Living Learning Corner

This fall Professor Carey Noland and Professor Rifat Sipahi will be living in International Village as the faculty in residence.

Carey Noland

Communication Students

Ph.D. Organizational Communication, Ohio University

Dr. Noland is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. Her research and scholarship focuses on health communication and the ability of communication to provide direct social impact to ameliorate societal health crises. The purpose of each of her projects is to address societal medical crises (HIV/AIDS, medication errors, obesity), to understand the root causes of these trends, and demonstrate how a fundamental understanding of the issues from a communication perspective can provide valuable knowledge that will serve to increase the success of programs in each of these areas. Dr. Noland has published book chapters and numerous peer reviewed articles in competitive journals such as Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, The American Communication Journal, The Journal of Men’s Studies, Journal of Research Practice, International Journal of Communication, and Communication Quarterly.

Rifat Sipahi

Greetings! This is Rifat Sipahi, a faculty-in-residence at the International Village (INV). I am living at INV #275 with my wife Alix. I am an assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, where I teach juniors, seniors, as well as graduate students in the fields of system dynamics, control, and mechatronics. My teaching covers controlling the behavior of mechanical systems. A good example from my teaching is related to the design of a cruise controller that can regulate the speed of a vehicle.

Under the umbrella of “control” field, my research focuses on studying the effects of “delays” in information and decision transmission to controlling dynamic behavior. Some examples encompass controlling robots across wireless networks, performing remote surgery via internet, and managing inventory levels in supply chains. One nice example is the successful navigation of Mars Rover from Earth based on the video information received from Rover. This may sound like a computer game, where one would watch the video streaming in order to steer the Rover around a crater using a joystick. However, the video streaming from Mars to the Earth takes about five minutes to arrive. That is, what we see is what has happened five minutes ago, and we do not know anything about where the Rover now really is. Under these conditions, it is of major challenge as to how one commands the Rover such that the navigation mission is successful. Recently, I also embarked on a new research direction in the fields of control. With several undergraduate students, a graduate student, and collaboration with the National Braille Press, we are developing note-taking devices which can be used by the vision impaired people. Our objective is to create portable and affordable devices that also make writing more efficient for the vision impaired people.

Prior to joining Northeastern University in 2006, I spent a year in France as a researcher (2005-2006), and five years at University of Connecticut (2000-2005) for my graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. I am from Turkey, and I got my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in 1996-2000 in Istanbul. I enjoy cooking, traveling, arts, and playing computer games.

I already started getting involved with several activities through some RAs at INV, and I am looking forward to expanding these activities as much as possible!! My main plans are (i) to organize social and cultural activities with the help of RAs in order to reach as many students as possible, (ii) to participate and provide input in the activities the RAs plan, (iii) to hold receptions at the INV with the help of ResLife, and (iv) to develop seminar series for the Honors Program. Yes !! Stay tuned !!

Rifat Contact: rifat@coe.neu.edu