In the overlap of computer vision and machine learning, Dr. Ilke Demir's research focuses on generative models for digitizing the real world, deep fake generation and detection methods, analysis and synthesis approaches in geospatial machine learning, and computational geometry for synthesis and fabrication. Currently she is a Senior Research Scientist at Intel, leading the AI research in the world's largest volumetric capture stage, revolutionizing the entertainment industry.
She earned her B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University with a minor in Electrical Engineering, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Purdue University, with her dissertation discussing geometric and topological shape processing approaches for reconstruction, modeling, and synthesis; which pioneered the area of proceduralization. Afterwards, Dr. Demir joined Facebook as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist, where their team developed the breakthrough innovation on generative street addresses, receiving significant attention from researchers and media outlets around the world. Her research further included deep learning approaches for human behavior understanding in virtual reality, geospatial machine learning for map creation, and 3D reconstruction at scale.
In addition to her publications in top-tier venues (SIGGRAPH, ICCV, CVPR), she has organized workshops, competitions, and courses in deep learning, computer vision, and graphics (DeepGlobe, SkelNetOn, WiCV, SUMO, OpenEDS, etc.). Dr. Demir received numerous awards and honors such as Jack Dangermond Award, Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship, Industry Distinguished Lecturer, and GHC Fellow, in addition to her best paper/poster/reviewer awards. Her work has been featured in press such as The Independent, Venture Beat, MIT Tech Review, IEEE Spectrum, etc. Dr. Demir has also been actively involved in women in science organisms for the past 10 years, always being an advocate for women and underrepresented minorities.
