About
Kurtulus Izzetoglu is a faculty member of School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems and an affiliated member of the School of Education at Drexel University. He received his BS and MSc degrees from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at METU, Ankara, Turkey. Prior to his PhD studies, he was employed by a medical imaging company in the Netherlands, where he was involved in the development of professional, FDA approved medical imaging software packages, implementation of quantitative analysis, and imaging techniques.
Dr. Izzetoglu’s research and teaching interests are in biomedical optics, functional brain imaging, human performance, learning, simulation-based training, human-autonomy teaming, medical sensor development, and biomedical signal processing. He has a background in both electrical and biomedical engineering, coupled with experience of developing a highly portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system for use in field applications and translational neuroimaging.
Over the last decade, Dr. Izzetoglu has focused on the development of performance and training assessment biosensors and metrics, joint human-system performance enhancement, anesthesia, and traumatic brain injury care monitoring in field settings. He has served as the principal or co-investigator on research projects funded by US federal agencies, including DoD, FAA, NIH, as well as industry partners. Some examples of his current research include: 1) sensor and algorithm development for depth of anesthesia and sedation monitoring; 2) cognitive workload assessment of air traffic controllers, pilots, and unmanned aircraft pilots and operators; 3) role of neurotechnology to improve simulation-based training and human-autonomy teaming; 4) effects of immersive VR manipulative interventions on spatial visualization and transfer of learning; 5) optical sensor and algorithm development for cerebral and somatic measures in hemorrhage assessment, in detecting hypoxia and edema development and for cerebral oximetry monitoring; and 6) evaluation of cerebral vascular reactivity in traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Izzetoglu has been the institutional principal investigator and the lead for Drexel University’s collaboration with the FAA Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance (TTHP), and with the FAA Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) – Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE). Both centers are 5(+5)-year funded programs and have been awarded by competitive process and led by a consortium of the public sector, academic institutions, and industry partners. Dr. Izzetoglu serves on various boards and program committees, including the International Conference on Augmented Cognition / International Conference on Human – Computer Interaction; program committee member of the International Conference for Research in Air Transportation; and program committee member of the International Symposium on Aviation Psychology. He also organized and chaired the annual meeting of the center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance in 2018.