3 BS Alumni

Tuna Tuncer (CS), while a student at Özyeğin University's Computer Science department, served as a Student Ambassador at Microsoft Turkey. Under the supervision of Assistant Prof. Emre Sefer for his graduation thesis, he utilized state-of-the-art neural networks capable of predicting stock price movements and subsequently published and presented a paper at the 3rd ACM International Conference on AI in Finance. He also engaged in research to optimize software continuous integration processes with Prof. Darko Marinov from UIUC, Assistant Prof. Wing Lam from GMU, and Assistant Prof. August Shi from UT Austin, which led to a significant pull request to the apache/shardingsphere project and a paper published in ASE 2023. During his research at Özyeğin, he led the development of a diffusion-based model for video instance segmentation in Assistant Prof. Sedat Özer's lab. Upon concluding his undergraduate studies, he embarked on a Master's degree in Informatics at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, where he presently continues to advance his academic pursuits.

Farzad completed his doctoral studies in Industrial Engineering at Özyeğin University, where he achieved academic success and actively participated in various research projects. His research thesis focused on optimization under uncertainty and was accompanied by simultaneous involvement in multiple research endeavors. He successfully defended his thesis in February 2023 and was distinguished as the outstanding researcher at the engineering faculty of Özyeğin University during the final year of his Ph.D. studies. He also collaborated with scholars from Binghamton University to solve the electric bus scheduling challenge of the university's shuttle network. Additionally, Farzad served as a teaching assistant for various courses, particularly for heuristic algorithms for optimization courses.

Currently, Farzad continues his post-doctoral studies at HEC Montréal, where he concentrates on tackling inventory routing and distribution problems for Hydro Quebec, Canada's largest power utility and a significant global hydropower provider. Simultaneously, he remains committed to advancing projects in transportation optimization and optimization under uncertainty, particularly emphasizing public transportation. Farzad actively engages as a member of esteemed research institutes in the logistics field, including Cirrelt and GERAD.

Seyma Gürel graduated with honors from the Department of Civil Engineering in Özyeğin University in 2018. Seyma dedicated herself to her research career that began during her undergraduate studies with Dr. Zeynep Başaran Bundur. At Özyeğin University, Seyma worked as a research assistant and received a TÜBİTAK scholarship while still an undergraduate, contributing to projects focused on self-healing concrete and the improvement of concrete rheology using bacteria.After completing her undergraduate studies, Seyma decided to further pursue her interest in construction materials by enrolling in a Master's program in materials engineering. She was accepted into the Mechanical Engineering master's program at Koç University, where she continued her research on high-entropy alloys.

Upon completing her master's degree, Seyma proceeded to pursue a Ph.D. at ETH Zurich's Department of Civil Engineering, continuing her academic career. Currently, she is conducting research on digital concrete production at ETH Zurich. Throughout her educational journey, Seyma actively participated in various student clubs. Alongside other founding friends at Özyeğin University, she established a volunteer club, leading various aid projects and providing support to sister schools.