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Ph.D. Research Rotation — [Prof. Jun Tani](https://www.oist.jp/research/research-units/cnru/jun-tani)

[Cognitive Neurorobotics Research Unit](https://www.oist.jp/research/research-units/cnru), OIST

Developed a reproducible evolutionary-developmental extension of Curiosity-driven development of action and language in robots through self-exploration (Tinker, Doya, and Tani, 2026), evolving a compact meta-controller to regulate exploration and lifetime learning.

Ph.D. Research Rotation — [Prof. Tomoki Fukai](https://www.oist.jp/research/research-units/ncbc/tomoki-fukai)

[Neural Coding and Brain Computing Unit](https://www.oist.jp/research/research-units/ncbc), OIST

Investigated how short-term synaptic plasticity and recurrent connectivity support dynamic persistent activity and temporal associative-memory sequences, extending Theory of Coupled Neuronal–Synaptic Dynamics (Clark and Abbott, 2024) and Extended Temporal Association Memory by Modulations of Inhibitory Circuits (Haga and Fukai, 2019) in rate and spiking-network simulations.

Ph.D. Research Rotation — [Prof. Kenji Doya](https://www.oist.jp/research/research-units/ncu/kenji-doya)

[Neural Computation Unit](https://www.oist.jp/research/research-units/ncu), OIST

Developed a spiking basal-ganglia model of dopamine-modulated plasticity to study synaptic credit assignment and circuit-level temporal-difference learning, building on A Hardwired Neural Circuit for Temporal-Difference Learning (Campbell et al., 2025); presented this work at the Winter Workshop 2026 on Mechanism of Brain and Mind.

Remote Research Collaborator — [Prof. Geoffrey Goodhill](https://neuroscience.wustl.edu/people/geoffrey-goodhill-phd/) and Daniel Zavitz

[Goodhill Lab](https://www.goodhill.org/), Washington University in St. Louis

Investigated how excitatory–inhibitory imbalance in recurrent-network models can inform computational accounts of psychiatric disorders. Admitted to Washington University’s Systems Science and Mathematics Ph.D. program to join the lab; enrollment was precluded by the June 2025 U.S. visa suspension.

Research Assistant — [Prof. Shervin Safavi](https://www.digs-bb.de/research/research-groups/shervin-safavi)

[Computational Machinery of Cognition Lab, TU Dresden](https://shervinsafavi.github.io/cmclab/)

Investigated how recurrent neural network architectures shape internal dynamics across cognitive tasks from the NeuroGym library. Trained recurrent models with different architectures and compared their state-space dynamics using empirical dynamic modeling (EDM), methods based on the generalized Takens theorem, and dynamical similarity analysis (DSA).

B.Sc. Thesis Researcher — [Prof. Mohammadreza Abolghasemi](https://profile.ut.ac.ir/en/~dehaqani); co-supervised by [Prof. Timothée Masquelier](https://cerco.cnrs.fr/pagesp/tim/index.lab.htm)

[Convergent Technologies Research Institute, University of Tehran](https://nbic.ut.ac.ir/) / [CNRS](https://cerco.cnrs.fr/)

Investigated delay learning in convolutional spiking neural networks using surrogate-gradient learning. Implemented learnable axonal, dendritic, and synaptic delays using dilated convolution with learnable spacings (DCLS) in ResNet-18-based spiking architectures for event-based datasets. Implemented selected components using Numba CUDA to gain hands-on experience with GPU programming and custom CUDA kernels.

Data Scientist

[Tapsi](https://tapsi.ir/en)

Helped establish a new data science team, applying deep-learning and generative-AI methods to improve customer experience on an online ride-hailing platform. Designed and implemented scalable recommender-system solutions for Tapsi’s products.

Research Assistant — [Prof. Azadeh Shakery](https://profile.ut.ac.ir/en/~shakery)

[School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran](https://ece.ut.ac.ir/en/ece)

Investigated graph-based approaches to hate-speech detection, with the goal of explicitly exploiting structural relationships between tokens rather than relying solely on sequence modeling with transformer architectures. Applied graph convolutional neural networks to text representations, and explored hybrid approaches combining graph-based modeling with BERT.

Ph.D. Program

[Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST)](https://www.oist.jp/)

• Thesis Research Unit: Machine Learning and Data Science Unit
• Supervisor: Prof. Makoto Yamada; Co-supervisor: Prof. Kenji Doya (Neural Computation Unit)
• Selected Coursework: Dynamical Systems, Cognitive Neurorobotics, Sensory Systems, Nonlinear Time Series Analysis and Manifold Learning

B.Sc. in Computer Engineering

[School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran](https://ece.ut.ac.ir/en/)

• GPA: 19.47/20 (4.0/4.0), Faculty Average: 15.01/20
• B.Sc. Thesis: “Using Spiking Neural Network Structures for Representing Audio and Image Feature Spaces”

Fast Dynamical Similarity Analysis

arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.22828. Under journal review

Heterogeneous Effect of Input and Task-optimization on the Dynamics of RNNs

Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN) 2025. *Equal contribution

[CCN 2025 Travel Award ($500)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ss78JnpSzyoujFWKYeA7dixdmJAfR1Yo/view?usp=sharing)

[Cognitive Computational Neuroscience Conference](https://2025.ccneuro.org/)

[Best data analysis project](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1by8q7j_CtWgrDgnzkCsSsvYn5PsepWVu/view?usp=sharing)

[BR41N.IO Hackathon](https://www.br41n.io/Spring-School-2024)

Ranked 1st among bachelor students of the Computer Engineering

University of Tehran

Ranked 96 (Top 0.1%) in National University Entrance Exam

National Organization of Educational Testing (NOET)

Received scholarship

Supporter Foundation of the University of Tehran