
WELCOME TO
Hello Peaceful World!
I'M
Atefeh Zareh.
Information Technology Specialist.

Atefeh Zareh.
Ph.D. Researcher in Information Engineering and Computer Science.
University of Trento, Italy.
+(39)3519184484
About
MY BACKGROUND
With a passion for software engineering, software reliability, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, smart contract, and all things information technology, I have both the skill set and professional background necessary to dive deep into the information technology world. As an upbeat, self-motivated team player with excellent communication, I envision an exciting future in the industry. Browse my site to see all that I have to offer.
Education
WHAT I’VE LEARNED

Ph.D. Researcher
Information Engineering and Computer Science
Sept. 2021-(Expected) Apr. 2025
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Thesis: Formal Verification of Smart Contracts
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Tutoring of two courses in the academic year 2022/2023
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GPA: 4/4
Amirkabir University of Technology
Master of Science
Information Technology (Electronic Commerce)
Sept. 2013 - Feb. 2016
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Thesis: Detection of Bitcoin Miner Botnet Using Host-Based Approach
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GPA: 4/4
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3rd top among all graduate students of the grade
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Implementing thesis with c++, Java and Pin Debugger (named BotcoinTrap)
Bachelor of Science
Computer Engineering, Software
Sept. 2005-Sept. 2009
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Thesis: Challenges in VoIP Technology and Corresponding Measures
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GPA: 3.41/4
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Study on DNA-Computing and short-term collaborating with the genetics laboratory
High School Diploma,
Mathematics and Physics Discipline
Sept. 2001-Sept. 2005
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GPA: 4/4
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Participating in Robocop competition with C++ programming language
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Second top rank in the test match of Physics Olympia
Awards
WHERE I SHINE
Doctoral Scholarship, University of Trento, the first rank in unconditionally accepted candidates in the area
Sep. 2021
Ranked 3rd among the class of 2013 in E-Commerce, Amirkabir University of Technology
Feb. 2016
Awarded Tuition-Waiver, Amirkabir University of Technology
Sept. 2013-Feb. 2016
Ranked within the top 0.5% of Iranian University Entrance Exam for a master’s degree in Information Technology (46th among 7685 accepted students)
Aug. 2013
Ranked 4th in Data mining competition for fraud detection, Tosan Intelligent Data Miners Co.
Jan. 7, 2011 - Apr. 9, 2011
Awarded Tuition-Waiver, Kharazmi Univesity
Sept. 2005-Sept. 2009
Second top rank in the test match of Physics Olympia
Sept. 2004
Selected Courses
WHAT I'VE STUDIED
SAT & SMT: A+
Data Structure & Algorithms: A+
Reliable Software Design: A+
Electronic Circuits: A
Artificial Intelligence: A+
Operating System: A
Data Mining: A+
Computer Networks: A
Additionally, I've audited following courses at Amirkabir University of Technology:
Network Protocols
Formal Methods
Game Theory
Publiccation
WHAT I’VE PUBLISHED
[1] A. Z. Chahoki, H. R. Shahriari, and M. Roveri, "CryptojackingTrap: An Evasion Resilient Nature-Inspired Algorithm to Detect Cryptojacking Malware," in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, doi: 10.1109/TIFS.2024.3353072. (link)
[2] A. Z. Chahoki, M. Roveri, D. Amyot, J. Mylopoulos, (2023) Revisiting Formal Verification in VeriSolid: An Analysis and Enhancements. OVERLAY 2023: 5th Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Formal Verification, Logic, Automata, and Synthesis, Rome, Italy, November (link)
[3] A. Zareh and H. R. Shahriari, “BotcoinTrap: Detection of Bitcoin Miner Botnet Using Host-Based Approach” in Information Security and Cryptology (ISCISC), 2018 15th International Iranian Society of Cryptology Conference on, 2018. (link)
[4] A. Z. Chahoki, M. Roveri, D. Amyot, J. Mylopoulos, L. Logrippo, “A Survey on Formal Verification of Smart Contracts” (In preparation)
Our detection algorithm has inspired by The Venus Flytrap. It is a plant that catches its prey with a special trapping leaf. Each of these special leaves consists of a pair of fatal lobes hinged at the midrib. Each lobe has three hairlike trichomes on the upper surface of it. These plant snap lobes shut when they are stimulated with prey. It is vital for the plant to detect the prey correctly. Closing the lobes without any real prey is costly and on the other hand, if the plant doesn’t detect the existence of prey on the trap structure, it loses potential food. This plant uses the most heuristic method to survive. When an insect or spider crawling along with the leaf, contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike.
Selected Academic Projects
WHAT I'VE DONE ACADEMICALLY
CryptojackingTrap
Jan. 2024
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CryptojackingTrap is an open-source comprehensive solution comprising multiple projects designed to identify cryptojacking malware mining any cryptocurrency on affected machines.
E-Commerce System Engineering (named Paradise)
Mar. 2014
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Implemented a real estate website using a Magento (an open-source e-commerce platform)
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Enhanced the Paradise project by adding a Bitcoin payment gateway
Pervasive Project (named Fantastic) Github link
July 2014
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Implemented an android application and a Java-based server in order to conclude the client context (idle/sitting, idle/standing, walking, walking/stairs/down, walking/stairs/up, vehicle/bus, vehicle/car, dancing) based on accelerometer sensor data and using the KNN algorithm.
Supply Chain GitHub link
July 2014
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Modeled a general supply chain from "Supply Chain Configuration, Concepts, Solutions, and Applications, Authors: Chandra, Charu, Grabis, Jānis" book with Lingo and OpenSolver apps.
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Improved the model to support retailing requirements.
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Solved that "Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP)" problem using "Branch and Bound" according to optimize the goal function and pass all constraints.
Business Process Reengineering
Jan. 2015
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Analyzed a business process and modeled it to PetriNet (a mathematical modeling language) using WoPed (Workflow Petrinet Designer) and then assessed several factors of the process (throughput, waiting time, and so on).
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Reengineered the process in order to optimize the factors.
Electronic Payment Systems
July 2015
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Surveyed the selfish-mining in Bitcoin and the countermeasures against it.
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Proposed a new way to stop selfish mining in Bitcoin network.
Workshop & Seminar
WHERE I'VE ATTENDED
Presented “Revisiting Formal Verification in VeriSolid: An Analysis and Enhancements” at the OVERLAY 2023 Workshop, (The presentation video)
Italy, Rome, Nov. 2023
Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design (FMCAD) conference
Italy, Trento, Oct. 2022
14th International Conference on Verified Software: Theories, Tools, and Experiments (VSTTE)
Italy, Trento, Oct. 2022
Presented “formal verification of smart contracts” at 14th Alpine Verification Meeting (AVM)
Germany, Frauenchiemsee, Sep 2022
Relational Leadership, Tosan
Jan 2019
Leading Competencies Assessment, Industrial Management Institute
Aug 2018
Java Spring, Tosan
Apr 2017
Linux workshop, Amirkabir University of Technology
May 14-15, 2015
Information Security Fundamentals, Tosan
Dec 2014
Staff Capacity Building, Industrial Management Institute
Mar 2014
International Patenting and Commercialization, Amirkabir University of Technology
Aug 2013
Fraud detection workshop, IPM
Aug. 9, 2010
Teaching Experience
WHAT I'VE TAUGHT
University Tutor |University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Fall semester, 2022:
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Participatory Design [145459] (public materials)
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Databases [145993] (video in English) (student’s materials)
University Instructor | Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Spring Semester, 2021:
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Database Management Systems Laboratory
Fall Semester, 2014:
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E-Commerce Security Course
University Instructor | Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Fall Semester, 2020:
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Fundamentals of Secure Computing (videos in Persian and English slides)
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Database Management Systems (videos in Persian and English slides)
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Database Management Systems Laboratory (videos in Persian and English slides)
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Software Engineering Laboratory (videos in Persian and English slides)
Teacher Assistant | Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Fall Semester, 2008:
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Data Structures and Algorithms
Spring Semester, 2009:
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Algorithm Design
Industrial & Leadership Experience
WHERE I’VE WORKED
![]() Q&A Seminar | ![]() Code |
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![]() ATM | ![]() White File Folders |
![]() Creative Working | ![]() Top View of Modern Workspace |
![]() Image by Marvin Meyer | ![]() Startup Room |
![]() Workspace | ![]() Young Businesswomen |
![]() UX | ![]() Man Working |
Chaapaar Co., Tehran, Iran
Software Engineer
Nov. 2019 – Mar. 2022
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Software Developer for an email service
Fanap Plus Co., Tehran, Iran
Senior Technical Project Manager
July 2020 – Dec. 2020
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Managed a health project in Iran, named Ditas.
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Ditas is an Enterprise service bus (ESB) providing and managing services of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
Tosan Corp., Tehran, Iran
My involvement in projects has been as follows:
Merchant Management System (MMS)
Software Development Team Leader
Oct. 2018–Present
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Reverse engineered one part of the most important and legacy software solution in Tosan named Negin that has been discontinued for a long time.
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Planed, analyzed, designed, developed and tested in only five months in our team that it has made this project well-known in the company for its significant accomplishment in overcoming a wide variety of ambiguity and agility as well.
Terminal Configuration Switch and Monitoring (Sepanta)
Software Development Team Leader
Oct. 2016–Present
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Analyzed, designed, and developed a TMS (Terminal Management System) for monitoring and configuring banking terminals containing ATMs, POSs, banking kiosks, and any other terminals.
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Implemented a comprehensive communication protocol named Sepanta using Jpos and ISO-8583 between the server and terminals that guarantees the scalability of the solution.
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Guaranteed the safety of communications using SSL.
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Controlled the flow of business activities by Activiti-BPM.
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Used MySQL as the development DB, Oracle as the production DB in Linux servers and DB2 as the production DB in mainframes.
Micropayment Businesses
Researcher
Sept. 2015 – Oct. 2016
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Authorized to evaluate micropayment project proposals due to being reliable and knowledgeable enough to protect Tosan’s profit.
Micropayment Projects Transition
Team Leader
May 2015 – Sept. 2015
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Assigned, coordinated, and reviewed the plans of the back-office side of E-Ticket and E-Purse at Simorq Co, one of the satellite companies of Tosan.
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Participated in staffing and trained colleagues in business and technical aspects.
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Consulted with users, management, vendors, and technicians to determine computing needs and system requirements.
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Conducted trial runs of programs and applications to be sure they would produce the desired information and the instructions were correct.
Clearing and Settlement Project (CS)
Senior Java Developer
Sept. 2010–May 2015
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Participated in the analysis, design, and developing CS project for processing offline payment transactions.
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Developed CS and correspondent projects using JPA, Hibernate, SLF4J, eh-cache, XML-Spy, DOM, SAX, StAX, iReport, EJB, JSP, Servlet, GWT, JAX-WS, JAX-RS, and Oracle.
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Had practical experiences in source controlling with SVN, GIT, and VSS, building projects with Maven and Ant, launching projects with web servers like Tomcat and application servers like Glass-fish, and developing with various IDEs containing NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, My-Eclipse, and JBuilder.
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Performed or directed revisions, repairs, and expansions of the project to increase operating efficiency or adapt to new requirements.
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Tested application using Junit and Data-Driven Tests (DDT) using SpringUnit.
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Corrected errors by making appropriate changes and ensured that the desired results were produced.
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Participated in documenting the development information using UML-based tools containing Power-Designer, Rational-Rose, and Enterprise-Architect.
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Designed and developed transaction processing using Spring-Batch.
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Evaluated the batch processing performance using JProfiler, found improvement areas, enhanced the tps (transactions per second), and prepared benchmarks.
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Handled the business aspects of the project; responded to technical questions and concerns of colleagues and customers such as how to declare new stakeholders, fees, discounts, and new business rules.
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Customized processes and data to adapt to different businesses such as Electronic Ticket, E-Purse, and E-Toll Systems.
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Visited our customers of E-Ticket products in their workplace and got familiar with their challenges by viewing their process to improve our software solution
Douran Smart Software Technologies Co., Tehran, Iran
DOURAN Information Technologies is one of the most successful IT companies in Iran in the field of ERP, Portal, School and VoIP.
Office Automation Systems
Java Developer
June 2010-July 2010
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Developed some parts of the project using GWT, Hibernate and SQL-Server
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Reviewed some existing code and detected voluntarily a series of SQL hijacking vulnerability and reported it to the team leader.
Iran Telecommunication Research Center, Tehran, Iran
ITRC is the Iranian most experienced research entity in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), with more than 46 years of scientific experience in research.
Fixed Communication Group
Internship
July 2009–Oct. 2009
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Researched on Threat of VoIP and countermeasures.
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Worked with different tools such as Wireshark, Cain & Abel.
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Simulated sniffing system by Oreka Software and analyzed its output.


Skills
WHAT I BRING TO THE TABLE
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Analysis & Design
Java & J2EE Development
Software Reliability Analysis
Bitcoin & Other Cryptocurrencies
Artificial Intelligence
Algorithm
Banking & Payment
DEVELOPMENT SKILLS:
Web3: Solidity language, Remix IDE, Ganache
Languages: Java, C#, C++, Fortran, Prolog, Haskel
E-Commerce: Magento, Lingo, OpenSolver, WoPed
Reliability: Acunetix, Cain&Abel
Analysis & Design: UML, Rational Rose, Power Designer, Enterprise Architect, Visio
Simulators: Oreka (Simulated sniffing system), Insel (Integrated Simulation Environment Language)
Spring Frameworks: Spring-Core, Spring-Boot, Spring-Security, Spring-Batch, Spring-Unit, Spring-WebMVC
ISO8583: JPOS
Workflow Engine: Activiti
Scheduling Framework: Quartz
Reporting Framework: Jasper Reports, iReport
XML Processing: XML-Spy, DOM, SAX, StAX
Cache: eh-cache
Web Services: REST (JAX-RS), SOAP (JAX-WS), Hessian
Web Development: JSP, Servlet, GWT (Google Web Toolkit)
Application/Web/FTP Servers: Apache Tomcat, GlassFish, Apache FTP Server
DataBase: Oracle, SQL-Server, MySql, DB2
IDEA: IntelliJ, Eclipse, MyEclipse, NetBeans, JBuilder, Microsoft Visual Studio
Source Control: Tortoise SVN, Git, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS)
Build and Deployment: Apache-Ant, Apache-Maven, Jenkins
Profiling & Debugging: JProfiler, PIN Debugger
Other: JPA, Log4J, SLF4J, Hibernate, Hikari, Junit, Dozer, Jackson
Languages
WHAT I CAN COMMUNICATE WITH

English
Arabic
Persian
P.S. Listed in order of number of native speakers!
English: Professional working proficiency
Arabic: Elementary proficiency
Persian: Native
Hobbies & Interests
OUT OF OFFICE
Mountaineering
Skating
Swimming
Scuba diving
Yoga
Conceptual painting
Photography
Growing houseplants
Philosophy
Music
Different cultures
Travel
Cooking

2019-01-04, Tehran, Iran

2019-03-07, Kish island, Iran

2019 08 29, Tehran, Iran

2019-01-04, Tehran, Iran
Volunteer Experience
WHAT I'VE BEEN VOLUNTEERED
Reviewer for TIFS journal (IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security)
Nov. 2023
Reviewer for FPS conference (Foundations and practice of security)
Nov. 2023
Executive member for FMCAD and VSTTE conferences
Oct. 2022
Sponsored Child Foundation (an international charity organization)
April 2013 until now
Lectured on Bitcoin Introduction, Tosan
Nov. 2015
Wrote an article about Bitcoin in the weekly magazine in Tosan named TosanWeekly.
June 2014
Co-Founded ACM association and held contests, Kharazmi University
Sept. 2005-Sept. 2009