Intelligent systems.
Human possibilities.
I’m Burak Şişman, an AI researcher connecting structured knowledge, language models and robotics. I build bridges between rigorous research, human–AI interaction and practical technology delivery.
Questions that guide my work.
How can AI reason with structured knowledge?
My current research combines ontologies, knowledge graphs and language models for grounded reasoning. I investigate task-oriented retrieval, tool affordances and symbolic evaluation in robotics.
Explore current work ↓Does embodiment change an interaction?
A robot and an on-screen avatar can deliver the same feedback. Comparing these experiences helps us examine the role of physical presence in learning environments.
Explore the study ↗What do learners gain from robotics?
Educational robotics brings programming into the physical world. My work examines learners’ motivation, attitudes, spatial ability, and experiences with robotics.
Read the research ↗Ideas, investigated.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Unleashing the potential of Turkish chatbots: a study on the validity and reliability of the bot usability scale
Evaluating a Turkish chatbot-usability measure through interactions with seven conversational systems.
CONFERENCE
Awareness in robotics: An early perspective from the viewpoint of the EIC Pathfinder Challenge “Awareness Inside”
A perspective on synthetic awareness and its potential role in embodied robotic systems.
ARTICLE
Does giving students feedback on their concept maps through an on-screen avatar or a humanoid robot make a difference?
Comparing two ways of delivering automated feedback during concept mapping.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Does really educational robotics improve secondary school students’ course motivation, achievement and attitude?
Examining student experiences and outcomes in an eight-week educational robotics programme.
From ideas to working systems.
Cognitive robotics
Postdoctoral research in knowledge-grounded reasoning and robot tool use. Contributions to the EU EIC Pathfinder METATOOL project combine ontology development, work-package leadership and international research coordination.
Technical project delivery
Led a 12-person multidisciplinary team delivering a €2.3 million blockchain-based energy project, spanning planning, agile development, client coordination, acceptance testing and rollout.
Building teams and capability
Former associate professor at Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, visiting scholar at the University of Twente, BUYAMER deputy manager and co-founder of Düş Fırçası.
Making complex ideas usable.
At TU Delft, I teach graduate Knowledge Representation & Reasoning, covering OWL, description logics and SPARQL. I co-supervise MSc research in ontology-based reasoning, affordance-aware planning and large language models.
My teaching spans more than 15 distinct courses across four universities, including programming, data science, artificial intelligence and databases. Earlier experience includes robotics education and FIRST Robotics Competition mentoring.
A background in
computation.
A focus on people.
I am a postdoctoral researcher in Cognitive Robotics at TU Delft, working at the intersection of neuro-symbolic AI, knowledge representation and human–AI interaction. My interests include aligning human and agent world models and evaluating the reliability of knowledge-grounded reasoning.
I hold a PhD in Informatics (2014) and an MSc in Informatics (2009) from Istanbul University, alongside bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Business Administration. My earlier research spans educational robotics, speech processing and learning technologies.
My experience spans academia, entrepreneurship and technical project management. I have led multidisciplinary teams and contributed to European research collaborations, bringing both scientific and delivery perspectives to complex projects.
From research to practice.
Getting started with Arduino
An introduction to the Arduino IDE and a first physical-computing exercise: making an LED blink at regular intervals.
Read the tutorial ↗Python & digital signal processing
Python İle Programlama ve Dijital Sinyal İşleme. A Turkish-language book listed in my publication archive, published by Türkem Yayınları.
Browse books & chapters ↗Watch & explore
Visit my YouTube channel for video resources alongside the written tutorials and publication archive.
Open YouTube channel ↗Let’s compare ideas.
For research collaborations, knowledge-grounded AI, robotics and technical project partnerships, get in touch.