Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güzden Varinlioğlu receives Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program Grant

IUE Architecture Department Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Güzden Varinlioğlu received Fulbright Scholarship for Academic Research with her project aiming to reveal historical city ties around the world such as Silk Road through caravanserais. Varinlioğlu will continue her research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Varinlioğlu explains her research project, “Stigmergy as a Tool for Uncovering Anatolian Urban Networks of the Past”, as follows: Ancient Anatolia contains the remains of cities connected by a network of roads that reveal much about the culture of the past. Within the field of cultural heritage studies, computerized tools have become an integral part of the dissemination and visualization of data, but currently, their use is limited. This proposal investigates whether past urban networks can be simulated using biological computation, specifically employing swarm intelligence of a unicellular organism to imitate the development of these road networks on a 3D digital fabricated topography. Based on laboratory experiments, the research aims to predict the future development of urban networks in Anatolia.