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Multi-Agent Systems & UAVs
Reputation-based team formation and simulation for autonomous multi-UAV missions operating beyond visual line of sight.
About Me
I'm Kivanc — an AI researcher and software engineer from Istanbul, now based in Chicago. I'm pursuing my Master of Computer Science at Illinois Institute of Technology and working as a graduate researcher at the IIT Robotics Lab, where I build real-time, ML-driven autonomy for UAVs.
My research focuses on multi-agent systems and dependable autonomy: my first-author work on reputation-based UAV team formation was published at AAMAS 2025 and ECAI 2025. On the engineering side, I've shipped production software across the stack — from .NET and Spring Boot backends at BSH and Arcelik to a ride-sharing app I co-founded that served 500+ users on AWS.
0First-author papers
0Years of experience
0App users served
0Open-source repos
What I'm Doing
🧠
Machine Learning & LLMs
Time-series forecasting with semantic prompt learning, deep learning in PyTorch and TensorFlow, and LLM-powered agents.
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Software Engineering
Full-stack systems with .NET, Spring Boot and React — secure REST APIs, JWT auth, and databases that scale.
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Cloud, DevOps & Robotics
AWS deployments, Docker, Linux and Jetson-based edge autonomy with ROS2 for real-time robotic decision-making.
Education
Illinois Institute of Technology
Master of Computer Science. Coursework in Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and Deep Learning.
Ozyegin University
B.Sc. in Computer Science. Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning and Analysis of Algorithms; university promotion team member.
Resume
Download CVProfessional Experience
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Chicago, USA
Research Assistant — The Robotics Lab, IIT
Feb 2026 — PresentDeployed an end-to-end autonomy stack on NVIDIA Jetson for real-time, ML-driven UAV decision-making, with a modular framework of plug-and-play trajectory-prediction models and DJI Payload SDK integration. Built three ML predictors reaching ~1 ms inference on a 20M-parameter model, validated across ~4,500 simulated flights.
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Istanbul, Turkiye
IT Consultant — Management Solutions
Apr 2025 — Sep 2025Built SQL-based data validation pipelines for large-scale financial datasets and automated reconciliation workflows, raising validation coverage from 20% to 90%.
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Istanbul, Turkiye
Co-Founder — UniPool (Non-profit Startup)
Oct 2023 — Jul 2025Co-founded and launched a Flutter ride-sharing app for iOS and Android, growing to 500+ student users. Owned backend services and cloud infrastructure on AWS EC2 and S3, with Supabase-backed auth and data management, leading product execution across a seven-person team.
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Istanbul, Turkiye
Software Developer (Part-time) — BSH (Bosch & Siemens)
Sep 2023 — Jun 2024Built an internal C# / .NET web platform for R&D teams to present, manage and track departmental projects; designed and optimized MSSQL schemas and queries within an Agile team.
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Istanbul, Turkiye
Software Engineering Intern — Arcelik
Jul 2023 — Sep 2023Developed a full-stack React + Spring Boot asset management system with RESTful APIs, an MSSQL backend and JWT-based authentication and authorization.
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Istanbul, Turkiye
Research Assistant — Ozyegin Industry 4.0 Lab
Jul 2022 — Sep 2023Analyzed AGV and warehouse-robot data with Python (pandas, NumPy) and built pipelines for sensor processing, performance monitoring and optimization, supporting Cyber-Physical Systems and IIoT automation projects.
Skills
Languages
AI & ML
Systems & Backend
Cloud & Tools
Publications
Conference · First Author2025
RTF: Reputation-Based Team Formation for Enhancing Dependable Critical Fully Autonomous Multi-UAV BVLOS Operations
ECAI 2025 — 28th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence
A dynamic, Byzantine-resilient reputation algorithm for trustworthy coordination among autonomous UAVs in beyond-visual-line-of-sight missions.
Demo Track · First Author2025
UAV Marketplace Simulation Tool for BVLOS Operations
AAMAS 2025 — 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
A Java-based multi-agent simulation tool for modeling UAV collaboration under adversarial conditions and benchmarking team-formation strategies.
Projects
UMS-SIM — UAV Marketplace Simulator
Multi-agent simulator for BVLOS missions with configurable adversarial behavior and CSV metrics export. Demonstrated at AAMAS 2025.
Publication ↗FinS2IP-LLM — Financial Forecasting with LLMs
LLM-based time-series forecasting with semantic prompts and multi-channel financial indicators; improved S&P 500 forecasting stability.
GitHub ↗Resume Optimizer — AI Resume Tailoring
Claude Code skill that tailors a resume to a specific job description under strict non-fabrication rules, with factual validation and ATS-friendly PDF export.
GitHub ↗MERIDIAN — AI Portfolio Optimization
AI-driven portfolio optimization built with Python for the ScarletHacks 2026 hackathon at Illinois Tech.
GitHub ↗UniPool — Campus Ride-Sharing App
Non-profit ride-sharing app for university students on iOS and Android, serving 500+ users on AWS EC2/S3.
Co-founder · 2023–2025UAV Autonomy Stack — IIT Robotics Lab
Jetson-deployed autonomy framework with plug-and-play ML modules, built on the DJI Payload SDK for real-time flight decisions.
GitHub ↗Genetic Algorithm — TSP Route Optimization
Two genetic algorithm variants for the Traveling Salesman Problem using ordered crossover with swap and inversion mutation, benchmarked on a campus route dataset.
GitHub ↗Simulated Annealing — TSP Solver
Metaheuristic TSP solver with exponential cooling and 2-opt neighbor moves, plus convergence plots across temperature and iteration sweeps.
GitHub ↗ReLU Network — Spirals Classification
From-scratch gradient derivation and numerical gradient checking for a 100-neuron ReLU network classifying the spirals dataset.
GitHub ↗Mini-DETR — Transformer Object Detector
Lightweight DETR-style detector with a CNN backbone, transformer encoder-decoder and Hungarian bipartite matching — set prediction without anchor boxes or NMS, trained on Multi-MNIST on CPU.
GitHub ↗Awards & Certifications
Awards & Activities
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Competition
1st Place in Mathematics — XII International Science Quiz
Ranked first in the mathematics category of an international science competition.
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Honor
UN Refugee Project
Recognized for contributions to a United Nations refugee-focused project.
👥
Leadership
Student Leadership & Community
Board member of the Engineering Club (2022) and Science Club (2021) at Ozyegin University, and the Turkish Student Association at Illinois Tech (2025). Represented Ozyegin University on the student promotion team.
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Athletics
Basketball — Fenerbahce Sports Club
Played for Fenerbahce Sports Club and the high-school team (2016–2018) — where the teamwork obsession started.
Certifications
Claude Code in Action
Certificate of completion for Anthropic's applied course on building software with Claude Code.
Credential ID hrgasdbc5d3j Show credential ↗Claude Code 101
Certificate of completion covering the fundamentals of agentic coding with Claude Code.
Credential ID xfcxayge59i3 Show credential ↗Claude 101
Certificate of completion introducing Claude's capabilities and the Anthropic developer platform.
Credential ID hwfh5mdkcqua Show credential ↗
AWS Educate Machine Learning Foundations — Training Badge
Completed the Machine Learning Foundations training and post-course assessment, covering core machine learning concepts and applying the ML pipeline to business problems.
Credential ID 0109ea72-37c1-485b-b788-87b7a17f0051 Show credential ↗
Is Bankasi ProSchool — Data & AI Class
Certificate of achievement from Turkiye Is Bankasi's ProSchool data and AI training program.
Credential ID 75BB7A42F5-75C133684D-759D9E5E35 Show credential ↗
Ethical Leader Academy — Graduation Diploma
Graduate of the 16th term of the Etik Lider Akademisi leadership and business-ethics program.
Contact
Whether it's research collaboration, an engineering role, or just an interesting idea — my inbox is open.