Hello, I’m Irmak Sirer

Bohemian, Private eye, Hacker,
Designer, Teacher, Data Scientist

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As a data scientist, I design and develop intelligent products & systems that improve people’s lives—especially by expanding our creativity and inspiring us to solve problems in new ways.

What you won't learn from my bio:
I'm a chess has-been. I was ranked pretty highly in the middle-school chess circuit in Turkey, until I got distracted with being a young rebel in high school.

I was created on August 4, 1981 in an underground lab in Istanbul, Turkey as the unexpected result of an experiment.

The experiment was an attempt to build objects through…
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I’m a designer, teacher, and data scientist. I strive to combine the perspective and tools of data science with human-centered design thinking. I also enjoy explaining complex technical ideas in clear and entertaining ways to general audiences. I’m currently on a sabbatical, focusing on creative endeavors and open source projects.

Until recently, I was a director at IDEO. I co-led the North America Realization Cohort and the global data science design discipline. I guided multidisciplinary teams creating smart products and services.

Before it joined forces with IDEO in 2017, I was a partner at Datascope, a human-centered data science consulting company, where I’ve helped companies across industries solve problems with data and headed corporate training initiatives.

When Kaplan partnered with Datascope for creating a 12 week full-time in-person data science bootcamp, I designed the Metis bootcamp and its curriculum with Laurie Skelly, then taught the first two cohorts as we hired and prepared new leaders and instructors.

I also conducted and published academic research on a wide range of topics, including student choices in public schools, web browsing behaviors of masses, global airline networks, species conservation in ecology, novel language topic model algorithms, and optimizing DNA sequences for high gene expression.

I have two Master’s degrees and a Ph.D. (Sabancı and Northwestern Universities; Materials Sci, Chem & Biol Eng), along with Chemistry and Art History minors. My research focused on developing new algorithms and analyzing complex systems with computational models. I speak English, Turkish, and German fluently; as well as French and ASL quite terribly. I believe in merging expertise from different disciplines to figure out the right questions to ask. Perhaps even more than that, I believe in movies, lucid dreams, and Neutral Milk Hotel.