The Computer Engineering Advisory Board is composed of distinguished representatives from industry and business, as well as faculty members working abroad. Each board member shares their invaluable knowledge and extensive experience with the department. The Advisory Board convenes at least once a year to provide feedback and recommendations to the department chair regarding our educational programs, students, and alumni. Our board members work at prominent organizations such as Google, VESTEL, Ericsson, Arçelik, Alcatel-Lucent, and in renowned institutions like MIT, Harvard, Bilkent, and Sabancı Universities.
İhsan Özcan
R&D Director, NOKIA
İhsan Özcan graduated from Istanbul Technical University’s Electronics and Telecommunications Department in 1986 and began his professional career in 1987 at the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT). In 1989, he worked under the ENKA umbrella in Libya. In 1990, Özcan joined the Alcatel-Teletaş family as a software engineer and, between 1990 and 1993, served as a software engineer for the Levent Exchange in Turkey. From 1993 to 2000, he worked in Belgium at Alcatel Bell, leading various projects as a technical project manager for internet infrastructure projects with clients such as Türk Telekom, KPN Netherlands, and the telecommunications companies of Malta and Albania.
In 2000, Özcan began establishing the first international R&D, support, and integration teams in internet technologies in Turkey. These teams helped make Alcatel Lucent Teletaş the largest technical support center in the EMEA region. Additionally, Özcan held various managerial roles, including operations and project manager for Türk Telekom's RAS, Fix-NGN, DSL, and IP/MPLS projects, and group manager for global NGN/IMS/IPTV/IP/DSL network integration. Since February 2009, he has served as the Technical Operations Center and R&D Group Director for Alcatel-Lucent Teletaş in the EMEA region.
Cihan TAŞ
Software Engineer, Google, USA
Cihan Taş works as a software engineer on the Google G+ Photos team and is currently focusing on data center network optimization. Prior to Google, he worked in Siemens Corporate Research in the area of wireless networks, with a focus on inter-vehicle communication and communication networks in smart grids. Cihan Taş earned his bachelor's degree from Bilkent University and both his master's and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Maryland (College Park). He has been happily married since 2011.
Prof. Andrew BERRY
Faculty Member, Harvard, Cambridge, USA
Andrew Berry (b. 1963) is a British evolutionary biologist and science historian, known especially for his work on Alfred Russel Wallace. He teaches evolutionary biology at Harvard University and also serves as a visiting professor at Sabancı University, where he teaches courses on ecology and evolution. He has authored two books: Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology (2003) and DNA: The Secret of Life, co-written with James D. Watson. Berry earned his degree in Zoology from St. John's College, Oxford University, and completed his Ph.D. in evolutionary genetics at Princeton University. He conducted postdoctoral research in Richard Lewontin’s lab at Harvard University.
Cem KURAL
R&D Director, Arçelik
Cem Kural graduated from Middle East Technical University (METU) with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1992 and began working in R&D at Turkish Electronics Industry the same year. He continued his studies at the same university, completing his master’s thesis in antenna theory in 1995. That same year, he joined Arçelik A.Ş. as an R&D Engineer and later held various positions within the company. Since 2012, he has been serving as the R&D Director, where his primary responsibility is to develop pioneering technologies that distinguish the company globally within an open innovation environment. The company’s R&D department includes over 1,000 employees and operates with a budget of 40 million euros.
Fatma ÖZDEMİR
R&D Director, Ericsson Turkey
Fatma Özdemir graduated from the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Middle East Technical University (METU) in 1996. In her first two years, she worked as an electromagnetic design engineer in the Research and Development Department of a company called Turkish Electric Industry in Istanbul. Since 1998, she has worked as a microelectronics design engineer and manager in international R&D teams at Alcatel Microelectronics, ST Microelectronics, ST-Ericsson, and Ericsson. She is currently serving as the R&D Director at Ericsson Turkey.
Prof. Peter Andrew DOURMASHKIN
Faculty Member, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA
Professor Peter Andrew Dourmashkin graduated from the MIT Department of Physics in 1976. He completed his master’s thesis, titled "Broken Symmetries in Classical Gauge Field Theories," under the supervision of Professor Carleton Detar in the MIT Department of Mathematics in 1978. He then pursued his Ph.D. in the MIT Department of Physics, completing his doctoral dissertation, titled "A Poisson-Plancherel Formula for the Universal Covering Group with Lie Algebra of Type Bn," under the supervision of Professor Michele Vergne in 1984. Prof. Dourmashkin is currently serving as a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Department of Physics.
Öner TEKİN
Director, Vestel
Öner Tekin graduated from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) with a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 1998. That same year, he began working as a hardware design engineer at Netaş R&D. Concurrently, he completed his master’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Boğaziçi University. Currently a Ph.D. student, Öner Tekin also serves as a visiting lecturer at Yeditepe University, where he teaches courses on technology.
Salih GÜREŞ
General Manager, TCHealth A.Ş.
Salih Güreş graduated from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) with a degree in Mining Engineering in 1983. He began his professional career as a Software Engineer at Türkiye Petrolleri A.O. In 1987, he completed a Master’s program in Computer Science at Macquarie University in Sydney, where he worked as a software engineer and project manager at various companies. After returning to Turkey, he worked at Netaş and Koç Sistem, and founded OPUS Bilgi Sistemleri A.Ş. In 2000, he served as General Manager and partner at TEPE Teknoloji A.Ş. In 2007, he received a B.A. degree from INSEAD in Fontainebleau. He is currently serving as the General Manager of TCHealth A.Ş.
Prof. Dr. Aytül ERÇİL
Faculty Member, Sabancı University
Prof. Dr. Aytül Erçil earned her undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Boğaziçi University and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. She worked at General Research Laboratory for five years. From 1988 to 2001, she was a faculty member at Boğaziçi University and served as the founding director of the BUPAM Pattern Analysis and Machine Vision Laboratory. Since 2001, she has been a faculty member at Sabancı University and the founding director of the VPALAB Computer Vision and Pattern Analysis Laboratory. Prof. Erçil has managed numerous international projects (NATO, FP4, EUREKA, NSF, FP6, NEDO, FP7). She holds three patents in the fields of computer vision and pattern recognition and has published over 150 articles. Currently, she is a major shareholder and chairperson of the board at Vispera A.Ş. and a partner at Rebuslabs Ltd.
Prof. Dr. H. Altay GÜVENİR
Faculty Member, Bilkent University
H. Altay Güvenir was born in Bursa. He began his studies at Istanbul Technical University’s Department of Electronics and Communication in 1974, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1979 and his master’s degree in 1981. He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Sciences from Case Western Reserve University in the United States in 1987. In 1988, he joined the Department of Computer Engineering at Bilkent University, where he became an associate professor in 1994 and a full professor in 2001. Since 2001, he has been serving as the head of the Department of Computer Engineering at Bilkent University. He has published over one hundred articles in both Turkish and English in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, natural language processing, and computer-assisted education.