RESEARCH INTERESTS
Applied Ontologies, Data Science, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Applied Category Theory, Ancient Philosophy
EDUCATION
Ph.D. | Philosophy | 2015 – 2022 | Middle East Technical University
Dissertation: A Computational Ontological Model for Machine-Understandable Data in Artificial Intelligence
M.A. | Philosophy | 2012– 2015 | Middle East Technical University
Thesis: A Philosophical Approach to Upper-Level Ontologies
M.S. | Secondary Science & Mathematics Education | 2006 – 2008 | Middle East Technical University
Thesis Project: High School Students’ Beliefs About Mathematics
B.S. | Mathematics | 2000 – 2005 | Middle East Technical University
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Ontologist & Consultant | Functor, Ankara | Feb. 2022 – Present
Data Scientist | ENDEKSA, Ankara | Jun. 2018 – Jan. 2022 | Part-Time
Research Associate | Laboratory for Computational Ontology, METU, Ankara | Aug. 2014 – Aug. 2018
Professional Coach and NLP Practitioner | Freelance | 2015 – 2018 | Part-Time
Student Tutor and Mentor | Freelance | 2004 – 2017
Research Assistant | Registrar’s Office, Middle East Technical University, Ankara | Sep. 2005 – Sep. 2009
Student Assistant | International Students Office, Registrar’s Office, Middle East Technical University |
Oct. 2002 – Jun. 2005 | Part-Time
PUBLICATIONS
Papers in Refereed Journals
Yargan, D., 2021, Ayhan and Eren in Pursuit of Virtue: Child and Ethics in Light of Aristotelian Virtue Ethics (in Turkish), Arkhe-Logos, 11 (2), pp. 115—124. [url]
Yargan, D., 2020, An Introduction to Description Logics (in Turkish), Beytulhikme, 10 (4), pp. 1303—1324. [url]
Yargan, D., 2020, Is Science Without Explanations Possible?, Arkhe-Logos, 9 (2), pp. 109—122. [url]
(Reappeared in Contemporary Issues in Philosophy: From Science to Gender, 2021, pp. 9—24.)Yargan, D., 2020, Philosophical Aspects of Building Upper-Level Ontologies (in Turkish), Kilikya Journal of Philosophy, (1), pp. 32—50. [url]
Yargan, D., 2019, Formal Ontologies and Description Logics (in Turkish), Archives of Philosophy, pp. 271—281. [url]
Book Chapters
Yargan, D., 2022, An Ontological Review of National Health Data Dictionary (in Turkish), in Tıp Bilişimi III, İstanbul University Press, in press.
Yargan, D. and Zambak, A. F., 2022, Medical Ontologies, in Tıp Bilişimi II, İstanbul University Press, in press
(A simplified and revised version of Yargan and Zambak (2020)).Yargan, D. and Zambak, A. F., 2020, Medical Ontologies (in Turkish), in Tıp Bilişimi, İstanbul University Press, E-ISBN: 978-605-07-0773-1, pp. 25—60. [url]
Papers in Refereed Conferences and Workshops
Alleged Discovery in Big Data (in Turkish), In Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Logic, May 9-11, 2018, Zonguldak, ISBN: 978-605-66311-4-6, pp.505—512.
‘Logical’ Concerns in Data Science, In Proceedings of Istanbul International Congress on Philosophy, May 2-4, 2018, İstanbul, ISBN: 978-605-80953-0-4, pp.199—206.
On Dynamic and Flexible Formal Ontologies (in Turkish), In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Logic, June 29-30, 2017, Samsun, ISBN: 978-605-66311-2-2, pp. 697—703.
A Taxonomy of Questions with Respect to the Universal-Particular Dichotomy, In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS), 2016. [url]
The Formal Bases of Temporal Logic and The Theory of Process (in Turkish), In Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Logic, May 26-27, 2016, Artvin, ISBN: 978-605-66311-1-5, pp.353—361.
Abstracts in Refereed Conferences and Workshops
A Philosophical Introduction to Upper-Level Ontologies, In Abstract Book of the 2nd International Symposium on Philosophy, Education, Art and History of Science, May 3-7, 2017, Muğla, p. 514.
What Would It Like to Be Visiting an Art Gallery with Wittgenstein?, In Abstract Book of the 2nd International Symposium on Philosophy, Education, Art and History of Science, May 3-7, 2017, Muğla, p. 515.
TALKS & SEMINARS
April 13, 2022, Invited Speaker on Information Systems and Ontologies at the Department of Informatics, İstanbul University.
March 10, 2022, Invited Seminar on Women's Right to Speech and Political Participation (in Turkish), at the School of Philosophy for Women, March 8-10, 2022, organized by Philosophical Society of Aristotle and Muğla Municipality.
September 1, 2021, Keynote speaker on Devil’s Advocate: Unrealizable Promises (in Turkish) in the AI in Social Sciences session at Artificial Intelligence Summer School, September 1-3, 2021, organized by İstanbul, IU-Cerrahpaşa, Kocaeli, Sakarya, and Yalova Universities.
January 16, 2021, Invited speaker on Knowledge Standardization in the ESBS: Why do we need a reference ontology? at the Method, Research, Theory Programs Project, Boğaziçi University.
September 30, 2020, Invited Presentation on Linguae Francae in Medicine: Medical Ontologies, at From the First Computers to Medical Informatics: 60 Years of Adventure, in the Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Applications in Medicine, e-workshop.
November 14-16, 2019, Speaker on Is Science Without Explanations Possible? in the 2nd International Congress of Women Philosophers, Muğla.
October 31, 2019, Invited Seminar on Can Robots Imagine? (in Turkish) at Şehit Ömer Takdemir Anatolian Religious High School, Ankara.
April 18-19, 2019, Speaker on Big Data Flattening the DIKW Pyramid in the 9th Workshop on Logic, Mardin.
April 13, 2018, Invited Seminar on Logic in Ontology and Data Science (in Turkish) at the Department of Philosophy, Istanbul University.
TUTORIALS
May 25, May 30, and June 1, 2021, Tutorial on Towards Building ESBS Ontologies with Protégé 5.5 at the Method, Research, Theory Programs Project, TÜBİTAK Project no: 118C257, Boğaziçi University. [url]
April 26, 2021, Tutorial on Description Logics (in Turkish) at the Department of Philosophy, Istanbul University.
October 26-27, 2019, Tutorial with Aziz F. Zambak on Artificial Intelligence and Formal Ontology (in Turkish) at the Computer Science Application and Research Center, Department of Informatics, İstanbul University. [url]
August 8, 2019, Tutorial on Description Logics (in Turkish) in the Logic Summer School at Feza Gürsey Center for Physics and Mathematics, Turkish Logic Society.
OTHER ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Translation of Consciousness cannot be Separated from Function written by M.A. Cohen & D. C. Dennett into Turkish in Bilinç: Çağdaş Bir Antoloji, in press.
Terminology Editor and Controller in Smart Cities Project, December 2020-February 2021, Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change.
Participation in JOWO 2017- The 3rd Joint Ontology Workshops, September 21-23, 2017, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and The International Association for Ontology and Its Applications, Bolzano.
Participation in 4th Mind Symposium, March 25-26, 2017, Düşünbil Akademi, Ankara.
Participation in Mathematical Foundations of Machine Learning, October 20-23, 2016,Nesin Mathematics Village, İzmir.
Participation in 5th Universal Logic School, June 20-24, 2015, UniLog 2015: 5th World Congress and School on Universal Logic, İstanbul.
Teaching Internship at Ballard Community District School, January-March 2008, Huxley, Iowa.
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
METU Course Performance Award | 2012-2013 Academic Year |Graduate School Social Sciences
Erasmus Student Exchange Programme | September 2013-March 2014 |Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Germany
DAAD- University Summer School Scholarship | August 5-30, 2013 |Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaaet Heidelberg, Germany
Erasmus Staff Mobility Programme | June 22–26, 2009 | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Fulbright Teacher Internship Scholarship | January-March, 2008 | Iowa State University, USA
METU Course Performance Award | 2006-2007 Academic Year |Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences
CERTIFICATES -selected-
NLP Practitioner | 2017 | NLP Academy Turkey
NLP Practitioner | 2016 | Erickson Coaching International
Professional Coach| 2015 | Erickson Coaching International
Italian Language Diploma | 2003 | TÖMER, Ankara University
MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Turkish Logic Society | Member of Board
Philosophical Society of Aristotle | Member of Board
Arkhe-Logos – International Journal of Philosophy | Member of Editorial Advisory Board
International Association for Ontology and its Applications
LANGUAGES & SKILLS
Turkish (native) | English (C1) | German (B2) | Italian (B2) | Latin (Reading Knowledge) | Spanish (A2) |
Ancient Greek (Elementary) | Turkish Sign Language (Elementary)
R | Protégé | SQL&SPARQL | Latex | Python (limited experience) | Agda (limited experience)