I am a Researcher at Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford (AI & Robotics Institute).
My current work sits at the intersection of Generative AI, AI for Science and Deep Creative Decision-making, pushing beyond the boundaries of both utilitarian and aesthetics-related tasks.
Previously, I conducted research at Google DeepMind, Sony and Bose on Generative AI for Audio, Music and Speech, and was an Enrichment Student at The Alan Turing Institute. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from Queen Mary University of London (AIM CDT & C4DM).
I am fundamentally interested in the nature of creativity and creative intelligence through the lenses of information theory, optimization and generative modelling.
My doctoral research, supervised by Simon Colton, focused on "Composing Contemporary Classical Music Using Generative Deep Learning", where I enhanced both machine and human creativity by empowering machines for creative decision-making, while also exploring new aesthetics and challenging entrenched practices in deep learning.
I hold a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, and a BM in Electronic Production and Design from Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA. I’ve also worked at Northwestern University Metamaterials and Nanophotonic Devices Lab (Nanophotonics Researcher).
I’ve published at the top venues in the field such as ICLR, AAAI, ICASSP, NeurIPS (workshops), EvoMUSART, ICCC, IEEE MMSP and IEEE CAI, and in journals such as Machine Intelligence Research, Applied Physics Letters and Optical Materials Express. I also co-authored a book chapter on Explainable AI for Arts and Music (published by Taylor & Francis).
At Bose, I contributed to a patent, leading efforts on using generative deep learning for audio in augmented hearing scenarios.
My awards include the prestigious Enrichment Community Award (The Alan Turing Institute), Exceptional Great Work Award (Bose), Outstanding Students of 2022 (EvoMUSART), IEEE MMSP Top 10% Paper Award, UKRI CDT in AI and Music Scholarship (QMUL), Roland Award Endowed Scholarship (Berklee), Comprehensive (Full) Scholarship (Bilkent University) and Outstanding Success Scholarship (Turkish Educational Foundation, upon ranking 17th in 1.5 million people in national university entrance exam).
As a musician (drums and electronics), I’ve performed at venues such as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Harvard University Holden Chapel & Carpenter Center for Visual Arts (an original piece premiered as part of Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute), Berklee Performance Center, Wally’s Jazz Club Boston, Nardis Jazz Club Istanbul and Istanbul Jazz Festival.
Research interests:
Machine Learning Deep Learning Generative AI Optimisation Computational Creativity
Generative AI for Audio, Music and Speech Multimodality LLMs Explainable AI Out of Distribution Generation Quality‐Diversity‐based Evaluation of Generative Models
Open-endedness Self-improving Intelligence AI for Scientific Discovery
An interesting fact :) - My academic family tree follows as Alan Bundy, Reuben Goodstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell!