Ozgur Oguz (Bilkent University, 2022), Ayse Kucukyilmaz (University of Notthingham, 2020), Yasemin Vardar (Delft University, 2020), Yusuf Aydin (MEF University, 2020)

Yasemin receiving her award. Our PhD student Yasemin Vardar (thesis advised by Prof. Burak Guclu from Bogazici University and Prof. Cagatay Basdogan from Koc University) received the best PhD thesis award from EuroHaptics Society during the IEEE World Haptics Conference in Tokyo, July 9-12, 2019. Yasemin is currently a post-doctoral fellow in Max Planck Institute for Ingelligent Systems in Stuttgard. Every year the EuroHaptics Society awards a prize for the best Ph.D. thesis of the year. The EuroHaptics Society Ph.D. Award competition is open to all candidates from different continents, who in the broad sense disserted on a topic of relevance to the science and/or technology of haptics. The award winning thesis is published as a hardcover book by Springer-Verlag.

Our article “Contact mechanics between the human finger and a touchscreen under electroadhesion” appeared in PNAS December 11, 2018; 115 (50) 12668-12673.

Istanbul Technical University Robot Olympics (ITURO, http://www.ituro.org/en/) has chosen RML as the best R&D Laboratory in Robotics in 2018. We would like to thank all the jury members involved in the selection process and the people in organization of ITURO.

Prof. Basdogan gave an invited talk on the role of haptics in physical human-robot interaction at TORK 2018 (Turkish Robotics Science Conference, http://tork2018.boun.edu.tr) held at Bogazici University, April 12-14, 2018. In the picture, Prof. Basdogan and his Ph.D. student Yusuf Aydın (Yusuf’s eyes and ears are closed and he imitates a robot) are making a demonstration on the challenges in communicating through the haptic channel.

Congratulations to Yasemin Vardar for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis on Jan 11, 2018 (on the left). The lab says farewell to her and wishes the best in her new post (on the right). Yasemin joins to Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems as a post-doctoral fellow.

Conguragulations to the PhD students Yasemin Vardar and Ahmet Guzererler for successfully presenting their works (acceptance rate for oral presentation was 22% !) at the Eurohaptics Conference, London, July 4-7.

Congrugalations to Yasemin, Aykut, and Khurram for winning the best poster presentation award in IEEE World Haptics Conference 2017, Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, June 6-9.

Congratulations to our alumni Ayse Kucukyimaz for joining to the University of Lincoln, UK as a lecturer (equivalent to assistant professor). Ayse received her Ph.D. degree in Computational Science and Engineering program from Koc University in 2013. After a post-doctoral training in Imperial College for two years, she joined the Computer Science department of Yeditepe University as an assistant professor in 2015.

Prof. Basdogan will serve in the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics as a Technical Editor for 3 years, starting from July 15, 2016.

Prof. Basdogan received a recognition plate for the patent applications filed by our lab during the “First Patent Day” organized at Koc University. President Prof. Umran İnan presented the plates to the inventors of the 48 patent applications filed until the end of 2014.

Congragulations to our alumni Mehmet Ayyildiz, who has accepted a faculty position at Mechatronics Department of Bilgi University. Mehmet has received his MS and PhD degrees from Koc University. His MS thesis, entitled as “A novel opto-electro-mechanical tactile sensor for breast cancer imaging” was supervised by Prof. Cagatay Basdogan and Prof. Burak Guclu from Bogazici University. His PhD thesis, entitled as “Effect of preservation solution and period on the mechanical and histological properties of liver” was supervised by Prof. Basdogan.