BASAK CAKMAK  

I work at the intersection of architecture, game technologies, and medical engineering. After completing my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Architecture at Middle East Technical University (METU), I moved on to doctoral studies in the Informatics Department at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where I am now at the dissertation stage. Since 2023 I have been a full-time lecturer in the Digital Game Design Department at Istanbul Bilgi University, teaching programming, level design, and XR game development with Unity and Unreal Engine and giving students hands-on experience with the latest game technologies. My doctoral research focuses on algorithms for generating forms that respond to environmental context and bodily movement in XR. Earlier work on integrating AI models trained with LiDAR data into game engines was published as a book chapter by Springer Nature, and a related article appeared in Cambridge’s Q2-indexed journal AIEDAM. I am also co-founder and CTO of ORBYCRA, a TÜBİTAK-funded medical technology startup based in ITU ARI Teknokent, where we adapt the real-time interaction and digital-fabrication capabilities of game engines to neurosurgery. Before entering academia, I gained professional architectural experience and spent two years as a game designer-developer on Unity and Unreal Engine projects. For the past two years I have served as an Unreal Engine Authorized Instructor in official collaboration with Epic Games. My work blends AI-driven design cognition with the real-time visualization power of game engines, and I welcome interdisciplinary projects in XR experiences, procedural content generation, and medical simulation.