Currently, I am doing research on virtual and augmented reality at Facebook Reality Labs (formerly Oculus Research) working at the intersection of vision science and engineering. Before, that I was a vision scientist at Magic Leap. I received my Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from New York University (NYU). My research focused on understanding how humans perceive color, light, and materials. I worked with Michael Landy (NYU) and Wendy Adams (University of Southampton). Find my CV here.

My Ph.D. research focused on understanding how the human visual system estimates gloss. We live in a complex world where light, shapes, colors and materials interact in an infinite number of ways. Yet, our visual system is extremely quick and quite accurate in estimating this world. My goal was to understand how this happens and what cues our visual system uses to make these estimations.

During summer of 2014, I did a Data Science internship at Knewton. They are turning education into a personalized experience using adaptive learning and recommendation models. I wrote a blog post about the project I worked on during my internship, find it here.

When I am not doing research I enjoy cooking, traveling, reading and working on a thousand other projects that I come up with.

You can find me on Google Scholar and LinkedIn.
Also on Github: @gzmk and on Twitter: @gizemkucukoglu

Publications

Anton S. Kaplanyan, Anton Sochenov, Thomas Leimkühler, Mikhail Okunev, Todd Goodall, Gizem Rufo (2019). DeepFovea: Neural reconstruction for foveated rendering and video compression using learned statistics of natural videos. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 38(6):212. [link]

W.J. Adams, Gizem Kucukoglu, M.S. Landy, R.K. Mantiuk (2018). Naturally glossy: Gloss perception, illumination statistics, and tone mapping. Journal of Vision, 18(13):4. doi: 10.1167/18.13.4. [link]

Katja Doerschner, Ozgur Yilmaz, Gizem Kucukoglu, Roland W. Fleming (2013). Effects of surface reflectance and 3D shape on perceived rotation axis. Journal of Vision, 13(11):8. doi: 10.1167/13.11.8. [pdf]

Maarten W. A. Wijntjes, Katja Doerschner, Gizem Kucukoglu, Sylvia C. Pont (2012) Relative flattening between velvet and matte 3D shapes: Evidence for similar shape-from-shading computations. Journal of Vision, 12(1):2. doi: 10.1167/12.1.2. [pdf]

Conference Abstracts

Talks:

Kucukoglu, G., Adams, W., Landy, M. S. (2015). Gloss constancy across changes in illumination. Journal of Vision, 15(12): 941. doi: 10.1167/15.12.941. [link]

Kucukoglu, G., Maloney, L. T. (2014). Estimation of angular velocity of objects differing in material is inconsistent. Journal of Vision, 14(10):1319. doi: 10.1167/14.10.1319. [link]

Kucukoglu, G., Fleming, R., Doerschner, K. (2010). Effects of Shape and Surface Material on Perceived Object Rotation Axis. Journal of Vision, 10(7):58. doi: 10.1167/10.7.58. [link]

Poster presentations:

Adams, W. J., Kucukoglu, G., & Landy, M. S. (2017). Estimation of gloss and shape from vision and touch. Journal of Vision, 17, 359. [link]

Kucukoglu, G., Landy, M. S., Adams, W. J. (2016). Joint estimation of surface gloss and 3D shape. Presented at VSS 2016, St. Pete Beach. [link]

Kucukoglu, G., Maloney, L. T. (2013). Interactions between surface material and perception of angular velocity of rotating 3D objects. Journal of Vision, 13(9):67. doi: 10.1167/13.9.67. [link]

Yilmaz, O., Kucukoglu, G., Fleming, R. W., Doerschner K. (2011). Structure-from-motion predicts misperceived rotation axis for specular surfaces. Perception 40 ECVP Abstract Supplement, p. 64 [link]

Wijntjes, M., Doerschner, K., Kucukoglu, G., Pont, S. (2010) What velvet teaches us about 3D shape perception. Journal of Vision, 10(7):1227. doi: 10.1167/10.7.1227. [link]

Doerschner, K., Wijntjes, M., Kucukoglu, G., Pont, S. C. (2009). Effects of surface material on perceived 3-D shape: comparing velvet and matte reflectances. Perception 38 ECVP Abstract Supplement, p. 29 [link]