[ Industrial Engineer · Inventor · Operator ]

Ipek
Hocalar

Ipek Hocalar

I design systems that make the physical world run faster, cheaper, and smarter with a little help from math and machines that learn.

§ What I do

For example, I take messy operations (factories, supply chains, airports, startups) and re-engineer them into something that flows. Then I teach the software to keep it that way.

Degree

B.S. Industrial Engineering

Georgia Tech · Expected May 2027

Minor

Computing & Intelligence

Concentration

Economic & Financial Systems

Languages

Turkish, Russian

English, French (fluent)

Coursework

Operations ResearchOptimizationStochastic ProcessesMachine LearningData AnalyticsSupply ChainSimulationRegression & Forecasting
OPTIMIZING OPERATIONS
BUILDING SYSTEMS
MODELING REALITY
CHASING EFFICIENCY
DEPLOYING INTELLIGENCE
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
SCALING IDEAS
SHIPPING PRODUCTS
OPTIMIZING OPERATIONS
BUILDING SYSTEMS
MODELING REALITY
CHASING EFFICIENCY
DEPLOYING INTELLIGENCE
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
SCALING IDEAS
SHIPPING PRODUCTS
OPTIMIZING OPERATIONS
BUILDING SYSTEMS
MODELING REALITY
CHASING EFFICIENCY
DEPLOYING INTELLIGENCE
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
SCALING IDEAS
SHIPPING PRODUCTS
OPTIMIZING OPERATIONS
BUILDING SYSTEMS
MODELING REALITY
CHASING EFFICIENCY
DEPLOYING INTELLIGENCE
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
SCALING IDEAS
SHIPPING PRODUCTS

§ 02 The Work

Things I built,
not things listed

A running log of inventions, experiments, and things that broke in production.

TuneTunnel
P.01
View demo ↗
STARTUP / PRODUCT43M+

TuneTunnel

Built it. Automated it. Now it earns while I'm in class.

Music distribution platform co-founded as COO. Built the software too. $1M+ valuation, 43M streams, $100K+ raised, now profitable and fully automated, generating recurring revenue with no manual ops.

Full-StackFundraisingPartnershipsGTMAutomation
Vesta Music
P.02
View demo ↗
B2B / INFRASTRUCTURE50+

Vesta Music

The Shopify of music distribution.

White-label B2B platform: any business can launch their own distribution service under their own brand, on our infrastructure, in under 24 hours. Profitable recurring revenue.

B2BSaaSWhite-LabelPaymentsAPI Design
Semantic Drift Alpha
P.03
View demo ↗
QUANT / ML+35%

Semantic Drift Alpha

Made an average of 35%+ in the last two years.

Equity alpha engine with a full automated research pipeline: market prices, SEC filings, and NLP signals combined into a single feature matrix. Backtested against SPY. Demo code.

NLPBacktestingFeature EngineeringStochasticsFinancial Modeling
Investor Connect
P.04
View demo ↗
PRODUCT / FINTECHDual

Investor Connect

Experimenting with infrastructure for private capital.

Web and iOS platform for verified founder-investor matching. Dual-sided interest, structured deal flow, and diligence tooling in one environment. Currently in beta, invite-only.

iOSProduct DesignDeal FlowBeta
Textile Microfactory Console
P.05
View demo ↗
MANUFACTURING / OPSLive sim

Textile Microfactory Console

Design, simulate, and optimize a factory floor in the browser.

Interactive planning workspace for textile and sewn-goods production. Live fabrication board with routing calibration, station management, and feasibility modeling, built like an active blueprint.

SimulationFacility LayoutRouting OptimizationCapacity Planning
P.06
ROBOTICS / SYSTEMSIn progress

Indoor Drone Light Show

Coordinated autonomy at scale, no GPS, no room for error.

Multi-agent indoor drone choreography system. Swarm coordination, collision-free path planning, and real-time LED synchronization for formation light shows. In progress.

Multi-Agent SystemsPath PlanningComputer VisionEmbedded Systems
Invention Summary
P.07
View video ↗
INVENTION REEL2018–23

Invention Summary

2018–2023: five years of builds, experiments, and ideas.

A video retrospective of inventions and prototypes built between 2018 and 2023: hardware, software, and everything in between.

HardwarePrototypingInvention

more in the pipeline · currently focused on cybersecurity in the supply chain

§ 03 The Lab

Research behind decisions that matter

Conducted in collaboration with the MASAMU Advanced Mathematics Institute, University of Zambia, CIDRZ, Georgia Southern, and SF State.

R.01ACTIVE

2024 - Present

Georgia Tech ISyE

Under the supervision of

Dr. David Goldsman

Cholera Outbreak Modeling

Modeling a cholera outbreak in Zambia. Our goal: predict how the outbreak evolves and simulate the best possible interventions.

Built ODE-based compartmental models of cholera transmission at the population level, alongside stochastic simulations to capture outbreak uncertainty. Part of a multi-institution team also working on ML-based forecasting. Screenshots below are from early MVP work.

Paperin progressODEsCompartmental ModelingStochastic SimulationEpidemiologyPublic Health

§ 04 The Log

Places I've shown up & shipped

From airport gates to cap tables, one thesis: find the bottleneck, remove it, repeat.

  1. Delta Air Lines

    F500← RECENT

    Operations Optimization Co-Op · OBS

    JUN 2025 - AUG 2025

    AWS pipelines across 5 legacy systems, optimization algorithms for catering cost estimation.

    AWSPythonOptimizationCost Modeling

    Continuous Improvement Co-Op · OBS

    JAN 2026 - MAY 2026

    Live dashboards, cancellation alerting, and catering cost control on CloudFront, S3, RDS, Lambda.

    CloudFrontS3RDSLambdaSQL
  2. TuneTunnel

    STARTUP

    Co-Founder / COO

    2024 - 2026

    $1M+ valuation, 43M streams, $100K+ raised. Operations, finance, and growth, now fully automated.

    OperationsFinanceGTMLeadership
  3. Georgia Tech

    CAMPUS

    Teaching Assistant · CS 2316

    JAN - DEC 2025

    Mentored 500+ students on Python, SQL, and data workflows.

    PythonSQLPandasPedagogy

    Membership Services Assistant

    2023 - 2024

    Customer service, membership coordination, emergency response, and first aid on campus.

    OperationsAdministration
  4. Procons Tourism & Construction

    FIELD

    Planning Engineering Intern

    SUMMER 2023

    Coordinated between engineering and operations on a PVC factory installation in Turkey.

    Process DesignPlanningManufacturing
  5. IHG Hotels & Resorts

    DATA

    Data Analytics Intern

    SUMMER 2022

    Demand forecasting cut overstaffing 8%. HVAC analysis cut energy use 7%.

    RSQLForecasting

§ 06 Off the Clock

Outside the lab

If we work together, you're getting more than a resume. Here's the rest of the kit.

In short, I love making, moving, and spending time with loved ones.

§ 07 Open Channel

Excited to build
with you