Prof Okyay Kaynak made a presentation on the topic of “ Science, Technology and Industry in 21st Century” July 30th this Thursday.
In the presentation, Prof Okyay Kaynak discussed with EE students the profound technological changes that had taken place during the last two decades, the main characteristics being erosion and convergence. He pointed out the advances that were at the edge of traditional disciplines and the connections between different disciplines were becoming the core of the new technologies, in a not multi, not inter but a transdisciplinary manner. It was argued that convergence fueled convergence and resulted in emergence. Four distinct phases of industrial revolution, culminating in Industrie 4.0 were discussed afterward. Prof Okyay Kaynak meanwhile pointed out the emerging paradigms of big data and cyber physical systems, supported by new disruptive advances both on software and hardware side, as well as the cross-fertilization of concepts and the amalgamation of information, communication and control technology driven approaches. Finally, he stressed the changes observed in the industry, together with the paradigm change from industrial electronics to industrial informatics.
Dr Okyay Kaynak received the B.Sc. degree with first class honors and Ph.D. degrees in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1969 and 1972 respectively. In 1979, he joined the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, where he is presently a Full Professor. He has served as the Chairman of the Computer Engineering and the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Departments and as the Director of Biomedical Engineering Institute at this university. Currently, he is the UNESCO Chair on Mechatronics and the Director of Mechatronics Research and Application Centre. He has hold long-term (near to or more than a year) Visiting Professor/Scholar positions at various institutions in Japan, Germany, U.S., Singapore and China. He has recently been awarded the prestigious “1000 People” Program professorship at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. His current research interests are in the fields of intelligent control and mechatronics. He has authored three books, edited five and authored or coauthored more than 400 papers that have appeared in various journals, books and conference proceedings. Dr. Kaynak is a fellow of IEEE. He is or has served on the Editorial or Advisory Boards of a number of scholarly journals. Currently he serves as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics. He is active in internationally organizations, has served on many committees of IEEE and was the president of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society during 2002-2003. He received IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2001), IEEE/IES Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award (2005) and IEEE/IES Dr.-Ing. Eugene Mittelman Achievement Award (2011).
