CV

Education

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 2015. From Data to Interventions: Using System Identification and Robust Control Algorithms to Design Effective Treatments. Advisor: Prof. Constantino Lagoa.
  • Minor Ph.D. in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (Convex Optimization), Penn State, 2015
• M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 2010. Vision Based Control of an Autonomous Blimp with Actuator Saturation. Advisors: Profs. Mario Sznaier and Bahram Shafai.
• B.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey, 2005

Work Experience

• 04/2026 to Present: Senior Director of Control Systems Engineering, SharkNinja
• 04/2024 to 04/2026: Director of Control Systems Engineering, SharkNinja
  • Built the Control Systems Engineering function from a single hire into a cross-functional team of twelve, covering 30+ product lines across coffee, indoor cooking, outdoor cooking, beverage and water, and motorized products. Set up the promotion ladder, code review, on-call rotations, and the technical review process
  • Shipped algorithms and embedded software into Ninja and Shark products worldwide, including Barista Assist (Ninja Luxe Café), Slush Assist (frozen treat), Blend Sense (blenders), and CO₂ estimation on Ninja Thirsti
  • Wrote Control Flow, the control architecture specification standard now required on every controls project in the company. Cut firmware cycle time roughly 20% and made a software QA function possible
  • Built the internal engineering platforms: a Python MCU communication service, Raspberry Pi and Arduino hardware-in-the-loop rigs, and evaluation frameworks used across product lines
  • Led AI-assisted engineering adoption: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and LLM workflows in code generation, R&D ideation, data analysis, code review, and MCP-based Confluence documentation. The same headcount now supports about 40% more concurrent projects
  • Inventor on 10 patents, four granted, in sensing, thermal estimation, beverage systems, and intelligent appliance operation
• 04/2023 to 04/2024: Principal Systems Engineer, SharkNinja
• 01/2022 to 04/2023: Senior Systems Engineer, SharkNinja
  • Designed and implemented signal processing, sensing tools, and controllers for Ninja Heated products
  • Developed control systems (cascade temperature control, flow control) and algorithms (failure detection, altitude calibration, filtering) across all features of Ninja Coffee Machines from prototype through mass production (C++, Arduino, Python)
  • Owned prototype and testing tooling: Python application and R-Pi/Arduino apparatus for hardware-in-the-loop testing
• 08/2019 to Present: Co-founder, Ocean Dynamex
  • Developing predictive workflow systems and forecasting software for the maritime industry
  • Created novel IMSE algorithm and ensemble learning forecasting methods with demonstrated performance improvements
• 08/2018 to 12/2021: Assistant Professor & Principal Investigator, SUNY Polytechnic Institute
  • Led externally funded research programs in control systems, IoT sensing, and cyber-physical systems; taught graduate and undergraduate courses
  • Deployed low-cost IoT pavement monitoring system on Raspberry Pi + AWS (IEEE iThings 2021)
  • Designed artificial pancreas MPC for Type-2 diabetes with real-time behavioral intervention
  • Author, reviewer, and program-committee member across multiple IEEE conferences and journals
• 12/2016 to 08/2018: Research Scientist, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
  • Developed and deployed an IoT-based distributed MPC platform for HVAC systems: server plus Raspberry Pi edge fleet in occupied commercial buildings
  • Achieved 12 to 13% energy savings through IoT-based control (MATLAB, Python, Raspberry Pi); published in Applied Energy
  • Implemented real-time room-temperature model learning for adaptive MPC
• 08/2015 to 12/2016: Postdoctoral Researcher, The Methodology Center, Penn State University
  • Developed robust MPC-based intervention system for smoking cessation studies
  • Designed algorithms for behavioral treatment optimization using data-driven approaches
• 09/2010 to 12/2015: Ph.D. Research Assistant, Pennsylvania State University
  • Researched system identification and robust control for behavioral health applications
  • Developed randomized algorithms for parsimonious model identification (IEEE TAC, 2017)
  • Hankel matrix rank as indicator of ghost targets in bearing-only tracking for passive radar (IEEE TAES, 2018)
• 09/2008 to 08/2010: M.S. Research Assistant, Northeastern University
  • Developed UAV control system using computer vision and PID for autonomous target tracking on autonomous blimp (IEEE CCA, 2013)

IEEE Editorial & Community Service

• Reviewer for multiple IEEE journals and Technical Program Committee member for IEEE conferences
• Author of 40+ peer-reviewed publications, including IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE TAES, Applied Energy, and Knowledge-Based Systems. Full list on Google Scholar

Technical Skills

Control & Algorithms: Model Predictive Control (MPC), Distributed MPC, Robust & Adaptive Control, Nonlinear Control, System Identification, Real-time Optimization, Anomaly/Fault Detection, Motion Control. Robotics & Computer Vision-Based Control (research and applied experience)

Sensing & Estimation: Sensor Fusion, State Estimation & Filtering (Kalman), Time-Series Modeling, Real-time System Monitoring

Systems & Cloud: Embedded Systems (Bare-metal C, C++), IoT & Edge Computing (Raspberry Pi, Arduino, AWS), Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing, Distributed Systems, Electromechanical Actuation

Programming & Tools: Python, C++, Embedded C, MATLAB / Simulink, Optimization Solvers (CVX, YALMIP, CPLEX, Mosek, Gurobi), EnergyPlus

AI-Assisted Engineering: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, MCP-integrated Confluence workflows, LLM-integrated engineering practices

Patents (Granted)

• Preventing coffee bean grinder jamming (US12369741B1)
• Preparation of beverage machines for cold beverage brewing (US12369744B1)
• Zero retention coffee bean hopper (US12514394B2, US20250275644A1, US20260090673A1)
• Suggesting coffee bean grind size for beverage machines (US12575692B2)

Patents (Pending / Under Review)

• Determining an amount of carbon dioxide in a gas source in a carbonation system (US20240246041A1)
• Beverage carbonation systems (WO2024155439A2, WO2024155439A3, AU2024210768A1, CA3280529A1)
• Detecting liquid temperature for a beverage carbonation system (US20250001371A1, WO2025000467A1)
• Queueing beverage machine preparations (WO2025155327A1)
• Descaling beverage machines (US20250235041A1)
• Superautomatic Beverage Machine (WO2025190411A1, WO2025223560A1, WO2025247227A1, WO2025252087A1)

Publications

• Emrah Gulay, Omer Burak Akgun, Korkut Bekiroglu, Okan Duru. "Predictive performance of denoising algorithms in S&P 500 and Bitcoin returns." Expert Systems with Applications 260 (2025): 125400. [paper]
• Padmapritha, T., Korkut Bekiroglu, Subathra Seshadhri, and Seshadhri Srinivasan. "Trustworthy AI-Based Personalized Insulin Recommender for Elderly People Who Have Type-2 Diabetes." Computer 57, no. 3 (2024): 35-45. [paper]
• Thamotharan, P.; Srinivasan, S.; Kesavadev, J.; Krishnan, G.; Mohan, V.; Seshadhri, S.; Bekiroglu, K.; Toffanin, C. Human Digital Twin for Personalized Elderly Type 2 Diabetes Management. J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12, 2094. [paper]
• S. Keshary, P. T, K. Bekiroglu, S. Seshadhri and S. Srinivasan (2022). Multimedia Data-Based Artificial Pancreas for Type 2 Diabetes. IEEE MultiMedia, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 18-27, 1 Jan.-March 2022. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Gulay, E., & Duru, O. (2022). A multi-method forecasting algorithm: Linear unbiased estimation of combine forecast. Knowledge-Based Systems, 239, 107990. [paper]
• Duru, O., Gulay, E., & Bekiroglu, K. (2021). Predictability of the physical shipping market by freight derivatives. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. [paper]
• Sairam, S., Seshadhri, S., Marafioti, G., Srinivasan, S., Mathisen, G., & Bekiroglu, K. (2022). Edge-based Explainable Fault Detection Systems for photovoltaic panels on edge nodes. Renewable Energy, 185, 1425-1440. [paper]
• Ramaraj, R., Dharmaraj, G., Srinivasan, S., Balasubramanian, S., Periyasamy, M., & Bekiroglu, K. (2020). Real‐time extremum seeking controller for brushless DC hub motors in electric vehicles. IET Electric Power Applications, 14(12), 2438-2449. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Srinivasan, S., Png, E., Su, R., & Lagoa, C. (2020). Recursive approximation of complex behaviours with IoT-data imperfections. IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, 7(3), 656-667. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Russell, M. A., Lagoa, C., Su, R., Sznaier, M., Lanza, S. T., & Odgers, C. L. (2021). Continuous-time model identification: application on a behavioural (miLife) study. International Journal of Control, 94(9), 2318-2329. [paper]
• Visalini, K., Subathra, B., Srinivasan, S., Palmieri, G., Bekiroglu, K., & Thiyaku, S. (2019). Sensor placement algorithm with range constraints for precision agriculture. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, 34(6), 4-15. [paper]
• Png, E., Srinivasan, S., Bekiroglu, K., Chaoyang, J., Su, R., & Poolla, K. (2019). An internet of things upgrade for smart and scalable heating, ventilation and air-conditioning control in commercial buildings. Applied Energy, 239, 408-424. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Ayazoglu, M., Lagoa, C., & Sznaier, M. (2018). Hankel matrix rank as indicator of ghost in bearing-only tracking. IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems, 54(6), 2713-2723. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Duru, O., Gulay, E., Su, R., & Lagoa, C. (2018). Predictive analytics of crude oil prices by utilizing the intelligent model search engine. Applied Energy, 228, 2387-2397. [paper]
• Boz, I., Bekiroglu, K., Solaimanian, M., Tavassoti-Kheiry, P., & Lagoa, C. (2017). Validation of model order assumption and noise reduction method for the impact resonance testing of asphalt concrete. Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, 36(3), 1-13. [paper]
• Yılmaz, B., Bekiroglu, K., Lagoa, C., & Sznaier, M. (2017). A randomized algorithm for parsimonious model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 63(2), 532-539. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Russell, M. A., Lagoa, C. M., Lanza, S. T., & Piper, M. E. (2017). Evaluating the effect of smoking cessation treatment on a complex dynamical system. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 180, 215-222. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Lagoa, C., Murphy, S. A., & Lanza, S. T. (2016). Control engineering methods for the design of robust behavioral treatments. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 25(3), 979-990. [paper]
• Bekiroglu, K., Sznaier, M., Lagoa, C., & Shafai, B. (2016). Computer vision-based control of an autonomous blimp. Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, 24(5), 4015-4026. [paper]
• Lagoa, C. M., Bekiroglu, K., Lanza, S. T., & Murphy, S. A. (2014). Designing adaptive intensive interventions using methods from engineering. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(5), 868–878. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037736 [paper]

Conference Proceedings

• Numerical Study of a PVDF-Based Strain Sensor for Damage Detection of an Asphalt Concrete Pavement Subject to Dynamic Loads. The 9th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications, Online Proceeding, 2022.
• Occupant Thermal Comfort Modelling Using Dynamical Systems. 2022 IEEE 17th International Conference on Control & Automation (ICCA), Naples, Italy, 2022.
• Low-Cost Internet of Things Based Real- Time Pavement Monitoring System. 2021 IEEE International Conferences on Internet of Things (iThings), Melbourne, Australia, 2021.
• Unsupervised Time-Series based Anomaly Detection in ICS/SCADA Networks. 2021 International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2021.
• A Parameter Tuning Method for Fractional Order PD Controllers. 2020 16th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Shenzhen, China, 2020.
• Smart Artificial Pancreas with Diet Recommender System for Elderly Diabetes. 1st IFAC World Congress, 2020, (IFAC), Berlin, Germany, 2020.
• Hankel-based Unsupervised Anomaly Detection. 2020 American Control Conference (ACC), Denver, CO, USA, 2020.
• A Proof of Concept Denial of Service Attack Against Bluetooth IoT Devices. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops), Austin, TX, USA, 2020.
• A Scalable Contract Based Approach for Integrating Building Flexibility to Energy Grids. 2019 18th European Control Conference (ECC), Naples, Italy, 2019.
• Symmetric kullback-leibler divergence of softmaxed distributions for anomaly scores. 2019 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS), Washington, DC, USA, 2019.
• Hybrid Intrusion Detection System Using Machine Learning Techniques in Cloud Computing Environments. 2019 IEEE 17th International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA), Honolulu, HI, USA, 2019.
• Building Occupancy Detection from Carbon-dioxide and Motion Sensors. 2018 15th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Singapore, 2018.
• Recursive Parsimonious System Identification Algorithm for Dynamical Systems. 2018 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2018.
• Parsimonious Volterra System Identification. 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), Milwaukee, WI, USA, 2018.
• Governing Dynamics of Crude Oil and LNG Prices. 2018 IEEE 14th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), Anchorage, AK, USA, 2018.
• An Internet of Things compliant model identification methodology for smart buildings. 2017 IEEE 56th Annual Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 2017.
• System Identification Algorithm for Non-Uniformly Sampled Data. 20th IFAC World Congres, Toulouse, France, 2017.
• On the mathematical modeling of the effect of treatment on human physical activity. 2016 IEEE Conference on Control Applications (CCA), Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2016.
• An efficient approach to the radar ghost elimination problem. 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), Boston, MA, USA, 2016.
• Low-order model identification of MIMO systems from noisy and incomplete data. 2015 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Osaka, Japan, 2015.
• Parsimonious model identification via atomic norm minimization. 2014 European Control Conference (ECC), Strasbourg, France, 2014.
• A robust MPC approach to the design of behavioural treatments. 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), Firenze, Italy, 2013.
• Vision based control of an autonomous blimp with actuator saturation using pulse-width modulation. 2013 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications (CCA), Hyderabad, India, 2013.

Invited Talks

• Internet of Things-based Pavement Monitoring System. Heavy Vehicle Simulator International Alliance (HVSIA) Meeting 2021, Seattle, Washington, 2021.
• Modelling and Control Systems Research and Future Prospects. SUNY Poly Academic/Research Symposium 2021, Utica NY, USA, 2021.

Teaching

• ETC/CET 101 Fundamentals of Electrical & Computer Engineering Lab. Undergraduate course, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Electrical/Computer Engineering Technology, 2021.
• ETC/CET 102 Electric Circuits Lab. Undergraduate course, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Electrical/Computer Engineering Technology, 2021.
• ETC 275 Intro to Programming for Eng.. Undergraduate course, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering Technology, 2021.
• ETC 331 Control Systems/Lab. Undergraduate course, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Electrical Engineering Technology, 2021.
• ETC/MTC 357 Mechatronic Design/Lab. Undergraduate course, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering Technology, 2021.
• ETC/CET 433 Automatic Control Systems/Lab. Undergraduate course, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Electrical/Computer Engineering Technology, 2021.
• Graduate Student Advising. Advising, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Computer Science, 2021.
• Underraduate Student Advising. Advising, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Computer Science, 2021.

Academic Service & Leadership (SUNY Poly 2018–2021)

• Faculty Senator, Research & Scholarship Committee Member
• Faculty Portfolio Review Committee, Technology Committee Member
• TAP (Tau Alpha Pi) Faculty Advisor, Undergraduate Students Advisor
• ABET Report Preparation, Mechatronic Course Development Committee
• Search Committee Member, Student Project Showcase Judge