3 BS Alumni

Mert Kavala graduated from Kabataş Erkek Lisesi and started his undergraduate studies in the Civil Engineering program at Özyeğin University with a full scholarship. Throughout his four years at the Özyeğin University, he had the opportunity to enhance both socially and academically. He served on the executive board for 3.5 years and was president of the OzU Construction Club in 2021. In his undergraduate studies, Mert served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for Static and Construction Management courses.

Additionally, he took on the role of undergraduate research assistant in the field of self-healing concrete materials at Assoc. Prof. Zeynep Başaran Bundur’s Advanced Concrete Materials laboratory. In 2022, Mert graduated from Özyeğin University with a GPA of 3.71, ranking first in the department. He expanded his graduation project in collaboration with project members under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Feyza Çinicioğlu and Assoc. Prof. Zeynep Başaran Bundur and presented it in the 18th Young Geotechnical Engineers Symposium. Their paper titled ‘Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) Use for Slope Stabilization in Sands and Clays’ was selected as the best paper.

In January 2023, he started the combined Ph.D. program in Geotechnical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. As a graduate research assistant, he is currently researching bio-catalyzed CO2 sequestration technologies. Furthermore, he has been working as a graduate teaching assistant for the Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering course for the past two semesters. He received the Larry Goertz Graduate Fellowship from the Cockrell School of Engineering for 2022-2023 in recognition of his academic achievements.

Fatmanur (CE) graduated in 2020 as a Civil Engineer. During her Özyeğin journey, she participated in many domestic and international projects. She played a role in the establishment of the Fine Arts Club. At the same time, she was on the Board of Directors of the Construction Club for a while. When she was in second year, she participated in the Earthquake Resistant Building Design Competition organized by American Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Being the team captain in the competition made me interested in Project Management.

She became a research assistant in three different areas of her interest. Her goal is to specialize in project management. While she was at university, she voluntarily studied Construction Cases at Kartal Anatolian Courthouse because of interest in contract management. Currently she is working as Consultant at the Department of Urban Rail Systems at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. She works on the management and control of rail systems projects in our country.

Yıldıray Yılmaz (CE), received his bachelor’s degree at Özyeğin University with a high-honor certificate in the civil engineering department. He is awarded as being the highest ranked student among 2020 graduation class. During his undergraduate studies, he founded Özyeğin University’s Construction Club and ran as president for two years. The construction club has reached more than 200 members during his presidency and organized more than 20 different events.

His original research paper was published with the great help of Dr. Seyis at ‘Building and Environment’ journal under the title of ‘Mapping the scientific research of the life cycle assessment in the construction industry: A scientometric analysis’.

Parallel with his master studies, he joined Metsims Sustainability Consulting company in October 2021. For over a year, he works as a sustainability consultant. His primary task is to analyze and model the environmental burdens of construction products and building from life cycle perspective. So far, he has modelled and assessed the environmental impacts of 20+ different construction products and one residential and one factory building. Besides environmental performance modelling, he currently works on improving one of the biggest life cycle assessment database for construction products in the world.