Afra Feyza Akyürek

Afra Feyza Akyürek

PhD Student in Computer Science

Boston University

Hi there, this is Feyza!

I am a fifth-year Computer Science PhD student at Boston University focusing natural language processing. Before that I received my masters in Statistics from Carnegie Mellon University. I earned my bachelors both in Industrial and Computer Engineering from Koç University, Istanbul. My current research interests are on leveraging natural language for continual learning, collaborative language models, learning from natural language feedback and model editing with language supervision. In the past, I worked on a diverse set of problems including resource-constrained continual learning, low-resource machine translation and ethics in NLP.

Interests

  • Natural Language Processing
  • Learning from Human and Machine Feedback
  • Collaborative Language Models

Education

  • PhD in Computer Science, 2024

    Boston University

  • MSc in Statistics, 2019

    Carnegie Mellon University

  • BSc in Computer Engineering, 2018

    Koç University

  • BSc in Industrial Engineering, 2018

    Koç University

Publications

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Research Intern

Allen Institute for AI

Sep 2022 – Dec 2022 Seattle, Washington
Learning to generate natural language feedback automatically with reinforcement learning for repairing model outputs.
 
 
 
 
 

Machine Learning Research Intern

Apple

Jun 2021 – Aug 2021 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Measuring and tackling gender bias in large-scale pretained language models.
 
 
 
 
 

Biostatistics Intern

Novartis Pharmaceuticals

May 2019 – Jul 2019 East Hanover, New Jersey
Responsibilities included high-dimensional statistical analysis of clinical trial data for CAR-T therapy, a highly promising personalized immunotherapy for cancer. I created an explainable predictive modelfor treatment efficacy, revealed outstanding findings and communicated them to clinical experts.
 
 
 
 
 

Operations Research Intern

PlusOneMinusOne (Arute Solutions)

Jun 2017 – Aug 2017 Istanbul, Turkey
Implementation of meta-heuristic algorithms such as genetic algorithm and simulated annealing to address cash management across ATM networks.
 
 
 
 
 

Logistics Analytics Intern

LC Waikiki

Jun 2016 – Dec 2016 Istanbul, Turkey
Responsibilities included determining optimal load factors for trucks using CPLEX Optimizer and dispersion analysis of goods across the logistics center.

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