About Me

Hello everyone, welcome to my website!

My name is Donya, I am a Ph.D. candidate at TTIC where I am fortunate to be advised by Avrim Blum. My research primarily focuses on the theory of robustness, reliability, and explainability of predictions under adversarial attacks. When I'm not thinking about very concrete research questions, I like philosophizing about the [not so well defined] higher-level related concepts, such as [the meaning of] trust and safety.

I am naturally curious about the world around me and very enthusiastic about math! and as one once said, "Beautiful math tends to be useful, and useful things tend to have beautiful math." It didn't take me so long to realize understanding theoretical aspects of problems, particularly in Machine Learning, is a genuine delight to me.

"The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers," and I would be lying if I said I was patient enough during my undergrad. I worked as an intern in different places, from the Sharif University of Technology, Iran, to the Max Planck Institute, Germany, and the University of Texas at Austin, USA. I had the opportunity to get to know fantastic people from all around the world, work with them, and learn from them, resulting in a paper accepted in ICML 2021 Self Supervised Learning Workshop, with an extension accepted in NetSci-X 2022. I was fortunate to work on my Bachelor's Thesis under the supervision of Prof. Keshav Pingali from the University of Texas at Austin. I am the first Bachelor student in my university who has officially done her thesis internationally.

Education

 Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA
Sept. 2024—Sept. 2028 (Expected)
Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA
Sept. 2022— June 2024
M.Sc. in Computer Science
University of Tehran, Iran
Sept. 2017—July 2022
B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering—Communications
GPA: Final year: 19.58/20.00
Minor in Computer Engineering
Farzanegan High School, Iran
Sept. 2013—Jun. 2017
Diploma in Mathematics and Physics' Discipline
GPA: 20.00/20.00

Publications

Research Experience

 Research Intern, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems
Supervisor: Prof. Peter Benner
Aug. 2021—Oct. 2021
Research Intern, Intelligent Software Systems (ISS), University of Texas at Austin
Supervisor: Prof. Keshav Pingali
Feb. 2021—Aug. 2021
Research Intern, Medical Imaging Lab, Sharif University of Technology
Supervisor: Prof. Mohammad Hossein Rohban
Sept. 2020—Nov. 2020
Summer Intern, Data Science & Machine Learning Lab (DML), Sharif University of Technology
Supervisor: Prof. Hamid R. Rabiee
Summer 2020

Teaching Experience

 Graduate Teaching Assistant, TTIC/The University of Chicago
  • Winter 2024
    Introduction to Machine Learning, Prof. Nati Srebro
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, University of Tehran
  • Spring 2021
    Communication Systems, Prof. Sadaf Salehkalaibar
  • Fall 2020
    Probability and Statistics, Prof. Amir Masoud Rabiei
    Probability and Statistics, Prof. Behnam Bahrak
  • Spring 2020
    Electromagnetics, Prof. Mohammad Neshat
    Electronics I, Prof. Mohammadreza Kolahdouz
  • Fall 2019
    Digital Logic Design, Prof. Zainalabedin Navabi
    Signals and Systems, Prof. Mohammad Ali akhaee
  • Fall 2018
    Introduction to Computing Systems & Programming[Grading TA], Prof. Mahmoud Reza Hashemi

Skills

 Programming Languages
  • C/C++, Python, Matlab, LaTex
  • R, HTML, CSS, Verilog/System Verilog
Engineering Softwares & Platforms:
  • Machine Learning Libraries: Scikit-learn, SciPy, NetworkX, CVX
    Familiar with: TensorFlow, Pytorch
  • PSpice, MultiSim, Modelsim, Quartus, Mathematica

Foreign languages

 English, TOEFL iBT
Total: 114, Reading: 28, Listening: 30, Speaking: 30, Writing: 26
Apr. 2021
German, B2

Honors and Awards
  • Ranked 182 nationawide out of over 500,000 participants in B.Sc. Entrance Exam in Iran, Konkour
    Nov. 2017

Contact

Email: Address:
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
    University of Tehran