Senior Representative of the End Recipient (SRER), Dean of Engineering, Istanbul Okan University

Professor Bilgen is a graduate (1973) of Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey, in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He did his MSc work (1976) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York on Computer Science and his PhD (1982) at University of Manitoba, Canada, on Electrical Engineering. He joined METU as an instructor in 1976, and became a professor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1995. In METU, he was among the founders of the Informatics Institute (1997). He has supervised 130 thesis studies at the MSc and PhD levels and has published numerous works on Computer Engineering, Information Systems and Software Engineering. In 2016, he joined Okan University as Dean of Engineering. Here he is active in promoting R&D collaborations of the university with industry and in establishing novel and effective approaches to engineering education. He is also actively involved in various national and international R&D projects on clean energy, intelligent transportation systems and autonomous vehicles.

Further information on his academic background can be found at Google Scholar, and at ResearchGate, as well as: https://www.okan.edu.tr/en/cv/semih-bilgen/

Operation Coordination Unit Director (OCUD)

Prof. Dr. Orhan Alankuş received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Ankara Science High School and Middle East Technical University and completed his doctorate on Computer Aided Design and Design Systems at London Imperial College of Science and Technology.

After his academic studies and working in a venture capital firm in London for nearly two years, he started working at Tofaş Factory in 1984. After working in different engineering and managerial positions at TOFAŞ, he became the head of the Product Development and R&D Department in 1994. By 2006, the R&D Department had become a center with nearly 400 employees. He served as the General Manager of Platform Inc., located in Teknokent (Technocity), which was established by Tofaş in Uludağ University in 2006-2007. In this company, studies of the MiniCargo Project carried out jointly with Fiat and Peugeot Citroen were conducted.

He transferred to Koç Holding in September 2007 and worked as Technology Consultant and Technology and Environment Coordinator.

Prof. Alankuş, who has been working as an academic and Research and Project Development Coordinator at Okan University since September 2011, has been a member of many civil society organisations and scientific organisations. Some of them are as follows:

TUBITAK Marmara Research Center (MRC), Bursa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Advisory Board, Bursa Industrialists and Businessmen Association (BUSİAD), OTAM (Automotive Research Center), OTEP (Automotive Technology Platform), Uludağ Exporters’ Association, TOBB (The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey), MÜDEK (Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Engineering Programs), TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey), TUSIAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association), and YASED (International Investors Association of Turkey) working groups

Now, he works as a coordinator in both national and international projects in the fields of electric and smart vehicles and smart transportation systems at Istanbul Okan University. He is an SAE and IEEE Senior Member.

Prof. Alankuş has many articles published in national and international journals and symposiums. He speaks English and Italian.

Technical Assistance Officer, Operations Coordination Unit; Director of the Transportation Technologies and Intelligent Transportation Systems Application and Research Center (UTAS), Istanbul Okan University

He graduated in 1972 from the Electrical Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) with an M.Sc. degree. In the same year, he began working as a research assistant. He ranked first in the NATO overseas doctoral scholarship granted by TÜBİTAK and completed his PhD at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK, between 1974 and 1977. In 1978, he returned to the ITU Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and to Professor in 1988. He took early retirement in 2002. During this period, he conducted research and taught courses in Power Electronics, Electrical Machines, and Electric Vehicle Drive Systems. In the summers of 1983 and 1991, he worked as a visiting researcher at UMIST and Imperial College in the UK, respectively.

Between 2001 and 2002, he worked part-time as a Chief Expert Researcher at TÜBİTAK MAM Energy Systems and Environmental Research Institute. He took part in projects on Land and Marine Electric Platform Technologies and served as the project coordinator of Doblo Elit1, Türkiye’s first Hybrid Electric Vehicle project. Between 2002 and 2004, he chaired the Energy and Natural Resources Panel of the TÜBİTAK Vision 2023 Program.

Prof. Dr. R. Nejat Tuncay was involved in MEKATRO Research and Development Inc., established in collaboration with TOFAŞ between 2004 and 2011. In 2012, he became a founding partner of MEKATRO Ltd., established within ITU ARI Technokent. Between 2002 and 2008, he taught Mechatronics, Power Electronics, and Control Systems at ITU and Yeditepe University, and continued supervising PhD and MSc theses.

Prof. Tuncay joined Okan University in September 2008 and served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 2008 to 2016. He currently teaches in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and continues to serve as Director of the UTAS Transportation Technologies and Intelligent Automotive Systems Application and Research Center (UYGAR) and the Energy Studies UYGAR Center. He is a member of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers and IEEE, and represents Okan University on the AUS Türkiye Board of Directors.

His academic and technological research areas include design and control of linear and rotating electrical machines, power electronics, motion control and mechatronic systems, electric power quality, electrical energy storage and Li-battery technologies, and electric and autonomous vehicles. He has authored more than 100 publications, primarily technology-oriented. He has supervised 7 PhD dissertations and numerous MSc and undergraduate theses, and holds two patents.

He is currently continuing his research on new battery technologies and their applications to electric vehicles, as well as autonomous vehicle technologies.

For more detailed information about Prof. Dr. R. Nejat Tuncay, please refer to: https://www.okan.edu.tr/en/cv/ramazan-nejat-tuncay/ as well as his Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and LinkedIn profiles.

He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2011. In 2011, he joined Power Electronics and Energy Conversion (PEEC) Laboratory research group at Istanbul Okan University, Istanbul, Turkey, where he was a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and received the Ph.D. degree from Istanbul Okan University in 2016 in electrical engineering. Since 2020, he has been an Associate Professor as Department Chair of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Istanbul Okan University. Since 2020, he has been a member of OPINA Project as an Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Specialist. His current research interests include steer by wire systems, sensorless motor control strategies, electric drive systems, electric vehicles and robotics.

Dr. Sina Alp joined OPINA as the Assistant Operation Coordination Unit Director (AOCUD), bringing with him 15 years of expertise in Digital Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Istanbul Okan University. Dr. Alp obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Tabriz University and completed his Master’s degree at Middle East Technical University. In 2020, he successfully obtained his Ph.D. from Koç University. Alongside his academic background, Dr. Alp has also gained valuable industry experience as an Artificial Intelligence Team Lead/Manager in renowned healthcare and telecommunication companies. His research interests span various areas, including mathematical modeling, digital signal processing, time-series analysis, data processing, artificial intelligence, and reinforcement learning.