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Hossein Kaffash Bokharaei

M.Sc. Candidate


As an elementary school student in the Iranian city of Mashhad, Hossein discovered he had a knack for programming. "When I entered high school," he comments, "I was sure I wanted to continue my studies in Computer Engineering (which is quite similar to Computer Science in Canada)." Hossein had such an aptitude for programming that, after winning a number of medals in distinguished national and international Informatics olympiads, he was allowed to enter Sharif University of Technology in Computer Engineering - without taking a national entrance exam.

 

Although Hossein considered a number of schools in North America, he chose to continue his CS studies at DCS. He shares: "I chose the UofT program for two important reasons. First, the great faculty members here; most of them have received their degrees from the topmost universities in North America. I am working in the area of Systems and Networking, and my advisor, Yashar Ganjali, is working on applied fields of networking that deal with real problems from industry." Hossein continues, "the second reason I chose UofT is that it is a great place for international students. I was surprised when I saw the great support for international students here; I think anybody with any culture, background and religion can live here easily." He adds, "Another interesting thing about the Systems and Networking group is that all of the faculty members are from different countries around the world!"

 

When asked about what he's working on now, Hossein shares, "since I am a new graduate student, I had to take courses this semester... but I have just started a research project about spam detection techniques in VoIP." He adds, "I think this topic will become a hot topic in the near future- when VoIP becomes cheap enough for spammers."

 

Hossein's advice for prospective grad students could apply to anyone in the field: "choose a topic you are interested in, that makes you excited. I believe if you choose to study the right topic and spend enough time and effort on it, you can make a big change in the world of computer science." With such vision and enthusiasm, this grad student is destined for success. This is particularly apparent when Hossein talks about what he enjoys doing in his spare time: "I really like to spend time with my friends - but I have always enjoyed programming. It makes me feel like I'm creating intelligence out of nothing! It is so satisfying when a program I've written does the right thing."