Klaus Werner Schmidt joins OPINA as a Vehicle Dynamics and Simulation Expert. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Middle East Technical University, Ankara. His research interests include control for autonomous vehicles, industrial communication networks, intelligent transportation systems, supervisory control for discrete event systems, industrial automation systems and industrial project control. He currently also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems. Klaus received his B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical, electronic, and communication engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, in 2002 and 2005, respectively.

Omprakash Patra is serving as a Software Design Expert at OPINA. In addition, he is also a senior robotics consultant and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the field of robotics and embedded systems. With a robust background spanning seven years, he has been a pivotal figure in numerous national and international robotics projects, contributing significantly from the initial planning stages to the final production phase.

Omprakash has a bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering from the prestigious National Institute of Technology in Rourkela, India.

His technical proficiency extends across diverse domains, including Autonomous Vehicle Design encompassing AGV, Mobile Robots, and AUV. Omprakash is well-versed in Robot Operating Systems, Simulation environments such as Carla, IPG, GAZEBO, Mujoco, and dSpace SIL, as well as HIL systems like IPG and dSpace. His expertise further encompasses Computer Vision, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), and Embedded Systems Development, including Device Drivers.

He joined the OPINA Project in 2023 as a Senior Vehicle Technology Expert. His responsibilities include the establishment of the sensor and information architecture of the vehicles to be used for experiments and education. He will furthermore be developing the environment within the vehicles for autonomous behavior.

Professor Emeritus Umit Ozguner is a graduate of Istanbul Technical University and received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He has been working at the Ohio State University since 1981 and is a well-known expert on Intelligent Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems. He has had a career of over 40 years contributing to various aspects of IV and ITS, as a researcher, educator and through his service to the ITS community.

He has been author or co-author of more than 500 publications which have had over 19,000 citations. He holds the title of “Fellow” in IEEE for his “contributions to the theory and practice of autonomous ground vehicles” and is the (founding) Editor in Chief of the IEEE ITS Society, Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the IEEE ITS Society.

Mohammad Aziziaghdam joins OPINA as a Software Certification Expert with over 12 years of experience in Software Development and Testing for various Automotive and Aviation companies. He currently serves as the Automotive and Aerospace Industry Director at Testinium, assisting companies in optimizing their Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and enhancing software quality in these sectors. He holds an MS degree from Boğaziçi University in Robotics and Control and has authored several papers and scientific reports on topics such as EV Control, Human-Robot Interactions, and Robotics. With expertise in Model-Based Design for Embedded Software Development, he has consulted with various Mobility companies, facilitating well-organized Model-Based Design Software Development processes to achieve software certification.

Erdem Kaya acts as the Key Intellectual Property Expert of the OPINA project. He was born in 1978 in Izmir. He graduated from Uludağ University Electronics Engineering Department in 1999. He became a Turkish and European patent attorney in 2001 and a Turkish trademark attorney in 2005. He is the founder of Erdem Kaya Patent, one of the respected IP consultancy firms of Turkey, with a team of more than 45 IP professionals. Throughout his professional life, he and his team have provided IP consultancy services to many institutions including well-known technology/industry companies and universities of Turkey, on the strategic management of intellectual property rights in a wide scope ranging from registration to valuation, and provided basic or advanced trainings to thousands of people in this field. Mr. Kaya was also the president of the International Patent Union (UPB) for 2 terms, where he carried out projects aimed at increasing IP awareness of the society and expertness level of IP professionals in Turkey. He is also among the partners of Sistem Global Consulting, Inc., which provides services to technology-oriented companies in areas such as tax consultancy, compliance management and access to incentives/supports with its team of +450 people. Finally, Mr. Kaya is a licensed angel investor and member of the world’s leading IP organizations such as EPI, LES, AIPPI and Turkey’s prominent business organizations such as TÜGİAD and BUSİAD.

Sinan Tandoğan joins OPINA as a senior innovation specialist. He has more than 40 years of professional experience on business development, start-up and SME support, entrepreneurship, innovation management and finance, software engineering, graduate teaching and academic research.

He worked as the Entrepreneurship Support Coordinator at TUBITAK TEYDEB between 2006-2020. He worked there as the Program Manager of “1601 SME Support Program for Capacity Building in Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, “BiGG-Entrepreneurship Multi-phased Support Program” and Program Coordinator of GEF-UNIDO CleanTech Turkey Program. He also acted as the steering committee member of several European ERANET projects including Electro-Mobility Europe and M.Era-Net. He regularly participates in evaluation and review processes for the European Framework Programs as an external expert since 2012.

Dr. Tandoğan established a pioneer start-up on data communication in the early 1980s and later worked as a Telecom Software Engineer in USA, Norway and Germany. In 1995, he founded one of the first Internet service providers in Turkey, KilimNet and founded and managed a consultant firm, K-NET, on Internet infrastructure and information security.

He teaches graduate courses on research commercialization, public R&D policies and evaluation methodologies at Middle East Technical University (METU) and conducts research on these areas. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electronic Engineering in METU and he received his Ph.D. from Science and Technology Policy Studies in METU.

İffet İyigün Meydanlı joins OPINA as a Senior Business Development Expert. She has 30 years of total experience as R&D Engineer, Team Leader, R&D System Development Manager, Innovation Manager, Innovation Director, and Innovation Consultant.

As R&D Manager, she had responsibilities on program management, R&D funding coordination and technology management practices.  As Innovation Manager in a large-scale home appliance company, she had initiated open innovation activities (including start-up ecosystem development, international collaborations) and an intrapreneurship program.  In addition, establishment of innovation strategies and methodologies throughout the company was within her responsibility area.  During establishing an innovation directorate in an automotive supplier manufacturer, she restructured the R&D, innovation activities and expanded the activities including mobility and Industry 4.0 technologies.

In the last 15 years, she led 8 R&D Centers establishment, more than 10+ EU funded projects initiation.  10 years’ experience on start-up mentoring and innovation ecosystem development, and 40+ SME digital transformation roadmap development under TÜBİTAK-TÜSSİDE digital transformation program.  Extensive experience on road mapping methodology implementation and innovation management practices in different industries including home appliance, automotive, chemicals.

Tom Weber holds a Master’s degree in Communications Engineering from TUM, one of the top three universities in Germany. After working in technical and strategic marketing in the 1990s, he took on managing director positions in SMEs, larger companies as well as start-ups, which took him to several European countries, including Sweden, France and the UK. In Bavaria, he founded and built up a small number of clusters. He currently works as a freelance strategic consultant for companies in the field of electrical and mechanical engineering. Within OPINA, he takes on the role of Senior Business Development Expert for Europe.

Asil Tan is serving as Senior Business Development and Sales Expert in OPINA and bringing his 25 years of business development and sales experience which spanned to different locations and cultures.

Asil holds his bachelor’s degree in Automotive Technology from Weber State University (USA) and also holds MBA degree from University of Wales (UK) and Master of Technology Management degree from Pittsburgh State University (USA).

He started his professional career as a junior expert in one of the subsidiaries of Koc Holding, Koc Finansal Hizmetler AS in 1998, and later worked in sequence; in AKG Group of Companies as Sales Manager and its overseas start-up subsidiaries, as founding Executive Director in AKG Trading (UK) Ltd (2008-2020) and founding President in AKG Trading (USA) Inc (2015-2020)

During his tenure in UK, he was nominated to “Best Anglo-Turkish Executive Award” in 2012 in a co-organization between UK Trade and Investment Agency (UKTI) and Turkish Diplomatic Mission in UK.

After many years overseas service, he returned to homeland in early 2020 and joined VAV Technology GmbH and later Palmiye Global in a capacity of Global Sales and Marketing Director. He created strategy documents and road maps for both organizations for helping them to successfully navigate throughout their internationalisation process.

Besides, Asil is certified mechanic in subject of automotive engine performance and fuel systems by California Bureau of Automotive Repairs (BAR) which is only official body in State of California to grant certification in kind and he still enjoys diagnosing auto engine related problems and repairing them.

Can Köstepen is a consultant in EU policies with over 10 years of professional experience in the implementation of European Structural Funds as well as projects funded under EuropeAid. As a consultant and project manager, he has worked in Turkey, Kosovo, and North Macedonia and took part in the monitoring and evaluation of EU projects in terms of compliance, financial management and project progression in Scotland. He has significant experience in the organisation of public information and awareness events on EU funding and grants schemes.

Haluk KARAKAYA serves as a Junior System Admin at OPINA. Throughout his career in the Turkish Navy, he has been involved in projects related to Combat Management Systems, Communication Electronics, and Cryptographic Systems in the National War ships at the Research Center Command. Haluk KARAKAYA, who graduated from Kocaeli University with a degree in Chemistry and from Ahmet Yesevi University in Computer Engineering, has also worked in the private sector, managing Core Banking Systems for various banks and institutions, operating Solaris and Red Hat Linux systems, handling Virtualization Systems, Server and Storage Management, Container, Kubernetes, Red Hat Openshift Platform Management, and automation software development. Additionally, as the founder of INFRASOFT Information Technologies, Haluk KARAKAYA provides consulting, training, and project support to corporate clients in the field of IT Infrastructure Software.