The UCF Department of Computer Science is pleased to announce that Professor Damla Turgut, Ph.D., has been appointed Chair of the Department. Her appointment will begin August 8, 2022.
¨Our department went through tremendous growth to become a world-class name in Computer Science research and education. It is a great honor for me to follow the outstanding previous chairs and be given the opportunity to serve and lead this exceptional team of researchers, educators, and students” said Dr. Turgut.
Dr. Turgut received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington and joined UCF in 2002 in what was then the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Her research interests include wireless ad hoc, sensor, underwater and vehicular networks, cloud computing, smart cities, IoT-enabled healthcare, and augmented reality, as well as considerations of privacy in the Internet of Things. She published more than 50 journal and more than 130 conference articles. Her work had been cited more than 6,600 times and she has an h-index of 35. Dr. She received funding from a variety of agencies, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Army, Department of Energy, and the Gates Foundation. Dr. Turgut serves on several editorial boards and program committees of prestigious ACM and IEEE journals and conferences.
Dr. Turgut taught undergraduate and graduate courses in networking and software engineering and graduated eight Ph.D. and five M.S. thesis students. She led the ABET certification effort and she is leading the broadening participation in computing efforts in the department.
Dr. Turgut assumed leadership roles in several areas of her profession. She is the Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC) and Chair of IEEE Technical Committee of Social Networks. She serves as the N2Women Board Co-Chair where she leads the activities of supporting female researchers in the fields of networking and communications. She is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer.
Her selected honors and awards include the NCWIT 2021 Mentoring Award for Undergraduate Research (MAUR) Award, the UCF Research and Teaching Incentive Awards, Women of Distinction Award by the UCF Faculty Excellence Center for Success of Women Faculty, the University Excellence Award in Professional Service and being featured in the UCF Women Making History series.