UA Engineering Mother and Daughter Graduate in Tandem

For this dynamic duo, education is a lifelong journey. 

Neda Ahmadi was pregnant with her daughter, Ghazal Moghaddami, while studying social sciences 23 years ago in her home country of Iran. Now the two women are both receiving their bachelor’s degrees in engineering – Moghaddami in biomedical engineering and Ahmadi in mechanical engineering – at the UA's 2019 Commencement on May 10.

“I guess you could say it’s been 23 years of studying together,” said Moghaddami. “Sometimes, we think we’re really going to miss going to school with each other.”

The mutual support has paid off. They’ve both succeeded in their degree programs and shone at the College of Engineering’s annual Design Day. Moghaddami’s team built an award-winning instrument that measures the age of bruises to help solve child abuse cases.