Hakan Tugrul Otal PhD Candidate and Research Assistant University at Albany, SUNY New York, United States Email: hakan.otal@outlook.com Phone: +1 (518) 608-9563 Download CV

Research Interests

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Graph Neural Networks, Large Language Models, Computer Networks, Cybersecurity

Education

• Ph.D. in Information Science
  University at Albany SUNY, New York, United States
  08-2023 — Present
  Data Analytics (Major) - Cybersecurity (Minor)

• B.S. in Computer Science
  Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
  09-2018 — 06-2023
  GPA: 3.5/4.0

Experience

• Research Assistant
  University at Albany SUNY, New York, United States
  08-2023 — Present
  Doing research at “AI in Complex Systems Lab” under the guidance of Dr. M. Abdullah Canbaz

• Software Engineer
  Parieta AI, Istanbul, Turkey
  01-2023 — 08-2023
  Designed and developed UI for web applications, created backend services, AI pipelines, and managed AWS/Docker infrastructures.

• Software Engineer
  Deka Technology, Istanbul, Turkey
  07-2022 — 12-2022
  Developed API endpoints, integrated SAP services, and managed 100+ microservices using various technologies.

• Software Engineer Intern
  PoiLabs, Istanbul, Turkey
  09-2021 — 10-2021
  Developed backend services of an application for visually impaired people and restructured mobile APIs.

Projects & Publications

• Distributed Network Load Profile Generation Software
• Trust Based Data Storage for E-Health Systems in IoT (Link)
• Harnessing Deep Learning and Satellite Imagery for Post-Buyout Land Cover Mapping (Link)
• LLM-Assisted Crisis Management: Building Advanced LLM Platforms for Effective Emergency Response and Public Collaboration (Link)

Services & Awards

• Teaching Assistant for ‘CINF135: Concepts of AI’ — University at Albany SUNY, Spring 2024
• IEEE Student Member, TPC — Reviewer for IEEE INFOCOM 2024
• Student Travel Grant — IEEE Communications & Network Security 2023

English Tests

IELTS Academic: 7.5 / 9.0 (overall score)

Selected Courses

PhD’s Courses

• Quantitative Methods
• Statistics with R
• Advanced Python
• Networking
• Applied Machine Learning

Bachelor’s Courses

• Learn from Data
• Analysis of Algorithms I & II
• Computer Vision
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Security
• Computer Communication Systems

Additional Courses

• Deep Learning for Computer Vision, University of Colorado Boulder, 02-2022

Skills

• Programming: Python, R, C/C++, JavaScript/TypeScript
• AI Frameworks: Pytorch, TensorFlow, Sklearn
• Data Visualization and Manipulation: Matplotlib, Seaborn, NumPy, Pandas

References

• Dr. M. Abdullah Canbaz
  Assistant Professor
  Department of Information Sciences and Technology
  University at Albany SUNY, New York, United States
  Email: mcanbaz@albany.edu

• Dr. Tolga Ovatman
  Associate Professor
  Faculty of Computer and Informatics Engineering
  Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
  Email: ovatman@itu.edu.tr