MNA � Iranian computer science student Amir-Hossein Karimi had already worked as a software engineer at Facebook, BlackBerry and even founded a startup when he realized he wanted to go back to school.







After graduating from the University of Toronto, Karimi spent two years in industry and co-founded Brizi, one of a handful of teams selected nationally to take part in Canada�s Next 36 Entrepreneurship Institute. In his final year as a master�s student, Karimi was a Scientist in Residence at Next AI, a Toronto-based incubator, where he consulted a new generation of entrepreneurs.

This week, Karimi was�awarded the Alumni Gold Medal for Outstanding Academic Performance in a Master�s Program at Waterloo�s convocation ceremonies.

�I missed math. As a software engineer, I had a great job...I enjoyed the types of projects and technologies I was working with, but the studying math part, which I geeked out on, that was missing,� said Karimi. �And coming back to school, to the University of Waterloo, and especially the computer science program, was the perfect place to be for something like that.�

Even with his love of math, the decision to return to his studies did not come without its challenges. The stark contrast between industry and academia � in both an economic and scholastic sense � warranted some major adjustments. Despite these challenges, Karimi gained valuable experience while working alongside fellow graduate students and world-class instructors, such as Ali Ghodsi, a professor in Waterloo�s Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science and Alexander Wong, a professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering.

Currently, Karimi is pursuing his PhD�at the Max Planck ETH Centre for Learning Systems in Germany. While participating in research and expanding his horizons, Karimi hopes his work will have a great impact on the understanding of human and computer intelligence.

�I just want to have an intelligence-themed career,� said Karimi. �Whether that�s consulting intelligence-based startups, or doing research in AI�and cognitive science, or anything else.�