career path.

Robert A. Short

Robert Alan Short (1927-2003) -- Professor Short (PhD, Stanford) joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at Oregon State University in 1966 and later became the founding Chairman of its Computer Science Department. He passed away in September 2003 following a lengthy illness (for obituary, see IEEE Computer, December 2003, p. 104). Professor Parhami studied with, and wrote an MS thesis under the direction of, Professor Short at OSU during 1969-70. He remembers Professor Short fondly as a knowledgeable and caring mentor. Professor Short introduced Professor Parhami to switching theory and finite-state machines; other than elementary programming in Fortran, these were Professor Parhami's first exposure to computer science and engineering and were quite influential in his career path and choice of research direction. In his role as the Editor of IEEE Trans. Computers, Professor Short helped and encouraged Professor Parhami to publish his first journal paper based on his master's thesis research on stochastic sequential machines. The paper is item 1 in B. Parhami's publications list.

Algirdas A. Avizienis

Algirdas Antanas Avizienis (1932-) -- Professor Avizienis (PhD, Illinois, 1960) joined the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1962 and chaired it during 1982-85. Professor Avizienis directed research programs on dependable computing and fault-tolerant systems both at UCLA and at JPL, where he led the development of the STAR (self-testing-and-repairing) computer for NASA. Initiation of the annual conferences on fault-tolerant computing in 1971, which continue to date, and of the IFIP Working Group on Reliable Computing and Fault Tolerance are among his important leadership activities. Professor Avizienis has received many awards and citations for his technical contributions and leadership roles (for more info, see http://www.avizienis.info/index-en.html). Professor Parhami studied with, and wrote his PhD dissertation under the direction of, Professor Avizienis at UCLA during 1970-73. Given Professor Parhami's short one-year stay at Oregon State University for his master's degree and his prior specialization in electrical engineering, the years at UCLA and Professor Avizienis' guidance were highly influential in his subsequent career and research direction. Studying with an international leader in dependable computing and one of the world's foremost experts in computer arithmetic engrained these two areas, as well as the love of leading-edge research, in Professor Parhami's conscience. Items 3, 6-8, and 28 in B. Parhami's publications list resulted from his PhD research under Professor Avizienis.

Other People

In this section, Professor Parhami has attempted to collect the names of friends, classmates, teachers, and colleagues from various institutions since his elementary school days. The lists are incomplete. It is hoped that more names can be added to these lists over time.

Ferdowsi Elementary School, Tehran
Teachers: ? Shidvash (Persian literature)

Sadd-e-Karaj High School, Tehran (grades 7-11)
Teachers: ? Alebouyeh (Arabic), ? Faghih (Farsi), ? Gharagozlou (principal), ? Razavi (math)
Classmates: Bijan Afshar, ? Aghajani, Parviz Ahoubim, Davoud Basseri (Tehrani), Mehrdad Dastouri, Kambiz Foroutan (Foroutanzad, Zolkhaie), ? Khajeh, Shahnam Mohajerin, Moussa Moshfegh, ? Nassiri, ? Rabbani, ? Sedehi (twins), Esmaeil Talaei, ? Zamani, ? Zarrin-far

Alborz High School main building

Alborz High School, Tehran (grade 12)
Teachers: ? Esfandiari (physics), Jafar Golbabaei (superintendent), ? Golshan (Persian literature)
Classmates: ? Amir-Mo'ezzi, ? Dara, Mehrdad Dastouri, Hamid Jalalzadeh
Web site: http://my.alborzi.com/

Tehran University's Faculty of Engineering (Daneshkadeh-ye Fanni) Faculty of Engineering, Tehran University
Professors: [This list is being updated as part of the 1968 graduates' 50th anniversary reunion in Yerevan, Armenia] Dr. Jamal Assar (calculus), Mr. ? Emami (math discussion sessions), Dr. ? Ghajar-Rahimi (electronics), Eng. Morteza Ghassemi (chemistry), ? Ghazvinian (heat transfer), Dr. Khosro Karimpanahi (strain analysis), Eng. Moussa Khayyer (Riazi's assistant), Dr. Miri (power distribution), Dr. Mohammadi (lighting and high-voltage lab), Dr. Mohammad-Ali Mojtahedi (advanced calculus; memoirs; Video), ? Mokhatab-Rafiee (turbines and pumps), Dr. ? Morshed (antennas; HF transmission lines; computer programming), Dr. ? Moshiri (electrical machine design), Eng. Karim Nikoo (machine tools; internal combustion and jet engines), Dr. ? Nili (digital electronics), Dr. Mojtaba Riazi (mechanics), Dr. Ahmad Sadat-Aghili (analytic geometry), ? Sadat-Mansouri (?), Dr. Saffari (heat and light physics), Eng. ? Salemi (elctricity, magnetism, and circuits), Dr. Mohammad-Hadi Shafieeha (Sadat Aghili's assistant; info/photo), Dr. Hassan Shamsi (industrial electronics), Eng. ? Soltani (power generation), Dr. Kamal Taba (feedback control), Eng. ? Tad (strength of materials), Dr. Firooz Tarbiat (hydrolics), Dr. ? Yalda (chemistry), Eng. Mohammad Zanganeh (electrical lighting), Eng. Parviz Zoueshtiagh (high-voltage transmission)
Classmates: [PDF photo album] Hamid (Khan) Afshar, Reza Agahi, Bijan Aghdaie, Ahamad Asfia, ? Bahmanpour, Heshmatollah Beheshti-Zavarei, Elias Berelian, Khalil Dana, Mehrdad Dastouri, Faramarz Davarian, Hossein Eghtesadi, Farrokh Elmieh, Nematollah Enayati (RIP), Sirous Fakhr-Yasseri, Mohammad-Reza Fatemi-Ghomi (RIP), Mohammad Ferdowsi, Hossein Fesharaki, Assadollah Foroughian, Mohammad-Reza Fouladgar, Assadollah Garroussi, Morteza Ghassemi, Morteza Ghassemi, Yousef Ghorbanian, Javad Jamali, Mostafa Joharifard, Abbasali Katiraei, Issa Khayyer-Habibollahi (RIP), Ali Kolahdouz-Esfahani, Mohammad-Hossein Kourang-Boroujerdi, Parviz Mahmoudzadeh, Ahmad Maleki-Sharifi, Reza Manouchehri-Naeini (RIP), Mohammad-Hossein Massoudi, Mohammad Moddarres-Yazdi, Nasser Mohajerani (RIP), Mohammad-Reza Mohazzab, Sohrab Moradi, Faramarz Nassiri, Behrooz Parhami, Mohammad-Javad Peyrovian, Kamboozia Pezeshk-Najafi, Javad Pourjabbar, Mahmoud Pourmansouri, Parviz Rafiee-Nejad (RIP), Bijan Ra'iyyati, Mahmoud Razmjouyan (RIP), Servat Rostamkhani, Farrokh Saedi, Homayoun Saffarian, Siamak Salehi-Lorestani, Youssef Salimpour, Morteza (Mort) Shayegan, Morteza Shole', Naji Shomas, Hormoz Teymoorian, Alexander Thomasian, Hassanali Vahhabi, Ali Zamani, Mohammad-Reza Zare', Assaddollah Zargarbashi
Fiftieth Anniversary Reunion of classmates in Yerevan, July 14-18, 2018: Reunion page; Group photo
Contemporaries from other majors: Mohammad Arfa'e Tabib, Sirous Fakhr-Yasseri, Homayoon Heshmati, Hamid Jalalzadeh (RIP), Hassan Kharrazi, Farhad Mossavat

Oregon State University, Memorial Union

Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA
Professors: Harry Goheen (theory of computation), Robert A. Short (digital logic), Louis Stone (real-time systems)
Contemporaries: Gerald Dills

Univ. California Los Angeles (UCLA) UCLA Royce Hall
Professors: Algirdas Avizienis (computer arithmetic, fault tolerance), Bertram Bussell, Alfonso F. Cardenas (data bases), Jack Carlyle (theory of computation), Wesley Chu, Gerald Estrin (computer systems), Walter Karplus, Leonard Kleinrock (computer networks), Allen Klinger, David F. Martin (automata theory), Michel A. Melkanoff (programming languages), Richard R. Muntz (performance evaluation), Judea Pearl, Gerald J. Popek, Jacques Vidal
Contemporaries: Vinton G. Cerf, Javad Dorosti, David A. Patterson, Alexander Thomasian, Mickey Vineberg

Sharif Univ. of Technology, Mojtahedi Bldg.

Sharif (formerly Arya-Mehr) Univ. Technology, Tehran
Departmental colleagues: Mohammad-Javad Ashjaee, Mohammad Ghodsi, Gholamhossein Hamedani, Ali-Akbar Jafarian, Fahimeh Jalili, Behrokh Khoshnevis, Mohammad Mahdavi-Hazavehi, Farhad Mavaddat, Bahman Mehri, Abolghassem Miamee, Armen Nahapetian, Mohammad Reza Nouri-Moghaddam, Jamshid Parvizi, Gholam-Ali Semsarzadeh, Dariush Shademan, Boroumand Shahdad, Siavash Shahshahani
Colleagues at other departments: Bijan Aalaami, Verej Anjargholi, Ali Dabiri, Shahab E'temad, Fredun Hojabri, Mohammad Modarres, Mahmood Nahvi, Mahmood Tabandeh

Hobbies

Mathematical recreations: Details forthcoming.
Word puzzles: Details forthcoming.
Reading: List of books read/heard appears in Professor Parhami's personal blog.

Likes and Dislikes

Most favorite people: Those who carefully thread between trust and cynicism, using each where it benefits others.
Least favorite people: Those who blame others for their failures or claim all the credit for their successes.