Baris I. Erkmen

Baris I. Erkmen has a comprehensive work experience in the field of technology and communications. Baris I. served as the Chief Technology Officer at Aalyria from 2023. Prior to that, they were the Chief Executive Officer at Hedron from 2022 to 2023. Erkmen also held the role of Wireless Optical Communications Lead (CTO) of Project Taara at X, the moonshot factory, where they contributed to bridging the digital divide by enabling affordable and abundant broadband access through wireless optical communications technology. Baris I. was also a Research and Development Manager at Facebook Connectivity Lab and a Senior Staff Hardware Engineer at Loon. Erkmen started their career as a Member of Technical Staff at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they conducted research and technology development in optical communications and sensing. Baris I. also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at MIT, focusing on quantum states of light, imaging architectures, and optical communications.

Baris I. Erkmen completed their high school education at TED Ankara Koleji from 1992 to 1996. Baris I. then pursued their undergraduate and graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1997 to 2008. During their time at MIT, they obtained a B.S. degree in 2002, followed by an M.Eng. degree in 2003, and finally a Ph.D. in 2008. In 2020, they obtained a TLC Leaders Program Certificate of Completion from The Leadership Consortium (TLC).