---
type: Article
title: My Journey from Bushehr to Leiden
description: Reflections on my academic path from Bushehr to the Netherlands.
resource: https://roozbeh.nl/blog/academic-journey/
tags:
  - personal
  - academia
generated:
  by: process:roozbeh.nl/astro-build
  at: 2026-09-06T00:00:00Z
status: stable
sources:
  - id: page
    resource: https://roozbeh.nl/blog/academic-journey/
    title: Published note
    author: human:roozbeh
  - id: relief
    resource: https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2023.3240007
    title: "ReLIEF: A Reinforcement-Learning-Based Real-Time Task Assignment Strategy in Emerging Fault-Tolerant Fog Computing"
author: Roozbeh Siyadatzadeh
published: 2024-07-18
updated: 2026-09-06
---

# My Journey from Bushehr to Leiden

## Robotics and Competition

<!-- School-stage chronology corrected by the author on 2026-09-06. -->
During elementary school and high school, before starting my bachelor's degree, I was already drawn to the intersection of hardware and software. My early projects included a firefighting robot. We placed first in a provincial competition and also competed nationally.

Those robotics competitions taught me lessons no classroom could:

- **Debugging under pressure**: Your robot must work when the judges are watching
- **Resource constraints**: Limited budget, limited time, unlimited creativity
- **Teamwork**: Hardware and software must work together

## The Beginning: Bushehr (2016-2020)

I started my academic journey at Persian Gulf University in Bushehr, a coastal city on the Persian Gulf. The computer engineering program there gave me my first taste of:

- Digital circuit design
- Programming fundamentals
- Neural networks (which would become a recurring theme)

## Sharif University: The Turning Point (2020-2022)

Getting into Sharif University's computer architecture program was a dream come true. The Embedded Systems Research Laboratory (ESRLab) became my second home.

Under Prof. Ejlali's guidance, I dove deep into:

```
Research Areas @ ESRLab:
├── Real-time systems
├── Fault tolerance
├── Energy efficiency
└── Reinforcement learning for embedded systems
```

My master's thesis on reinforcement learning for fog computing opened doors I didn't know existed. The resulting paper, [ReLIEF](https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2023.3240007), was published in the IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

## The PhD Decision

Choosing to pursue a PhD meant leaving everything familiar. Then the opportunity at Leiden University came up: working on hardware security with Prof. Mentens and Dr. Stefanov.

The [NeuroSoC project](https://neurosoc.eu/) combines everything I care about:
- Hardware design (SoC architecture)
- Machine learning (neural network accelerators)
- Security (protecting AI systems)

## Life in the Netherlands

Moving to Leiden has been an adventure:

**Challenges:**
- Learning Dutch (still working on it: B1 level)
- Biking in all weather (including sideways rain)

**Rewards:**
- World-class research environment
- International collaboration
- Leiden is an amazing, beautiful historic city

## Advice for the Journey

If you're considering a similar path:

1. **Build a strong foundation**: Those undergrad courses matter more than you think

2. **Find good mentors**: I've been fortunate with mine at every stage

3. **Say yes to opportunities**: Even the scary ones

4. **Publish, but also build**: Theory and practice reinforce each other

5. **Stay curious**: The best research comes from genuine interest. As Steve Jobs said, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

## What's Next?

As of this 2026 update, I am continuing my PhD at Leiden University and focusing on physical security for embedded AI and analog in-memory-computing systems.

I am especially interested in roles where computer architecture, embedded machine learning, and hardware security meet. What matters to me is doing technically rigorous work that can move from an idea to a system that can be measured and trusted.

---

*Thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out if you're on a similar journey - I'm always happy to chat.*

[Email me](mailto:s.r.siyadatzadeh@liacs.leidenuniv.nl) or see my [Leiden University profile](https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/roozbeh-siyadatzadeh).


# Related publications

* [ReLIEF: A Reinforcement-Learning-Based Real-Time Task Assignment Strategy in Emerging Fault-Tolerant Fog Computing](../publications/relief-rl-task-assignment-fog.md)

Author record: [Roozbeh Siyadatzadeh](../person/roozbeh-siyadatzadeh.md).