The singing software engineer

Saeid Manhooei enjoys singing for his friends. At the recent Computer Science holiday party, he drew great laughter and applause for the popular song he performed with new words describing his MUM classroom experiences.

Saeid's talents extend to his professional life. After growing up in Iran, he went to Malaysia where he majored in software engineering while earning his Bachelor's degree there. Upon graduation, Saeid quickly became head of a web developer team at Microsoft--instructing in the use of technologies such as Silverlight and Sharepoint. After some time, he decided to pursue graduate study in order to improve his life. As Saeid puts it, "An individual should enrich all aspects of his life in order to find greater happiness and fulfillment. Education should guide a person to be wiser, and put him in a cycle of refinement and development."

One of his friends at Microsoft, a graduate of the MUM Computer Professionals MSCS program, suggested MUM for graduate study. Even though he also received acceptance from two prestigious Big 12 universities in the US, Saeid chose MUM. He liked the concept of studying one course at a time, and was intrigued by the idea of learning a scientific meditation technique for developing total brain potential and reducing stress.

"I used to have so much stress back in college--tight deadlines for projects, and handling several subjects at the same time was so stressful. But thanks to the block system, I can concentrate on a single subject and dedicate my whole time to it. Meditation is also another factor for me to release stress and have a clearer mind. We have a great combination of science and social life at MUM. I find the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique is a great thing. It is easy to do, and I will take the benefits from it for the rest of my life."

Saeid advises computer science students looking for an MS program, "The goal of education is to make a man knowledgeable, but the knowledge shouldn't be limited to your major field of study. Different aspects of life should be evenly fulfilled. For a system to work properly, all components should work properly and be in harmony. What you can experience and learn at MUM is not just computer science, you gain the knowledge and experience that every single individual should have to fulfill his/her life--an experience that you can carry the rest of your life."