CV

Engineering leader building intelligent physical systems. Senior Director of Control Systems Engineering at SharkNinja, leading a cross-functional team shipping sensing, control, and embedded intelligence into 30+ globally distributed consumer products. Inventor on 12+ patents (4 granted), author of 40+ peer-reviewed publications, reviewer for multiple IEEE journals and Technical Program Committee member for IEEE conferences. Previously Assistant Professor (SUNY Poly), Research Scientist (NTU Singapore), and Postdoctoral Researcher (Penn State). Ph.D., Penn State (2015).

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
MOOC Certificates
- Coursera: Fundamentals of Scalable Data Science by IBM — May 2019
- Coursera: Neural Networks and Deep Learning by deeplearning.ai — June 2019

Work Experience

04/2024 to Present: Senior Director of Control Systems Engineering, SharkNinja
- Built the Control Systems Engineering function from a single hire into a cross-functional team supporting 20+ product lines. Established the promotion ladder, code review culture, on-call rotations, and technical review process from scratch
- Delivered algorithms and embedded software into 30+ globally shipped products across coffee, beverage carbonation, thermal cooking, frozen treat, and Shark beauty systems
- Built internal engineering platforms: Python-based MCU communication service, Raspberry Pi / Arduino HIL infrastructure, and evaluation frameworks used across product lines
- Driving AI-assisted engineering adoption: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and LLM workflows integrated into code generation, R&D ideation, data-analysis pipelines, code review, and MCP-based Confluence documentation. Same headcount supports approximately 40% more concurrent projects
- Cut development cycle time by roughly 20% through modular software architectures and engineering process design, in a fast-paced consumer-products environment where product cycles are already short
- Inventor on 12+ patents (4 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 12–13% 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, reviewer, and program-committee member across multiple IEEE conferences and journals
Publications in 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

Leadership & Impact

Built and scaled the Control Systems Engineering team at SharkNinja from scratch; directed engineers across controls, firmware, hardware, and software
Delivered 30+ intelligent products to global mass production across coffee, beverage carbonation, thermal cooking, frozen treat, and Shark beauty systems
Inventor on 12+ patents; author of 40+ peer-reviewed publications in control systems, MPC, robotics, and predictive modeling
Drove adoption of LLM/AI-assisted engineering tooling on the team; established modular software architectures and processes that cut development cycle time by ~20%
Present technical concepts to engineering and executive audiences; mentor junior engineers and co-ops

Patents (Granted)

Preventing coffee bean grinder jamming (US12369741B1)
Preparation of beverage machines for cold beverage brewing (US12369744B1)
Zero retention coffee bean hopper (US12514394B2)
Suggesting coffee bean grind size for beverage machines (US20250235034A1)

Patents (Pending / Under Review)

Determining an amount of carbon dioxide in a gas source in a carbonation system (US20240246041A1)
Beverage carbonation systems (WO2024155439A2, WO2024155439A3)
Detecting liquid temperature for a beverage carbonation system (US20250001371A1)
Queueing beverage machine preparations (WO2025155327A1)
Descaling beverage machines (US20250235041A1)
Zero retention coffee bean hopper (continuation) (US20250275644A1)
Superautomatic Beverage Machine (WO2025190411A1)

Publications

Designing Adaptive Intensive Interventions Using Methods from Engineering

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

Computer Vision Based Control of an Autonomous Blimp

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.

Control Engineering Methods for the Design of Robust Behavioral Treatments

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.

Evaluating the effect of smoking cessation treatment on a complex dynamical system

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.

A Randomized Algorithm for Parsimonious Model Identification

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.

Validation of model order assumption and noise reduction method for the impact resonance testing of asphalt concrete

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.

Predictive analytics of crude oil prices by utilizing the intelligent model search engine

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.

Hankel Matrix Rank as Indicator of Ghost in Bearing-Only Tracking

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.

An internet of things upgrade for smart and scalable heating, ventilation and air-conditioning control in commercial buildings

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.

Sensor Placement Algorithm With Range Constraints for Precision Agriculture

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.

Continuous-time model identification: application on a behavioural (miLife) study

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.

Recursive approximation of complex behaviours with IoT-data imperfections

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.

Real-time extremum seeking controller for brushless DC hub motors in electric vehicles

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.

Edge-based Explainable Fault Detection Systems for photovoltaic panels on edge nodes

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.

Predictability of the physical shipping market by freight derivatives

Duru, O., Gulay, E., & Bekiroglu, K. (2021). Predictability of the physical shipping market by freight derivatives. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

A Multi-Method Forecasting Algorithm: Linear Unbiased Estimation of Combined Forecast

Bekiroglu, K., Gulay, E., & Duru, O. (2022). A multi-method forecasting algorithm: Linear unbiased estimation of combine forecast. Knowledge-Based Systems, 239, 107990.

Multimedia Data-Based Artificial Pancreas for Type 2 Diabetes

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.

Human Digital Twin for Personalized Elderly Type 2 Diabetes Management

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.

Trustworthy AI-Based Personalized Insulin Recommender for Elderly People Who Have Type-2 Diabetes

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.

Predictive performance of denoising algorithms in S&P 500 and Bitcoin returns

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.

Conference Proceedings

Vision based control of an autonomous blimp with actuator saturation using pulse-width modulation

August 28, 2013

Conference proceedings at 2013 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications (CCA), Hyderabad, India

A robust MPC approach to the design of behavioural treatments

December 10, 2013

Conference proceedings at 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), Firenze, Italy

Parsimonious model identification via atomic norm minimization

June 24, 2014

Conference proceedings at 2014 European Control Conference (ECC), Strasbourg, France

Low-order model identification of MIMO systems from noisy and incomplete data

December 15, 2015

Conference proceedings at 2015 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Osaka, Japan

An efficient approach to the radar ghost elimination problem

July 06, 2016

Conference proceedings at 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), Boston, MA, USA

On the mathematical modeling of the effect of treatment on human physical activity

September 19, 2016

Conference proceedings at 2016 IEEE Conference on Control Applications (CCA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

System Identification Algorithm for Non-Uniformly Sampled Data

July 01, 2017

Conference proceedings at 20th IFAC World Congres, Toulouse, France

An Internet of Things compliant model identification methodology for smart buildings

December 12, 2017

Conference proceedings at 2017 IEEE 56th Annual Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Governing Dynamics of Crude Oil and LNG Prices

June 12, 2018

Conference proceedings at 2018 IEEE 14th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), Anchorage, AK, USA

Parsimonious Volterra System Identification

June 27, 2018

Conference proceedings at 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), Milwaukee, WI, USA

Recursive Parsimonious System Identification Algorithm for Dynamical Systems

August 21, 2018

Conference proceedings at 2018 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Copenhagen, Denmark

Building Occupancy Detection from Carbon-dioxide and Motion Sensors

November 18, 2018

Conference proceedings at 2018 15th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Singapore

Hybrid Intrusion Detection System Using Machine Learning Techniques in Cloud Computing Environments

May 29, 2019

Conference proceedings at 2019 IEEE 17th International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA), Honolulu, HI, USA

Symmetric kullback-leibler divergence of softmaxed distributions for anomaly scores

June 10, 2019

Conference proceedings at 2019 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS), Washington, DC, USA

A Scalable Contract Based Approach for Integrating Building Flexibility to Energy Grids

June 25, 2019

Conference proceedings at 2019 18th European Control Conference (ECC), Naples, Italy

A Proof of Concept Denial of Service Attack Against Bluetooth IoT Devices

March 23, 2020

Conference proceedings at 2020 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops), Austin, TX, USA

Hankel-based Unsupervised Anomaly Detection

July 01, 2020

Conference proceedings at 2020 American Control Conference (ACC), Denver, CO, USA

Smart Artificial Pancreas with Diet Recommender System for Elderly Diabetes

July 11, 2020

Conference proceedings at 1st IFAC World Congress, 2020, (IFAC), Berlin, Germany

A Parameter Tuning Method for Fractional Order PD Controllers

December 13, 2020

Conference proceedings at 2020 16th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Shenzhen, China

Modelling and Control Systems Research and Future Prospects

September 01, 2021

Talk at SUNY Poly Academic/Research Symposium 2021, Utica NY, USA

Internet of Things-based Pavement Monitoring System

October 01, 2021

Talk at Heavy Vehicle Simulator International Alliance (HVSIA) Meeting 2021, Seattle, Washington

Unsupervised Time-Series based Anomaly Detection in ICS/SCADA Networks

October 01, 2021

Conference proceedings at 2021 International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Low-Cost Internet of Things Based Real- Time Pavement Monitoring System

December 06, 2021

Conference proceedings at 2021 IEEE International Conferences on Internet of Things (iThings) , Melbourne, Australia

Occupant Thermal Comfort Modelling Using Dynamical Systems

July 27, 2022

Conference proceedings at 2022 IEEE 17th International Conference on Control & Automation (ICCA), Naples, Italy

Numerical Study of a PVDF-Based Strain Sensor for Damage Detection of an Asphalt Concrete Pavement Subject to Dynamic Loads

November 01, 2022

Conference proceedings at The 9th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications, Online Proceeding

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

Dr. Korkut Bekiroglu

CV