Newsletter
The new chair of the Turkey chapter talks about her plans to enhance local networks via organizations and grow our chapter.
Ebru Aydin Gol,
a personal account
I am a computer scientist working as a faculty member at the Middle East Technical University (METU). I focus on design and verification of cyber-physical systems using formal methods. I work both on developing new theories within the formal methods field, and on applying the formal methodology in other domains such as disaster management, use of electrical vehicles for smart grid and controlling signalized intersections. I received a BS degree from METU, Ankara, a MSc degree from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland and PhD degree from Boston University, USA. After I finished my PhD, I moved back to Turkey and had my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Individual Fellowship (ID: 798482) via the reintegration panel. My project was on automating the design of timed automata, which is used in modelling real-time critical systems.
Why did you decide to run as Chair of the Chapter?
The MCAA organization and our chapter board have been doing a fabulous job on bringing our community together and supporting the career development of the members. As a member of this great community, I wanted to be involved in the organization's efforts as well.
What will be the objectives of the Chapter under your tenure?
My main objective is to connect more members via our chapter. Reaching more MSCA fellows who live in Turkey or have the fellowship in Turkey and informing them about the MSCA activities (both the chapter and the global network) will help to gain more active chapter members.
What are your plans for the development of the Chapter?
Even as a young chapter, we have members from different fields. It would be great to create events for our members to share their expertise effortlessly. For this, I believe local networking is quite important. It will also allow us to connect to more members and to grow our chapter. In the short history of our chapter, all our previous chairs were from Istanbul. I’m the first chair from Ankara. I would therefore like to use this opportunity to organize local events in Ankara.
Do you already have plans for events and activities? Can you tell us some?
First, I would like to organize a local event to meet other chapter members in person. The event announcements would hopefully lead to new members as well. In addition, I would like to organize an information session to bridge science and business. Scientific research can have a greater impact on society through academic-industry partnerships. MCAA is already working along these lines and there are strong working groups with this vision. It would be great to collaborate with them to organize an event to inform the members about these topics and to help those who want to take a step in this direction.
How will you cooperate with other Chapters and Working Groups?
I see two directions of cooperation. The first one is sharing the events organized by other MCAA Chapters and Working Groups within our Chapter. The second one is actively collaborating with the Working groups for the events that we plan to organize. We will get in touch with the related Working Groups once we start working on a focused event.
What would you say to members who are considering joining the Chapter?
There is no need to think twice! MCAA is a strong global association that takes an active role in enhancing the knowledge flow across different disciplines and countries. There are great opportunities for personal development and networking.
Ebru Aydin Gol
MCAA Turkey Chapter Chair
turkey.chapter@mariecuriealumni.eu