The Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AiLab) is a research laboratory at the Research, Development and Application Center (SARGEM) of Sakarya University. The laboratory began its work in 2021 with the TÜBİTAK 1001 project "Prediction of The Ageing Rates of Plastic Materials in Different Environments by Machine Learning Methods," funded by the Engineering Research Support Group (MAG). Today, it is located in the SARGEM S3 building.

AiLab's core approach is to bring artificial intelligence methods to real research problems in other disciplines and to develop new methods along the way. Alongside computer science and engineering, we work with researchers from fields such as chemistry, biology, electronics, medicine, environmental science, materials science, polymer science, sport sciences, and music. This diversity allows us to work on a problem together at every stage, from deciding how the data should be collected to interpreting the results from the perspective of the domain, rather than only at the modeling stage.

In our work, data collection and analysis go hand in hand. Aerial imagery captured by drones, microscopic imaging, and artificial aging experiments in a climate chamber are our main sources of data. For some measurements, such as FTIR spectroscopy, we also use the facilities of partner laboratories, primarily the laboratory of the Department of Environmental Engineering. The data are analyzed using statistical methods, image processing, and artificial intelligence techniques, particularly machine learning and deep learning. Models are trained on the laboratory's GPU-based servers. Alongside applied studies, we develop new models and algorithms in machine learning and deep learning. This work covers topics such as image segmentation and prediction models, sampling algorithms for imbalanced datasets, and feature selection for spectral data.

The laboratory takes part in projects funded by TÜBİTAK and by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) together with the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, and collaborates with universities in Türkiye and abroad. Our researchers are also inventors on several patent and utility model applications, and the European patent application for one of these inventions is currently under examination. Details are available on our Projects and Patents pages.

We welcome collaboration both with researchers who want to address a problem in their own field using data and artificial intelligence methods and with researchers working on new methods in artificial intelligence. AiLab was founded and is headed by Assist. Prof. Dr. Ulaş YURTSEVER.