ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Canadinç completed his doctorate at the University of Illionis Urbana-Champaign. After completing his post-doctoral studies at Paderborn University in Germany, he worked as an assistant professor at Koç University in 2007. He became associate professor in 2014 and professor in 2019. Dr. Canadinç's work topics include the multi-scale experimental and numerical characterization of metallic materials, including shape memory alloys, structural materials and biomedical alloys. Thanks to his research, he has more than 85 articles in prestigious journals and a patent in the field of gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery, as well as several conference papers. Dr. Candavinç has been the associate editor of Frontiers Computational Materials Science since 2014. He is the recipient of 2010 TÜBA-GEBİP, 2018 BAGEP, 2012-2013 Koç University Engineering Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award and 2017-2018 Koç University Engineering Faculty Outstanding Research Award.

Dr. Levend Parnas joined TED University, the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2015. Dr. Parnas before coming to TED University was a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Middle East Technical University where he has been a faculty member since 1992. He completed his Ph.D. in School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and his undergraduate studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Middle East Technical University. His research interests lie in the area of advanced composite structures and their applications in aerospace and automotive engineering. He has been involved with numerous research projects including design, production and testing of such structures such as advanced airplanes, helicopters, rockets, new generation cars, and sea vehicles. Recently, he has been interested in projects involving nano-structures. Dr. Parnas has taught a number of undergraduate and graduate courses in the field of mechanics including statics, dynamics, strength of materials, material science, machine elements, and theory of elasticity. He prepared a senior level course on advanced composite structures. In his limited spare time, Dr. Parnas enjoys mountaineering, hiking, squash, reading fiction and non-fiction. Dr.Parnas has been appointed as Vice Rector of TED University on September, 10th, 2018.

Kerem Taş was born 11th July, 1966 in Ankara, Turkey. He graduated from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey with a Bachelors of Science in Petroleum Engineering followed by a post-graduate study at Istanbul University in International Management. In 2010 he finished a post-graduate program in Advanced Automotive Dealer Management at the University of Melbourne. Recently he attended IMD Business School in Switzerland and Cranfield University in UK. In 1993, he began his career with Mercedes-Benz as an Export Manager at Mercedes-Benz Türk (MBT) maintaining responsibility for the CIS countries. His duration at MBT was ensued by relocating to Mercedes-Benz Russia where he successfully conducted both direct marketing and sales activities. In his position as Marketing and Sales Director he implemented major contracts financed by the World Bank. Since 1999 following his relocation to Dubai, UAE he followed his position as regional Sales Manager for Buses in the Middle East to his subsequent appointment as General Manager advancing Mercedes-Benz Bus Middle East for Sales, After sales, Part Logistics and Comprehensive Maintenance Contracts. In 2015, he has been assigned by Audi AG (Germany) as Managing Director of Audi Brand for Saudi Arabia within VW Group in Riyadh. In 2016, he has worked as Commercial Director for Ford brand within Al Jazirah Vehicles Agency in Riyadh. Between 2017-2019, he has been working as Audi General Manager in Samaco Group in KSA. Now, he is working as Managing Director for his own consulting company to share his 26 years of immense experience in automotive industry in various capacities at Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Ford both for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. In the meantime, he served 2 mandates (6 years) as Board Member and Secretary General of Turkish Business Council. Also Board Member and Vice Chairman Industry of UITP MENA (International Public Transport Association). During his Russia assignment he was the Board Member of DEIK (Foreign Economic Relations Board) Russian Federation between 1997-1999.

Arda Kaynar was born on 17.02.1986 in Istanbul. He completed his secondary education in Private Italian High School. He received his bachelor's degree in manufacturing engineering from Boston University in the USA. He is fluent in English, Italian and Spanish. He started his career in 2005, 2006, 2007 in Arslan Triko. In this company, he performed many tasks such as analysis of the production line to determine the efficiency, the successful reordering of the machines in the workshop, the coordination and execution of the project with Italian and Turkish engineers, and the promotion of the company at the international fair. In 2009, he worked with a team of three at the Codman Johnson & Johnson medical device company in the USA. By applying a new U-shaped production line technique, the company gained $ 10,000,000 in profit. In 2009, the company Numarine returning to Turkey he worked as a design engineer applications. In 2010, he became the general manager of the aircraft industry by partnering with CNK Aviation, a company that took part in the highly competitive Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, TAI programs for worldwide manufacturers.

Cemil Yılmaz completed his undergraduate education at Middle East Technical University Metallurgy and Materials Engineering Department in 2005 and his master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Middle East Technical University in 2008. He has 15 years of work experience. Between 2005-2008, CB Metal Ltd. He worked at the company. He is still working at ASELSAN, where he started working in 2008.

Dr. Halim Meço received his bachelor's degree in 1997 and master's degree in 2000 from METU Metallurgy and Materials Engineering Department, and his doctorate degrees from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University (USA) in 2004. Having spent half of his professional life of more than 20 years in the academy and the other half in the defense industry, Dr. Halim Meço currently works as a material and special operations unit manager at Nurol Technology. In this capacity, it directs the armored vehicle design in material / process selection and development. Areas of expertise; casting, solidification and heat treatment processes, material forming technologies, material mechanical property characterization at high deformation rates, material plasticity models and composite materials.

Kutluhan Bayrak was born in 1965 in Ankara. He completed his high school education in İzmir Atatürk High School and his undergraduate education in METU Mechanical Engineering Department in 1989. Until 1996, he worked as a Project Engineer at EMTA and Ozgorkey and as an Energy and Maintenance manager at Goodyear. In addition, he worked as manager and board member at Dow Chemical Industrial Turkey between the years 1996-2019. Between 2011-2019, he served as the Chairman of the Chemistry Committee and a Member of the Assembly in Kocaeli Chamber of Industry. Between 2005 and 2019, he served as a member of the Dilovası Organized Industrial Zone Enterprising Committee. He is currently working as Factory Operations Manager at Ravago.

In 2003, he graduated from Middle East Technical University Mechanical Engineering Department. Between 2003-2013, he worked as a method engineer and R&D engineer in the automotive industry. Since November 2013, he has been working as a senior leading material and special operations engineer in the R&D Department of FNSS, where he has been working professionally. He has professional experience in the fields of high strength steels, plasticity theory, process simulation, material characterization and quantitative metallography and has several published articles and papers on these topics. In 2018, he completed his master's study on "New Process Design and Application for Stepwise Bending of High Strength Thick Steel Plates" in Atılım University Manufacturing Engineering Department. He still continues his doctorate education at Atılım University Mechanical Engineering Department. The doctoral study is supported by the Defense Industry Presidency with a SAYP project. Barış ÇETİN speaks English and French.