Prof. Şirin Tekinay is the current GEDC Chair from 2019 – 2021. She was formerly American University of Sharjah’s (AUS) Dean of Engineering. Prof. Tekinay has held posts of academic administration as Dean of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Vice President for Research and Development, and Rector and Chancellor during the last decade. Prior to her tenure in Istanbul the last decade, she lived in the United States where she served as Program Director at the US National Science Foundation; she was tenured faculty at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Director of NJ Center for Wireless Telecommunications. She is the elected ’19-’21 Chair of Global Engineering Deans Council (https://www.gedcouncil.org ) and a Board Member of the European Society for Engineering Education. Before starting her academic career, she was a researcher at Bell Laboratories. Dean Tekinay holds the PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from George Mason University, Virginia, and the MS and BS degrees in Electrical-Electronics Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul.
ProfessorTekinay holds nine patents and has authored numerous publications in her field. She has graduated six doctoral students. Her areas of interest include network science, mobile networks, sensor networks, and applications. She founded the first digital local fabrication laboratory in Turkey; “FabLab Istanbul,” and has helped develop the next few FabLabs in the country. SU boasts the 4th and best equipped FabLab in Turkey. She also started the first comprehensive program in Urban Engineering research and education.
She is one of the pioneers of the five-dimensional STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) approach to education and research, in addition to new multidisciplinary lines of study, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the Maker Movement through FabLabs.
In the global arena, she is a member of European Engineering Deans Council – EEDC. She is a consultant and expert reviewer for the European Commission (EC) on Science and Technology. She sits as elected member on the Board of Directors of the European Society for Engineering Education (Societe Europeenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs – SEFI) and on the Executive Committee of the Global Engineering Deans Council – GEDC. Nationally, she is an honorary member of the board of Beyaz Nokta Development Foundation and a member of the advisory board of KAGİDER (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey).