Last Updated on 25/04/2012

Personal Information
Name : M. FURKAN KIRAÇ
e-mail :
High School : Kadıköy Anatolian High School
University : Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) UniversityLOGO
Academic Degrees : Mechanical Engineering (BS)
1996 - 2000

Systems and Control Engineering (MS)
2000 - 2002

Computer Engineering (PhD)
2002 - ...

Hobbies :
Sports: Football, table tennis, volleyball, basketball, tennis, kiteboarding, windsurfing
Games: Backgammon, Dune II, Civilization V (immortal)

Academic Interests:
(that constructively proves that I am also a nerd besides everything!)
Languages I am trying to forget: Cobol, Clipper, Fortran, Basic, Pascal, German ;)
Academic Attraction: Human Motion Understanding: Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Computer Graphics
Core Programming Languages:
 Machine Code of 680x0/80x86/ARM/PLC, C/C++, C#, Java, Perl, ...
Database Applications
 PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL, Interbase, Firebird, Informix, MySQL, ...
Assistant & Academic Languages: MATLAB, Mathematica, ...
Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, AmigaOS, OS/2, QNX, ...
Mechanical Poem !
Well, I am a Mechanical Engineer for real.
There should be a gear somewhere near!
- Furkan (1996)
Bogazici University Mechanical Engineering Department
 Top Speed = Me = Furkan :)
(August 1998, Bodrum)
Achievements:
1989Winning high school entrance exams both for college and lycee, and entering KAL with the top rank.
19943rd degree in TÜBİTAK II. National Science Competition of Turkey on Computer Science
19941st degree in TÜBİTAK II. National Science Competition of Marmara Territory on Computer Science
19953rd degree in TÜBİTAK III. National Science Competition of Turkey on Computer Science
19952nd degree in TÜBİTAK III. National Science Competition of Marmara Territory on Computer Science
19952nd degree in TÜBİTAK High School Students Research Project Competition on Computer Science
1995Represented Turkey in 1995 London International Youth Science Forum (Sponsored by British Council) on Computer Science.
1996Due to my existence in LIYSF'95 I have been invited to the U.N. Lux 1996 (23rd - 28th August 1996) which was an international UN simulation held in Luxembourg. This conference does not deal with science but focuses on international diplomacy. Due to the extensive responsibilies that the participation of this diplomatical conference required, I prefered not to represent Turkey and let the more elaborately equipped students for the subject to be chosen, as being a legitimite engineering student.
1996Graduation from my high school with an honor degree.
1996-2000Go to "Manzara", go to Akmerkez, return back to "Manzara", play Backgammon on the grass, go back to Taksim, return home.
Trying to be a mechanical engineer, graduating with the 6th rank, but still being a more computer engineer than I am a mechanical engineer :) :(
2000Winning the University Record Committee Elections; programming the first web site for a record committee in Turkey which receives the write-up texts from the Internet and providing the texts to the printing house directly, hence, producing a 0% error rate in typography (assuming that everybody checks his/her write-ups :).
2001Programmed AIRSIM, an air-flow simulator for ARÇELİK used in the development of ORBİTAL series refrigerators.
Programmed a dance portal called unidance.com for fun.
20021st rank in my Master Degree Graduation in Bosphorus University.
Being the first one to complete Systems and Control Engineering with GPA of 4.00.
Being the first one to complete Systems and Control Engineering in 4 semesters.
2003Designing/Programming the first Turkish License Plate Recognition Software which is currently being used widely in Turkey.
2004Designing/Programming the first Computer Vision based Filling Quality Control Automation System. Used in BPGaz/Turkey for quality control of their filling lines.
2005Completion of my PhD lessons on Computer Science with GPA of 3.94 out of 4.00 (yes I got a BA from Graph Theory, but still a good performance without entering the lessons :) and winning the qualification exams for the PhD degree with the 2nd best position.
20052nd degree in SIU 2005 National Conference Best Paper Contest in Turkey
2006Porting the INFMT/G Fortran'77 VAX code to today's PCs for BRISA. The code is actively being used for production of tyres in Turkey.
2007Designing/Programming the first Computer Vision based Gas Filling Automation System. Used for automatic filling of the gas tanks.
2008-2010Realizing that my DNA also requires programming! Getting tired of industrial ethics(!) and getting ready for a kernel update of myself. Completely returning to my University as a Research Assistant in Computer Engineering Department, working on Computer Vision.
2011I wrote a framework which can track human hand skeleton in real-time with dear colleagues.
2012 1st degree in SIU 2012 National Conference Best Application Paper Contest
3rd degree in SIU 2012 National Conference Best Demo Contest
Master Thesis (in the field of Industrial Engineering):
Kıraç, Furkan, "Genetic Algorithm Approach to Parallel Machine Total Tardiness Problem" [PDF]


PhD Thesis (in the field of Computer Science):
Human Motion Understanding
Currently working on Annealed Particle Filters, 3D human hand simulation, hand skeleton extraction

Assisted Courses:
  1. CMPE 150 - Introduction to Computing
  2. CMPE 537 - Computer Vision

Publications:
  1. Ümit Bilge, Furkan Kıraç, Müjde Kurtulan and Pelin Pekgün,
    "A Tabu Search Algorithm for Parallel Machine Total Tardiness Problem", Research Paper FBE-IE-09/2001-11, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, 2001. [PDF]

  2. Ümit Bilge, Furkan Kıraç, Müjde Kurtulan,
    "A Genetic Algorithm for Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem", Research Paper, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, 2002

  3. Ümit Bilge, Furkan Kıraç, Müjde Kurtulan, Pelin Pekgün, A Tabu Search Algorithm for Parallel Machine Total Tardiness Problem, Computers and Operations Research, v.31 n.3, p.397-414, March 2004

  4. Ümit Bilge, Furkan Kıraç, Müjde Kurtulan,
    "A Tabu Search Algorithm for Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem", European Journal of Operational Research 176 (3), 1423-1435, 2007

  5. Ümit Bilge, Furkan Kıraç,
    "An Adaptive Genetic Algorithm Approach for Parallel Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem"

  6. Furkan Kıraç, Lale Akarun,
    "Human Hand Tracking in Image Sequence using Particle Filters", SIU, 2005

  7. C. Keskin, İ. Arı, T. Eren, F. Kıraç, L. Rybok, H. Ekenel, R. Stiefelhagen, L. Akarun,
    "Vision Based Hand Puppet", Proceedings of eNTERFACE 2010,
    The Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces, 2010, p. 10-17.

  8. Cem Keskin, Furkan Kıraç, Yunus Emre Kara, Lale Akarun,
    "Real Time Hand Pose Estimation using Depth Sensors", 2011, IEEE ICCV Workshop on Consumer Depth Cameras

  9. A. Alp Kındıroğlu, Rabia Yorgancı, Furkan Kıraç, Mustafa Aydın, Marek Hruz, Hatice Köse, Lale Akarun,
    "Multimodal Sign Language Game Interface", Proceedings of eNTERFACE 2011,
    The Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces, 2011.

Conferences Attended
  1. EUROINFORMS 2003 (July 06-10, 2003)
    Furkan Kıraç, Ümit Bilge, Müjde Kurtulan, "Genetic Algorithm Approach to Parallel Machine Total Tardiness Problem" [PPT]

  2. SIU 2005 (May 16-18, 2005)
    Furkan Kıraç, Lale Akarun, "Human Hand Tracking in Image Sequence using Particle Filters"

  3. SIU 2011 (April 20-22, 2011)
    Furkan Kıraç, Lale Akarun, "Real-time Pose Tracking Based on a 3D Skeletal Model Using Multiple Cameras"

  4. IEEE ICCV 2011 (November 6-13, 2011)
    Cem Keskin, Furkan Kıraç, Yunus Emre Kara, Lale Akarun, "Real Time Hand Pose Estimation using Depth Sensors"

  5. SIU 2012 (April 18-20, 2012)
    Cem Keskin, Furkan Kıraç, Yunus Emre Kara, Lale Akarun, "Derinlik Algılayıcıyla 3B El Pozu Bulma ve Sınıflama"

This site has passed through the following domains:
 http://www.tripod.com/~furkan (1995, Internet was still a child by then)
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/3593/ (1997)
http://me2000.virtualave.net/ (1998)
http://www.fkirac.net/ (finally) (2002)
 (It has been here for 16 years by 2011! Well time passes quickly)