Parinaz Naghizadeh
2025 URH Faculty Mentor Award Recipient
Please tell us a bit about your educational background and current research.
I received a BSc in Electrical Engineering at Sharif University in Iran. I then attended the University of Michigan, where I received MSc degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied Mathematics, and a PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. My research these days is on incorporating analytical models of human decision making in the design of socio-technical networks and AI, often with a focus on balancing economic goals (performance, robustness) and societal considerations (fairness, explainability, and safety).
Did you do research as an undergraduate student? How did you get started in your current field?
I had one research experience as an undergraduate student in my senior year. My current field is not related to that research direction, but it is aligned with the research directions I was introduced to during my PhD, coupled with others I explored after starting my own academic career (often with the help of collaborators). That said, the undergraduate research experience did give me a sense of what doing research would be like, and a realization that I enjoyed the thrill of having a numerical experiment or a mathematical model yield the result we had conjectured it would.
Who are some of your most memorable mentors? How did you meet them?
I've been lucky to have had many supportive mentors in my academic career, who've all been generous with their time and knowledge. I've learned immensely from my PhD advisor Dr. Mingyan Liu (and still do!), and also from my postdoc advisor Dr. Mung Chiang. My mentees are probably by now used to me quoting my mentors on a variety of things, so I'd say what they've thought me (explicitly and implicitly) has and will continue to shape who I am as a researcher and as a mentor.
Why do you enjoy being a mentor?
The joy of learning and discovering things together.
What is the most useful piece of advice a mentor gave you?
It is hard to pick one most useful one. One I think about often these days is "work on research you enjoy", meaning don't pick new research directions just because they are popular, and beware of how external factors (funding, promotion, visibility, etc.) may shape your research away from what you find worthwhile and enjoy.