Dr. Sevgi Zubeyde Gurbuz (“Dr. Z”)

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Associate Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Director, CI4R Lab
North Carolina State University

Email: szgurbuz@ncsu.edu
Office: EB2 – 2090
Lab: EB2 – 3037

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
– Robert Frost (1874-1963)

About Me

  • Born and raised in Palo Alto, California (U.S. Citizen)
  • Graduated from Palo Alto High School / attended Academic Talent Development Program @ U.C. Berkeley 
  • Served in U.S. Air Force (1998 – 2004)
    • Air Force ROTC Detachment 365 (“Doolittle’s Raiders”), 1995 – 1998
    • Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in front of the U.S.S. Constitution (Boston, MA) in June 1998
    • Served as a 62E Development Engineer assigned to AFRL Sensors Directorate, Radar Signal Processing Branch, Rome, NY (2000 – 2004)
    • Served as a Turkish Interpreter deployed in Diyarbakir, Turkey from December 2002 to June 2003
    • Attended Squadron Officer’s School (SOS) in Montgomery, AL in 2003
    • Separated as a Captain in Jan. 2004
  • Enjoy playing piano, arranging music, drawing, writing stories and reading books
  • Avid fan of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Football: Jules Verne, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Dragons, 49ers and Roll Tide! 
  • Bi-Lingual in English (native) and Turkish (fluent), dabble in German and Sign Language

Education

  • Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009
    • Dissertation Title:  Radar Detection and Identification of Human Signatures Using Moving Platforms
      Advisors:  Prof. Douglas B. Williams (Georgia Tech) and Dr. William L. Melvin (GTRI)
    • Out of Area Concentration:  Mechanical Engineering
  • M.Eng., Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000
    • Thesis Title:  Comparison of Two Bandpass Delta-Sigma A/D Converter Architectures
    • Advisors:  Prof. Charles G. Sodini (MIT) and Mr. Paul Ward (Charles Stark Draper Lab)
  • B.S., Electrical Engineering with Minor in Mechanical Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998

Post-Graduate Awards and Fellowships

  • The University of Alabama (UA) Hewson Engineering Faculty Fellowship, 2024
  • The UA College of Engineering (CoE) Early Career Excellence and Innovation Award, 2024
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, 2023
  • American Association of University Women (AAUW) Research Publication Grant in Medicine and Biology, 2022
  • IEEE AESS Harry Rowe Mimno Award for Excellence in Technical Communications, 2021 
  • US Naval Research Lab (NRL) Summer Faculty Fellowship, 2020
  • SPIE Rising Researcher Award, 2020
  • EU Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant, 2010
  • Best Student Paper Prize at IEEE International Radar Conference, 2010
  • National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 2004-2007
  • U.S. Air Force Commendation Medal for outstanding service as a Turkish interpreter, 2004
  • AFRL Technical Achievement Award for research in spatial waveform diversity, 2003
  • Best Paper Prize at IEE International Radar Conference, 2002
  • AFRL Team Award for Multi-User Signal and Sensor Integration Concept, 2002
  • U.S. Air Force Achievement Medal for establishing an engineering internship program, 2001
  • Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Fellowship, 1998-2000

Invited Talks

  • [6/16/2025] Invited Workshop Speaker, IEEE International Microwave Symposium, Workshop on “Unseen Insights: Radar and Future of Human Sensing” – Talk entitled: “Understanding the Nuances of Being Human: Implications for Radar-Based Human Motion Classification”
  • [4/14/2024] Invited Keynote Speaker, NATO SET 318 Workshop on AI/ML in Cognitive Radar, Amsterdam, entitled “Modern Deep Learning Methods for Cognitive Radar“
  • [4/26/2024] Invited (Online) Seminar for DRDC Ottawa Seminar Series, entitled “Challenges to AI/ML for RF Sensing in a Real(ly) Dynamic World”
  • [8/2/2023] Invited METRON Technical Talk, delivered virtually, entitled “Radar as an Enabling Technology for Next Generation Human Ambient Intelligence“
  • [5/2/2023]  Invited Plenary Speaker at the 2023 IEEE Radar Conference, San Antonio, TX – Talk entitled “Radar as an Enabling Technology for Next Generation Human Ambient Intelligence“
  • [2/23/2023] Invited Talk at NATO SET – 302 Cognitive Radar Research Task Group (RTG) Meeting on “Physics-Aware Machine Learning for Cognitive Target Recognition“
  • [9/27/2022] Invited Talk at IEEE Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) Conference Workshop on “Understanding Inner States of Humans Using “Invisibles” – “Empatho-Kineaesthetic” Sensing” entitled “Deciphering Human Movement using RF Sensing: Kinematics and Language“
  • [8/19/2022] Invited Gallaudet University CREST Talk: “RF Sensing for ASL-based Human-Computer Interactions”
  • [4/7/2022]  Invited Talk at European Microwave Week (EUMW) Workshop on Advanced Processing and Deep Learning Approaches  for Indoor Sensing Using Short-Range Radars
  • [12/1/2021] Seminar at Temple University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: “Physics-Aware Deep Learning for Radar Signal Understanding: Human Activity and Sign Language Recognition”
  • [9/1/2021] IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Virtual Lecture:  “Physics-Based Deep Learning for RF-based Gait Analysis and Sign Language Recognition” 
  • [6/24/2021] ITU AI/ML Challenge Webinar: Understanding How People Move Using Modern Civilian Radar
  • [6/20/2021] IEEE IMS Workshop on Vital Sign and Human Motion Monitoring
  • [1/21/2021] EU Microwave Week (EURAD) Workshop on Recent Advances in Micro-Doppler

Service and Leadership

  • IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS), Women in Engineering (WiE) Representative, 2025-present
  • Member, IEEE Radar Systems Panel (2020 – present)
    • Education Committee, Publications Committee, and Civilian Radar Committee Member
    • Publications Committee Chair (2025-present)
    • Publications Committee Vice-Chair (2023-2025)
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems (Oct. 2022 – present)
  • Associate Editor, IET Radar Sonar and Navigation (Oct. 2022 – present)
  • Associate Editor for Radar Systems, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (Jan. 2022 – present)
  • Reviewer, National Science Foundation (2020-present)
  • Reviewer, National Institute for Health (2021-present)
  • Guest Editor, “Special Section on AI Approaches for Radar Processing and Applications,” in IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems, 2025.
  • Guest Editor, “Special Issue on Radar-based Physiological Measurement Techniques for Healthcare and Health Monitoring,” IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI), proposal accepted in May 2023
  • Guest Editor, “Advances in AI-Assisted Radar Sensing Applications,” IET Radar Sonar Navigation, 2023
  • Lead Guest Editor, Special Section on “Deep Learning in Radar Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2023
  • Guest Editor, Special Section on “Sensing and Machine Learning for Automotive Perception,” IEEE Sensors Journal, 2022-23
  • 2025 IEEE International Radar Conference, Atlanta, GA
    • Co-Chair for Student Programs
    •  Lead organizer of Radar Boot Camp (RBC)
    •  RBC Lecturer on “AI/ML in Radar”
  • 2024 IEEE EMBS Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) Conference Workshop Co-Chair
  • 2024 NSF Cyber-Physical Systems Principle Investigators’ Meeting Program Committee Member
  • 2023 IEEE/ACM Int. Conf. on Connected Health: Apps, Systems and Engineering Technologies (CHASE), Technical Program Committee Member
  • 2023 IEEE Radar Conference, San Antonio, TX
    • Invited Plenary Speaker
    • Invited Expert for Cognitive Electronic Warfare Panel
    • AI/ML Track Co-Chair
    • Special Session Chair for “AI/ML in Radar”
    • Technical Reviewer
  • 2022 IEEE/ACM Int. Conf. on Connected Health: Apps, Systems and Engineering Technologies (CHASE), Technical Program Committee Member
  • 2022 IEEE Biomedical and Health Informatics Conference, Special Session Chair for “Radar-Based Human Activity Recognition”
  • 2022 IEEE Radar Conference, New York, NY, USA Organizing Committee Member
    • Chair, IEEE Radar Challenge
    • Technical Reviewer
  • 2021 IEEE Radar Conference, Atlanta, GA, USA Organizing Committee Member
    • Co-Chair, Publications Committee
    • Special Session Chair for “AI and Deep Learning in Radar”
    • Technical Reviewer
  • International Telecommunications Union (ITU) AI/ML in 5G Challenge (2021)
    • Radar-based human motion recognition challenge problem contributor
  • 2020 IEEE Radar Conference, Washington DC, USA,  “Deep Learning for Radar Applications” Panel Organizer and Technical Reviewer
  • 2019 IEEE Radar Conference, Boston, MA, USA
    • Automatic Target Recognition Track Co-Chair
    • Special Session Co-Chair for “Machine Learning for Radar Imaging”
    • Technical Reviewer
  • 2018 IEEE Radar Conference, Oklahoma City, OK, USA, “Learning Methods for Radar” Session Co-Chair
  • 2017 IET Radar Conference, Belfast, UK, “MIMO Radar” Session Chair
  • Participant, NATO SET-227 Research Task Group on Cognitive Radar (2015-2019)
  • Reviewer, EU Horizon 2020 Projects (2014, 2016-2018)

Work Experience

  • North Carolina State University, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Spring 2025 – present
  • The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Tenured Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, August 2024 – December 2024
  • The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,Fall 2017 – August 2024
  • Utah State University, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng., Fall 2016 – Spring 2017
  • TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Eng., 2012 – 2016
  • TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute, Senior Research Scientist, 2010 – 2016
  • TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Part-Time Instructor, Fall 2011
  • TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Office of the President, Fall 2009
  • US Air Force Research Laboratory, Radar Signal Processing Research Engineer, 2000 – 2004
  • Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Fellow, 1998 – 2000
  • MİT Media Laboratory, Undergrad Research Assistant, 1997 – 1998
  • MİT Technology Laboratory for Advanced Composites (TELAC), Undergrad Research Assistant, Spring 1995
  • NASA Ames Research Center, Intern, summers of 1993, 1994, ve 1995