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Education

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

PhD, Computer Science, Aug 2023 – May 2028 (expected)

MS, Computer Science, Jan 2026

Thesis: Developing and evaluating domain models for programming skills using learning curve analysis

Istanbul Technical University

BS, Computer Engineering, Sep 2018 - Jan 2023

AI/ML Research Intern, ACT Inc., Iowa City, USA (Remote), June 2025 – Aug 2025

Led a human-centered design project for improving question authoring experience for subject matter experts creating multiple-choice reading comprehension questions for the ACT exam
Conducted interviews to identify design opportunities for authoring tools with subject matter experts
Designed and implemented a human-AI collaboration tool for question authors to utilize LLM-generated suggestions in early-stage ideation processes to improve user experience and productivity
Evaluated the impact of the tool in a mixed-methods user study, to appear in AIED 2026

Research Engineer, Vitamu, London, UK (Remote), April 2022 – June 2023

Trained and deployed deep learning models for breast cancer detection and localization
Managed development environments on AWS and Google Cloud in a startup environment

R&D Engineer, Yapi Kredi Teknoloji, Istanbul, Turkey, Aug 2021 – April 2022

Integrated machine learning classifiers into the text processing pipeline of Turkey’s third-largest bank, processing more than 10k documents per day
Designed a multi-modal algorithm for processing multi-page documents, presented at ICPR 2022

Lead Teaching Assistant, Modeling and Learning in Data Science, UIUC, Spring 2026

Teaching Assistant, Modeling and Learning in Data Science, UIUC, Fall 2025

Leading hour-long discussion sections for CS307 - Modeling and Learning in Data Science with Dr. David Dalpiaz (Fall 2025) and Dr. Pablo Robles Granda and Dr. Dan Gonzalez (Spring 2026)
Preparing and teaching lectures on ML fundamentals and applications with Scikit-Learn for over 100 students

Course Support, Machine Learning Foundations, Break Through Tech, Summer 2025

Supported the small group discussions in the lectures for the 9-week ML Foundations course with 52 students
Provided just-in-time instruction on feedback on the weekly assignments

Lecturer, Introduction to Python, ITU ACM Student Chapter. Fall 2022

Held introductory Python lectures and supervised hands-on tutorial sessions for more than 100 students

Guide & Mentor, Deep Learning Study Group, inzva.com, Oct 2021 - Nov 2022

Gave lectures on object detection, face recognition, and neural style transfer to more than 100 students as part of the Google Developers ML Bootcamp and Deep Learning Study Group at inzva hackerspace
Mentored more than 30 students in 4-week periods over a year

Claire Zheng, Fall 2024 - present

Contributed to several publications, responsible for data processing and analysis, writing, and pilot studies
Next position: SWE @ Google

Yoshee Jain, Spring 2024 - Fall 2024

Nicole Hu, Spring 2024

Contributed to Demirtas et al., 2024, responsible for data processing and annotation

Panel, SIGCSE Virtual 2024, December 2024

Moderated the panel Challenges and Solutions for Teaching Decomposition and Planning Skills in CS1, with Dr. Eliane S Wiese, James Finnie-Ansley, Dr. Rodrigo Duran, Dr. Katie Cunningham

Doctoral Consortium, EDM 2024, July 2024

Attended the doctoral consortium workshop led by Dr. Neil Heffernan
Presented the poster Identifying and Evaluating Novel Knowledge Component Models for Programming Skills

Doctoral Consortium, SIGCSE Virtual 2024, December 2024

Attended the doctoral consortium workshop led by Dr. Colleen Lewis and Dr. Lauri Malmi

Code & Technologies: Python, PyTorch, JavaScript, C++/C, HTML/CSS, Docker, Bashscript, AWS/Cloud Technologies
Research Methods: Mixed Methods Research, Semi-structured Interviews, Think-aloud Studies, Educational Data Mining, Student Modeling