Acknowledgements from my Masters Thesis

Here is a sort of autobiography that I put as Acknowledgements in my Masters Degree Thesis (titled: "A Framework for the Long-Term Operation of a Mobile Robot via the Internet"): I would like to thank my supervisor (Gordon Wyeth) for providing me with the opportunity and financial support to obtain my Masters. Thanks to my university colleagues (Michael Milford and David Prasser) for helping me transition so quickly from a working class kid to a working class scholar. Thanks to Jon Kloske for his excellent help in configuring the robot web server. And thanks to my boss in Florida (Jerry Pratt) for showing me what a perfect mentor is. Thanks to my best friends in Sydney (Ari Rintala, Chris Shortt, Luke Davidson, Al Monjehd, Rob Monjehd, Shane Emami and Craig Oliver) for allowing me to realise who I wanted to be, and my best friends in Florida (John Rebula, Victor Ragusila, Matt Missel, Jerryll Noorden, Will Taysom, Brooke Layton and Dawn Miller) for allowing me to be who I wanted to be. Thanks to my friends at Jaycar Electronics (Paul Ballard and Isaac Mendez) for rekindling my appreciation of electronics. Thanks to my best friends in QLD (Rob Mitchell and Timo) for showing me that Engineering can be fun. Thanks to my best friends from Germany (Alex Kanne and Christine Oellig) for making me proud of who I am, and my best friend from Iran (Shervin Adibi) for making me proud of who I’m not. Thanks to my previous girlfriends (Danni and Bomi) for helping me find the things that matter to me the most, and my wife Gay and Dawn for making me so proud of who I am. Thanks to Amir Houssein and his family in Iran for showing me that even the family that struggles the most can still be the most genuine and honourable people I’ve met in my life. They let me realize from an early age that there is no God watching over me, but that I should use this wisdom to my advantage because anything is possible if I try hard enough. Thanks to my Grandmother (Iran Abolmoali) for raising me as a toddler and always being a part of me, and my Grandfather (Abbas Emami) for showing me what it means to be respected for your wisdom. Thanks to my Brother (Shane Emami) for being my best friend since birth and showing me how to be normal. Thanks to my Sister (Sharlin Emami) for showing me how to be myself. Thanks to my Father (Shahpoor Emami) for always believing in me even if he doesn’t know what I do, and thanks to my Step-Father (Robert Stewart) for allowing me to always use his computers as a teenager. Thanks to my Mother (Azar Stewart) for doing as much as humanly possible to support my family and take us all the way from the bottom to the top by herself. Thankyou to my Mother for giving me the freedom to be who we want to be, and for having complete trust in me and my decisions. But also thankyou to my Mother for constantly telling me as a teenager that I shouldn’t spend all my time learning about electronics and computers, because they have no future and are unsocial, and then that doing post-graduate research is a waste of time because I could be earning money in a job like normal people. These things helped strengthen my belief in myself, since I knew what I was doing was the right decision no matter what others told me. As a teenager I spent everyday teaching myself about electronics and computers because they were the only thing that made sense in my life, and now at 27 my whole life finally makes sense thanks to these. Deciding to return to university for post-grad research was the best decision I have ever made, and yet it took many physical, mental and spiritual journeys for me to get here. It wasn’t until I was separated from technology for 1 month when I realised that learning about and working with science and technology has become part of who I am, and no matter how much I try to ignore it, I will always have the desire to build new things and learn more about nature and science. I was never in the smartest classes in my schools or the smartest schools in my area, since I’m not particularly smarter than the average person, however I have always used my brain to its fullest potential and am extremely self-motivated, to the extent that I can now be viewed as an academic. It was my keen interest in science and technology that brought me here, despite the many obstacles: I’ve lived in the 2 opposite worlds (East and the West), and I’ve lived in the 2 opposite ways of life (in poverty, war and expensive mansions). I’ve slept on the streets, and been in gangs, drugs & alcohol, and 7 punk bands. I’ve narrowly escaped: being kidnapped, stabbed, drowning several times, a drug overdose, being sent to an orphanage, 2 years military service and burning to death. Obtaining my Masters degree means a lot more to me than simply an extra qualification for getting a job. It allowed me to look at all the qualities in the person that I wanted to become, and to finally be that person. Now that I have finally become who I always wanted to be, I know that for the rest of my life, I will be a happy person.