WhoWe Are

Stochastics and Engineering Research Group (SERG) aims to advance in the fields of stochastic mathematical models and applications in supply chain management and service logistics. Our research was co-founded in 2017 by Dr. Mustafa Hekimoğlu, Industrial Engineer in Kadir Has University and Dr. Deniz Karlı, Mathematics in Işık University. Our research lab is located in Istanbul, Turkey. SERG continuously grows with post-graduate and graduate researchers all the time. We employ undergraduate students, graduate and post-graduate fellows in our projects.

Check for any available positions and job opennings below.

What We Focus On

We mainly focus on stochastic models and their applications in control policies of spare parts inventory, maintenance policies for capital products. Our research demonstrates opportunity for significant improvement of the dynamics of maintenance activities and spare parts management. Determination of optimal control policies for capital products that are either at different stages of their life cycles is a challenging tasks in the field of service logistics. This challenge intensified by the introduction of online trading platforms, a.k.a. secondary markets. Secondary markets are effective in re-distribution of excess inventory and recovered components from retired products.

Predictive maintenance by utilizing data mining techniques and stochastic modeling is another focus area of our research. We aim to develop empirical models and maintenance policies that can be combined with classical corrective and preventive maintenance control systems.

From a methodological perspective, we utilize stochastic modeling and dynamic optimization for developing applicable solutions for problems. In addition, we employ linear and nonlinear mathematical programming, statistical inference and data mining techniques, to develop rigorous solutions and to create applications of our theoretical models in practice.

For current and past projects on these subjects check Projects section.

What Is Our Experience

Our research group was cofounded by two successful academicians who have remarkable international experience. Dr. Mustafa Hekimoğlu has been a member of Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for 5 years. Dr. Deniz Karlı has been a member of University of Connecticut, United States, and a member of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada for 7 years. They published in respected journals many times.

Despite the fact that it has been recently founded, our research group managed to receive significant research grants from Turkey (TUBITAK). Under the roof of these grants, we employed several undergraduate and graduate students and provided them research experience.

In addition to these significant research experience, researchers in our group had been involved with research and consulting projects that aim to develop optimum solutions for spare parts management problems at Fokker Services in the Netherlands for five years. Moreover, we work as the scientific expert and consultant in a spare parts optimization projects at Turkish Technic, which is a Maintenance Repair Organization providing service for Turkish Airlines in Istanbul.

For published and working papers, check our papers section.