Biography
I am a natural leader and an entrepreneur with years of hands-on experience founding and leading multiple startups and innovative products. I garnered a deep understanding of technology by building systems ranging from integrated circuits to multi-cloud systems architecture. Throughout my adventures, I learnt the effect of technology on people.
I have led the creation of several innovative products that millions of people still use daily. I thrive creating scalable engineering environments and processes with strong vision and solid fundamentals to enable businesses and fuel innovation.
Having a strong academic and commercial research background, I help people navigate through the technology space.
I also have several open-source frameworks on GitHub, and several awards on engineering and entrepreneurship.
I lead my engineering teams by example, living their lives and fighting their fights. Experienced in growing and teaching engineering teams, I also teach principles of software engineering in non-profits and universities. I give workshops about public speaking and cloud infrastructure, and speak at conferences and events all around the world.
Currently working at Wayfair as a Senior Engineering Manager, I lead the creation of innovative products to enhance the experiences of Wayfair’s partners.
Background
Engineer
I got my BSc degree in Microelectronics Engineering and MSc degree on brain research in Electronics Engineering at Sabanci University, Istanbul.
I have graduated from undergrad to love digital circuits, although my graduation project included building an EEG amplifier and novel dry electrodes. I designed my own active electrodes at that time and using OpenEEG, recorded brain signals and mapped them to MIDI for making music with brain waves.
Later on I have dealt with P300, making the world’s fastest academic P300 speller, which you can read about here.
My interests in electronics include audio applications, such as guitar gear and pedal work; especially modeling and building vintage sounding overdrive pedals.
Software Architect
I love to create. Dealing with software for over 20 years, my profession is now software engineering rather than electronics. I co-founded Startup Kitchen, a serial venture builder based in Istanbul. I worked as the chief software architect / acting CTO and led the development efforts of our startups.
I then worked as the Head of Software Engineering at unu GmbH, and together with my engineering team, we invented several new technologies for urban mobility.
Now at Wayfair, I lead the creation of innovative products to enhance the experiences of Wayfair’s partners.
I love to teach. At Startup Kitchen, from 2011 to 2013, we organized 3 summer code camps for new CS graduates and engineers aiming to grow them into software engineers ready for the industry. As the main instructor, I’ve taught over 60 brilliant engineers, who now work all over the world. I went on to establish a voluntary organization called Lonca to bring up apprentices in software engineering. I also give lectures and workshops with Women Techmakers Berlin.
I love to share. I share a lot of code in GitHub. I share my experiences with the youth and I love to talk at conferences on topics that range from distributed computing to software architecture for the enterprise and the psychology of being in technology. Check out my latest talks here.
Musician
I simply live for music and the stage. I play the guitar and I sing. I perform with my main band, Neseli Gunler Kumpanyasi, actively for over thirteen years. We also did several shows in various cities in Germany under the name Safak ve Neseli Gunler Kumpanyasi.
I have been on stage with countless other bands in the past, making music that ranges from 70’s pop to orchestral metal.
As an experienced radio host, I also hosted a radio show called Neseli Gunler at Metropol FM — a national radio in Germany—for more than 18 months.
Recent Job Experience
▸ 2019–2020 — Senior Engineering Manager at Wayfair
Lead Wayfair’s R&D teams on supplier onboarding. Create engineering teams from scratch, designing recruitment processes and defining team culture. Plan and execute novel systems architecture and software design to enable fast prototyping and R&D.
Increase the funnel for new supplier acquisition by 120% and partner with product and UX teams to deliver an unparalleled experience to Wayfair partners. Additional responsibilities include designing and leading engineering mentorship programs, creating and leading a community of frontend engineers in Berlin, as well as being the hiring manager for all frontend positions across Berlin.
▸ 2015–2019 — Head of Software Engineering at unu GmbH
Creating a world-class engineering team from scratch with best practices, a high-performing engineering culture and values to lead the future of urban mobility.
Responsible for leading the engineering teams for cloud, mobile & web applications andinfrastructure with cutting-edge, industry-leading technology creation.
▸ 2014–Present — Founder & Mentor at Lonca Works
Lonca (Guild) is a school of software engineering that follows the software craftsmanship movement. In contrast to the classical education systems, it emphasizes an approach to equip students with industry quality software development skills. Lonca is a voluntary, non-profit organization that aims to create the software culture of the future by means of bringing modern technology craftsmen together and forming a medium to disseminate the collective wisdom from the master to the apprentice in a similar fashion to old craft guilds.
In order to combat the diversity problem in the industry, Lonca is proud to only train women engineers.
▸ 2017—Lecturer at Sabanci University
Teaching IT537, a 42-hours masters course for Front-end Web Development. Topics includesoftware architecture, agile project management, lean startup, modern front-end frameworksand application development.
▸ 2012–2015—Co-founder and Chief Software Architect at Startup Kitchen
Startup Kitchen is a training driven venture builder I co-founded in 2012 with the founders of Tart New Media. The seed idea behind the incubation center is the summer camps of Tart. Training people, with one continuously developing culture, fundamentals and the tools they will need to execute “the idea” via Tart’s 10 years of experience in the market is the key goal of the company.
Responsible for software and systems architecture for the new startups incubated by Startup Kitchen, acting as their interim CTOs and leading their teams.
Responsible for designing Startup Kitchen summer camp curriculum, training events and hiring. Taught and mentored over 40 young grads for their entry into the software industry.
Led the development teams on Line.do, ActAPI.com, Tus.la, Dinlet.io, Driwe.co, Fub.io, Kixel.co, Mettoapp.com and other projects and startups.
Line.do: A digital content publishing medium with a timeline-based layout. Architecture, product design, team leading and partial development.
ActAPI.com: A gamification SaaS. Architecture, team leading and development. Delivered products for enterprises including Turkcell, a TelCom company with 30 million subscribers.
Driwe.co: Mobile app with real-time feedback for drivers, aiming to improve their driving habits. Architecture, OBD device connectivity, development.
Tus.la: Mobile app for unraveling call center complexity. Architecture and development.
Dinlet.io: Mobile & desktop app for digital jukeboxes in cafés & pubs. Architecture, team leading and development.
▸ 2011–2012—Chief Software Architect at Tart New Media
Tart New Media is an Idea Fulfilment Company, having delivered hundreds of digital projects and working with most of the largest companies in Turkey with high success ratio. Tart’s reputation is flawless with Service Design, UX / UI, Technology, Strategy, Product, Management, Marketing, Mobile and Enterprise.
Responsible for leading multiple product engineering teams for multiple clients.
Front-end, back-end, DB and systems architecture for Iste Oyun, Turkey’s first gamification platform that served millions of monthly active users.
Front-end and back-end architecture and software design for Playstore.com, TTNET’s gaming e-commerce platform.
Front-end architecture and software design for Tuttur.com, world’s first social betting platform with real-time social interactions and real-time betting features.
Designed and executed two 8-week training programs for young engineering graduates to solve internal recruitment needs. After establishing the countrywide famous “Tart Summer Camps” the company stopped using other hiring channels.
Open source JavaScript framework called tartJS (https://github.com/tart/tartJS).
Code generation software for converting class diagrams in PlantUML to JavaScript and PHP (https://github.com/dashersw/genejs).
Tuttur-Mobile: Hybrid mobile application for Tuttur.com, targeting Mobile WebKit, iOS and Android with PhoneGap. Architecture and team leading.
IsteOyun.com: Turkey’s first gamification platform and API. Frontend, backend, DB and systems architecture, software design and team leading.
Tuttur.com: World’s first social betting platform. Frontend architecture, software design and development, team leading.
Playstore.com: Gaming e-commerce & digital distribution platform for TTNET, largest TelCom company in Turkey. Architecture, software design and development, team leading.
Previous Job Experience
2011 Software Architect at Tart New Media
2010–2011 User Interface Development Team Leader at Tart New Media
2007–2009 Front End Developer at Chocolate IT Solutions
2006–2009 Teaching Assistant at Sabanci University
2005–2007 Co-founder, UI/UX designer and front-end developer at 35nokta5 Studios
2002–2010 Freelance web development
Education
▸ 2007–2010 M.Sc. Electronics Engineering, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
▸ 2003–2007 B.Sc. Microelectronics Engineering, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
Teaching Experience
▸ 2017–2018 Lecturer at 13-week JavaScript Crash Course program for Women TechMakers Berlin
▸ 2017 Lecturer at Sabanci University, IT537: Front-end Web Development at Master’s Degree in Information Technology for Professionals
▸ 2014-Present Founder and master craftsman at Lonca, a remote education initiative that follows software craftsmanship patterns. Mentoring new CS graduates.
▸ 2011–2013 Lead Instructor at Tart Summer Camps, lectures on JavaScript Fundamentals, Design Patterns, UML Diagrams, Modern Web Applications with tartJS, Event Driven Architecture, NodeJS
▸ 2011–2012 Advisor on two TUBITAK research projects on Brain Computer Interfaces
▸ 2006–2009 Teaching Assistant in CS201, CS303, CS401, ENS203, PROJ102 courses at Sabanci University
Open Source on GitHub
▸ brain-bits A P300 system that lets people type with their brain signals. Entirely in JavaScript / Electron.
▸ erste.js A modern front-end framework for building native-performance hybrid mobile applications
▸ cote.js An auto-discovery mesh network framework for building fault-tolerant and scalable applications with microservices in Node.js.
▸ tartJS Architecture and development for the JavaScript framework that features three UI component libraries, an MVC framework and other utilities.
▸ pedalboard.js A JavaScript framework for creating audio effects for guitars. Works on HTML5 WebAudio API and CSS3 transforms for 3D look and feel.
▸ geneJS PlantUML JavaScript and PHP code generator with a plugin architecture for expanding language and generation capabilities.
State Funded Commercial Research Projects
▸ BMVI (German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure): Design and development of an IoT cloud interoperable with multiple vehicle vendors. Focus on data aggregation and analytics for personalised services based on machine learning.
▸ TEYDEB & TUBITAK LearntScale: Design and development of an auto-scalable cloud orchestration platform based on machine learning.
▸ TEYDEB & TUBITAK cote: Design and development of a scalable, fault-tolerant mesh-network framework.
State Funded Academic Research Projects
▸ TUBITAK Secure and Scalable Key Distribution in Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks
▸ TUBITAK Development of Electroencephalography (EEG) Signal Analysis Techniques for BCI
M.Sc. Thesis & Academic Publications
▸ A. Amcalar, “Design, implementation and evaluation of a real-time P300-based brain-computer interface system,” Master thesis, Sabanci University, Feb. 2010.
▸ A. Amcalar and M. Çetin, “A brain-computer interface system for online spelling”, IEEE Conference on Signal Processing Communications and their Applications, 2010.
▸ A. Amcalar and M. Çetin, “Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Real- time P300-based Brain-Computer Interface System,” IEEE International Conference on Pattern Recognition, pp. 117–120, 2010.
Conference Speaking
Regularly speaking at international development conferences around the world. Usual topics include better software architecture, distributed systems and software craftsmanship efforts. Refer to http://arm.ag/talks for the latest talks, slides and videos.
Awards and Achievements
▸ 2017 Berlin Hack & Tell — Best Hack of the Month three times in a row
▸ 2015 Ford AppLink Challenge Hackathon, 1st place, €50,000 awards
▸ 2010 AKBANK GGGP (Young Entrepreneur Development Program), 1st place €10,000 worth services
▸ 2007–2009 Sabanci University, M.Sc. Full Scholarship
▸ 2003–2007 Sabanci University, B.Sc. Scholarship
Personal Interests
▸ Music Sings and plays the guitar. Founder of several bands that range from heavy metal to 70’s pop.
▸ Radio Hosts radio shows at MetropolFM, a national radio station in Germany.
▸ Photography Into event and promotional photography as a hobby.
▸ Diving A PADI certified Advanced Open Water Diver.
▸ Design & Animation Into digital and print design, web design, sound design and 3D animation.
▸ Meetups Regular attendee of meetups on software engineering.
▸ Clubs Served as members of the board of several university clubs including music, radio, engineering and more.
▸ Voluntary work Mentoring students and engineers, teaching software engineering in various contexts. Working with women to help them enter the software industry.
