About me
Serhan Ulkumen
AR / VR Developer
Serhan is an interactive media developer with over 8 years of experience working on AR/VR products for companies including Qualcomm, Northrop Grumman, Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation. He holds degrees in Neuroscience and Digital Entrepreneurship from USC and is a published author in the field medical technology. Serhan has worked on projects ranging from Emmy award nominated VR documentaries, large scale interactive theme park attractions, and augmented reality public art installations.
Résumé
Lead Software Engineer
- Lead Engineer in the Real-Time Software team
Real-Time Software Team designs and develops creative solutions for live events and the MSG Sphere's large-scale immersive and interaction platforms..
- Unreal (Blueprints, C++)
- Unity3D (C#)
Game Engine Developer
- Member of the Advanced Creative Technology and Themed Entertainment groups within the larger DWA organization.
- Worked as a programmer on the system design and development of codebases for game engine based projects. (Unreal 4 & Unity)
- Developed experiences utilizing motion capture and face tracking animation techniques for real-time digital character performances.
Real time digital character performances, virtual production, theme park attractions, XR narratives.
- Unreal (Blueprints, C++)
- Unity3D (C#)
- Real-time Face and Body Motion Capture
- Feature Film to WebAR Asset Pipeline
Game Developer
- Led development of a networked AR virtual production tool which facilitates the pre-vis process between key crew members.
- Developer on the VR short film “Awavena” which blends CG and live-action filmmaking, awarded “Best Interactive Documentary” at the 2018 Filmgate Interactive Media Festival and featured at the Sundance and Venice Film Festivals.
- Built a multiuser, cross-platform app for AR visuals in live performance venues with sequenced and real-time MIDI and OSC inputs.
Designing xR experiences for mobile devices and headsets
- Unity3D, Unreal (C#, C++)
- Multiplayer and Peer to Peer Networking
- Cross-platform app development
- ARKit (iOS)
- ARCore (Android)
- Oculus, HTC Vive, and HoloLens platforms.
- Prototyping of experimental software
Research Fellow
- Awarded Fellowship to USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences
- Health Tech
- React Native / Mobile App Development
- Statistical Models and Data Visualization
Infusion is a scheduling and side effect tracking app for patients who are going through chemotherapy.
"Scheduling chemotherapy around life instead of life around chemotherapy." The app allows patients to track and monitor side effects, predict future moods/symptoms, and optimize their chemotherapy regimen around special events and key dates."
Student
- Computational Neuroscience
- Innovation: The Digital Entrepeneur
- 3D Computer Graphics & Modeling
B.S. in Computational Neuroscience.
Minor, Innovation: The Digital Entrepreneur.
Specialization, 3D Computer Graphics and Modeling.
Augmented Reality Developer
- Augmented Reality
- Unity3D
- Graphic Design
Developed AR applications and Digital Media Installations for industry leading clients and organizations, including the IEEE, Qualcomm, and SxSW Interactive. Project pipelines include Unity3D Game Engine, Autodesk Maya Modeling tools, and Vuforia Image processing plugin.
Game Development Intern, Unity3D and JavaScript
- Game Development
- Virtual Reality
- Web Development
Developed educational games for clients. Such as a web based cultural training game for DoD training built entirely in JavaScript. Other projects focused on Samsung GearVR written in C# on Unity3D with additional experience with media tools for UI design, sound editing, and 3D modeling.
http://backcode.comFounding Member / VP of Development
- VR/AR Projects
- Community Outreach
- Developer Workshops
Founding member and first VP of development for the Virtual Reality Southern California (VRSC) organization at the University.
http://www.uscvr.com/Hackathon Winner 2015 (Awarded $10,000)
- Medical Technology
- AR / VR Developer
- C# , Unity3D
Winners of the first USC Center for Body Computing VR Hackathon were Brian Cohn, Dilan Shah and Serhan Ulkumen who created "20/20 Hindsight," a virtual reality experience aiming to show users the effects of retinal myopic degeneration. The target patient group for their product is individuals who have been diagnosed with diabetes, as they are at an increased risk of developing eye diseases that can cause vision impairment and blindness (e.g., retinopathy, cataracts and glaucoma) if they don't have regular eye exams, maintain a steady blood-sugar level, take prescribed medications, follow a healthy diet, exercise regularly and avoid smoking.
http://hyndsighthealth.com/http://www.prnewswire.com/
Skills
Developer
Art & Design
Languages
Testimonials
Press
BBC - In the Studio with Lynette Wallworth
"Australian artist and director Lynette Wallworth loves to push the limits of technology and works with mixed reality developers, inventing new ways of experiencing art. Laura Hubber joins Lynette as she works with the team at the Technicolour Experience Center in Los Angeles, where she’s visiting artist in residence, to create a new immersive interactive walk around section to her film Awavena."
Via BBC Radio
arXiv.org - Quantifying and attenuating pathologic tremor in virtual reality
"A virtual reality (VR) experience that creates a research-grade benchmark in assessing patients with active upper-limb tremor, while simultaneously offering the opportunity for patients to engage with VR experiences without their pathologic tremor. We used a commercially available VR system and designed a challenging virtual-balloon-popping test mimicking a common nose-to-target pointing task used by medical practitioners to subjectively evaluate tremor in the exam room."
Via arXiv.org
USC News - Hack for Health
"The team set about designing an app that allows patients to input their treatment appointments as well as the dates of important social events. Patients also note any side effects or adverse events they experience between treatments. The eponymous app then can display patterns showing when various symptoms begin, peak and subside after infusions."
Via USC News
USC Center for Body Computing - Hackathon Winners
"Winners of the first USC Center for Body Computing VR Hackathon were Brian Cohn, Dilan Shah and Serhan Ulkumen who created "20/20 Hindsight," a virtual reality experience aiming to show users the effects of retinal myopic degeneration."
Via PR Newswire
Los Angeles Times - Epson Hackathon
"Serhan Ulkumen's vision stole the show. With the help of Costa Mesa developer Sal Raimi and three friends, Ulkumen -- wearing running shoes, athletic shorts, wristbands and a headband -- showed off the basics of the running app."
Via LA TIMES
USA Today
"It’s definitely a unique experience because we are all from different backgrounds and talents, however we’ve all come together to try and figure out what the future of storytelling will look like,” says Serhan Ulkumen.
Via USA Today
Augmented World Expo
"City Vision Challenge Winner with City Muse Augmented Reality Application in the 2014 Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, CA"
Via AWE 2014