The annual Research Experiences for Summer Scholars (RESS)
program will wrap up its season Thursday, August 9, with a poster session and a
keynote speech delivered by IUP alumnus Murat Ozturan, Microsoft’s Azure Data
Group program manager.
The program—which allows IUP students to
undertake research projects of their choosing, under the guidance of a faculty
member—has been going on all summer with 31 students involved.
The RESS program will cap the season with the
poster presentation, which will allow students to show off the results of their
work, which range from chemistry and biology experiments to work in theater,
music, and communications media.
Ozturan’s presentation is called “Riding Waves to
the Happy End,” which he describes as “Let’s have a journey to the past to
predict the future. Tread water or ride the wave? Patterns, but not patents,
will help you with the wipeout. ‘Why’ is the toughest of all. ‘Who,’ ‘when,’
‘what,’ and ‘how’ get easier and easier.”
Ozturan is a 1989 graduate of IUP and currently is
based out of Redmond, Washington. He has been with Microsoft for 24 years,
serving in several different roles. He was the chief technology officer of
Asia, Pacific, and Japan for Microsoft
Global Enterprise Services, based out of Singapore, where he was responsible
for setting the technical strategy across Asia to align all with trends, new
solutions, and technologies.
He was also a founding member of Microsoft’s North
Africa/Turkey Region and was one of the first enterprise strategy consultants
for the company.
Prior to working at Microsoft, Ozturan worked for
Renault-France and then a major bank in Turkey as an analyst programmer.
The poster presentation will follow the keynote
speech, which will begin at 2:00 p.m. at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic
Complex.
The event is free and open to the public.
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics