When he returns to the Bay Area in
May, Iranian computer consultant Ali Parsa will be leading a delegation of
other Iranian scientists to San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation for some
cutting-edge inspiration.
And he'll be looking to cut some deals. As a representative
of a prominent Iranian science foundation seeking to build a central
science museum near Tehran, Parsa also hopes to make contact with some of
Silicon Valley's most well-known Iranian entrepreneurs for donations.
Included, among others, are Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay; Mory
Ejabat, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Zhone Technologies; and Kamran
Elahian, co-founder of Cirrus Logic Inc., NeoMagic Corp. and other
companies.
``There is a great tendency for Iranians here to keep abreast of
today's technology,'' said Parsa, during his visit to San Jose this week.
``I want them to help elevate the level of science literacy among the
Iranian public. And I think they want to give back some of these things to
their native land.''
They can't do that very easily. Since the 1979 Iran revolution and
takeover of the American Embassy, the United States has had no diplomatic
relations with the country. While formal trade is embargoed, Gregg
Sullivan, acting spokesman with the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau at the
State Department, said U.S. citizens can exchange cultural, educational,
artistic, academic and scientific ideas with Iranians ``in an effort to
promote understanding between our respective peoples in the hope that this
will accelerate the reform process in Iran.''
Parsa's mission fits right in. He is on the board of trustees of the
Zirakzadeh Science Foundation in Tehran, established seven years ago. Its
goal, he said, is to create centers that encourage the study of science
and technology. Building better science centers back in Iran is important,
said Parsa, because ``people have heard about the wonders of ideas, but
they're ignorant of science and technology.''
Science centers, he said, are a way to experience the ``excitement and
curiosity'' of those worlds.
And Parsa, 50, knows some of the best examples of both are in the Bay
Area, where he studied computer science in the mid-'70s at the University
of San Francisco and at San Jose State, while his wife was getting her
master's degree in industrial engineering at Stanford University. Both
returned to Iran during the 1979 revolution.
Today, some exhibits in Iran's half-dozen science centers have been
constructed by Iranians based on ideas published in books from the
Exploratorium in San Francisco, a place Parsa visited regularly while a
college student here.
``They're cheap to produce and they involve a lot of hands-on action
for the visitors,'' said Parsa.
Other ideas have been gleaned from his trips to various science museums
around the world. But Parsa would like to incorporate elements of The
Tech, too.
Parsa was particularly intrigued by The Tech's ``Thermocamera,'' a
device that takes a photographic image of the body and identifies its heat
sources; a scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope; and the museum's
earthquake lab area. ``I asked an earthquake research center in Iran if
they would contribute to a series of exhibits in our museums,'' Parsa
recalled. ``They said no.''
He said he was impressed with the brief verbal and written explanations
of each exhibit and with the number of docents -- including many senior
citizens -- who explain exhibits to visitors.
``They know something and are enthusiastic and transfer it to
visitors,'' Parsa said. ``In Iran if you know something, you're probably
still working,'' because of the country's high inflation, he said of
would-be retirees.
Compared to the tens of millions required to build The Tech and fill it
with exhibits, Parsa's funding request for a central science museum center
seems modest. The computer consultant said $400,000 would enable the
foundation to purchase a piece of land and begin building the center;
another $500,00 would be needed to construct the exhibits.
And Parsa believes the interest and audience is there. According to the
United Nations Population Fund, more than 50 percent of Iran's 70 million
citizens are under the age of 18. Tehran, in particular, is a city teeming
with young citizens who are logging on to the Internet, jamming local
Internet cafes and coffee shops, he said.
``People come here and have fun with technology,'' he said of The Tech.
``That is the kind of attitude I'd like to see back home.''
