Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Dr. Ö. Nilay Yalçin

School of Interactive Arts & Technology assistant professor Ö. Nilay Yalçin’s interest in science, and specifically cognitive science, began with an increasing curiosity to understand human cognition and the potential of artificial intelligence to model the human mind.

Cognitive science is a unique interdisciplinary field and Yalçin was intrigued by the interplay of the different disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and AI, to tackle one very complex problem at different angles.

“I loved what my mentors and other researchers in cognitive science and AI created in their work, the excitement they had when they talked about their research and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Yalçin’s journey into the cognitive science field was not always linear.

Yalçin completed her bachelor’s degree in Management Engineering at Istanbul Technical University and discovered that the courses she excelled in were related to math, statistics, and programming.

Near the end of her undergraduate degree, Yalçin had the opportunity to work on a graduation project where she was encouraged to propose her own project idea for a year-long individual project. While exploring potential topics, Yalçin found herself developing an interest in human-computer interaction and began analyzing educational platforms and their perception by users. Through this, her project took shape.

“During this project, I realized how much I enjoyed research: forming hypotheses, collecting data, evaluating, and brainstorming,” says Yalçin. “It was also during this time that I discovered cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and how technology affects human behaviour.”