About

I'm a researcher, mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, and software developer, and the through-line across all four is the same question: how do you know when a machine is about to fail, before it does?

My professional journey began in the woodworking industry, where I founded and still chair the board of Venonwood, a machinery company. Working directly with operators and industrial systems — designing control systems for over 200 industrial wood dryers, among other things — taught me what actually goes wrong on a shop floor, not the textbook version. That's what pulled me toward machine monitoring, fault diagnosis, and eventually a PhD focused on using signal processing to catch problems in machines before they become failures.

Alongside the research, I never stopped building. I work with Django and Flutter, and I've shipped websites and Android apps — because an idea that stays in a paper doesn't help anyone. That instinct is also why I started Dashcaf, my startup: a platform for dynamic simulation in science and engineering. I want the tools I use in research to be things a student or an engineer anywhere can actually open and use — and I'm building it to grow, not as a side project.

I go by Reza Dastaki now. Earlier in my career — including on some of my published research — I went by Reza Arghand; same person, same work, new name.

I consider myself a builder and a lifelong learner. The long-term goal is simple: make engineering more accessible, make industrial systems safer and more reliable, and use what I learn along the way to help other people learn faster than I did.