Dr Gokcen Yilmaz

About me:

Dr Gokcen Yilmaz is a Lecturer in Design and Innovation at the Initiative in the Digital Economy (INDEX), the University of Exeter. Her research largely focuses on information systems, software engineering, and digital transformation with ongoing focus on Industry 4.0 technology adoption and operations management. Gokcen works on several collaborative projects, both nationally and internationally, with various sectors such as manufacturing, construction, transport, healthcare and agriculture. She has significant experience in the design and development of digital technologies/solutions and digital transformation assessment models.

Gokcen is a Co-Investigator on a £3.7m EPSRC-funded Next Stage Digital Economy Research Centre DIGITLab that collaborates with 30+ large-scale industry partners to identify successful patterns of scaled digital technology adoptions for large-scale companies. She also has ongoing projects that focus on digital transformation of the construction industry and assessing the BIM capabilities of infrastructure authorities.

Gokcen previously worked as a Research Associate in Low-Cost Automation Systems at the Institute for Manufacturing, the University of Cambridge and Assistant Professor in the Computer Engineering Department at Pamukkale University, Türkiye. She received her PhD in Information Systems from Middle East Technical University (METU) and was awarded the “Best Thesis in the Information Systems” by the Parlar Education and Research Foundation, one of the prestigious scientific bodies in Türkiye. She has significant experience in supervising research projects and mentoring students across undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD levels.

• Information systems
• Software engineering
• Digital transformation
• Digital innovation
• Systems engineering
• Technology adoption
• Operations management
• Industry 4.0

Dr Gokcen Yilmaz’s research focuses on developing reliable and scalable information systems and their integration to enable seamless data/information exchange using software engineering best practices; and creating innovative digital transformation approaches for process optimisation. She performs application-oriented research and works in collaboration with industrial partners from various sectors such as manufacturing, construction, transport, healthcare and agriculture.

Gokcen led the Digital Construction on a Shoestring research project at the University of Cambridge where she interacted with 70+ on-site and off-site small and medium-sized construction companies to identify their digitalisation priorities, develop and deploy low-cost digital solutions for job tracking, quality management and issue tracking, and inventory tracking. She also has experience in developing cyber-physical systems that enables closed-loop decision-making in different sectors, with a recent international collaboration focussing on operation and maintenance of the built environment. Gokcen has significant experience in assessing the digital transformation, technology capability and maturity, and sustainability of processes and organisations in multiple sectors. She has worked with construction companies, infrastructure authorities, municipalities and local authorities in different countries to assess their digital capability/maturity and develop roadmaps for digital transformations and data-driven decision making.

Organisations or prospective PhD students interested in any of the above research areas are encouraged to send an email to g.yilmaz@exeter.ac.uk.