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Professor John Choma of the University of Southern California, who has known Atarodi since he was a graduate student there in the 1990s, said Atarodi has designed high-performance electronic filters that can be used in a variety of communications devices to screen out unwanted frequencies. "It's possible (it could be used) for a military application," Choma said. "It could be used in a (missile) guidance system, I suppose. But I'm not aware it's ever been used in that way." Overall, Choma said he would be surprised if Atarodi was engaged in clandestine work. A 2006 academic paper co-authored by Atarodi lists him as working for the Microelectronic Research and Development Center of Iran, known as MERDCI. MERDCI was an arm of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran, which was sanctioned in July 2010 by the European Union for alleged involvement in research and development related to Iran's nuclear and missile programs, and the "procurement (of) advanced manufacturing technology in order to support them." The Obama administration repeatedly has said it believes Iran is assembling everything it would need to one day manufacture nuclear weapons, although there is no evidence it has made the decision to start building a bomb. Iran insists it is interested only in the peaceful uses of the atom. Atarodi said he was "fully disconnected" from MERDCI by 2010, the date the sanctions were adopted. "As the name shows, MERDCI was involved in the research and development of integrated circuits," he wrote. "It was also involved in projects for the automobile industry (e.g., hands-free mobile system for cars)." He said he worked only on civilian projects at the center, "but, unfortunately, none of them has been finished." MERDCI appears to have been disbanded a few years ago.
[Associated
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