I am a data scientist and research engineer at Flanders Make. Currently, I primarily deal with both classical machine learning models (such as random forests etc.) and deep neural networks, especially combining DNN/CNN/RNN-based, data-driven models with physical models of systems. I mostly work with vibration signals for anomaly detection, diagnostics and prognostics of rotating machinery (often ball bearings). I am also still somewhat involved with speech recognition. I am currently based in Leuven
I am also a PhD candidate at the Artificial Intelligence Lab of Vrije Universiteit Brussel under Bart de Boer, which was funded as a part of the ERC-funded ABACUS project. I am currently finishing my thesis on using Hidden Markov and Hidden Semi-Markov models to measure combinatorial structure in and attribute such structure to continuous signals. Such signals include but are not limited to speech and bird calls. I am focused on data from artificial language experiments
My interests include evolutionary linguistics, NLP, language games, (Bayesian) probabilistic models, deep learning, Hidden Markov Models and their derivatives, anomaly detection, diagnostics, prognostics, time-series models, corpus linguistics, and general cognitive science. I am a fan of programming, science and technology in general.
Besides my academic stuff, I enjoy playing the guitar as well as the bass, leaving compositions half-finished and layering things. I regularly attend a local open mic to play and sing, mostly pirate songs for some inexplicable reason. I am also rumored to enjoy good fiction.
I was born and raised in Ankara (Turkey), and have lived in Colchester (UK) and Brussels (Belgium) besides my hometown. I lived in Brussels until October 2017, since then I have been living in Leuven.