People
Faculty
Dr. Taylan G. Topcu is an Assistant Professor of Systems Engineering & Analysis at Virginia Tech, in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. At Virginia Tech, he also serves as the Director of Systems Engineering Master’s of Science Degree and the Coordinator of the Mission Engineering Certificate Program. He also teaches ISE 5804 Fundamentals of Systems Engineering and ISE 5834 Decision Analysis for Engineers.
Dr. Topcu holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (METU ‘09), a MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH ‘15), and a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech (‘20). Prior to joining the faculty at Virginia Tech, he was a Postdoctoral Scientist at the George Washington University in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering.
Dr. Topcu is a member of INCOSE, ASME, CESUN, IISE, and the Design Society. At INCOSE, he serves on the Corporate Advisory Board and the Academic Council.
Graduate Students
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Xames is currently pursuing his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering. He earned his MS in Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech. He received his BS in Industrial and Production Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Previously, he worked as a lecturer for four years (2018-2022) in the Industrial and Production Engineering department at the Military Institute of Science and Technology in Bangladesh.
Research interests: Systems engineering, Digital twins, Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare systems.
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Shefa holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology in Bangladesh and a MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Previously Shefa worked as an instructor for one and a half years at Military Institute of Science and Technology in Bangladesh.
Research interests: Prognostic and health management (PHM), System life cycle analysis, Explainable machine learning, Flexibility in Design, Post-production change, Digital engineering, AI4SE
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Ibrahim is pursuing his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU ’23). He worked as a consultant in data science and digital transformation prior to joining Virginia Tech.
Research Interests: Systems Engineering, Resilience, Sociotechnical Systems, Data Science, Systems of Systems, Digital Transformation.
Adi is an MS student in Industrial Engineering. He finished his BS in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics at Virginia Tech. He has worked previously in software engineering and cybersecurity tech consulting in the industry and has done systems engineering research for VT NSI.
Research interests: AI agents, Systems engineering, System equivalence.
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Tony is a PhD student in Cognitive Engineering. He finished his BS in Industrial Engineering and MS in Human Factors at Virginia Tech. He has recently worked as a UX consultant for the BRG. Previously, he was an AI Security Product Research Intern.
Research interests: Extended Reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Systems Engineering.
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Casey is pursuing his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech and serves as a Lead Analyst at the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation. He holds a BA from George Washington University and draws on a decade in the Marine Corps to ground his research in operational reality.
Research interests: Mission Engineering, Human-Machine Interactions, Decision Analysis, Policy & Governance
Former Lab Members
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Andrea Galvan
MS in Systems Engineering
Current Position: R&D Engineer 1, Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Spandhan Ramineni
MS in Systems Engineering
Current Position: Associate, Technomics, Inc.