View thew original article with all of the recipients here.
On April 19, NC State Global hosted its annual Global Engagement Exposition to celebrate finalists and recipients of the Outstanding Global Engagement Award, Jackson Rigney Service Award and Distinguished Global Alumni Award.
The Outstanding Global Engagement Award encourages and recognizes exceptional accomplishment in globally engaged teaching, research, extension, and/or engagement and economic development. Finalists have a well-established and ongoing record of international activities while working at NC State, going above and beyond regular job responsibilities. In 2023, 9 nominations were received and 3 award recipients were selected, 1 for early-career and 2 for senior faculty.
Dr. Alper Bozkurt was selected as the senior faculty recipient of the Outstanding Global Engagement Award. Bozkurt is a distinguished member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty with a long list of accomplishments and awards, and has a unique line of research. His research addresses globally important societal problems, such as using radio and microprocessor-equipped animals trained using artificial intelligence for surveillance after natural disasters. The global visibility of his exciting and promising research vision has resulted in numerous international scholarly engagements. Additionally, he established a collaborative research program with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) in Belgium resulting in multiple joint publications together. His strongest global engagement has been through media interactions. He appeared on several documentary shows, news channels and printed magazines broadcasted and published all around the globe.
Prior to joining to NC State in 2010, Dr. Bozkurt performed research at Cornell University, where he received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering. This research interfaced microtechnologies with metamorphic development of insects for building remotely controlled biobotic organisms (insect cyborgs). His previous research at Drexel University, where he received his Master’s in biomedical engineering in 2004, included the development of functional near-infrared spectroscopy systems for brain-machine interfaces to augment cognition and for clinical monitoring of the newborn brain in neonatal intensive care units.
In conclusion, Dr. Bozkurt has demonstrated outstanding international scholarship and research collaborations with many communities abroad and locally.