Sharif University of Technology

Sharif University of Technology (SUT)
دانشگاه صنعتی شریف Dāneshgāh-e San'ati-ye Sharif
Sharif University of Technology coat of arms
Established	1966[1]
Type	Public
Endowment	US$25 million
Chancellor	Reza Roosta Azad[2]
Vice-Chancellor	Seyed-Ghassem Miremadi
Admin. staff	395
Students	10,502[3]
Undergraduates	5,776
Postgraduates	4,726
Location	Tehran, Iran 35°42′6.47″N 51°21′5.18″E / 35.7017972°N 51.3514389°E / 35.7017972; 51.3514389Coordinates: 35°42′6.47″N 51°21′5.18″E / 35.7017972°N 51.3514389°E / 35.7017972; 51.3514389
Newspaper	Sharif Daily Scientia Iranica
Colours	Light Blue
Athletics	19 sports IUSF
Affiliations	FUIW IAU ICTP TWAS
Website	sharif.edu www.sharif.ac.ir www.sharif.ir

Sharif University of Technology (SUT) (Persian: دانشگاه صنعتی شریف Dāneshgāh-e San'ati-ye Sharif) is a university of higher education in technology, engineering and physical sciences in Tehran. Sharif University of Technology is one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and is considered Iran's MIT.^[4] The university is located in the Tarasht neighborhood of Tehran within walking distance of Azadi Square, and has an international campus in Kish, a resort island in the Persian Gulf. The university is named after Majid Sharif Vaghefi, a former student who was killed in 1975.^[5] It was formerly named the Aryamehr University of Technology (Persian: دانشگاه صنعتی آریامهر Dāneshgāh-e San'ati-ye Āryāmehr) and for a short period after the 1979 revolution, the university was called Tehran University of Technology.

Sharif University of Technology (SUT) provides both undergraduate and graduate programs in 14 main departments. The student body consists of about 6000^[6] undergraduate students and 3700^[6] graduate students from all the 30 provinces of Iran. Funding for Sharif University is provided by the government and through private investments. Undergraduate admission to Sharif is limited to the top 1 percent of students who pass the national entrance examination administered yearly by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.^[7]

History

The university was first founded in 1965 with the name Aryamehr Technical University by Dr. Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi (محمدعلي مجتهدی). At that time, there were 54 faculty members and a total of 412 students who were selected by national examination. Also only four departments were established: Electrical, Metallurgical, Mechanical, and Chemical Engineering.^[8] In 1972, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi appointed Sayyed Hosein Nasr as president of the university with the goal of modeling the school based on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but with roots in Iranian culture.^[9][10] In 1974 a new campus of the university was established in Isfahan. But later that campus became an independent university, named Isfahan University of Technology (IUT). The emblem of IUT still closely resembles SUT's emblem^{[citation needed]}.

Currently the university has grown to an elite school with over 9000 students, 700 of whom are studying for a doctorate, and over 500 faculty members in 15 main departments.^[7]

Campus

The main campus of University of Sharif's is in Tehran, Iran. It is located close to the Azadi Tower, which is the symbol of Tehran and one of the main transportation hubs. Sharif University also has an international campus in Kish Island in Persian Gulf.^[11]

Buildings

Avicenna Tower

• SUT Civil Engineering Department
• SUT Aerospace Engineering Department[1]
• SUT Chemistry Department
• SUT Civil Engineering Department
• SUT Computer Engineering Department
• SUT Department of Electrical Engineering
• SUT Energy Department
• SUT Management and Economics School
• SUT Materials Science and Engineering Department
• SUT Mechanical Engineering Department
• SUT Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department
• SUT Physics Department
• SUT Languages and Linguistics Center
• Avicenna Building (ساختمان ابن سینا), the main classroom building named in honor of 9th century Persian scientist Avicenna
• Student Union (Shahid Rezaee Building)
• Jaber ebne hayyan Building, named in honor of 8th century Persian scientist Jābir ibn Hayyān
• Aboreihan Birooni, named in honor of 11th century Persian scientist Abu Rayhan Biruni (hosting departments of Mathematical Sciences and Industrial Engineering)
• Khodro
• Central library
• SUT Mosque
• The gym
• Publication Office
• The Restaurant

Academic profile

Profile

Sharif University was established in 1966 as an "Engineering" university. The first departments of the university were Electrical, Metallurgical, Mechanical, and Chemical Engineering.^[8] Currently, Sharif University has 14 science and engineering departments in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mathematical Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Aerospace engineering, Management and Economics. The only non-engineering department is the Philosophy of Science department, which offers exclusively PhD and M.Sc. graduate degrees.

International recognition

QS World University Rankings

	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
Engineering & IT[12]	264th	183rd	145th	165th	244th

Sharif University has been noted beyond the borders of Iran. The chair of Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University has announced that: "Without a doubt the finest university in the world preparing undergraduate Electrical engineers is Sharif University of Technology in Tehran".^[13] Professor Burton Richter's opinion about Sharif's students during his speech in Sharif university was: "The students here are very impressive, I expect to hear a lot more from you all in the future."^[14][15][16] Sharif university school of engineering is acknowledged as one of world best schools of engineering.^[17] In 2008 in response to an invitation from the president of Sharif University of Technology, presidents of six U.S. research universities visited Iran. The group includes Jared Cohon of Carnegie Mellon University, J. Bernard Machen of the University of Florida; C. Daniel Mote, Jr. of the University of Maryland, College Park; David Skorton of Cornell University; Larry Vanderhoef of the University of California, Davis and David Leebron from Rice University.^[18] This recognition is highly valuable, as there is no political connection between Iran and United States.

Affiliated research centers

In order to be able to expand its relations with the industry, Sharif University has supported establishment of Research Centers. These are usually started with a spin off funding provided by or through university, but will start to accept research and development projects from industry in their first months of establishment. Most of the employees of these centers are Sharif University students, while in some cases recent alumni or students of other universities have been recruited as well.

Following is a list of research centers affiliated with Sharif University.^[19]

• Advanced Communications Research Institute [2]
• Advanced Information and Communication Technology Research Center (AICTC) [3]
• Alborz Observatory for high energy cosmic and gamma rays [4]
• Biochemical and Bio-environmental Research Center
• Condition Monitoring Center (CMC)
• Entrepreneurship Center
• Economical and Industrial Studies research Center
• Electronics Research Center [5]
• Energy Technology Research Center
• Green University: environmental research center [6]
• Industrial Systems Research Center
• Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology [7]
• Institute for Transportation Studies and Research [8]
• Data and Network Security Laboratory (DNSL) (formerly Network Security Center – NSC)
• Sharif Applied Physics Research Center [9]
• Water, Energy and Ocean Engineering Research Center [10]

Research and endowment

Sharif University is a public university and its funding is provided by the government of Iran. For the top ranks of the national university entrance exam, education is free in all public universities. The people with ranks below the normal capacity of the universities will be required to pay part or all of the tuition.^{[citation needed]}

Industrial companies have supported Sharif University, and provided research funding for the desired programs and projects. For instance, the Petroleum Engineering department was supported by Iran Oil industries^{[citation needed]}.

Sharif University was appointed as a Center of Excellence (fa:قطب علمی) by Iran's Ministry of Science and Technology in the fields of "Advanced Materials","Aerospace Systems","Biological Process Engineering","Communication","Design, Robotics, and Automation","Energy Conversion","Earthquake Engineering","Mathematics","Physics","Power System Management and Control" and "Telecommunications".^{[citation needed]} This appointment is based on national standing based on research achievements and invested funding in the mentioned topics.

Student life

Political activities

Prior to the Islamic Revolution many political organizations including but not limited to Fadaian Khalg and People's Mujahedin of Iran active members and supporters were among students of the Sharif University. In the 14 years since its inception many active members and supporters were arrested and killed by SAVAK among those Abdolmajid Pirzadeh Jahromi, Majid Ahmadzadeh (Fedaian Khlaq) can be named.

Through the student political movement after the 2nd of Khordad Movement, Sharif students were also actively involved. The major groups with political intentions at Sharif, during 1997–2003, were student Basij and the Association of Muslim students, briefly called Anjoman (Association). Most other smaller groups were allies of either or Basij or Anjoman. Basij was a serious opposer of Mohammad Khatami, the president of the time. Whereas, Anjoman was a loyal follower. There has been several clashes between member students of the two groups. Free speech tribunes, occasionally end in harsh quarrel-like debates. However, the major clash between Anjoman and Basij occurred while the student movement was in silence in most other universities. In 2006, a serious controversy resulting in physical tensions, occurred after Basij attempted to bury bodies of unknown Martyrs of the Iran–Iraq War at the universities' Mosque court.^[20]

Alumni association (SUTA)

Main article: Sharif University of Technology Association

Many of Sharif alumni are spread all around the world since lots of them continue their graduate studies in Europe or North America and also some of them immigrated to these countries, therefore it is not easy to establish local organization to be contacted by the alumni. Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) is a global organization that was formed in 2000 to facilitate communication and collaboration among the graduates, faculty and staff of the Sharif University.

This non-profit organization is registered in the state of California, USA and has many chapters and affiliates around the world. Its mission is to enhance professional, academic, and social contacts among its membership, and to strengthen the ties between the association members living outside of Iran and the University.^[21]

Faculty and alumni

See also: List of Sharif University of Technology people

Chancellors

Chancellor	Tenure	Alma mater	Speciality
Prof. Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi	1965–1967	Université Lille Nord de France	Mechanical Engineering
Prof. Fazlollah Reza	1967	Columbia University	Network and Information Theory
Dr. Mohammad Reza Amin	1968–1972	UC Berkeley	Physics
Prof. Hossein Nasr	1972–1975	MIT	Physics
Dr. Mehdi Zarghamee	1975–1977	MIT	Structural Engineering
Dr. Alireza Mehran	1977–1978	University of Geneva	Biophysics
Dr. Hossein Ali Anvari	1978–1979	INSA Toulouse	Electrical Engineering
Prof. Ali Mohammad Ranjbar	1979–1980	Imperial College London	Electrical Engineering
Prof. Abbas Anvari	1980–1982	Chalmers University of Technology	Physics
Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi	1982–1985	MIT	Nuclear Engineering
Prof. Abbas Anvari	1985–1989	Chalmers University of Technology	Physics
Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi	1989–1993	MIT	Nuclear Engineering
Dr. Mohammad Etemadi	1993–1995	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	Electronics
Prof. Sayed Khatiboleslam Sadrnezhaad	1995–1997	MIT	Metallurgical Engineering
Prof. Saeed Sohrabpour	1997–2010	UC Berkeley	Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Reza Roosta Azad	2010–current	University of Waterloo	Chemical Engineering

Notable alumni

The exact number of Alumni of Sharif University is not available at this point. Many of the alumni are connected to the SUTA association, and enjoy annual gatherings around the world. To count a few well known alumni, one can categorize the alumni as follows.

The university is known for its large number of alumni who pursue graduate studies and join the academia. While the number of such alumni is large, one can name Behzad Razavi, Professor of electronics at UCLA, Mohammad Shahidehpour, Director of electrical engineering department and Associate VP for Research at Illinois Institute of Technology, Maryam Mirzakhani, Professor of Mathematics in Stanford University as some of the more famous ones.

A number of SUT alumni have been active in industry. Akbar Torkan, director of Petro-Pars Co. and previous Transportations Minister, Mehdi Setareh, professor of Architecture at Virginia Tech, Manoochehr Manteghi, managing director of Iran Khodro, Ahmad Ghalebaani, former managing director of SAIPA, and Mehdi Mir Moezzi, managing director of Iran national petroleum company can be named as some of the more famous alumni.

Many of the SUT alumni have entered in politics, including Mohammad Ali Najafi former minister of higher education and member of Tehran City Council, Es'hagh Jahangiri, former Minister of Industries and Mines, Abbas Mohtaj, former commander of Iranian Navy, Mohammad Atrianfar, former head of Tehran City Council, Morteza Alviri, former Mayor of Tehran, Ali Larijani, speaker of Majlis and former presidential candidate and former head of IRIB and Mohsen Sazegara, former government official, political activist.

Also, some of the opposition groups outside Iran have members who are SUT alumni. These members include Foad Mostafa Soltani, former leader of Komala political party of Iranian Kurdistan and Maryam Rajavi, president of People's Mujahedin of Iran Organization.

Multiple alumni of SUT also continued their carrier as professional athletes. Having been affiliated with SUT's athletic teams, Ali Daei, former member and later head coach of Iranian national football team and Iraj Mozzafari, former captain of Iranian national Volleyball team can be named. Adel Ferdosipour, prominent football commentator and Elshan Moradi Chess Grandmaster are also SUT alumni.

Other publicly known figures with a Sharif related background include Peyman Yazdanian, music composer and Mohammad-Javad Larijani, director of Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.

See also

• Higher education in Iran
• Pardis Technology Park
• Sharif's library management system
• Shahbal

References

1. ^ http://www.sharif.ir/en/about/intro.jsp
2. ^ http://www.sharif.ir/4all/archive/fa-showarch.jsp?arch=news&date=1389/05/26&time=1900
3. ^ http://www.topuniversities.com/university/1389/sharif-university-of-technology
4. ^ Erdbrink, Thomas (6 June 2008). "Iran Makes The Sciences a Part of Its Revolution". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/05/AR2008060503904.html. Retrieved 28 December 2010. 
5. ^ "16 اردیبهشت سالگرد شهادت شریف واقفی" (in Persian). Sharif News. http://sharifnews.com/?18059. Retrieved 28 May 2008. 
6. ^ ^{a b} http://eduvp.sharif.ir/speech86.pdf
7. ^ ^{a b} "Introduction, Sharif University". http://www.sharif.ir/en/about/intro.jsp. Retrieved 17 November 2008. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Mirzayi, Mohammad (2005) (in Persian). Sharif University of Technology Booklet. Sharif University Press. 
9. ^ "Biography / Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr". http://www.nasrfoundation.org/bios.html. Retrieved 28 May 2008. 
10. ^ Leslie, Stuart W.; Robert Kargon (2006). "Exporting MIT: Science, Technology, and Nation-Building in India and Iran". Osiris 21 (1): 123. doi:10.1086/507138. 
11. ^ "Sharif University International Campus Website". http://kish.sharif.edu/~web/. Retrieved 17 November 2008. 
12. ^ http://topuniversities.com/university/1389/sharif-university-of-technology
13. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=s957W6jomBc
14. ^ Thomas Erdbrink (6 June 2008). "Iran Makes the Sciences A Part of Its Revolution". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/05/AR2008060503904.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008060602843. Retrieved 23 May 2010. 
15. ^ "The Star Students Of The Islamic Republic, Forget Harvard—one of the world's best undergraduate colleges is in Iran.". Newsweek. 9 August 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/id/151684. Retrieved 17 November 2008. 
16. ^ Sharif University of Technology Best in World in Field of Electrical Engineering: Stanford Chancellor
17. ^ "world university ranking of engineering schools 2009". World science& engineering university portal. http://www.universityportal.net/2007/09/world-university-ranking-of-engineering.html. Retrieved 18 June 2008. 
18. ^ "Leebron part of AAU delegation visiting Iranian universities". Rice University Website. 7 November 2008. http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=11740. 
19. ^ "Research Centers". Sharif University Website. http://www.sharif.edu/en/research/. 
20. ^ "Iran: Students Protest Burials Of War Dead On Tehran Campuses". Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty (RFEL). http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/03/6035bfe4-0e35-4807-ad4b-cdd4fce89821.html. Retrieved 28 May 2008. 
21. ^ "SUTA Vision and Mission". http://www.suta.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=10&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0. Retrieved 28 May 2008. ^{[dead link]}

External links

• Sharif University of Technology's home page
• Network Security Center(NSC)
• Department of Computer Engineering
• Sharif University of Technology's Graduate Application System
• Sharif University of Technology's Daily روزنامه شريف
• Sharif University of Technology Association
• Sharif University of Technology Alumni Linkedin Group
• Sharif University Mechanical Engineering Alumni
• Sharif University of Technology's Central Library
• Sharif University of Technology – PressTV documentary on YouTube