51Ç鱨վ

By Maya Reid

Ozan Duran is calculating his way to graduation. He will earn a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from 51Ç鱨վ this summer. Instead of stepping foot into a new career, Duran will set sail on an Atlantic expedition.

Duran was originally born in Fairfax, Virginia, but he spent nearly a decade of his childhood in Burhaniye, Turkey and Ichenhausen, Germany. His family moved back to the United States and then he completed high school.

He attended Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and was extremely involved serving as president of the NOVA STEM Club. "Academically the research I did prior to coming to 51Ç鱨վ was electrodynamic wheels(circumferentially oriented Halbach configuration of magnets) in which the induced currents and forces were characterized," said Duran. "During this time, I was also teaching myself about robotics/drones and Scratch, and I built a few quadcopters while being involved with DC area Drone User Group (DCDUG) during its initial startup."

As a transfer student with an Associate Degree in Science, it seemed only natural for Duran to major in mathematics at 51Ç鱨վ, because he thrives off of challenging situations.

"Mathematics was the only thing that I truly struggled with growing up," said Duran. "I like to be challenged as I have a hard time getting motivated for things that come easily." He describes mathematics as being "infinitely applicable" considering it can be used in several different circumstances, especially engineering/design work.

Duran credits three mathematics and statistics faculty members as the most academically challenging to him; Professor John Adam, Associate Professor Raymond Cheng, and Eminent Professor John Tweed. Regarding Duran, professon Adam said: "He was a very interesting and intelligent young man, with lots of ideas, very friendly and helpful to both me and his fellow students." Each of these professors helped to expand Duran's understanding and application of mathematics. "I like that I can explain things mathematically without having to open up books to look up an equation and have an easy time understanding how things work just by reading what is supposed to happen mathematically," said Duran. "I'm a visual thinker and was typically the one explaining abstract applications for topics that we were learning in our classes."

Duran made an effort to enhance his research skills while attending 51Ç鱨վ. "While searching for an advisor, I came across Dr. Gene Hou in the Mechanical Engineering Department, who got me involved with a senior design group that was struggling with the programming of their roboboat" said Duran. "This started my research into autonomous vehicles and computer vision." Now he's building/designing an aerial platform for autonomous development. "I also have built a prototype for a low-cost underwater sonar system, which I would like to continue developing," said Duran.

"Although Ozan majors in Math, he is very good in programming, " said Dr. Gene Hou, professor in Mechanical Engineering Department. "Once he is attracted to something, he will dedicate himself to it."

Duran has been dedicating himself to refitting a 40-foot steel boat. "I plan on taking it on a sailing expedition to western Greenland, Iceland, Jan Mayen, Faroe Islands, Shetland, Norway, Svalbard, then going down the entire western European coastline and ending the trip in Turkey," said Duran. "As this is supposed to take nine months, I'll be working on automating the sailboat and doing autonomous collaborative robotics research with the vessel (synthetic aperture sonar), drone-bounce radio for longer distance communication, and other such research."

"Math helps me gain a ground up understanding of topics in the computer engineering world such as computer vision, circuits/digital and analog Signal Processing," said Duran. He will rely on his mathematics and engineering interests to guide him on this journey.

Duran has been afforded a plethora of opportunities at 51Ç鱨վ and created some of his own. "Since I've been at 51Ç鱨վ, I remodeled the house and garage I'm currently living in and decided to start a machine shop in my garage so that I could own and operate my own low-medium energy plasma physics lab," said Duran. "I taught myself machining by purchasing, repairing, and selling used machinery, and around the same time, I decided to try and start a general-purpose robotics club at 51Ç鱨վ."

Duran admits that 51Ç鱨վ's affordability drew him in as well as its inclusivity. "I'd say 51Ç鱨վ is a good small school and I've had the best of luck reading about research that a professor is doing online, then going in person to talk to them about it, which has almost always led to an invitation to get involved with their work." said Duran. "I'm fairly certain that at larger schools the same opportunities are not as available, as there is a lot of competition for those roles."

When admiring 51Ç鱨վ, one cannot forget to mention its wonderful location. "The immediate surrounding area has lots of activities and being directly on the water means sea/ocean lovers will be satisfied, just be sure to bring your raincoat and rain boots," said Duran.