About Robi Polikar

I am originally from Istanbul - the imperial city that once served as the capital of three empires, and the only city that spans the continents of Europe and Asia, in Turkey. After being kicked out of 8 preschool / kindergardes, I spent my primary and secondary school years in various places in Turkey, prior to entering The Dept. of Electrical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University in 1989. Upon graduating with a B.Sc. degree in 1993 in electronics and communications engineering with emphasis on biomedical engineering, I joined the graduate program at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa in Fall 1993. I received my co-major Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and biomedical engineeing in 1995, and my Ph.D. degree in the same areas in 2000. I joined the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University as an Assistant Professor in 2001, where I teach and conduct research. My areas of interest include biomedical signal analysis, pattern recognition and signal processing, neural networks, electronic nose applications and nondestructive evaluation. I also teach various undergraduate and graduate classes at Rowan and I immensely enjoy teaching. I have taught / am teaching / planning to teach classes in signal and image processing, pattern recognition, wavelets, biomedical systems and devices, probability and statistics, etc. I have done two internships, one in Geneva, Switzerland in a textile company, and the other at Istanbul Ataturk International Airport for Turkish Airlines. As a commercial airliner enthusiast , this internship was heaven on earth for me. I have also worked as an assistant manager at Kontes Villa, a family owned resort place in Bodrum, Turkey (craziest place on the surface of this planet) for 6 years.

Apart from being an enginerd, I enjoy ballroom dancing and modern dance, going to and participating in live performing arts events, cooking (yep, you read that right...), hiking, swimming, wind surfing, almost all kinds of music, DJing, and travelling, in particular international travelling. I have been fortunate enough to travel around such spectacular places as Switzerland, France, Turkey, Greece, Israel, Canada, UK, Jordan, as well as most states in the U.S. (Yes, I have been to D.C. and I can cartwheel, how can you tell…?)

Since one picture is worth one thousand words, I refer you to my photo gallery for more boring stuff about me…. (no...I do not have naked baby pictures there, but I do have pretty cool diving pictures...see side panel). Have a good day!

Well...hello there...For some strange reason you have decided to visit this page...May be you are a prospective student of mine, and would like to make sure that you know every little bit of detail about me before signing up for my class….May be your last name matches mine (you may decide to change your name after you read this...you are warned….). In any case, here is me in a nutshell….

I was born on April 22, 1972. I selfishly like to think that it was a good day and year, since Earth Day is being celebrated on this very day (though since 1970).