Hello, I'm

Maksad

I'm a good friend who had to stretch hard to be seen. Along the way I became competitive and a problem solver, and now, with everything around me changed, I'm finding myself again, among people who share friendship and kindness.

مقصد My name means destination in both Persian and Turkmen. Most of my life has been about the journey.

Read my story Get in touch

Vancouver, BC
M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering
Data & BI Engineer

6cities I've lived in, from Bandar-e Torkaman to Vancouver

3 yrsdeveloping a new control method for a surgical robot

7+ yrsin data science, data engineering & BI

4industries: energy, oil & gas, telecom, mining

Top 1%nationwide in Iran's Konkoor university entrance exam

Who I am

What I carry with me.

Six cities, two countries and many changes later, a few things have stayed with me the whole way.

Ambition over origin

I was born somewhere most people never notice. Every sleepless night since then has taught me that ambition matters more than where you start.

Curiosity & adventure

One of the biggest forces inside me. It keeps me learning, and it keeps me saying yes to new places and new people.

Courage to take the next step

Leaving home and starting over in new cities and a new country was never easy. I keep choosing the next step anyway.

Joy in every moment

Whatever life brings, I try to stay happy in the moment. Music and dance have been my way of doing that since I was a child.

My story

Born in a blind spot.
Driven by curiosity.

I was born in Bandar-e Torkaman, a small port town on the Caspian coast in the north of Iran, and grew up in its Turkmen community. Most Iranians have heard the name, but few really know it: it has its own rare language and culture, and it sits in the blind spot of the whole country.

Where it started

Bandar-e Torkaman

Where I learned rhythm from my father and courage from my mother, and where I first started imagining a much bigger world.
Along the way

Gorgan
Along the way

Babol
Where I proved myself

Tehran

Ranking in the top 1% of the Konkoor exam opened the door. This is where my career took shape, and where I learned that ambition matters more than where you start.
Along the way

Montreal
Where I am now

Vancouver

The same urge for adventure brought me across the world. A new city, new friends, and the same hunger to build and to grow.

“There were many steps in between, and many nights without sleep, spent proving to myself how valuable I can be. Being born in ‘nowhere’ doesn't matter. Ambition is what carries you toward what you imagine.”

Career

From fluid dynamics to data.

The thread through everything I've done is solving problems. I started with physics, then moved to robots, and now I do it with data.

Education
B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering

Focus: fluid dynamics

I was fascinated by cooling systems and did a number of research projects on them, studying how heat and fluids move and how to control them.
- Fluid dynamics
- Heat transfer
- Cooling systems
- Research
Internship
Neka Power Plant

One of the most important power plants in Iran

I went there to see how energy is generated at scale and how theory turns into turbines, boilers and the power grid.
- Power generation
- Thermodynamics
- Energy systems
Research · 3 years
M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, Applied Design

Control system of a craniotomy surgical robot

My love of robotics led me to spend three years on the control system of a craniotomy surgical robot, where I developed a new control method. It's also where I was drawn to data and machine learning: at the time, even computing the forward kinematics the conventional way was hard.
- Control systems
- Robotics
- Kinematics
- Machine learning
- Data analysis
2 years
Data Scientist & Data Engineer

Oil & gas industry

After three years of control systems and data analysis, I found myself working full-time with data: building pipelines and models for one of the most demanding industries out there.
- Data science
- Data engineering
- Oil & gas
2 years
Business Intelligence Engineer

Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI)

At Iran's national telecom provider I worked with data at massive scale, turning it into insight that people could actually use to make decisions.
- Business intelligence
- Data warehousing
- Telecom
Now · 3+ years
Rigid Robotics

Mining industry

I'm thrilled to be somewhere I can put everything I've learned to work. Mechanics, robotics, control, data and BI all come together here, serving the mining industry.
- Mining
- Robotics
- Data
- Business intelligence

Engineering

Fluid dynamics & heat transfer
Mechanical design
Robot kinematics
Control systems

Data & AI

Data analysis
Machine learning
Data pipelines
Data modeling

Business Intelligence

Dashboards & reporting
Data warehousing
KPIs & metrics
Data storytelling

Life

Beyond the résumé.

The things that keep me curious, grounded and moving.

Building

Mechanical designs, robot controllers, data pipelines, and even the servers I run myself. I'm happiest when an idea turns into something real that works.

Teaching

Throughout my education I taught many subjects to students from primary school to high school. Physics was the boldest part. That's where I felt my mind at its most powerful.

Writing

I've written many short stories, anywhere I could. My dream is to find my voice in this new culture, bring my values with me, and become a good writer here too.

Dancing

Dance is an indisputable part of my life. My whole family is blended with music and dance, and the control I have over my body comes from those early days.

Soccer

The game where my competitive side comes out the most: teamwork, strategy and a lot of running.

Bouldering

Every wall is a puzzle. Bouldering combines the two things I love most: solving problems and controlling my body.

From my father

Rhythm & joy

“I remember my childhood, and how my father led us to move our bodies and be happy in every moment of our lives.”

From my mother

Courage & adventure

“My curiosity comes from my mother's family, the place where people end up with the weirdest endings. The courage she gave our family is always beside me, and I can feel it vividly.”

Friends

My most valuable wealth.

I love my friends, and I try to be the kind of friend everyone deserves. Starting over in a new country comes with plenty of barriers, and I'm still thrilled by how many friends I've found here in such a short time.

In Farsi I'm a confident communicator and writer. Now I'm bringing that same depth to new friendships, in a new language and a new culture.