3 BS Alumni

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.

Birce received her bachelor’s degree from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Ozyegin University. During her undergraduate education, she developed an interest in supply chain management and acquired skills in the field through relevant coursework. She participated in Unilever’s Supply Chain Reaction Project in her senior year, gaining valuable experience that allowed her to bridge the gap between theory and practice. She also took on roles in extracurricular activities throughout bachelor’s, such as serving as a peer advisor in OZU Peer Advisor Program and being a member of student clubs.

She pursued her education by commencing a master’s program within the same department, where she focused her research on humanitarian logistics and disaster management with the motivation of making contributions to society. She enhanced her proficiency in applying advanced analytical methods and Operations Research techniques to support decision-making in the related fields. Additionally, she served as a teaching assistant during her master’s studies, which further honed her academic and professional skills.

She is currently in her third year as a Ph.D. student at HEC Montréal, specializing in the Department of Logistics and Operations Management. Her doctoral thesis focuses on humanitarian supply chain network design and management. She has received prestigious awards and scholarships in recognition of her academic achievements during her doctoral studies, including Merit Scholarship Program for Foreign Students (PBEEE), Foundation J. Armand Bombardier Scholarship, and CIRRELT Doctoral Excellence Scholarship.

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.