Mehmet Kerem Turkcan
Associate Research Scientist in Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University

210E 2276 12th Avenue
Columbia University
New York, New York 10027
Greetings! I am currently an associate research scientist in the Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) and Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University specializing in computer vision and deep learning applications. Before, I was a postdoctoral research scientist in Electrical Engineering. My research focuses on real-world, low-latency deployment of object detection and trajectory prediction models, and retrieval-augmented generation via large language models. To test algorithms, I lead projects on large-scale data collection and annotation, and improve upon the state-of-the-art models to adapt them to the strict performance and quality requirements of real-world use cases. Right now, my focus is specifically on applications to urban streetscapes and robotic surgeries.
Previously, as a member of the Bionet group, I studied the efficient initialization and execution of very-large-scale, real connectome and synaptome driven, single-synapse-level simulations of neural circuits on GPUs for the purpose of understanding realistic neural networks. Using the tools I developed, I worked on the design of computational circuits for understanding the mushroom body and the lateral horn, two brain regions in insects linked with associative and evolutionary memories. I am also one of the main developers of an open-source interactive neuroscientific computing platform called FlyBrainLab (FBL) that enables access to, manipulation of and simulations for fruit fly brain data.
News
Jun 23, 2025 | Our paper, “Adaptive Data Collection for Robust Learning Across Multiple Distributions”, has been accepted to ICML 2025! |
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Jun 23, 2025 | Our paper, “Loosely Coupled Oscillators as a Correlate of Behavioral Control Circuits Within the Central Complex of the Fruit Fly”, is now available online! |
Jun 22, 2025 | Our paper, “Distributed VLMs: Efficient Vision-Language Processing through Cloud-Edge Collaboration”, is now available online! |
Jan 14, 2025 | Our paper, “Distributed VLMs: Efficient Vision-Language Processing through Cloud-Edge Collaboration”, has been accepted to PerCom 2025! |
Jul 16, 2024 | I am now an Associate Research Scientist in the Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University! |