3 BS Alumni

Ekrem Çetinkaya (CS), graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science from Özyeğin University in 2018 and completed a master's program with a thesis under the supervision of Dr. Furkan Kıraç in 2019. Between 2019 and 2023, he completed his doctoral studies on Video Encoding with Machine Learning at the University of Klagenfurt. During this period, he worked as a research assistant on the ATHENA project, which was conducted in partnership with Bitmovin. Throughout his 4-year research career, he published over 15 papers in prestigious conferences and journals and filed for 3 patents, one of which has been issued. In 2021, the article he wrote was awarded the "Best New Streaming Innovation of the Year” award. He is currently continuing his academic work in video coding and multimedia fields with Assoc. Prof. Ali C. Beğen.

İrem Karamete (IE) was the captain of the fencing team of the university for 5 years during her student life and won many Turkish Champion titles for the university. She became the first fencer to represent Turkey after 32 years by qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics while she graduated from the university. Benefiting from the opportunities offered by the university as well as her heavy sports life, İrem had the opportunity to do a summer internship at GAP company within FIBA Group and Amsterdam Credit Europe Bank (CEB). 

As soon as İrem graduated from Özyeğin University, she completed her master's degree in Global Marketing Management at Boston University. Completing her American adventure, İrem moved to Italy in 2019 to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and represented our country in the olympics twice. 

She is the president of the Fencing European Confederation Athlete’s Commission and she also speaks Italian at an advanced level. While she is managing intense sports life, she also works for the one of the most well known Australian online book companies, Fishpond, as an e-commerce manager of Amazon EU accounts. Irem is currently fighting for the quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics to represent our country in the Olympics for the third time.

Okan (IE) is the Founding Member of Twin Science, the world’s first ed-tech company that combines science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning with SDGs education for young people to raise them as tomorrow’s changemakers. Twin Science has been recognized as a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum, won BETT Awards 2020 and the Silver Play for Change Award from Toy Industry of Europe. 

As a student, Okan started his journey with the Young Guru Academy, one of Turkey’s leading NGOs, while studying at university. He was selected as one of the 50 young talents among 50,000 applicants to develop impact-driven projects for refugees, orphans, the visually impaired, and others through volunteerism. 

Passionate about eliminating inequality in education worldwide, Okan has also been leading a social responsibility project called the World Science Movement (WSM). The project aims to give children better access to STEM education. WSM has reached over 500,000 underprivileged children in Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Turkey. Okan believes that no curious mind should be left behind and he is dedicated towards working for this purpose until reaching all young people around the world.