Sule Yildirim Yayilgan

Professor Sule Yildirim Yayilgan is a distinguished academic at the Department of Information Security and Communication Technology (IIK) within the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Gjøvik. She has held the position of Professor since 2020, following her tenure as Associate Professor from 2016-2020. Dr. Yayilgan previously served as Head of Department between 2005-2009 at HIHM (now part of NTNU). Her academic journey spans over 30 years in teaching and research, with significant contributions to interdisciplinary fields bridging AI, cybersecurity, and privacy.

Her educational background includes a MSc in Computer Engineering (1995) and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (2002). Dr. Yayilgan has led and participated in numerous international research projects funded by EU Horizon 2020, Eurostars, Erasmus+, and various Norwegian research councils. She currently leads the MR PET (Multidisciplinary Research group on Privacy and data protEcTion) research group and serves on the scientific board of NTNU's strategic area in Data Science.

Dr. Yayilgan's research spans multiple domains with a unifying focus on ethical, legal, and privacy-preserving AI systems. Her work addresses critical challenges in health, energy, education, and security sectors through advanced AI methodologies. She has published over 100 journal and conference papers, with recent work focusing on hate speech detection, border security technology acceptance, smart grid security, and explainable AI applications. Her publications demonstrate a strong emphasis on practical implementations that balance technical innovation with societal considerations.

As an active research leader, she currently oversees several significant projects including VIPA-DELF (vineyard disease detection using federated learning), METICOS (border control technology monitoring), CINELDI (intelligent electricity distribution), and AQMA (air quality monitoring). She also serves on multiple ethics boards and research integrity committees, reflecting her commitment to responsible innovation.

Dr. Yayilgan has supervised numerous graduate students throughout her career, advising 41+2 (in progress) MSc students and 3+2 (periods) +6 (in progress) PhD candidates. Her administrative contributions include membership in NTNU's Research Integrity Committee, the Trondheim ACM Women Chapter, and various project management boards for EU-funded initiatives. She maintains active professional affiliations with IEEE, the International Association for Pattern Recognition, and COST Actions focused on language technologies and security research.