Hello! Welcome, and I’m glad you’re here! I’m Vefa. If you’d like to take a look at my CV or Resume, feel free to download it from here.

A bit about me: my academic journey started when I was very young, watching planes take off and land. At the time, my biggest dream was to become a pilot. I did everything I could and began my training in gliders and Cessna aircrafts at the age of 15. By the time I completed my training at 17, I realized that flying was something I wanted as a hobby, not a career. Instead, I discovered my passion for creating things that can fly, which led me to pursue aerospace engineering.

Through participating in various rocket and aviation projects, I realized that engineering is all about solving problems. I started applying this mindset to the problems I encountered in my own life and then reflected these solutions in my projects. For example, I noticed that people who frequently switch cars often forget to adjust their mirrors before driving, which can be a safety issue. I developed an idea on how to solve this problem, assembled my own team, and the project even received a grant. In fact, this was how I first started working with computer vision and AI.

During my master’s program, while interning, I consistently saw gaps in traffic data regarding emergency vehicles. To address this, I developed models that generate synthetic images using real-world data, and this became the basis of my thesis. Even in class projects, I always aimed to solve real-world problems. For instance, as someone with allergies, I found it cumbersome to manually check each product’s label during online grocery shopping. So, I developed an algorithm that filters grocery orders based on allergens.

As the saying goes, without data, we’re just another person with an opinion.

Now that I’ve written this, I realize that I may have painted a picture of someone who only thinks about work and school. But in reality, my life is much more of a symphony, where everything is harmonized and intertwined. If you’re curious about the other aspects of my life, feel free to check out the Activities section! Beyond that, this website is filled with my academic and professional journey.