Equity and Diversity

In my professional life, I interact with so many scholars and students with diverse backgrounds through exchanging ideas via emails, collobrating on projects, teaching classes, reviewing papers/project grants, chairing conference/workshop sessions and so on. Here, I should say that while I am doing my job, I am committed to cultural and individual differences and diversity as including, but not limited to, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, language, national origin, race, religion, culture, and socioeconomic status and I acknowledge the value of differences.


Suggested Readings on Education and Academia

  • On reproducible research: If you are a scholar and interested in how to release your research in different formats (e.g., paper in a pdf file, talk with slides etc) based on a single source file and keep yourself posted with recent relevant technologies, I strongly suggest to you read "You Only Write Thrice: Creating Documents, Computational Notebooks and Presentations From a Single Source" by Kacper Sokol and Peter Flach presented at ICLR 2021 workshop. Here is the paper link.

  • On developing a project based course: Last year, I developed an introductory data science course from scratch and offered it in Spring21. I had to deal with lots of issues along the way. If you are a scholar and interested in how to develop a project-based (machine learning) course, I strongly suggest to you read "Deeper Learning By Doing: Integrating Hands-On Research Projects Into A Machine Learning Course" by Sebastian Raschka presented at ECML 2021. Here is the paper link.

  • On promoting equity and diversion: If you are a scholar and at the stage of developing/revising your syllabus, I strongly suggest to you read "Rethinking the Course Syllabus: Considerations for Promoting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion" by Milton A. Fuentes, David G. Zelaya, and Joshua W. Madsen workshop. Here is the paper link.

  • On necessity of soft skills: Most of the time students think that succeeding in a class or in a project is all about hard-skills (e.g., knowing the subject, having computing skills etc). However, it is not enough. If you are a student, I strongly suggest to you read "The soft skills college students need to succeed now and in the future" by Drew C. Appleby. Here is the article link.

  • On bullying and mobbing in academia: At the earlier stages of careers, some academics may experience academic bullying and mobbing at workplace due to the hierarchy. Identifying these behaviors may be hard at first sight. If you are a scholar and in a doubt, I strongly suggest you to read "Mind your Head: An introduction to Workplace Bullying in Academia" by Simone Pieber, Elenora van Rijsingen, Derya Gürer and Anouk Beniest. Here is the article link. If you are subject to a constant mobbing, I also strongly encourage to consult the university head. Never be silent!..


Miscellaneous I   

I am a first-generation university graduate and academic in my extended family. Throughout all my education life (starting from primary education), I was able to go to school with the help of academic success scholarships awarded by the government. I do like learning new things a lot. This is the reason why I am pursuing this career. While I listed my achievements (according to me) here, I have a much longer list consisting of failures and rejections. So I keep learning.


Miscellaneous II   

About non-academic me: I do like traveling a lot. Prior to Covid-19, I was very fortunate to travel more than 50 cities in 20 different countries in four different continents. My last international travel was to Portugal in February 2020! (That was the first the time I wore a mask while I was traveling back to Istanbul from Lisbon airport). I am unprofessionally interested in nature (e.g., flowers, migrant birds, waterfalls, geological formations, and meteorological and astronomical events), architecture, and history. Whenever I go to a city for the first time, I prefer to visit national parks, botanical gardens, and art museums. Apart from plants and animals, I do like human beings who talk, write, and behave kindly in their social and professional life.


Last updated: September 18, 2023