Can Bakiskan

Staff Software Engineer/Researcher

Can Bakiskan

Staff Software Engineer/Researcher

c

bakiskan.com

Work Experience

Staff Software Engineer/Researcher
Santa Clara, CA
Intel Corporation
Jul 2025 - Present
Senior Software Engineer/Researcher
Santa Clara, CA
Intel Corporation
Oct 2022 - Jul 2025
Graduate Student Researcher - Teaching Assistant (TA)
Santa Barbara, CA
University of California, Santa Barbara
Sept 2017 - Aug 2022
Machine Learning Software Engineer Intern
Santa Barbara, CA
Intel Corporation
July 2021 - Sept 2021
Visiting Research Student, Software Tools
Durham, NC
Duke University Nicolelis Lab
June 2016 - Sept 2016
Embedded Software Developer Intern
Istanbul, Turkey
Epsilon Elektronik
Sept 2015 - June 2016

Education

Ph.D./M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sept 2017 - Sept 2022
University of California, Santa Barbara
GPA: 4.00/4.00
B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mathematics
Sept 2012 - June 2017
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
GPA: 3.87/4.00
Study Abroad Program
Sept 2014 - June 2015
University of California, Santa Barbara
GPA: 3.84/4.00
International Summer Honors Program
June 2013 - Aug 2013
Stanford University
GPA: 4.15/4.30

Programming Experience

Expert:
Python, PyTorch, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React
Intermediate:
C, C++, Cython, Linux/Bash
Worked with:
CUDA, Java, MATLAB, Mathematica, PHP, Go
Expert: Python, PyTorch, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React
Intermediate: C++, Cython, Linux/Bash
Worked with: CUDA, Java, MATLAB, Mathematica, PHP, Go

Awards and Honors

Intel CMT Department Recognition Award – for sample plan creation work
Jan 2025
Intel CMT Department Recognition Award – for developer experience and code quality improvements
Apr 2024
Intel CMT Department Recognition Award – for pattern clustering work
Nov 2023
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
Dec 2020
Fulbright Scholarship Selected Candidate
Mar 2017
Top Ranking Double Major Student in Electrical Engineering
June 2017
Best Research Oriented Senior Design Project Award
June 2016
Dean's High Honor List
2013 - 2017

Publications

Can Bakiskan, Metehan Cekic, Upamanyu Madhow, "Early Layers Are More Important For Adversarial Robustness," in International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) Workshop - New Frontiers in Adversarial Machine Learning, 2022

Metehan Cekic, Can Bakiskan, Upamanyu Madhow, "Layerwise Hebbian/anti-Hebbian (HaH) Learning In Deep Networks: A Neuro-inspired Approach To Robustness," in International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) Workshop - New Frontiers in Adversarial Machine Learning, 2022

Can Bakiskan*, Metehan Cekic*, Upamanyu Madhow, "Neuro-Inspired Deep Neural Networks with Sparse, Strong Activations," in IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2022

Metehan Cekic, Can Bakiskan, Upamanyu Madhow, "Towards Robust, Interpretable Neural Networks via Hebbian/anti-Hebbian Learning: A Software Framework for Training with Feature-Based Costs," in Software Impacts Journal, 2022

Can Bakiskan, Metehan Cekic, Ahmet Dundar Sezer, Upamanyu Madhow, "Sparse Coding Frontend for Robust Neural Networks," in International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) Workshop on Security and Safety in Machine Learning Systems, 2021

Can Bakiskan, Metehan Cekic, Ahmet Dundar Sezer, Upamanyu Madhow, "A Neuro-Inspired Autoencoding Defense Against Adversarial Attacks," in IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2021

Can Bakiskan, Soorya Gopalakrishnan, Metehan Cekic, Upamanyu Madhow, Ramtin Pedarsani, "Polarizing Front Ends for Robust CNNs," in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2020

*: Equal contribution

Teaching Experience

Data Science Capstone

Communication Systems Design

Digital Communication Fundamentals

Machine Learning from Signal Processing Perspective

Signal Analysis

Introduction to Fields and Waves