EKREM SERİN

C4ISR Director in MilSOFT.

SERDAR AK

Serdar Ak was born in 1961, in Kayseri. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering in 1982. He got his master's degree in Digital Signal Processing from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, with the Ministry of National Education scholarship, in 1987. He was a co-founder of Netcad in 1989, and he fully exited Netcad in 2019. He is a co-founder&CEO of DECE Software.

GÖKDENİZ KARADAĞ

Gökdeniz has B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees, from METU Computer Engineering Department. His research interests were on computer security and high dynamic range imaging. He worked as a System Administrator and Teaching Assistant at METU CENG, before joining Google Site Reliability Engineering(SRE) team. As part of SRE's mission of making distributed systems available, performant and robust; he is currently focusing on deployment automation. He is an amateur Bass player, and a proponent of Free Software Movement.

YUSUF ALTUNEL

Yusuf Altunel received his BS & MSc degrees from Computer Engineering Department at Middle East Technical University, and PhD from İstanbul University Department of Computer Engineering. He worked in various projects at Turkish organizations including SİMKO (Later Siemens) for 10 years. He worked as instructor and acting chair at Department of Computer Engineering and Vocational School of Computer Programming of Cyprus International University. Later he worked as full-time instructor at Istanbul Kultur University Department of Computer Engineering, and as a part-time instructor at İstanbul University Department of Computer Engineering and School of Air Forces. He worked as a Project Manager for 8 years at LC Waikiki. Currently he is working as IT R&D Manager at LC Waikiki and part-time lecturer at Istanbul Kultur University Department of Computer Engineering.

HARLEEN KAUR

Harleen, hailing from India, attained her B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering with Honors in 2007, setting the foundation for her career. Beginning as a Computer Engineer Trainee at a leading multinational company in India, Harleen quickly established herself in the software industry. For four years, she served as a valued consultant on Bank of America's wholesale banking projects. In 2011, Harleen transitioned into the realm of Identity and Access Management (IAM), marking a significant turning point in her professional journey. Throughout her career, Harleen has held pivotal roles as a Sailpoint IIQ Engineer and IAM/IGA Consultant for renowned organizations such as American Express, Tata Consultancy Services, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Thomson Reuters. This international exposure, spanning India, the United States, and Canada, has equipped her with a global perspective and an understanding of diverse business landscapes. Embracing new opportunities, Harleen embarked on a new chapter in her personal life when she met her life partner in Canada. Relocating with him to Turkey in 2022, she seized the chance to join triple-ID, a distinguished Identity Security Consulting company based in Europe. As a Senior Security (IAM/IGA) Consultant, Harleen continues to make a significant impact by providing invaluable guidance and support to multiple customers across the BeNeLux and DACH regions.

BURAK GÖYNÜK

Burak Göynük received both his Bachelors and M.Sc. degrees from METU Computer Engineering Department. He studied Information Retrieval, and Search Result Diversification in his thesis work. He started his career as a software engineer in Arcelik R&D center and joined Udemy after 1.5 years. During his career there about 7 years, he worked for the payments engineering team in different roles from software engineer, to senior engineering manager, and tried to help Udemy to by having a scalable, available, performant, robust, and flexible payment system operating in ~250 countries and ~70 million users. For almost ~1 year, he is working at Toolio, a New York based startup focused on retail merchandise planning solutions. He is working there as senior software engineer, and trying to lead platform team at the same time.

ABDULKADİR VARDAR

Abdulkadir Vardar is graduated from Middle East Technical University Computer Engineering Department. He started working as software developer at Airbus Military on A400M project in Germany. He worked in different countries in various roles related to software development. He has been working with Nanodems for almost last 15 years.

İBRAHİM ARDIÇ

İbrahim Ardıç completed his BS in both Computer, Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Eskişehir Osmangazi University. He completed his M.Sc. in Electrical-Electronics Engineering in 2015 at Hacettepe University with thesis about designing and development of model based software design and development environment. He started working in Turkish Aerospace in 2007. He is now Software Engineering Manager of Turkish Aerospace.

ERBİL KARAMAN

CENG '09. Former product & growth executive at companies like Meta, Lyft, and Earnin. Founder & Advisor at 500 Istanbul VC fund. Founder & CEO at Huma Finance.

ÖZGÜR DOĞUŞ SÖNMEZ

Özgür Doğuş SÖNMEZ obtained his B.Sc. degree from the Department of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University. He has worked in the roles of software developer, team leader, project manager, product manager, technical consultant, and IT coordinator at various large-scale projects at Innova, TUBITAK, and ETIYA. He has specialized in software development methodologies, project management, and software architecture. He is currently working as the head of the software development department at Nanodems.

YAVUZ GÜRCAN

Yavuz graduated with High Honors in 2005, earning his B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering from the Middle East Technical University. He began his career in 2003 at the Software Research & Development Center (SRDC) before joining Siemens for a 3-year tenure. Yavuz then dedicated over six years to Garanti Teknoloji, specializing in Application Security, Identity Management, and Access Management. In 2017, he relocated to Germany to work as an IAM/IGA Consultant at Omada. Yavuz co-founded triple-ID in 2021, an Identity Security Consulting company based in Europe, and currently serves multiple clients in the BeNeLux and DACH regions as an IAM/IGA Solution Architect.

ERTUGRUL BARAK

Ertuğrul Barak received his B.Sc. (1998) and M. Sc. (2002) in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University. He started to work in Aselsan in 1998 as a software engineer and worked in different military projects as team member and team leader up to 2014. In 2014, he was commissioned as the manager of the Command Control Software Department in Aselsan. After working 7 years in this department, he has commissioned as the manager of Command Control Product Line Department due to organizational change and he has continued since then. His main expertise is in the fields of software product lines, software architectures, software processes and military command and control.

MELTEM TURHAN YÖNDEM

Meltem Turhan Yöndem completed her BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University. She was an instructor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University between 2000-2008, the Project manager of the Semantic Web Ontology Generation EU Project at AGMLab between 2008-2010, the Project coordinator of the MODAP EU Project at Sabancı University between 2010-2012 and an Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Computer Engineering at Okan University between 2011-2020. Currently she is a senior research advisor at SeturTech, KocSistem EU projects and the owner of Kartezyen Danismanlik and Coaching.

GÜVEN ORKUN TANIK

Güven Orkun Tanık graduated from METU Computer Engineering in 2006, Electrics and Electronics Engineering in 2007. He completed his M.Sc. in computer engineering in 2010, and is still working on his Ph.D. in METU. He started working in Havelsan in 2007. He transferred to Arçelik in 2012 and led Machine Learning and Data Analytics efforts until 2019. He is now Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Manager of TAI.

GÖKÇE YILDIRIM KALKAN

Dr. Gökçe YILDIRIM KALKAN received her B.Sc. degree from the Department of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2002 To pursue her passion in Computer Graphics, she did her M.Sc. and PhD. graduate studies on this subject at the same department in 2005 and 2014, respectively. She worked in Meteksan Systems between 2002 and 2006. Since 2002, she has taken key roles in many large scale simulation projects. In 2006, she co-founded Simsoft Computer Technologies and since then, she has been the general manager. In Simsoft, she conveys her academic knowledge and industrial experience to the simulation projects as well as the management of the company. Her research interests include visualization of large datasets, physically-based animation and image generators.

ELİF SÜRER

"Elif Sürer received her Ph.D in Bioengineering in 2011 from the University of Bologna. She received her M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering from Boğaziçi University in 2007 and 2005, respectively. From 2013 to 2015 she worked as a post-doctoral researcher in University of Milan in the EU Project REWIRE where she developed video games for the rehabilitation of stroke and Neglect patients. She joined METU Graduate School of Informatics’ Modelling and Simulation Department in 2015 and worked on the training of children having Down Syndrome using video games, which was fully supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). She is currently working as an Associate Professor at the METU Graduate School of Informatics’ Multimedia Informatics program. She is also a mentor at METU Design Factory and bang. Art Innovation Prix. Her research interests are serious games, virtual/mixed reality, human and canine movement analysis and reinforcement learning."

HÜSEYİN BUĞRA HAN AYYILDIZ

ICT& Inovation Solutions Director in MilSOFT.

SALİH VATANSEVER

Salih Vatansever received his bachelor's degree from Computer and Control Teaching at Marmara University. He worked in various software projects at Fiba Energy for 6 years. Since 2018, he has been working as Sr Software Developer at Smartpulse. He is mainly responsible for integrating new markets, writing algorithmic trading bots and recruiting trainees to the team.

MEHMET YİĞİT

B.Sc. degree from Computer Engineering ODTU/METU . Worked in Telecommunication sector most . Turkcell's first Computer Engineer . Spent 16 years in Turkcell since it’s first subscriber registration . Took various roles in Network planning & operation, IT & Billing, Value Added Services, Strategy and Business development, M&A and International expansion and C-suite roles in Turkcell’s domestic/international subsidiaries . Worked in Public sector as an advisor to the Mayor in Antalya for Smart City, Smart Transportation projects For now active participant of Startup & Entrepreneurship ecosystem as an Advisor and Mentor in Incubation centers such as ITÜ Cekirdek, İsBank-Workup, Hackquarters and BTM and Yıldız Teknopark , as an investor in TR Angels in parallel with consultant roles in IT & Telco sectors

ONUR ARPACIOĞLU

Onur Arpacıoğlu serves as the Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Applications and R&D in Yapı Kredi Technology. He is leading R&D activities of Yapı Kredi Bank and his teams are working on R&D of solutions and products via artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, deep learning, blockchain, computer vision, natural language processing, speech processing and quantum computing. He has more than 20 years of experience in research, development, technical leadership, project management, product management, people management and group management. For 15 years, he led the R&D of international products deployed to 140+ worldwide customers, while performing group management and software architect roles to deliver many R&D projects and releases with his teams. He holds a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bosphorus University and MS/PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University.

TURGAY ÇELİK

Turgay Çelik received his BS, MSc, and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Hacettepe University, Turkey. With a career spanning over 20 years, Turgay has held technical and managerial roles at various companies such as MilSOFT, Aselsan, Opsgenie, and Bites. Currently, as the Head of Engineering at TUSAS - Unmanned Air Vehicles- Innovative Technologies Department, he leads teams working on AI, ML, decision support systems, and autonomous air platforms. Turgay's industrial expertise lies in forming and mentoring Agile Software teams, while his academic research contributions include topics like software design optimization, distributed systems, and software architecture modeling.

OĞUZHAN ŞEKER

I graduated from electronics engineering department in 2016. Between 2016 and 2018, I worked as a delaer and in the field of risk management in the capital markets. I have been working in the energy trading industry since 2018. After working as a dispatcher and trader in the energy trading departments of various companies, I have been working at smartPulse since June 2020 as an energy markets consultant on developing energy trading algorithms, optimization models and trading products.

HALDUN YILDIZ

Haldun Yıldız received his BS degree from Computer Engineering Department at Middle East Technical University. He worked in various IoT projects at Accenture for 2 years. Since 2017, he has been working as Software Architect at Parabol. He is also cofounder of Parabol. He is mainly responsible for mobility analytics, IoT solutions and client-side technologies.

ALPAY KARAGÖZ

After graduating from Antalya Anatolian High School in 1995, he got BSc degree from METU Computer Engineering in 1999 and completed his MSc studies at METU Information Systems Department in 2001 and completed his Ph.D. degree in the same department in 2008. Following his position as a Research Assistant in METU for 2 years, he worked as a partner in the Bilgi Grubu for 8 years as a process improvement consultant/trainer/software engineer. Between 2010 and 2014 he served as the manager of R&D, Quality and Test Group at Innova. Alpay Karagöz cofounded Proven Information Technologies in 2014. He has been offering classes at METU SM and CENG graduate programs since 2004. In 2018 he cofounded a payment services company (PayBULL) and exited successfully after 2 years. Currently he is interested in AI and Blockchain technologies.

FATİH DÜZGÜN

Fatih Düzgün received his B.S. (2003) and M.S. (2016) degrees in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from METU. After working 8 years for FİBA Group companies and managing network infrastructure of Finansbank Turkey and Credit Europe Bank Russia, he started a research career at TÜBİTAK. While re-building corporate IT frameworks of essential institutes in accordance with universally recognized data security standards, risk management methodologies, virtualization best practices, and DevOps mindset, he has the honor of managing "Safir Bulut" project at Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Laboratory (B3Lab @ BİLGEM BTE).

OSMAN NURİ OSMANLI

Osman Nuri Osmanlı received his BS degree (2007) from Bilkent University and MSc degree (2010) from METU in Computer Engineering. He worked in different technical & engineering management roles at MilSOFT, TAI and Peak Games for 12 years. Since 2019, he has been working as the VP of Engineering at Picus Security.

NUR ÖZTİN KURAK

TBA

SÜLEYMAN ÖZARSLAN

Dr. Suleyman Ozarslan holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from METU. He is a co-founder of Picus Security, the pioneer of Breach and Attack Simulation. Dr. Ozarslan has 21 years of experience in IT security with a particular focus on cyber threats, malware analysis, penetration testing, application security, and security controls. Since 2002, he has trained security experts from numerous countries as part of NATO Advanced Cyber Defence Training Courses, published academic papers, and provided consultancy services to many governmental and industrial organizations.

ÖZCAN DEĞİRMENCİ

Özcan Değirmenci is currently Co-Founder and CEO of Crs Soft which has been selected by Deloitte Turkey as one of the fastest growing technology companies for the 6th time in a row. Özcan's passion for innovation and excellence dates back to his high school days, where he received a medal from TÜBTAK for his academic accomplishments. He went on to be granted a Comprehensive Scholarship from Bilkent University, but instead of completing his studies, he decided to pursue his passion on computer science and technology. Özcan's journey continued with working on software engineering project for leading technology companies, which helped him gain the skills and knowledge he needed to start his own technology company. His dedication and hard work paid off when he founded Crs Soft on 2010, which has since become a leading player in the tech industry.

BURCU ÇORAKLIK

Burcu Çoraklık is the Director of Engineering at Crs Soft. She has B.Sc. degree from the Department of Computer Engineering at Sakarya University in 2009. Burcu has been a part of the Crs Soft family since the very beginning, having joined the company on its founding day as a Software Engineer. With over 15 years of experience in the field, Burcu has been instrumental in shaping the engineering department at Crs Soft and ensuring that the company stays ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and innovation. She has had a remarkable track record of managing multiple projects with software engineering operations before becoming a Project Group Manager and current position. Her dedication have played a significant role in Crs Soft's growth and success which has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies for the 6th time in a row by Deloitte Türkiye.

SÜMEYYE SEVİNÇ

I have been working as a software developer in the Market Risk Application development team at Yapikredi Bank for 6 years.