About Me at Research Diary

About Me

	Dr. Orhan Karsligil orhan at karsligil.com
Education	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Cambridge, MA Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in Process Engineering Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering, June 2000. Thesis under Prof. George Stephanopoulos on “Multiscale Modeling, Identification, and Model Predictive Control of Processing Systems.” Minor in Nonlinear Mathematics. Applied wavelets to modeling and optimization in order to capture multirate and multiscale features. Created new optimization algorithms in Quadratic Programming achieving orders of magnitude reduction in complexity. Elected member of Sigma Xi and past member of AICHE. Twice elected as president of M.I.T. Turkish Students Association. BOGAZICI UNIVERSITY Istanbul, TURKEY B.S. in Chemical Engineering, June 1995. Graduated with High Honors in seven semesters. Emphasis on process design and economics, control, and optimization. Final project on “Developing a Controllability Index for Heat Exchanger Networks with Bypass Streams.”
Experience
11/05-Present	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Cambridge, MA Bioinformatics and Metabolic Engineering Laboratory Research Scholar working network and pattern identification problems, specifically rational design of Antimicrobial Peptides based on motifs discovered from existing natural antimicrobial peptides.
9/00-Present	THE EXETER GROUP, INC. Cambridge, MA Head of Information Systems, Project Manager Client-facing experience includes leading the development of Online Enrollment Application of a large US University as a Project Manager, managing the upgrade of student management systems for a university in Kuwait as an Assistant Project Manager, designing the security architecture for a B2B project between a prominent bank and an airline company in Kuwait as an Operations Lead, and implementation of Exeter Student Suite for a leading medical school in Boston. Internal project experience includes managing the IT team, managing the upgrade and expansion of the internal IS infrastructure, planning and implementing security policies and audits for the Exeter network, developing strategies and completing the implementation of an Exeter-wide content management system, and developing and implementing Exeter Group’s intranet systems including expense and time tracking, invoicing, reporting, and allocations. MCSE and MCDBA certifications.
8/95-6/00	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Cambridge, MA Laboratory for Intelligent Systems in Process Engineering Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Seminar Series Organizer, and Systems Administrator.
Summer 1994	PROCTER & GAMBLE, INC. Frankfurt, GERMANY First Line Manager, European Beverages Process Development Department. Project on the solubility of calcium complexes in orange juice concentrate
Publications	“Multi-Scale Modeling, Estimation and Control of Processing Systems”, George Stephanopoulos, Matthew Dyer, and Orhan Karsligil, Computers and Chemical Engineering, 21, p. S797-S803 (1997) “Multi-Scale Considerations in Linear and Nonlinear Estimation and Control”, George Stephanopoulos, Orhan Karsligil and Matthew Dyer, in Nonlinear Model-Based Control, R. Berber and C. Kravaris (editors), Kluwer (1998) “Multi-Scale Model-Predictive Control”, Orhan Karsligil, Matthew Dyer and George Stephanopoulos, Proceedings of DYCOPS-5, Kerkyra, Greece (1998) “Multi-scale Aspects in Model-Predictive Control”, George Stephanopoulos, Orhan Karsligil, and Matthew Dyer, Journal of Process Control, Vol: 10, Issue: 2-3, pp. 275-282 (2000)
Research Interests:	Multiscale Modeling and Optimization in Computational Biology and Protein Folding problems: Using multiscale ideas in modeling and optimization to solve problems in Bioinformatics and Protein Folding. Multiresolution approach to modeling the interactions between sites in a molecule and simplifying the related energy minimization problem. One of the objectives is to convert the big energy minimization problem to an iterative, coarse to fine-scale optimization problem, which can be solved using parallel processors. Another objective is using wavelets or similar signal processing techniques to analyze patterns in gene sequences to identify statistically significant coherent features. Process Design and Control: Application of multiscale modeling and estimation to Model Predictive Control. Application of Multiscale Model Predictive Control to industry problems. The objective is to reduce computational complexity of the MPC so that larger systems can be solved in a feasible timeframe. The multiscale modeling allows incorporation of multirate inputs/outputs and estimation as well. Optimization: Application of Wavelet Theory in discrete optimization problems encountered in control theory. Reduction of complexity of Quadratic Programming problems by transforming underlying state equations into multiresolution/multiscale models and solving the optimization problem with constraints in multiple resolutions. The objective is to develop new algorithms to solve the constrained, thus nonlinear QP problems at different resolutions and reduced complexity. Clustering and Parallel Algorithms: Building a cheap Linux cluster with off-the-shelf components and testing parallel algorithms and database applications which can be used to solve industrial problems as described above.
Teaching Interests	Systems Engineering Numerical Methods in Chemical Engineering Process Design and Control Applicable to Biological Systems Optimization Techniques for Engineering Problems Nonlinear Systems Project Management in IT Networks and Security
Academic Interests	Cross-department/Cross-university Research Organization of seminar series Advanced computer systems to solve large scale problems Commercialization of research results to get industrial funding
Awards	PAD scholarship from German Government 1984 3rd place in Turkish Physics Olympiads, 1986 Valedictorian, Istanbul German High School, 1991 DAAD scholarship from the German Government, 1991 Bogazici Univ. Alumni Association Scholarship, 1991-1995 Bogazici Univ. Professor Turgut Noyan Award, 1995 M.I.T. Chem. Eng. Dept. Graduate Student Fellowship, 1995
Activities	Turkish-American Cultural Society of New England, Inc. Twice elected as Member of the Executive Committee, serving on the Disciplinary Committee
Languages	Fluent in English, German, and Turkish.