Ramin Gharakhanzadeh joined the Center for Natural Language Processing (CNLP) as a research software developer late last year. As he gets accustomed to his new role, Gharakhanzadeh is helping to create and develop search tools and information retrieval systems for CNLP’s business, security, commerce, and education clients.
Gharakhanzadeh was initially attracted to the CNLP because of its language focus. Learning languages comes easily to him, and he speaks four different languages. He is excited to be melding his passion for language with his professional background in information technology.
During his 15-year career, Gharakhanzadeh has held a number of IT positions in the banking, software, pharmaceutical, and consulting industries. Most recently, he was a technical specialist with the Norwood, Massachusetts-based office of a consulting firm called The Revere Group (an NTT Data Company). In his time with the Revere Group, he designed and developed an application programming interface for K12.com; he worked as a project manager and system architect on a risk management application for Travelers Insurance company; he designed, developed, and deployed an automated credit card processing solution for PeopleSoft at ViaCell Incorporated; and he performed analysis, design, coding, testing, and troubleshooting for Mitsubishi UFJ financial group’s U.S. web site.
Gharakhanzadeh has also worked as a senior developer/analyst for the Bank of New York, an IT specialist at PPD Discovery, and a technical consultant for Portal Software (now Oracle BRM).
“I’m enjoying my new position,” Gharakhanzadeh says of his CNLP job. “I love it. I’m not very patient. I want to know everything, and it’s not possible to learn everything in just a few months.”
Gharakhanzadeh says his short-term goal is to learn as much about natural language processing as he possibly can. “I don’t work with spoken language, I work with text,” he explains. He wants to broaden his understanding of the software capabilities of human-like language understanding.
Gharakhanzadeh is originally from Tehran, Iran. He earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. He holds several Microsoft certifications: He is a Microsoft Certified Small Business Specialist, a Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Professional, and a Microsoft Certified Professional. Gharakhanzadeh lives with his wife and children in Syracuse, N.Y.