Graduate School of Informatics

METU Informatics Institute is organizing monthly Friday Seminars series and Prof. Sadi Turgut from METU, Department of Physics is going to give the last talk of this semester. The title of his talk is “Quantum Computers”.

Location: Conference Room (124), METU Informatics Institute

Time: 8 June 2018, 15:30-16:30

This seminar is open to public and those outside METU have to register using Google Forms: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2VLWyxjKMluS6tZwSFt742LLQkiUIKyEp3xzw6O186DojhA/viewform (Free Registration)

Short Biography:

Prof. Dr. Sadi Turgut is interested in the physics of information processing, especially quantum information.

BS, 1989, METU Physics,

PhD, 1995, UC Berkeley, Physics,

Working at METU, Physics Department since 1996.

Graduate School of Informatics /Cognitive Science

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Çağdaş Bostancı will defend his thesis.

Title: TEMPORAL AND STRUCTURAL PERCEPTION OF RHYTHMIC IRREGULARITIES

Date: 29th May 2018

Time: 09:30 AM

Place: B-116

Thesis Abstract :Time perception studies often seek for a timing mechanism that can explain temporal judgments in a general way. In search of such a model, environmental, contextual and subjective factors affecting temporal judgments should be taken into account as well. The present study provides a critical evolution of existing timing models by comparing the interval processing and production strategies of musicians and non-musicians. The study contains 3 experiments: Experiment 1 is a perceptual comparison task, Experiment 2 is a duration reproduction task and Experiment 3 is a rhythm reproduction task. The contrasts between the two groups are believed to be captured by participants’ initial reactions to rhythmic structures. For that purpose, short scale (4 beat) rhythmic samples are used in the experiments. Standard samples are regular 4 beat rhythms. Test samples include regular and irregular rhythms. The irregular conditions are prepared by changing the temporal position of the second beat of the regular rhythms. Early and late second beats in these irregular samples have the same temporal distance from the expected beat. Hence, the expectancy violation reflects any differences between early and late oddball stimuli. The experimental analyses suggest an asymmetry between early and late oddballs in participants’ initial reactions to such expectancy violations, in terms of their perceptual comparison of rhythms, as well as their duration and rhythm (re)production. Moreover, it provides evidence for different strategies used by participant groups in order to cope with rhythmic irregularities.

Title: Player Acceptance and Motivation for Games with Emerging Technologies: A Multi Theory Approach in Virtual Reality Gaming and Pervasive Gaming Contexts

PhD Candidate: Mehmet Kösa

Program: Information Systems Department 

Date: 04 June Monday 14:00

Place: Conference Hall-01

Abstract: The research project presented here consists of the studies I undertook throughout my PhD studies. In this research project, I propose a gaming technology acceptance-motivation model (GTAM). The model amalgamates Technology Acceptance Model, Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory. The aim of the model is to expand knowledge on the acceptance of and motivation for video gaming technologies. Initially, a systematic literature review was conducted to see the state of the art research on hedonic information systems in the information system (IS) literature. The literature review produced salient research question and the results were presented in the light of those research questions. Building on the literature, the model was created. The proposed model was tested using quantitative methods. Data collection was two-fold: First, a cross-sectional survey was carried out in the virtual reality (VR) gaming context and then, a longitudinal diary study was conducted in the pervasive gaming (PG) context to complement the survey. For the survey, structural equation modeling was employed and for the diary study, multilevel analyses were conducted. Therefore, the proposed model was tested with two empirical studies. Results showed that perceived ease of use was the antecedent of autonomy and competence. Also, in addition to flow (immersion and concentration), autonomy and competence predict enjoyment which then predicts attitude and intention play. Studies presented offer theoretical contributions to IS and games research as well as implications for managers and practitioners in the interactive hedonic information system business. The results were discussed and the implications were presented.

The second talk of METU  Informatics Institute monthly Friday Seminarsseries will be given by Prof. Dr. Rengül Çetin-Atalay from METUInformatics Institute Health Informatics Program:

“Personalized Medicine in Cancer Through Bioinformatics”.

Location: METU Informatics Institute Conference Room (124)

Time: 4 May 2018, 15:30-16:30.

This seminar is open to public and those outside METU have to register from here.

Abstract: Due to the recent advances in molecular biology and the applications of optoelectronic sensors, the volume of biological data in biomedical research has increased significantly. We now acquire large data sets which provides the novel insights for the biology of a disease, in particular for cancer which is recently reported as the most-deadly disease by WHO. The analysis of the molecular characteristics of a patient’s disease through computational tools allows patient stratification for better healthcare which is tailored for personalized prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In this talk I will summarize recent advances on personalized cancer medicine with a special focus on related KanSiLab studies.

Short Bio: Dr. Rengul Cetin-Atalay holds MD degree and PhD degree in Systems Biology and her research falls in the broad fields of pathway analysis, bioinformatics and biomedical-image analysis and specifically in molecular cellular biology of primary liver cancer. She worked as a research assistant at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France during her PhD, and as an assistant professor at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), USA during her sabbatical leave in 2004.  She is the recipient of several awards including Turkish Academy of Sciences Young Investigator Award (2002), UICC International Cancer Technology Transfer Award (2008), and Sanovel Pharmaceuticals Inc, Drug Research Award (2013). During the last decade, she extended her studies on the discovery of novel chemotherapeutics for liver cancer by the application of computational techniques on the analysis of pharmaco-transcriptomics data.  Her experience in the interdisciplinary research approach in cancer biology with various aspects of this disease, devotes  her research towards personalized medicine.

Graduate School of Informatics /Information Systems

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Mehmet Erdem Örs will defend his thesis.

Title: ACCEPTANCE OF MOBILE PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES: THE STATE-OF-THE-ART AND PROPOSED MODEL

Date: 05th May 2018

Time: 15:00 AM

Place: A-108

Thesis Abstract : This thesis aims to develop a technology adoption model by inspecting acceptance of mobile payment (MP) systems literature from different perspectives. This study can be divided into two main parts. In the first part of the thesis, acceptance of mobile payment systems is examined in detail. In the second part, a technology acceptance model is developed by using the findings of literature. Related literature is reviewed from 2005 to end of March 2018. Literature review provides information about studies’ location, sample size, theoretical background, research method, statistical analyses, constructs and significant relationships. As a result of literature review, 11 factors are derived. The factors are validated by an expert panel. Afterwards, a technology acceptance model is proposed based on analysis of the literature. To test the hypotheses of model, a measuring instrument (questionnaire) is formed. Data is collected from 378 participants, however 302 of them are used in the analyses. The model is tested by employing Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). After obtaining results, inter-factor relations are added to the model from literature for testing. In the end, final version of the model is created. Results are fortified with interviews made with participants of the questionnaire. Final findings show that, use of mobile payment systems is affected most by usefulness and compatibility

Title: A PRACTICAL MEASUREMENT CAPABILITY MODEL FOR SOFTWARE ORGANIZATIONS UTILIZING AGILE APPROACHES

PhD Candidate: Murat Salmanoğlu

Program: Information Systems Department 

Date: 16 April Monday 09:00

Place: Conference Hall-01

Abstract: Measurement is the foundation for successful software management. However, it is not easy for software organizations to evaluate their measurement practices and to determine what they should do to improve them. There are models to evaluate capability and maturity of measurement processes. However, they frequently focus on the measurement process with a guidance from a well-defined capability model, like CMMI or SPICE. Many of the software organizations following agile methodologies do not prefer to apply these process-centric maturity models. This study presents a model to assess measurement capability of software organizations by inspecting individual measures, independent from the software development approach and the process architecture organizations use. The model exemplifies measures for aspects and defines generic practices for three capability levels. Organizations can use the model to determine and improve their measurement capability. This research includes action research and exploratory case studies conducted during the development of the model, an explanatory case study conducted to implement the model, and its results. Case studies demonstrate that the model provides additional benefits to organizations utilizing agile approaches while providing similar results with the process-centric models. The findings of the explanatory case study indicate that the results of the model are accepted and found beneficial by the employees from small-, medium- and large-scale organizations that participate in the study.

Title: SYNTACTIC PRIMING OF RELATIVE CLAUSE ATTACHMENT IN MONOLINGUAL TURKISH SPEAKERS AND TURKISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

PhD Candidate: Zeynep Başer

Program: Cognitive Science Department 

Date: 24 April Tuesday 10:00

Place: Conference Hall-01

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the syntactic priming of relative clause attachment in monolingual Turkish speakers and Turkish learners of English with different levels of proficiency in English. Syntactic priming is the facilitation of processing which occurs when a sentence has the same syntactic form as a preceding one. Within the last three decades, a manifold of studies have investigated the phenomenon, especially with native speakers of various languages, yet there is a quite low number of research with monolingual Turkish speakers and Turkish learners of English.Turkish and English belong to typologically different groups of languages. Within the scope of this study, we investigate syntactic priming of relative clause attachments, which enables us to examine and compare the strategies employed for ambiguity resolution both in Turkish and English. The data was collected through offline (pen-and-paper), online (self-paced reading), and eye-tracking studies. The analysis of the data revealed important findings about the parsing strategies employed by both monolingual Turkish speakers and Turkish learners of English. The role of several confounding factors on RC attachment preferences was identified, such as the role of (i) animacy / inanimacy information embedded in the host NPs, (ii) semantic relations between the host NPs, (iii) the semantic associations of the host NPs with the proximal and the distal predicate, and (iv) active / passive RC condition. Furthermore, the relation between working memory capacity and RC attachment preferences was analysed. Besides, effects of methodological issues, such as the presentation mode (i.e. full sentence or phrase-by-phrase), techniques (i.e. offline, online, or eye-tracking), task requirements (i.e. implicit processing or directed assessment of the syntactic structure in the prime) and modality(comprehension or production) were compared.