Leading Edge Scientific Solutions to Solve Complex Real-World Problems

Tolga leads the SSL team to create innovation and impact enterprise-level business by applying leading edge scientific and technical solutions to solve complex real-world problems. He has served in various leadership roles at PARC, focusing on product strategy and technology commercialization to manage the transition of new technologies from an R&D output to production quality software systems and services. Prior to his work with PARC, he worked as a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center and as a mechanical design engineer and group leader at Dell Corporation.

Tolga's own research focuses on computation and AI applied to design and manufacturing of complex systems, and application of preventive and predictive analytics techniques to engineered systems. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University -- both in Mechanical Engineering. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and papers in leading journals and conferences in his field, and regularly serves in organizational leadership roles for the ASME, AIAA, AAAI, Design Society, and Prognostics and Health Management Society professional communities. He is the recipient of the IEEE Best Professional Paper Award at the Prognostics and Health Management Conference (2008), NASA Ames Technical Excellence Award (2009), PARC Excellence Award (2011), and the Best Design Award in the “Dexterous Robot Hand” Design Competition (1999). In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors, watching and playing soccer, building and flying model planes, black-and-white photography, and scuba diving.