Best Thesis Award to Our Ph.D. Students

ITU Department of Computer Engineering Ph.D. student Kübra Duran and Department of Telecommunications Engineering Ph.D. student Kürşat Tekbıyık won the best master’s thesis award for the theoretical category and application category respectively in the master’s thesis competition organized by IEEE Communications Society Turkey Chapter.

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) continues to be known nationally and internationally for its scientific research activities, as well as for the scientific research activities of its students. In the master’s thesis competition organized by IEEE Communications Society Turkey Chapter, ITU Department of Computer Engineering Ph.D. student Kübra Duran won the best master’s thesis award for the theoretical category with her thesis titled “A Cognitive Lifecycle Methodology for IP Address Management In Next Generation Core Networks” supervised by Prof. Dr. Berk Canberk and Telecommunications Engineering Ph.D. Student Kürşat Tekbıyık also won the best master’s thesis award for the application category with her thesis titled Modelling and Characterization of a Propagation Channel for Terahertz Wireless Communications” supervised by Prof. Dr. Güneş Karabulut Kurt.

In the thesis, a cognitive IP lifecycle management algorithm is proposed as a theoretical solution to the potential IP address management problems that telecom operators will encounter in next generation core networks. With the algorithm proposed in the thesis, internet service providers can save time while reducing operational and maintenance costs. In this way, it can have a direct impact on the expected capacity of the internet service without much cost increase in the coming years, when digitalization will accelerate.

This study, which has contributed two journal articles at Scopus Q1 and Q2 level and one international conference paper to the literature, strengthens university-industry cooperation through the support of ITU Researcher Training Program. In addition, the project developed on the network discovery component within the scope of the thesis was entitled to be supported by TÜBİTAK-TEYDEB. Kübra Duran received the "Project Idea Owner" award in this project.

While our Ph. D. student Duran received the Google DeepMind scholarship given to female researchers in cooperation with ITU Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Application and Research Center, she was also entitled to receive the CoHE 100/2000 scholarship. We congratulate our Ph.D. student who is currently continuing her research in the field of next generation communication in ITU-BCRG (Broadband Communications and Network Automation Research Group) research laboratory under the direction of Berk Canberk and wish her continued success.

First Prize in Application Category

In the thesis of Kürşat Tekbıyık, our first prize winner Ph.D. student in application category, measurement based channel models are proposed for  the use of Terahertz waves with the intention of high speed broadband communication. Proposed channel models enable his design and performance measurements of Terahertz communication systems. Moreover, studies on the use of Terahertz waves in vertical heterogeneous networks are also included as an output of the thesis.

The study, in which three the Scopus Q1 and Q2 level-journal articles and one international conference paper were contributed to the literature, was also published as a book chapter.

Special Achievement Awards

Our students Merve Turhan and Talip Tolga Sarı were among those who were deemed worthy of the ComSoc Turkey master's thesis competition Special Achievement Award.

Turhan deserving Special Achievement Award with her thesis titled “Deep learning aided data detection for future wireless communication systems” gave the following information about the thesis: "physical layer receiver designs were investigated. Orthogonal and non-orthogonal waveforms, index modulation and spatial multiplexing were discussed. In order to meet the next generation physical layer requirements, receiver designs were proposed with the help of deep learning."

Sarı deserving Special Achievement Award with his thesis titled “Datalink layer protocol design for aerial adhoc networks” gave the following information about his thesis: “Adding extra Chain RTS/CTS control packages to actual IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi infrastructure to adhoc wireless networks consisting of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) In addition, a new system is proposed for channel assignments to be made in the 5 GHz ISM band for fair use of existing network resources."

We congratulate our students and wish them continued success.