My main expertise is in solving
computational challenges with an
innovative algorithm engineering
approach. For more than two decades, I
have been studying on such challenges
originating from different fields
mainly in cryptography and data
security, natural language processing,
information retrieval, computational
biology, data compression and coding,
massive data management, and most
recently focusing on scalability and
security aspects of ML/AI algorithms.
I have been devising efficient
innovative solutions and/or improving
current state-of-art in terms of
resource usage, e.g., time, memory,
energy, communication costs. I would
like to provide a summary of my
previous achievements in engineering,
research, and administration.
Engineering Expertise: After spending
around two years on programming
point-of-sales devices and regular
database programming, I have spent 10+
years in cryptography, where the main
focus had been efficient
implementation and cryptanalysis of
the security&privacy algorithms
and protocols both in hardware and
software. During those years, despite
gaining experience on how to develop
programs that run fast and/or with
small memory footprint, I had the
chance to work with talented
mathematicians and hardware engineers,
that gave me the opportunity to widen
my knowledge on different dimensions,
including reverse engineering and
FPGA/ASIC design. I also learned a lot
on how to develop projects with a team
of talent coming from different
disciplines. I have observed, and
today strongly believe, that
theoretical knowledge is vital, but
never enough to built efficient
systems in practice. The platform that
the solution will be executed on and
the properties of the input data
should always be considered for
ground-breaking progress in practical
performance. Theory without practice,
or vice versa, is akin to trying to
fly with one wing. In that sense, the
development of the fastest pattern
matching solutions and innovating
patents that are licensed to companies
have been exemplary outcomes of my
perspective. Academic Expertise:
Following my 15+ years in industry, I
joined academia and have been serving
as a professor of computer sci- ence.
I succeeded to get several research
grants and have been also serving in
the committees of conferences.
Actually, I started publishing in
scientific venues when I was with the
industry as well. I did my phd on
natu- ral language processing, after
which I got more engaged with
combinatorial algorithms. I mostly
published on data compression,
combinatorial pattern matching and
applications of them on computational
biol- ogy/bioinformatics. Most
recently, I have been studying
scalablity and security aspects in
ML/AI systems as well as in
information retrieval. I have also
experience in massive data management
and analysis. I have been teaching
courses on algorithms,
security/privacy, and related topics.
Administrative Expertise: After
engineering cryptography for many
years, I changed my focus to
computational biology, particularly
the genomics area. I have served as
the deputy director of the National
Institute of Genetics and
Biotechnology of Turkey for two years,
during which I was responsible for the
establishment of the first
high-throughput DNA sequencing
facility of the country. That
leadership equipped me with a unique
experience of leading an
interdisciplinary project with people
from computing and life sciences
disciplines. The establishment of the
lab was supported with more than 2
million dollars grant by the
government and was successfully
completed in two years. Another
leadership experience I had was being
the program coordinator of the
graduate programs in my university for
more than four years. I was
responsible by curriculum development
and hiring new faculty. I have also
served previously as principal
investigator in research projects,
lead research labs, and delivered
project lead positions in industry
projects.