Parham Kazemi

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PARHAM KAZEMI

Vancouver, BC • pkazemi3@gmail.com • +1 (604) 727-1834

parham-k.github.io github.com/parham-k linkedin.com/in/p-kazemi
Software Engineer and Deep Learning Researcher with 8+ years of experience building high-performance C++ tools for large-scale genomics, CNN/Transformer models for NLP and signal processing, and backend systems. My work has resulted in 6 peer-reviewed publications, a provisional patent (2026), and software shipped across academic and production settings, turning cutting-edge research into reliable, maintainable code.

CORE SKILLS

Software Engineering: C#, Java, Git, Docker, CI/CD, Azure, AWS, Unit Testing, Code Review, pybind11

High-Performance Computing: C++, Parallelism, Vectorization, Memory Optimization, Performance Profiling

Backend & System Design: Python, Django, REST APIs, Microservices, SQL, NoSQL, Nginx, uWSGI, Linux

AI & Data Engineering: PyTorch/libtorch, NLP, Signal Processing, CUDA, SLURM, FlashAttention, HuggingFace

Bioinformatics: DNA Sequence Analysis, Genome Assembly, Nanopore Signal, Variant Calling

EXPERIENCE

Graduate Research Assistant

BC Cancer Research Institute 2021 - Present

  • Lead open-source genomic tool development, including a provisional patent (2026) for thesis-derived technology, peer-reviewed publications in Bioinformatics and PLOS CB, and international presentations.
  • Develop high-performance C++ libraries (ntHash2, ntStat) for 100GB+ genomic datasets using parallelism, SIMD, and memory optimization, shipped via CI/CD on Bioconda.
  • Train CNN and Transformer models and build inference workflows on terabyte-scale nanopore signal data using FlashAttention, CUDA, and SLURM-managed GPU clusters.
  • Engineer AIEdit, an alignment-free ML-based assembly polisher achieving 58% error reduction vs. 21% for the prior approach, 2.7 hours vs. multi-day runtimes for comparable tools, using 3× less memory than the next best alternative on human-scale data.

Backend Developer and System Administrator

University of Isfahan 2018 - 2021

  • Built an Alumni Social platform in Django with PostgreSQL, still in production, including a credential verification engine with live institutional syncing.
  • Administered the production stack on Linux using Nginx and uWSGI for high availability on the institution’s core networking platform.
  • Developed a ticketing system integrating SMS APIs and payment gateways.

Course Instructor and Teaching Assistant

University of Isfahan 2016 - 2020

  • Instructed Python and Django for the ACM Student Chapter (~20 students per cohort).
  • Assisted across 12 sections of 9 courses (~30 students each) including AI, Algorithm Design, Data Structures, and Advanced Programming in Java and C++.
  • Built an automated grading platform from scratch using Python, socket programming, and Tkinter, with C++ and Java interfaces for student AI project submissions.

EDUCATION

PhD in Bioinformatics - University of British Columbia 2021 - 2026


MSc in Computer Engineering - University of Isfahan 2019 - 2021

  • Thesis: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Training Intelligent Agents in Natural Language Environments
  • GPA: 18.42/20 (highest in cohort)

BSc in Computer Engineering - University of Isfahan 2015 - 2019

  • Thesis: Predicting Persian Twitter Users’ MBTI Personality Using Text Mining Methods
  • GPA: 18.25/20 (highest in cohort)
  • Finalist, National Computer Engineering Olympiad (2019); ACM-ICPC West Asia Regional contestant (2016, 2017); RoboCup IranOpen 2D Soccer Simulation competitor (2017)

VOLUNTARY WORK

Student Mentor & Conference Adjudicator - UBC 2024 - 2025

  • Mentored 5 students (CS, biochemistry, and medical backgrounds) through UBC’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities program (URO) on a nanopore sequencing review project.
  • Adjudicated undergraduate research posters at UBC’s Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference (MURC) in bioinformatics and genome sequencing.

Volunteer Organizer - Vancouver Bioinformatics User Group (VanBUG) 2023 - 2024

ACM Students Chapter Member - University of Isfahan 2017 - 2019

  • Coached 2 university teams at ICPC West Asia Regionals
  • Set up and administered high school and undergraduate programming contests and AI challenges

PUBLICATIONS

  • Kazemi, P., Coombe, L., Warren, R. L., & Birol, I. (2026). ntStat: k-mer characterization using occurrence statistics in raw sequencing data. PLOS Computational Biology, 22(4), e1014158. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014158

  • Kazemi, P., Wong, J., Nikolić, V., Mohamadi, H., Warren, R. L., & Birol, I. (2022). ntHash2: recursive spaced seed hashing for nucleotide sequences. Bioinformatics, 38(20), 4812–4813. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btac564
  • Kazemi, P., & Karshenas, H. (2021). Fuzzy Word Sense Induction and Disambiguation. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, 30(9), 3918–3927. doi:10.1109/tfuzz.2021.3133905

+4 publications as contributing author — full list at scholar.google.com/citations?user=-X4UY5QAAAAJ

PRESENTATIONS