2025 — present
Ph.D., Computer Engineering
University of Southern California
Distributed systems, operating systems, and computer networks.
guest@pashabarahimi:~$
Pasha Barahimi
PhD Student, Computer Engineering — Distributed Systems / Networks
I'm a Computer Engineering PhD student at the University of Southern California, working on distributed systems, operating systems and computer networks. I picked up programming in high school and it turned into a degree — I finished my B.Sc. at the University of Tehran ranked first in my class. Along the way I've done model checking for concurrent programs at MPI-SWS, symbolic execution over Ethereum smart contracts at the University of Toronto, and cloud infrastructure and payments work in industry.
↓ cv.pdf02 — education
Education
2020 — 2025
B.Sc., Computer Engineering
University of Tehran, School of ECE
GPA 19.39/20 (4.0/4.0) — ranked 1st among ~90 students. Thesis on analyzing Ethereum transactions in decentralized exchanges.
03 — experience
Work Experience
Software Engineer — Okala
Jan 2025 — Dec 2025
- Contributed to the platform's payment system.
- Implemented efficient algorithms to meet the real-time requirements of the system.
Bachelor's Thesis — University of Tehran — Prof. Seyed Pooya Shariatpanahi
Oct 2024 — 2025
- Analyzed Ethereum transactions in decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
- Detected anomalies and optimized token portfolios to maximize profit.
Research Intern — University of Toronto (Remote) — Prof. Fan Long
Aug 2024 — Sep 2024
- Developed an efficient Rust algorithm for the Heimdall toolkit to detect self-reverting storage slots — reentrancy guards and cache slots — helping prevent reentrancy vulnerabilities.
- Solved the symbolic-execution problem of unknown storage values being interpreted as zero by supplying initial slot values to the engine.
- Results contributed to "Enforcing Control Flow Integrity on DeFi Smart Contracts".
Research Intern — Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) — Prof. Rupak Majumdar
Jul 2023 — Sep 2023
- Contributed to implementing the TruSt dynamic partial-order reduction algorithm inside Lincheck, a model-checking tool for concurrent data structures on the JVM.
- Documented the challenge of uniquely identifying shared objects under garbage collection, along with possible solutions.
Junior Software Engineer (Part-Time) — Sotoon
Oct 2022 — Jan 2024
- Contributed to Sotoon's cloud infrastructure and services across three teams.
- Database team: completed mentorship, gaining skills in Kubernetes controllers and PostgreSQL management.
- Security team: maintained and improved HuskyCI, a security test orchestrator, and contributed to the bug-bounty backend.
- Integration team: developed features for the Announcer backend — automated announcements for Zoho, Slack and email — and improved the IAM service.
SRE Intern (Full-Time) — Sotoon
Jun 2022 — Sep 2022
- Implemented an API gateway, optimizing service interactions and improving scalability.
- Worked with Git, Docker, Kubernetes, Redis, Prometheus, Grafana, Makefile and Ansible.
04 — teaching
Teaching Experience
Fall 2024
Head Teaching Assistant — Introduction to Software Testing
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Ehsan Khamespanah. TA and gradesheet management, computer assignment development and grading, exam grading.
Fall 2023 — Spring 2024
Head Teaching Assistant — Advanced Programming
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Ramtin Khosravi. TA management, planning and running TA sessions and meetings, judge script development, exam grading.
Spring 2023 — Spring 2024
Teaching Assistant — Artificial Intelligence
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Yadollah Yaghoobzadeh and Dr. Hakimeh Fadaei. Quiz, homework and computer assignment development and grading, across three semesters.
Spring 2024
Teaching Assistant — Systems Analysis and Design
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Ramtin Khosravi. Mentoring and assignment grading.
Fall 2022 — Fall 2023
Teaching Assistant — Machines and Language Theory
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Hossein Hojjat. Homework development and grading, across three semesters.
Fall 2022 — Fall 2023
Teaching Assistant — Algorithm Design
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Mohammad Javad Dousti. Homework and computer assignment development, exam grading, troubleshooting sessions.
Spring 2022 — Spring 2023
Teaching Assistant — Advanced Programming
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Ramtin Khosravi. Computer assignment development and grading, exam grading, across three semesters.
Fall 2022
Teaching Assistant — Data Structures and Algorithms
University of Tehran, School of ECE
Prof. Heshaam Faili. Quiz development.