Entertainment Computing and Interactive Systems Laboratory
Events & Announcements
• We attended the first field exercise of our EU project eNOTICE-2 project, which was organized at Dortmund, Germany, between the dates of 18-20 April 2024 – 21.04.2024.
• I gave a seminar titled “A Brief Introduction to Game Research: Persona Building, Serious Games, and Extended Reality Applications” at METU ROMER Talks – 03.04.2024.
• Our new European Commission Horizon Europe project has been accepted on March 20, and has been officially announced by TÜBİTAK on March 29, 2024. Many thanks to TÜBİTAK for their support and heartfelt congratulations to our university – 30.03.2024.
• I attended the 6th CBRNe Research and Innovation international conference in Strasbourg, France (19-21 March). I gave a presentation titled “Future directions for extended reality applications and serious games on CBRNe”, and presented our new EU project eNOTICE-2 in two different workshops – 21.03.2024.
• My book chapter “Recent Advancements and Use Cases on Co-Creation, Procedural Content Generation, And Computational Creativity in Video Games” will be published at the book “Artificial Intelligence, Co-Creation, and Creativity: The New Frontier for Innovation”, which will be published by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group in August 2024 – 18.03.2024.
• I was a guest lecturer at BA 100 Career Planning course, and gave a presentation titled “Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Opportunities at the METU Ecosystem” – 13.03.2024.
• As part of the Alliance of Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities (GISU) Digital and Entrepreneurship Academy Program 2024, I gave a seminar titled “Digital Globalization of Gaming and Extended Reality Industries.” – 12.03.2024.
• ENRICH TOGETHER – Are you currently in your final stages of completing your Ph.D. degree or have already completed your Ph.D. degree and looking for a 12-to-24-month post-doctoral Research Opportunity in Türkiye? As Middle East Technical University we are delighted to inform you that the first ENRICH-TOGETHER call for 10 highly-motivated and excellent post-doctoral researchers to be coupled with one of 60+ accomplished academics working in the field of Green and Blue Transition is now open till April 16, 2024 – 09.03.2024.
• Happy International Women’s Day and please visit our university’s unique collage here, which was held as an exhibition as well – 08.03.2024.
• Dear METU Students, on behalf of the British Council Turkey-funded Global Graduates for Global Careers project led by METU, the University of Bradford’s School of Management delivers an online Career Booster Spring 2024 Programme – 09.02.2024.
• Our new EU project eNOTICE-2, funded by the DG ECHO Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network, has officially started in January 2024. Our kick-off meeting was held between the dates of 15-17 January 2024 in Brussels, Belgium – 18.01.2024.
• I am starting a new position as Associate Director at METU Graduate School of Informatics – 15.01.2024.
• We, as GIMER, attended the ADIMODTU event – 22.12.2023.
• We, as GIMER, attended the opening ceremony of the interdisciplinary project between METU and ASBU – 11.12.2023.
• Our study got the Best Poster award at METU Graduate School of Informatics Open Research Day – 08.12.2023.
• We are happy to announce that recent entrepreneurial activities of ODTÜ TEKNOKENT and METU Entrepreneurship Research Center are published at the latest issue of the Change Forward Journal, an annual publication that features work by University Innovation Fellows programme of Stanford University and their Faculty Champions. You can read the publication titled “Empowering Universities as Strong Communities and Change Catalyzers” co-authored by METU UIF Faculty Champions, Serdar Alemdar and Elif Surer here – 20.11.2023.
• I gave a presentation titled “Extended Reality Applications and Serious Games in the CBRNe Domain: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Perspectives” at the Third Edition of the SICC Series – CBRNe Conference on the virtual reality and mixed reality serious games that we have developed at the H2020 eNOTICE project, and on the exciting future ahead. We also had a poster on Tuesday titled “Development of a Methodology for Pooling Resources and Optimising Investments in the Field of CBRN Training and Capacity Building”, and lots of exciting discussions and opportunities for collaboration – 29.09.2023.
• Our paper, “Playtesting: What is Beyond Personas” (Sinan Arıyürek, Elif Surer, Aysu Betin-Can) has been published in the September issue of the IEEE Transactions on Games – 15.09.2023.
• We are very happy and excited to attend the IEEE Conference on Games‘ Best of ToG session with our selected IEEE Transactions on Games journal paper, which was published in 2021! Many thanks to the organizers for this session and it is a great honour and joy to be among these amazing journal papers. IEEE Conference on Games’ full program is available here – 23.08.2023.
• We, as GIMER, met with Ilkay Can-Standard and Fethiye Yildiz from GENx Design & Technology; we are looking forward to our future collaborations – 29.07.2023.
• I attended the Campus Vesta Joint Activity of the eNOTICE project, which has been held in Ranst, Belgium between the dates of 10-13 May 2023. I also attended the eFAIR and made a presentation titled “Serious Games and Virtual Reality in CBRNe” at Campus Vesta, Ranst, Belgium – 14.05.2023.
• As GIMER, we were a part of the FireUp Creator Bootcamp, an online education program aiming to expand university students’ vision of micro-enterprises, which took place between 22 February-5 May, 2023 – 04.05.2023.
• We would like to thank GGT for including GIMER in the “E-YES ON BUSINESS” magazine published specially for the 20th Anniversary of the METU Young Entrepreneurs Society and congratulate everyone who contributed to the GGT team for the full content of the magazine – 03.05.2023.
• We as GIMER were delighted to take part in the Kristal Ağaç 2023 award ceremony organized by the METU Young Entrepreneurs Society. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the organization and many thanks to Assoc. Dr. Behçet Yalın Özkara for their participation – 26.04.2023.
• Congratulations to our students (Diba Asadi, Ege Yiğit Şen, Berk Baris Ozbek, Bahar Salman, and Sıla Uzun) for successfully completing the University Innovation Fellows program and becoming Fellows! – 13.04.2023.
• I attended the WSU Joint Activity of the eNOTICE project, which has been held in Warsaw, Poland between the dates of 07-09 March 2023 – 10.03.2023.
• Global Game Jam ATOM 2023 has been held at METU Teknokent CoZone between the dates of 03-05 February 2023; many thanks to all that contributed to this wonderful event – 05.02.2023.
• Five METU students have been named University Innovation Fellows, which is a program run by Stanford University as a result of the Fire Up 2022 training program. The six-week-long program was collaboratively organized by METU GİMER (Entrepreneurship Research Center), İTÜ GİNOVA and Boğaziçi University BRIGHT entrepreneurship centers, and sponsored by METU TEKNOKENT – 11.01.2023.
• I participated in the METU Strategic Plan 2023-2027 as part of the Strategic Plan Field Committee on International Collaborations – 03.01.2023.
• METU Performance Awards 2021 have been announced, and I am honored to be listed among the award recipients – 30.12.2022.
• We, as GIMER, participated in the TTGV Day event; we would like to thank TTGV for this fantastic organization and for their kind invitation – 22.12.2022.
• We, as GIMER, had the chance to meet Prof. Akbat Adhiutama, Prof. Nur Budi Mulyono, and Yunita Piga Kanata from Institut Teknologi Bandung’s School of Business Management and we are looking forward to our future collaborations – 16.12.2022.
• We, as GIMER, participated in the Networking event of YFYI, Turkey’s leading early-stage acceleration programs – 14.12.2022.
• EU H2020 project eNOTICE has organized a Joint Activity in Rieti, Italy between the dates of 15-17 November 2022 – 17.11.2022.
• Our paper focusing on the population history of Upper Mesopotamia in the Neolithic Era by Altınışık et al. is out in Science Advances journal; congratulations to the whole team – 04.11.2022.
• Similar to Sem 2 2021/22, the University of Bradford School of Management opens their unique Career Booster Programme at the School of Management to 50 students at Middle East Technical University – 24.10.2022.
• Prof. Vishanth Weerakkody (Bradford University), our partner from the GLOBALGC project, visited METU Technopolis and METU Design Factory – 19.10.2022.
• METU GIMER visited the University of Bradford School of Management between the dates of 26-29 September for the British Council-funded Connect4Innovation: UK-Turkey Higher Education Institutional Partnerships Fund project GlobalGC “Global Graduates for Global Careers” – 30.09.2022.
• Our joint TUBITAK 1001 project, led by the Department of Computer Engineering in collaboration with METU ROMER (Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Applications and Research Center), has been funded – 25.07.2022.
• Congratulations to my dear students, Oğuzcan Yıldırım and Şura Genç, for receiving METU Thesis of the Year Awards – 29.06.2022.
• Our Institute‘s Open Research Day Award Presentation Ceremony (Best Posters and Special Mention Awards) and METU Graduate Courses Performance Awards Ceremony were held in Ural Akbulut Conference Hall; many congratulations to our student Furkan Yücel – 24.06.2022.
• This semester’s MMI 590 Graduate Seminar course had fascinating speakers, and I would like to thank them for their invaluable contributions: Asst. Prof. Fatma Başak Aydemir (Boğaziçi University Computer Engineering Department), Asst. Prof. Mustafa Mert Ankaralı (METU Electrical & Electronics Engineering), Asst. Prof. Anıl Ufuk Batmaz (Kadir Has University), Assoc. Prof. Sema Alaçam (Istanbul Technical University), Asst. Prof. Hakan Yıldız (METU Computer Engineering), Asst. Prof. Emre Gürsoy (Koç University), Assoc. Prof. Sema Dumanlı Oktar, Asst. Prof. Ayşegül Dündar (Bilkent University), Asst. Prof. Cemil Zalluhoğlu (Hacettepe University), Asst. Prof. Hasan Onur Keleş (Ankara University), Asst. Prof. Anıl Koyuncu (Sabancı University), Assoc. Prof. Gökhan İnce (Istanbul Technical University), and Assoc. Prof. Cihangir Tezcan (METU Informatics Institute) – 16.06.2022.
• We participated to the NEOMATRIX project‘s first meeting at METU – 11.06.2022.
• I attended the H2020 eNOTICE Project‘s Joint Activity organized by the City of Dortmund Fire Department and the PROActive project in Dortmund, Germany between the dates of 6-7 May – 07.05.2022.
• We organized a workshop on CBRNe Training, where we shared our results and experiences from the eNOTICE project’s serious games, virtual and mixed reality-based joint activities, at the 5th CBRNE International Conference (3-6 May 2022) in Lille, France – 05.05.2022.
• My interview on Virtual Reality and Metaverse is available on the webpage and Youtube channel of the digital science magazine of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), TÜBİTAK Bilim Genç, in Turkish – 28.02.2022.
• Dear METU Students, on behalf of the British Council Turkey-funded Global Graduates for Global Careers project led by METU, the University of Bradford’s School of Management delivers an online Career Booster Spring 2022 Programme; check for the details – 14.02.2022.
• We, as GIMER, participated in the TTGV Day event; we would like to thank TTGV for this fantastic organization and for their kind invitation – 23.12.2021.
• We, as GIMER, participated in the Networking event of YFYI, Turkey’s leading early stage acceleration program – 17.12.2021.
• I attended the “Inspiring Women” podcast series organized by SistersLab, and you can watch the video of the event here – 12.12.2021.
• I got my Associate Professorship degree from the Turkish Interuniversity Board – 03.12.2021.
• My radio interview on virtual reality, mixed reality, and metaverse was on the TRT-1’s radio program – 02.12.2021.
• I gave a seminar titled “Serious Games, Reinforcement Learning Agents, and Extended Reality: A Brief Introduction to Game Research” at Boğaziçi University’s Computer Engineering Department’s CmpE 579/700 course – 30.11.2021.
• I attended the H2020 eNOTICE Project’s Joint Activity—the CBRN Consequences management course by the Joint CBRN Defence Centre of Excellence in Vyskov, Czech Republic – 26.11.2021.
• Our student Onur Tekik from the Department of Information Systems, advised by Assoc. Prof. Aysu Betin-Can and co-advised by me, successfully defended his Master’s thesis – 05.11.2021.
• I attended the “Materials Technology Management” class as a guest lecturer and presented “Persona Creation in Design Process.” I would like to thank Asst. Prof. Bilge Imer for her kind invitation – 27.10.2021.
• I attended to the Zero Gravity – METU LabsOut Special Edition training organized by METU Technopolis – 23.10.2021.
• I was one of the invited speakers of the Transtun Final Conference jointly organized by EU H2020 TRANSTUN, EU H2020 eNOTICE and EU H2020 PROACTIVE projects, held in Brussels, Belgium. I gave a talk titled “Developing Serious Games for Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality Environments in CBRNe Training: Use Case of the eNOTICE METU Joint Activity 2020”, which was based on our eNOTICE METU JA – 30.09.2021.
• Our paper, “Proposing a Novel Mixed-Reality Framework for Basic Design and Its Hybrid Evaluation Using Linkography and Interviews” (Cindioglu, H. C., Gursel Dino, I., Surer, E.), is accepted to the International Journal of Technology and Design Education – 15.09.2021.
• It has been a fruitful experience to be a jury member at QOyun’2021 Hackathon. I would like to thank QTurkey for their successful organization – 05.09.2021.
• Congratulations to our dear student Büşra Şenderin for successfully defending her Master’s thesis. We want to thank her, with her co-advisor, dear Assoc. Prof. Nurcan Tunçbağ, for her great efforts during her thesis process. This has been a fruitful summer with four new graduates; I wish them all the best – 31.08.2021.
• Congratulations to our dear student Şura Genç for successfully defending her Master’s thesis titled “Turkish Clickbait Detection in Social Media via Machine Learning algorithms.” We want to thank her, with her co-advisor, dear Asst. Prof. Murat Perit Çakır, for her great efforts during her thesis process. Publications on this thesis are as follows:
• Our new preprint, “Playtesting: What is Beyond Personas” (S. Ariyurek, E. Surer, A. Betin-Can) is available on arXiv. This study proposes a goal-based and dynamic persona model (Developing Persona) for automated playtesting and a new methodology, Alternative Path Finder, for reinforcement learning agents to generate distinct trajectories as human playtesters do – 26.07.2021.
• Our paper “Automated Game Mechanics and Aesthetics Generation Using Neural Style Transfer in 2D Video Games” (Şen, D., Küçükkaykı, H. T. and Sürer, E.) is accepted to the Journal of Information Technologies – 02.07.2021.
• This semester’s MMI 590 Graduate Seminar course had fascinating speakers, and I would like to thank them for their invaluable contributions: Asst. Prof. Zümra Kavafoğlu (Hacettepe University), Asst. Prof. Burkay Genç (Hacettepe University), Asst. Prof. Eray Tüzün (Bilkent University), Assoc. Prof. Erdem Akagündüz (Middle East Technical University), Dr. Sinem Aslan (Ege University), Asst. Prof. Güven Çatak (Bahçeşehir University), Assoc. Prof. Ozlem Durmaz İncel (Galatasaray University), Asst. Prof. H. Birkan Yılmaz (Boğaziçi University), Asst. Prof. Fatma Güney (Koç University), and Asst. Prof. Reyhan Aydoğan (Ozyeğin University) – 16.06.2021.
• Entertainment Computing and Interactive Systems Laboratory – ECISLab’s projects are updated – 07.06.2021.
• As GIMER Entrepreneurship Research Center board, we will aim to pursue cutting-edge research and enhance the entrepreneurship culture in Turkey – 04.06.2021.
• I was one of invited speakers of the webinar jointly organized by EU H2020 SHOTPROS and EU H2020 eNOTICE projects. I gave a talk on virtual reality and CBRNe – 02.06.2021.
• We participated to the Zoom Webinar on METU Graduate School of Informatics’ graduate programs and answered the questions of the candidates – 01.06.2021.
• We participated to the Indieway’s panel on game research and academic perspectives on the games with Assoc. Prof. Sema Alaçam (ITU) and Asst. Prof. Güven Çatak (BAU) – 29.05.2021.
• I participated to the joint webinar titled “Communication in Crisis: Recommendations on Management, Approaches, and Tools for Effective Communication” organized by the EU H2020 project PROACTIVE and EU H2020 project NO-FEAR – 20.05.2021.
• Thrilled to be on the “Researchers Active in Technical Games Research” list, which involves game researchers who publish in the Computer Science-oriented venues of the game research community – 12.04.2021.
• Our paper, “ClickbaitTR: Dataset for Clickbait Detection from Turkish News Sites and Social Media with a Comparative Analysis via Machine Learning Algorithms,” is accepted to the Journal of Information Science; congratulations to my dear student, Sura Genc – 16.03.2021.
• The Editorial titled “Behavior and usability analysis for multimodal user interfaces” that we wrote for Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces is available online – 16.03.2021.
• My TEDxMETUAnkara talk will be available online on March 28, 2021. You can register here to watch the event – 14.03.2021.
• Congratulations to our student Servet Gürer (METU Mining Engineering) for successfully defending his thesis on using virtual reality in mining safety. The thesis was advised by Asst. Prof. Mustafa Erkayaoğlu, and co-advised by me; looking forward to our future collaborations – 15.02.2021.
• I am delighted to be listed among the women researchers of METU that I deeply admire; it has been such a fantastic motivation. I hope to inspire my students the way my advisors, colleagues, and friends did and open new paths for them in science. I want to thank my university METU and GISAM for this beautiful surprise – 11.02.2021.
• Humbled to be a part of a select group of around 60 emerging UK and global engineers and researchers to participate in the Royal Academy of Engineering – Frontiers of Engineering for Development’s interdisciplinary symposium on Smart Communities, organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). Besides establishing new networks and tackling fundamental problems, the symposium provides an opportunity to apply for seed funding. For more information, please visit here – 11.01.2021.
• It has been a fruitful experience to be a jury member at QOyun’2020 Hackathon. I would like to thank QTurkey for their successful organization – 27.12.2020.
• Our paper, “Developing a Space Syntax-Based Evaluation Method for Procedurally Generated Game Levels”, is accepted to the Mugla Journal of Science and Technology journal – 20.12.2020.
• I gave a seminar titled “A Brief Introduction to the Design Process — Perspectives and Applications in Video Game Design” at METU Computer Engineering department – 17.12.2020.
• I presented our study titled “Serious Game Development for CBRNe Training: A Comparative Analysis in Virtual Reality and Computer-Based Environments” at the 2nd Scientific International Conference on CBRNe – SICC Series 2020. You can reach the conference programme here. We shared the initial results of our eNOTICE-METU Joint Activity, which was held between 25-28 February 2020 in Ankara and Eskişehir – 11.12.2020.
• I am delighted to announce that I will serve as a social media co-chair of the CHI PLAY 2021 Conference. The call for full papers is available here and the submission deadline is February 17, 2021 – 01.12.2020.
• Our paper, “Developing a Scenario-Based Video Game Generation Framework for Computer and Virtual Reality Environments: A Comparative Usability Study” (Surer, E., Erkayaoğlu, M., Öztürk, Z.N. et al.), is published online at Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces – 31.10.2020.
• I participated to the H2020 project TRANSTUN‘s mid-term conference – 29.10.2020.
• As a member of the Civil Society Advisory Board, I participated to the H2020 project PROACTIVE‘s mid-term conference – 28.10.2020.
• I participated to the H2020 project eNOTICE‘s policy meeting focused on network sustainability – 22.10.2020.
• Our paper, “An Immersive Performative Architectural Design Tool with Daylighting Simulations: A Building Information Modeling-Based Approach”, is accepted to the Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management journal – 09.10.2020.
• Our paper, “Implementation of a Generic Framework on Crowd Simulation: A New Environment to Model Crowd Behavior and Design Video Games”, is accepted to the Mugla Journal of Science and Technology journal – 09.10.2020.
• Our paper, “Developing a Scenario-Based Video Game Generation Framework for Computer and Virtual Reality Environments: A Comparative Usability Study,” is accepted to the Special Issue of the Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces – 01.10.2020.
• Our students Oğuzcan Ergün (Multimedia Informatics) and Ceren Cindioğlu (Department of Architecture) received 2018-2019 METU Thesis Awards: The Influence of Emergent Mixed-Reality Technologies on Design Thinking – Ceren Cindioglu (Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Ipek Gursel Dino, Co-advisor: Asst. Prof. Elif Surer). Developing Building Information Modelling Based Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality Environments for Architectural Design and Improving User Interactions with Serious Games – Oguzcan Ergun (Advisor: Asst. Prof. Elif Surer, Co-advisor: Assoc. Prof. Ipek Gursel Dino) – 23.09.2020.
• We participated to the 6th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good (EAI GOODTECHS 2020) and you can read our paper here – 14.09.2020.
• My student Oğuzcan Yıldırım has successfully defended his Master’s thesis on using serious games for children with Special Learning Disabilities. We would like to thank Dislev Türkiye Disleksili Çocuklar Vakfı (Dislev Turkish Association of Children with Dyslexia) for their tremendous help during data acquisition. Oguzcan has been my 9th Master’s student who has graduated from the METU Entertainment Computing and Interactive Systems Laboratory (ECISLab) – 10.09.2020.
• It is great to be a member of XR4ALL community. You can visit my biography page here – 08.09.2020.
• Our abstract “Serious Game Development for CBRNe Training: A Comparative Analysis in Virtual Reality and Computer-Based Environments” is accepted to SICC Series 2020 – 2nd Scientific International Conference on CBRN. This abstract is based on the H2020 project eNOTICE‘s Hospital and Biogarden games, which were tested by the CBRNe experts during the eNOTICE METU Joint Activity in February 2020. We would like to thank our participants and congratulate our eNOTICE team! – 24.07.2020.
• It is great to be a part of METU Design Factory! Please check this beautiful video showcasing the moments from our hybrid semester due to COVID-19 – 07.07.2020.
• [TR] Sevgili Lale Hocam, Herkese Bilim Teknoloji‘nin 222. sayısında ciddi oyun çalışmalarımızdan, ATOM’dan bahsetmiş; kendisine ne kadar teşekkür etsem az – 26.06.2020.
• It has been a pleasure to participate as a jury in METUTECH-ATOM’s project team selection – 19.06.2020.
• I participated to the H2020 project eNOTICE’s Just-in-time-training webinar for practitioners. Read more in our newsletter – 18.06.2020.
• We extended the paper submission deadline for the Special Issue on “Behavior and Usability Analysis for Multimodal User Interfaces” in Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces (JMUI) to 24th May, 2020 – 05.05.2020.
• As a member of the Civil Society Advisory Board, I participated to the H2020 project PROACTIVE‘s COVID-19 webinar – 30.04.2020.
• I participated in the Games for Our Future 2020 – IndieCade Climate Jam organized by the University of Washington as a research mentor and the themes of the jam were Adapt, Engage, and Protect. It was a pleasure for me to share with you our research on serious/transformational games, HoloArch, Basic Design, and eNOTICE projects. You can watch the video here – 18.04.2020.
• Our submission, “Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication” (Yurtman, E. et al.), is available on bioRxiv – 18.04.2020.
• The podcast of my radio interview on “Virtual Reality and Serious Games” at Radio TRT FM’s “Science is Life” programme is available here (in Turkish) – 10.03.2020.
• I gave a talk on Serious Games at METU Technopolis CoZone‘s QTurkey QTalks and I would like to thank the organizing team for the invitation – 07.03.2020.
• We organized the H2020 project eNOTICE‘s METU Joint Activity between the dates of 25-28 February 2020 in Ankara and Eskişehir. You can learn the details about the Joint Activity and Serious Gaming Workshop here – 28.02.2020.
• I would like to thank my university and GISAM for this nice video. “H2020 project eNOTICE‘s METU team has designed “serious games” for places such as hospitals and disaster areas to provide education for both public and officials.” – 26.02.2020.
• Our paper, “Multi-modal Egocentric Activity Recognition using Multi-Kernel Learning” (M. A. Arabacı, F. Özkan, E. Surer, P. Jančovič, A. Temizel), is accepted to Multimedia Tools and Applications journal – 24.02.2020.
• We are pleased to inform that our paper, “A Canine Gait Analysis Protocol for Back Movement Assessment in German Shepherd Dogs” (E. Surer, A. Cereatti, M. A. Evangelisti, G. Paolini, U. Della Croce, M. L. Manunta) has been officially
accepted for publication to Veterinary Sciences journal. It has been a long journey, but we made it; congratulations to our team! – 17.02.2020.
• [TR] ODTÜLÜ Dergisi’nin oyun temalı 67. sayısında Don Kişot ile Peter Pan, gerçek ve kurgu arasındaki yolculuğumuzu yazdım; keyifli okumalar dilerim – 17.02.2020.
• We participated to TurkeyinH2020’s Horizon 2020 event at Centre for Research & Technology – Hellas (CERTH) Thessaloniki, Greece, between the dates of 11-13 February – 14.02.2020.
• I feel deeply honored to have talked about our research at #WomenInScience Day. I really do wish that our research sparks the joy of science in girls. You can read the interview here – 11.02.2020.
• I gave a seminar on Serious Games and participated to Global Game Jam’20 at Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep between the dates of January 31 to February 2, 2020 – 02.02.2020.
• Congratulations to our dear student Sahin Akin for successfully defending his Master’s thesis. We would like to thank him with his advisor and my dear friend Assoc. Prof. Ipek Gursel Dino for his great efforts during his thesis process – 24.01.2020.
• I gave a seminar titled “Using Serious Games, Virtual and Mixed Reality Applications in Healthcare” at Bioinformatics Seminar Series – 16.12.2019.
• It has been a wonderful experience to participate to Quantum Programming Hackathon as a jury; I would like to thank QTurkey for their successful and fruitful organization – 15.12.2019.
• I delivered the keynote talk titled “Virtual and Mixed Reality Applications in Healthcare: Developments, Constraints and Opportunities” today in the opening of the 12th Congress of Medical Informatics. I presented the serious games and applications from our eNOTICE, HoloArch and Basic Design projects. I would like to thank my dear collaborators, students, Assoc. Prof. Yesim Aydin Son and Turkish Health Informatics Association for this nice opportunity – 15.11.2019.
• Our paper, “Usability of Virtual Reality for Basic Design Education: A Comparative Study with Paper-Based Design” (D. S. Ozgen, Y. Afacan, E. Surer) has been accepted to International Journal of Technology and Design Education – 12.11.2019.
• I gave a seminar titled “Developing a Scenario-Based Video Game Generation Framework” at METU Computer Engineering department where I also mentioned our in-progress serious games which are being developed for EU-funded project eNOTICE – 06.11.2019.
• I gave a seminar titled “A Brief Introduction to the Design Process — Perspectives and Applications in Video Game Design” at METU Computer Engineering department – 31.10.2019.
• Our Multimedia Informatics program had its orientation meeting today and we had a chance to welcome our new students. We wish all of our students and faculty a successful and productive semester – 18.09.2019.
• Congratulations to Ceren Cindioğlu (METU Faculty of Architecture) for successfully defending her thesis advised by Assoc. Prof. İpek Gürsel Dino and co-advised by me. We also would like to thank Burak Güneş Özgüney for his tremendous efforts in our team – 02.09.2019.
• IEEE 27th Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU) proceedings are online! Please see below the relevant links to read our proceedings – 25.08.2019.
• We had a chance to visit Aşıklıhöyük excavations and had fruitful discussions for NEOGENE project. We would like to thank Aşıklıhöyük team for their wonderful hospitality – 07.08.2019.
• GOODTECHS 2019 – 5th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good Preliminary Program is now available – 25.07.2019.
• Our Data for Refugees (D4R) team‘s study titled “Big Data Analysis for Social Good: a Case Study on Syrian Refugees” (M. A. Akyol, Ö. O. Kılıç, T. Taşkaya-Temizel, A. U. Aydınoğlu, E. Surer) is available at TSE Technical Journal’s June 2019 issue (in Turkish, pp.34-41). You can read it here – 16.07.2019.
• Our submission “Information Augmentation for Human Activity Recognition and Fall Detection using Empirical Mode Decomposition on Smartphone Data” (S. Sezer and E. Surer) is accepted to 6th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO’19)! See you in Arizona, USA – 09.06.2019.
• Some of our METU team‘s Data for Refugees (D4R) research outcomes are featured at nature.com. You can read the featured news here – 29.05.2019.
• Congratulations to dear Şura Genç (METU COGS) for winning Best Poster Award at METU II Open Research Day with our work titled “Detecting “Clickbait” News on Social Media Using Machine Learning Algorithms”! You can read our paper here – 28.05.2019.
• I participated to the eNOTICE Joint Activity at Gurcy-le-Chatel, France – 20-24.05.2019.
• Congratulations to Team EllTech for their successful presentation and prototype at METU Design Factory’s 2019 Spring Closing Ceremony – 17.05.2019.
• We have been at METU II Open Research Day with 6 posters of our recent research. I’m glad to be working and collaborating with such brilliant students and colleagues – 17.05.2019.
• Anadolu Agency (AA) prepared a video to explain our “Music Within” project, you can watch the video here – 16.05.2019.
• Dear game developers and/or VR/MR enthusiasts, come to test our games which aim to ease the interaction with our architectural design platform – 26.04.2019.
• My interview with Haberturk was on TV; I talked about our EU-funded project eNOTICE’s serious game that we are developing w/ Prof. Sebnem Duzgun and our METU-funded project HoloArch w/ Assoc. Prof. Ipek Gursel Dino, Sahin Akin and Oguzcan Ergun. You can watch the interview here – 16.04.2019.
• I gave a seminar at Hacettepe University’s Computer Engineering department on serious gaming, where I also mentioned our in-progress game which is being developed for EU-funded project eNOTICE. Abstract of my talk and my biography are available here – 16.04.2019.
• I gave a seminar titled “Recent Practices, Opportunities and Challenges in Serious Games Research” for CerModern Art Center‘s “Game and Politics” exhibition. The exhibition and game-related talks will continue till 18th of May, do not miss them – 13.04.2019.
The titles of the accepted submissions are as follows: 1- Detecting “Clickbait” News on Social Media Using Machine Learning Algorithms (Ş. Genç and E. Surer) 2- Scene Classification: A Comprehensive Study Combining Local and Global Descriptors (B. F. Cura and E. Surer) 3- Positive or Negative? A semantic orientation of financial news (M. Kanmaz and E. Surer) – 14.03.2019.
• Are you an international student at METU? We have a bio-inspired art and video installation for you at METU Library, 19-20 March 2019. This is a research project aiming to evaluate the impact of music in a multi-cultural context. We added new musical and video features after our latest exhibition; join our experiment! Please send an email to Elif Bozlak (bozlak.elif@metu.edu.tr) for registration. To see and listen to our previous work, please check:
• Our abstract titled “Serious Gaming in CBRNe Domain: A Survey on User Expectations, Concerns and Suggestions” (E. Surer, T. B. Atalay, D. Ç. Demirkan, H. Ş. Düzgün), on the serious game that we have been developing for eNOTICE project, is accepted to the 3rd International Conference CBRNE – Research & Innovation as an oral presentation. You can check the video of the initial game here. Congratulations to the team and see you in Nantes, France! – 11.03.2019.
• I gave a lecture titled “Game Development Basics” at Bilkent University – 07.03.2019.
• I participated to the joint activity of eNOTICE project in Vyškov, Czechia—a full-week organization with fruitful discussions and research input – 24.02.2019-02.03.2019.
• Our submission titled “Improving Visual Design Perception by Integrated Mixed Reality Environment for Performative Architecture” (S. Akin, O. Ergun, I. Gursel Dino, E. Surer) is accepted to 7th eCAADe Regional International Symposium which will be held at Aalborg, Denmark – 21.02.2019.
• Our submission titled “Architectural Design in Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality Environments: A Comparative Analysis” (O. Ergun, S. Akin, I. Gursel Dino, E. Surer) is accepted to IEEE VR 2019 Conference, which will be held in Osaka, Japan – 21.02.2019.
• We opened a new course with Çiğdem Atakuman and Mehmet Somel at METU Department of Archaeometry, ARME 707 – Digital Archaeology of the Neolithic Transition (Wednesdays 14:40-17:30, METU Archaeological Museum) – 19.02.2019.
• This semester, I opened a new course, MMI 706 – Reinforcement Learning (Wednesdays 9:40-12:30, II-06) – 19.02.2019.
• I gave a lecture on Machine Learning at Evolutionary Genomics Winter School at Ege University. It was an interdisciplinary program, so please check for participating lecturers and the whole program here – 05.02.2019.
• Our team, Data Analytics without Borders, won the Honorable Mention Award on the category of Labor at Data for Refugees (D4R) Challenge with our paper titled “Data Analytics without Borders: Multi-Layered Insights for Syrian Refugee Crisis”. Congratulations to the team: Özgün Ozan Kılıç (METU IS), Mehmet Ali Akyol (METU IS), Oğuz Işık (METU CRP), Banu Gunel Kilic (METU IS), Arsev Umur Aydinoglu (METU TEKPOL), Elif Surer (METU MMI), Hafize Şebnem Düzgün (Colorado School of Mines), Sibel Kalaycıoğlu (METU SOC) and Tugba Temizel (METU IS). The D4R project received over 100 submissions and you can access the proceedings of this international challenge and workshop here.
• eNTERFACE 2019, Ankara, Turkey Host Institution: Bilkent University, Computer Engineering Department Organizers: Asst. Prof. Hamdi Dibeklioğlu (Bilkent University) Asst. Prof. Elif Surer (Middle East Technical University) Dates: July 8 – August 2, 2019 Location: Bilkent University, Main Campus, Ankara, Turkey
• We evaluated bang. Prix Art Innovation 2019 applications and the results will be announced soon. It has been an honor to be a jury with a team of artists, curators and scientists— Agah Uğur (Borusan Holding – Group CEO), Bige Örer (IKSV, Director of Istanbul Biennial), Ekmel Ertan (Amber Platform), Gözde Durmuş (Stanford University) and Ozan Türkkan (New Media Artist) – 14.01.2019.
• GATEWay’19 is approaching! A total of 30 presentations and projects from Game Development Pipeline, Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics courses, and GATEWay Junior section will be with us on 18th of January!
• Şeyhmus Ölker from App Samurai gave a seminar for Game Development Pipeline course. I would like to thank AppSamurai team for their participation – 13.12.2018.
• Save the date, GATEWay’19 is loading! We are looking forward to seeing you on January 18 2019, 15:00-20:00 at METU Informatics Institute. Game Development Pipeline, Machine Learning and GATEWay Junior presentations and projects will be waiting for you; stay tuned for the updates – 22.11.2018.
• Our interview on ERC-funded NEOGENE project and Ancient DNA is available on this month’s Aktüel Arkeoloji Dergisi – Actual Archaeology Magazine (in Turkish). We would like to thank Aktüel Arkeoloji and Deniz Genceolu for this great opportunity | Interview – 06.11.2018.
• Django Girls event, which was organized by Asst. Prof. Hande Alemdar (METU CENG) and a group of volunteers, was a huge success. Being a mentor was an amazing experience. I would like to thank especially Hande Alemdar, Ebru Aydın Göl, Elif Bozlak, Evrim Fer, Meriç Kınalı, Muazzez Çınar, İdil Sülo, Gizem Sönmez, Elifnur Sünger, IEEE ODTÜ, all the mentors, meta-mentors and participants for making this event possible. Looking forward to the next one, go girl! – 04.11.2018.
• Our joint “Immersive and Responsive Environments” workshop with METU Department of Architecture is on 23-24 November. If you would like to experience our joint HoloArch project, please fill the registration form here. Deadline is November 15 – 31.10.2018.
• bang. Art Innovation Prix 2019 is on its way and Call for Submissions are open as of today. Previous bang. Art Innovation programs have been amazing learning experiences for us and I am honoured to be a jury on 2019’s selections – 25.10.2018.
• “Music Within” project is in the 6th issue of İTÜ Guitar Magazine! Congratulations to Elif Bozlak for her article and I would like to thank her for these kind words and for her amazing effort in this project. As she depicts in her article this is a collaborative work and I also personally would like to thank the names she mentioned – 17.10.2018.
• Our paper titled “An Immersive Design Environment for Performance-based Architectural Design: A BIM-based Approach” (S. Akin, O. Ergun, E. Surer, I. G. Dino) is selected to Poster session of 4th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good (GOODTECHS 2018) and will appear within the proceedings as a 2 pages paper. This work is supported by Middle East Technical University GAP-201-2018-2823 Grant and YÖP-704-2018-2827 Grant and we would like to thank also the participants of the workshop conducted at University of Lisbon, Design Computation Group for tool testing, and Jose Nuno Beirao and Rui de Klerk for their contributions to the workshop. Congrats to our team and you can read our abstract here – 10.10.2018.
• We are opening a new course this semester at METU Department of Archaeometry: “Digital Archaeology of the Neolithic Transition” with Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Atakuman and Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Somel. You can add this course this week during Add/Drop period. We are looking forward to meeting you on Wednesdays at 14:40 at Department of Archaeometry – 07.10.2018.
• Are you developing video or board games? Are you younger than 18 years old? GATEWay’19 Junior is waiting for you. Send us your project concept documents via DM before December 15, 2018! – 02.10.2018.
• MMI 505 Game Development Pipeline course has an official Twitter account: @GameDevPipeline In this account, we will share resources, assignments, source code, scientific papers and tutorials on game development. Follow us, contribute to the content and make the most out of this experience – 27.09.2018.
• I participated to the Expert’s seminar on serious games in Brussels, Belgium. I gave a presentation titled “Innovating game development methodologies” and presented the games that we have been developing at eNOTICE project. I would like to thank the organizers and especially eConfidence project and European Schoolnet for the invitation. You can reach the agenda here – 12.09.2018.
• Wanna catch some bugs, test video games, and win the prize? Drop us an email (odtu.game.testing@gmail.com) to contribute to a research study pursued by Sinan Arıyürek, me and Aysu Betin Can from METU Graduate School of Informatics – 26.07.2018.
• Congratulations to Dilay Seda Özgen (Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, Bilkent University) for successfully defending her Master’s thesis on virtuality reality in design education, which was supervised by Assoc. Prof. Yasemin Afacan and co-supervised by me – 18.07.2018.
• As part of a collaboration between our Multimedia Informatics program and METU Department of Architecture, a workshop titled “Immersive and Responsive Performative Architectural Design in Mixed Reality” was conducted at Design Computing Summer School 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal by Assoc. Prof. Ipek Gursel Dino and our student Şahin Akın from METU Department of Architecture on our joint project with me and our student Oğuzcan Ergün (METU MMI) – Update: 17.07.2018.
• Our new preprint titled “Multi-modal Egocentric Activity Recognition using Audio-Visual Features” (Mehmet Ali Arabacı, Fatih Özkan, Elif Surer, Peter Jančovič, Alptekin Temizel) is available on arXiv – 04.07.2018.
• Here is my interview on Digital Games and Rehabilitation (in Turkish) done by NETLAB Media. I tried to encourage serious game developers to understand how valuable our work is and how lucky we are to touch other people’s lives. I would like to thank NETLab Media for this opportunity and for their valuable contributions – 28.06.2018.
• I gave a seminar on serious gaming for the module R/N of the second level courses of Master CBRNe – University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (Italy). I would like to thank the coordinators of this course for this successful organization – 22.06.2018.
• Postdoc and PhD positions in archaeogenomics, population genetics, bioarchaeology, and archaeological modeling – Applications are invited for multiple Ph.D. and postdoc positions in an ERC-funded interdisciplinary research project on the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia. We seek applicants with backgrounds in molecular biology, population genetics, anthropology, archaeology, and computer science. The successful applicants will join the 5-year research project “NEOGENE: Archaeogenomic analysis of genetic and cultural interactions in Neolithic Anatolian societies”, supported by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. You can also follow us on METU Blog, Twitter and Facebook for more information.
• METU Informatics Institute Friday Seminars were successfully held this semester and on behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank our invited speakers and guests for their participation.
Prof. Sadi Turgut (METU Physics) – Quantum Computers
Prof. Rengül Çetin-Atalay (METU BIN) – Personalized Medicine in Cancer through Bioinformatics
Assoc. Prof. Alptekin Temizel (METU MMI) – Deep Learning in Computer Vision
• Congratulations to Fatih Ozkan (Information Systems) for METU II Thesis Awards (Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Alptekin Temizel, Co-advisor: Asst. Prof. Elif Surer) and Bilgin Aksoy (Multimedia Informatics) for winning Course Performance Awards.
• Congratulations to our students and my colleague Aybar C. Acar for getting METU II Open Research Day Awards! – Special Mention Award (Oğuzcan Yıldırım, Elif Sürer), Art-in-Science Award (Elif Bozlak, Aybar C. Acar, Elif Sürer) – 29.05.2018.
• METU II Open Research Day was such a huge success! Our student Elif Bozlak demonstrated her art installation “Music Within” (Elif Bozlak, Aybar C. Acar, Elif Surer) which was previously exhibited during bang. Art Prix 2018 in 42 MASLAK Art! Space Gallery, İstanbul. I would like to thank our team Elif Bozlak and Aybar C. Acar for their tremendous work, ArtBizTech team for their help during bang. Art Prix and Nurcan Tunçbağ for the organization of METU II Open Research Day; it has been an amazing experience – 24.05.2018.
• METU Informatics Institute Thesis Awards results have been announced. Congratulations to our student Fatih Özkan (Information Systems) – MSc Programme – Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Alptekin Temizel and Co-advisor: Asst. Prof. Elif Sürer
Complete list of the winners is here – 23.05.2018.
• METU Design Factory‘s closing ceremony, where our students will present their final projects, will be on June 1 at 14:00. You are all kindly invited, please register from Eventbrite.
• We had precious invited speakers at MMI 590 Graduate Seminar course, I would like to thank each of them for their amazing seminars:
– Asst. Prof. Pelin Angın (METU CENG) – Asst. Prof. Ramazan Gökberk Cinbiş (METU CENG) – Dr. Erinç Dikici (SAIL LABS Technology GmBH, Austria) – Dr. Cristián Huepe (Northwestern Uni. USA/Beijing Normal University China/SCL-SoL Lab Chile) – Prof. Dr. Oğuz Işık (METU CRP) – Dr. Alper Koz (METU OGAM) – Asst. Prof. Ali Emre Turgut (METU MECH) – Asst. Prof. Ulaş Yaman (METU MECH)
• Only 2 weeks left for GHItaly18 – 2nd Workshop on Games-Human Interaction. Congrats to the organizing committee! For more information: http://ghi.di.unimi.it/
• Congratulations to our METU “Data Analytics without Borders” team coordinated by Assoc. Prof. Tugba Taskaya Temizel (METU IS) for passing the pre-evaluation at D4R | Data for Refugees Turkey Challenge!
Data Analytics without Borders team (in alphabetical order):
Assoc. Prof. Tuğba Taşkaya Temizel (METU IS) (Coordinator), Mehmet Ali Akyol (METU IS), Asst. Prof. Arsev Umur Aydinoglu (METU TEKPOL), Doğa Çağdaş Demirkan (Colorado School of Mines), Prof. Şebnem Düzgün (Colorado School of Mines), Assoc. Prof. Banu Gunel Kilic (METU IS), Prof. Oğuz Işık (METU CRP), Prof. Sibel Kalaycıoğlu (METU SOC), Özgün Ozan Kılıç (METU IS), Elif Surer (METU MMI) – 08.05.2018.
• METU II Master’s student Elif Bozlak (METU HI) will present her project “Music Within” mentored by Asst. Prof. Aybar Can Acar (METU HI) and me at Bang. Prix exhibition during 3-18 May 2018 at 42 MASLAK Art! Space Gallery, İstanbul. You are all kindly invited.
• [EN] We are hiring a lab manager and an IT manager for ERC-funded NEOGENE project executed by Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Somel. For more information about the project, you can read the interview done with Mehmet Somel here.
[TR] 2018-2022 arasında H2020 ERC desteğiyle yürütülecek Neolitik Dönüşüm konulu bir projede (NEOGENE) çalışmak üzere ODTÜ Antik DNA ve Populasyon Genetiği grubunda moleküler lab sorumlusu ve bilgi işlem sorumlusu olarak çalışacak arkadaşlar arıyoruz, çevrenize de duyurursanız çok seviniriz. Proje hakkında daha fazla bilgi için proje yürütücüsü Doç. Dr. Mehmet Somel’in röportajını okuyabilirsiniz. Şimdiden çok teşekkürler.
• I gave a talk titled “Digital Games in Archaeology and the Use Case of Kültepe Interactive Gaming Platform” at the Department of Archaeometry (METU) on 4 May 2018 (Cavit Erginsoy Seminar Room, Department of Physics). You can access the complete list of Department of Archaeometry’s Friday Seminars here – 04.05.2018.
• Marie Claire Turkey interviewed Cevher Eryurek, Ayla Kara Coban and me on gaming in Turkey for their April issue and I had a chance to talk about serious gaming. I would like to thank dear Cevher Eryurek and Marie Claire Turkey for this great opportunity. The interview titled “Game Over | Continue?” is here: Cover Page 1 | Cover Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 – 01.04.2018.
• I gave a seminar on Machine Learning at METU Digital Design Studio. I would like to thank Prof. Arzu Gönenç Sorguç for the invitation. It was a pleasure to meet those enthusiastic students – 28.02.2018.
• I will give the following courses during 2017/2018 Spring Semester:
MMI700 Research Methods (w/ Assoc. Prof. Alptekin Temizel) – Wed 10:40-12:30 II-06 MMI 590 Graduate Seminar – Wed 12:40-13:30 II-06 MMI 727 Deep Learning: Methods and Applications (w/ Assoc. Prof. Alptekin Temizel) – Thu 9:40-12:30 II-06 MMI 704 Motion Capture, Analysis and Synthesis – Thu 13:40-16:30 II-05
I am also a mentor at Interdisciplinary Design Studio – Spring ’18 – Fri 9:40-12:30 METU Design Factory
• Video of the first prototype on hospital-based serious game developed by METU team for European Network Of CBRN TraIning CEnters (eNOTICE) project is available here. This scenario is built for the joint activity with ARMINES. With AI agents and complex scenarios, it is possible to create new modules for other CBRNe activities and for upcoming eNOTICE joint activities.
• [SURVEY] METU team has been developing a serious game including various scenarios for eNOTICE project. We would like to investigate the user expectations on this domain, users’ gamer profiles, their suggestions and hesitations regarding using serious gaming in CBRNe training. This is a public survey open to practitioners, training centers and academics.
• Congratulations to METU-BIN student Elif Bozlak; her project has been selected to Bang. Art Innovation Prix 2018 and it will be a pleasure for me to be her mentor during this process.
• This semester, our Master’s student Oğuzcan Ergün participated to ODTÜ Tasarım Fabrikası / Design Factory (DTS-5) and developed solutions to improve the lifestyles of Yörüks with the team AURORA. This project has been mentored by UNDP Türkiye, Prof. Aydan Erkmen (METU EEE), me and Dr. Serkan Alkan (METU DF).
• We would like to see you all in our GATEWAY 2018 event where our Multimedia Informatics Masters students will showcase their Game Development Pipeline course’s games and Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics course’s projects they developed during this semester. There will also be a League of Junior Games section where our young game developers will present their card and board games. The event will be held at METU Informatics Institute on 17 January 2018 16:30-20:00. You are all kindly invited. Please see the attached poster and do not forget to follow our Facebook page for more information: http://www.facebook.com/GATEWay.METU/
• We had precious guests at MMI 700 Research Methods course, I would like to thank each of the participants for their seminars – 06 Jan 2018.
– Dr. Oya Çeliktutan Dikici (Imperial College London) – Asst. Prof. Serdar Çiftçi (Harran University) – Dr. Çiğdem Beyan (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) – Dr. Sertan Şentürk (Kobalt Music R&D) – Emine Koçak and Latif Özen (Ankara Restoration and Conservation Regional Laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) – Asst. Prof. Hamdi Dibeklioğlu (Bilkent University)
• During GATEWay’18, presentations and projects from Game Development Pipeline and Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics courses will be with us on 17th of January. GATEWay’s FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/GATEWay.METU/
• On November 29 at 11:30, Emine Koçak (Ankara Central Laboratories for Restoration and Conservation) is going to give a seminar titled “Re-restoring a bone panel from Kültepe-Kanesh” for MMI Research Methods (MMI 700) course. On the same slot, Latif Özen (Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums) is going to give a seminar titled “Research Methods for Cultural Heritage”. You are all kindly invited.
• Our graduate Gökhan Yılmaz presented “Acceleration of Line of Sight Analysis Algorithms with Parallel Programming” at USMOS Conference @METU KKM, 21 November at 3 pm. It is a joint paper with Elif Surer and Alptekin Temizel. You can see the abstract of our presentation here – 21-23 November 2017.
• Our student Hüseyin Erdoğan presented “Game-Based Mobile Platform to Instruct First-Aid Techniques” at USMOS Conference @METU KKM, 22 November at 2 pm. It is a joint paper with Yahya Can Acar, Orhan Çınar, Elif Surer and Pınar Karagöz. You can see the abstract of our presentation here – 21-23 November 2017.
• Asst. Prof. Hamdi Dibeklioğlu (Bilkent University) gave a seminar titled “Exploring Temporal Dynamics of Facial Behavior” for Multimedia Informatics – Research Methods (MMI 700) course – 15 November 2017.
MMI505 Game Development Pipeline (with Assoc. Prof. Alptekin Temizel) – Thu 9:40-12:30 II-06 MMI700 Research Methods (with Assoc. Prof. Hüseyin Hacıhabiboğlu) – Wed 10:40-12:30 II-06 MMI702 Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics – Thu 13:40-16:30 II-06
I am also a mentor at Interdisciplinary Design Studio – Fall ’17 – Fri 13:40-17:00 METU Design Factory
• We presented our paper titled “Boosted Multiple Kernel Learning for First-Person Activity Recognition” at 25th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2017). You can see the .pdf version of our poster here – 30 August 2017.
• Our papers on Hemispatial Neglect Syndrome got accepted to JMIR Serious Games, congrats to the REWIRE team:
Tobler-Ammann*, B. C., Surer*, E., Knols, R. H., Borghese, N.A., de Bruin, E. D. (2017) “User Perspectives on Exergames Designed to Explore the Hemineglected Space for Stroke Patients With Visuospatial Neglect: Usability Study”, JMIR Serious Games 2017;5(3):e18. DOI: 10.2196/games.8013 | Download (.pdf)
Tobler-Ammann, B. C., Surer, E., de Bruin, E. D., Rabuffetti, M., Borghese, N. A., Mainetti, R., Pirovano, M., Wittwer, L., Knols, R. H. (2017) “Exergames Encouraging Exploration of Hemineglected Space in Stroke Patients with Visuo-spatial Neglect: a Feasibility Study”, JMIR Serious Games 2017;5(3):e17. DOI: 10.2196/games.7923 | Download (.pdf)
• Ali Kaan Sungur successfully defended his MSc thesis “Hierarchical Temporal Memory Based Autonomous Agent for Partially Observable Video Game Environments”. Congrats to our student! – 15 August 2017.
• We presented our abstract titled “A Multifaceted Gaming Platform for Interactive Learning of Archaeology and Culture of Kültepe” at Kültepe International Meeting III (KIM 3). You can see the abstract of our presentation here – 4-7 August 2017.
• Umut Demirel successfully defended his MSc thesis “Creating a Generic Hand and Finger Gesture Recognizer Using Forearm Muscle Activity Signals”. Congrats to our student and his thesis supervisor Assoc. Prof. Hüseyin Hacıhabiboğlu. It has been a pleasure being Umut’s co-advisor and working with this great team – 1 August 2017.
• Congratulations to our dear student, Umut Demirel and his thesis supervisor, my dear colleague, Assoc. Prof. Hüseyin Hacıhabiboğlu for the Best Poster Award at METU II Open Research Day! It is great to be Umut’s co-advisor and a part of this team – 30 May 2017.
• We had precious guests at GATE 590 seminars, I would like to thank each of the participants for their seminars – 26 May 2017.
– Assoc. Prof. Flavio D’Alessandro (La Sapienza University of Rome / Bogazici University) – Assoc. Prof. Sinan Kalkan (METU CENG) – Prof. Gözde Bozdağı Akar (METU EEE) – Dr. Arsev Umut Aydınoğlu (METU Design Factory) – Asst. Prof. Ahmad Hasasneh (Palestine Ahliya University) – Dr. Firas Omar (Zarka University)
• ECISLab‘s 6 students participated to the METU II Open Research Day, I would like to thank them for their successful presentations. You can reach the titles of their theses and projects here. I would like to thank the organization committee and Asst. Prof. Nurcan Tunçbağ for their tremendous effort during this event – 24 May 2017.
• Our GATE704 (Motion Capture, Analysis and Synthesis) course student Ali Alsamarei’s Optical Flow (OptArt) project mentored by me will be on exhibition at ArtBizTech‘s bang.prix event. The exhibition will begin on 25 May 2017 at 42 Maslak Art!SPACE Gallery, İstanbul and we are looking forward to meeting you there. The details of the event can be found here – 17 May 2017.
• I participated to the e-Game Show 2017 panel titled “The Future of Video Game Industry: A Window of Opportunity” with Prof. Haşmet Gürçay (Hacettepe), Dr. Gaetano Dumita (QMUL), David Greenspan (BANDAI NAMCO) and Dimiter Gantchev (WIPO) at Hacettepe University Beytepe Congress Center, Ankara – 13 May 2017.
• I gave a seminar titled “Serious Games and Its Applications: Examples from Health Industry” at Çankaya University’s 2nd Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality & Serious Games Meeting. I would like to thank Asst. Prof. Murat Yılmaz and Çankaya University for the invitation – 6 May 2017.
• İsmail Arı 2017 Summer School (31 July – 4 August 2017) is organized to commemorate our beloved friend, İsmail Arı, at Boğaziçi University. Please check for the application details here, deadline is 20 May 2017.
• ECISLab and Publications pages have been updated, you can now download the full-texts of the articles & proceedings in .pdf format – 27 March 2017.
• GATE 590 – Graduate Seminar course had its first guest today! We would like to thank Dr. Firas Omar for his seminar on “Usability in Game Development” and Assoc. Prof. Banu Günel for the organization of this event – 17 March 2017.
• ArtBizTech organizes bang.prix competition to merge art and technology. Submission categories are hybrid art (kinetic, robotic, mechatronic), new media, data art and bio art. Deadline for the applications is 3 April 2017. For submission details, please check the website [TR].
• Our submission to EUSIPCO 2017 (F. Özkan, M. A. Arabacı, E. Surer, A. Temizel, “Boosted Multiple Kernel Learning for First-Person Activity Recognition”) is available on arXiv:1702.06799.
GATE 704 Motion Capture, Analysis and Synthesis – Thursday 9:40-12:30 II-05 GATE 541 Physics for Computer Games – Friday 9:40-12:30 II-05 GATE 590 Graduate Seminar – Friday 12:40-13:30 II-05
• I will give a new course “Motion Capture, Analysis and Synthesis” (GATE704) during the 2016/2017 Spring semester. Courses page will be updated soon!
• I participated to the “Starting Your Game Career: Education” panel at Gaming Istanbul 2017 (GIST) event at Istanbul Congress Center – 3 February 2017.
• Thank you very much for your participation to GATEWay’17-MMI Edition! 12 Game Development Pipeline projects, 4 Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics projects and 1 Junior project were presented. You can check our FB album for the details of the event. See you next year!
• GATEWay’17 – MMI Edition is loading, please check our FB page for the updates. METU Multimedia Informatics students will present their projects of the “Game Development Pipeline” and “Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics” courses. The event is here and you are kindly invited.
• MODSIMMER participated to the European Researchers’ Night 2016 (Bilimin Ev Hali) at METU – 30 September 2016.
• I will give a new course “Machine Learning for Multimedia Informatics” (GATE702) during the 2016/2017 Fall semester. Courses page will be updated soon!
• I will give a talk on Serious Games at the İsmail Arı Summer School, to the memory of our beloved friend, İsmail Arı, at Boğaziçi University – 26 August 2016.
• I was going to present my abstract on Cognitive Training of Children with Down Syndrome at the 10th European Down Syndrome Congress 2016 (EDSC 2016), but the congress had been cancelled. Still, thanks a lot to the organizing committee for their efforts and for the fruitful programme!
• Our joint BAP-1 Project (PI: Assoc. Prof. Pınar KARAGÖZ) in collaboration with MODSIMMER is accepted – 11 January 2016.
• I participated to the “Today and Tomorrow of Game Education in Turkey” panel at GaMeX 2015 event at Istanbul Congress Center – 17 December 2015.
• I gave a seminar on Serious Games at MODSIMMER – 25 November 2015.
• I participated to the Eurasia Graphics 2015 and was a presenter at Kristal Piksel Video Game Awards event at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul – 19-20 November 2015.
• I gave a seminar on Recent Advances in Simulation Technology and Serious Games – Applications from METU Game Technologies Master’s Program at University of Milan, Italy – 22 June 2015.
• We organized GATEWay’15 at METU Informatics Institute – 6 June 2015.
• I participated to the Education Panel and made a presentation at e-Game Show 2015 – 23 May 2015.
