Today, we are with Alihan Kerestecioğlu, one of our data scientists. While pursuing his data science master's at ETH, his path intersected with Buluttan and meteorology. Our engineer shared his views on the future of weather intelligence and forecasting. We invite you to watch the entire video to hear his thoughts on the impact of Buluttan, how it stands out in the industry, its potential, and his advice for newcomers.
Gökmen: Today, we are with Alihan on Buluttan Small Talks. Who is Alihan? What does he do? How did his path cross with meteorology? What are his interests outside of meteorology? We’ll get to know Alihan a bit. Welcome!
Alihan: Thank you!
Gökmen: How are you?
Alihan: I'm fine, thanks. How about you?
Gökmen: I'm fine too. Thank you very much. Since it’s relatively recent, I remember it quite well, but shall we start from here? Where did Alihan's path cross with meteorology, how did it intersect?
Alihan: Of course. Artificial intelligence has been in my mind since I first started making career plans. I took steps in that direction. Whether it's in my education or later in my business life. One of the aspects of artificial intelligence that intrigued me was its ability to be applied across many different domains and its versatility. In meteorology, I see this as one of the most difficult problems that artificial intelligence can solve right now. I consider it one of the most difficult domains.
Gökmen: Chaoticity.
Alihan: Chaotic. And the current work is always taking the old traditional physical models as a base and building on it. Therefore, it is an area that is innovative enough, it has not achieved such successful results, and this is actually an opportunity.
Gökmen: It's an area where it can do a lot.
Alihan: It's an area that can be very potential, it's an area with a lot of potential. It just takes time and investment.
Gökmen: What’s needed there? I suppose the amount of data collected both horizontally and vertically needs to increase. Also, processing power needs to increase.
Alihan: Processing power is the most important part. I think the most important thing is that the big companies need to see a value here and invest in them.
Gökmen: And that’s happening too. NVIDIA's market value has increased by 3,800 times over the last 10 years.
Alihan: Yes, we are aware. In other words, it is not investment advice.
Gökmen: So, how did you meet Buluttan?
Alihan: Actually, a friend of mine told me about Buluttan. They said it well, and they said it very well. They talked about the team here, and they talked about the company, very enthusiastically. You know, I am still doing my master's degree in Zürich. When they told me about Buluttan with a lot of enthusiasm, I was at a point where I wanted to return to business life. And, to be honest, they convinced me a bit right from the start. I was motivated. Then I met Güven at first and then with you and the team.
Gökmen: Have the promises been kept?
Alihan: The promises were kept, and it worked out quite well.
Gökmen: It wasn’t like pre-election promises.
Alihan: Yes, yes, it was not like that.
Gökmen: How do you see it? You are seriously dealing with a certain amount of data. Both the exciting aspects for you and a bit of its development—how do you view weather intelligence?
Alihan: So, first of all, let me talk about the main factor that motivates me every day right now. The project I’m working on right now is focused on wind energy forecasting. Of course, this can change; the application area of weather intelligence is very broad. And the business here is actually very simple. In other words, from the point of view of an engineer, whatever metric we evaluate our models within, whether it is these customers or the company, they evaluate us in the same way. That's why it strips this product of complexities that I don't actually like. There is nothing confusing. Mean absolute error. That's what the customer is looking at. Everyone speaks the same language. From engineer to business development. And this unites people around the goal. And actually, the results of everything I do become apparent quite easily.
Gökmen: Here, we also work with quite a few atmospheric scientists. They are well-equipped, highly motivated, and many of them are future stars in their field. How do you see it? Were you able to fill the gap in meteorology there?
Alihan: I mean, like I said before, when I've worked on different projects in the past, every time, the biggest challenges have usually been learning that domain. From time to time, when we worked on 3-4 month projects, 70-80% of it would go to this. A lot of the time we lost was because of that. But here there is already a team specializing in one area. There is a team that combines different muscles in a very homogeneous way. We have meteorological muscle. Likewise, the data science team is very advanced and growing. That's why I got a little bit involved in it.
Gökmen: Same for data engineering. It's getting very close.
Alihan: It's getting very close. We are increasing the interaction between us and each other day by day. We learn from each other. We learn what each other needs and where to identify each other. In this respect, my job has been much easier than in my past experiences. Because there are so many people here who know better than me that I can learn the domain, that I can learn, that I can ask.
Gökmen: In other words, there is probably an advantage difference between learning from a data scientist and learning the domain from the owner of the domain, right?
Alihan: Yes, in the same way, learning from the customer brings a certain set of challenges. We are learning here from a team within ourselves. At the same time, we don't just learn, but of course we work together. This makes a lot of things easier and faster. In the same way, even though we work on different projects and different products, our knowledge transfer and knowledge transfer are quite lively. Everything we learn is useful elsewhere. This makes the company scalable.
Gökmen: Good, well explained. Sometimes when you hear about it, you realize such duties. Well, you mentioned your master's at ETH, but before that, you graduated from Sabancı University and studied in Turkey. Tell me a little bit about that. How did the process evolve into data science there?
Alihan: So, there was actually one person that I was a little inspired by. My cousin. He’s also living in Zurich now, by coincidence. He's a little older than me. After getting a Ph.D. in mathematics, he switched to data science in 2012, when GPUs were becoming widespread, when data science was in the hands of a line and companies started to invest. I took a little bit of an example from the conversations we had with him. I planned it from that period and it didn't work out. It was a process of trial and error. But my plans came true this time. It doesn't always happen. I started with computer engineering in Sabancı. I loved the classes I took. I loved the projects I did. Then I was introduced to Data Science. I was encouraged to continue in this field. Later, I worked in this field for a while. I went to Master's. To increase my technical knowledge a little more. Now I'm working again. I actually do both at the same time. And it's going the way I want it to. It's almost gone. It’s ending
Gökmen: It’s ending. You’ve shared this enthusiasm with us as well. With your words. Alihan, what do you enjoy besides meteorology and data science?
Alihan: I love listening, especially in any way. Whether it's information or music. I love listening. I also like to chat in every way. I'm good with music. It's an area I love in my own way. I used to play guitar since I was little. I'm also a little bit interested in electronic music. Apart from that, I am also interested in sports, many sports. As an amateur, of course, not professional. But I also love watching it. I mean, that's football, basketball, tennis, American football.
Gökmen: There are about 20 people here. We have employees of different countries. We have employees of different nationalities. Different ages, different backgrounds, different expectations, but people who work towards a goal. What would you like to recommend, what would you like to suggest?To people who are curious about the Buluttan or dream of working here, who follow what is happening here, I say may your weather be nice. But what do you think?
Alihan: A good wish. I think if they're wondering, if the company has somehow gotten their attention, it could be the people here, it could be the work that we're doing. I think they should contact us first. Let them text us. At least we can have a conversation. We can answer their questions. As I said, there is actually a very interesting team here. I didn't know that early on. It caught my attention later. There are people in different countries.I think this is not a very common situation for a startup employing 20 people in Türkiye. We are based in Istanbul, but this can change at any time. If I return to Istanbul tomorrow, I will have taken another step forward in my career. I know that. Buluttan is also a nice place for this. That's why I recommend you to contact us.
Gökmen: May your weather be nice!
