Taner Giray Sönmez

I am an incoming MSc student in Computer Science at the Columbia University, New York City. I chose the Machine Learning track and I am taking courses in this direction. I completed the Fall 2024 semester at Columbia University, where I took courses such as Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Machine Learning, and Analysis of Algorithms. I am now in Spring 2025, enrolled in courses such as Neural Networks and Deep Learning, Machine Learning Cloud, and High-Performance Machine Learning to further enhance my knowledge in this field. Additionally, I have recently been selected for a research project at the Columbia University IRT Lab, focusing on privacy policy analysis using large language models. In this role, I work on fine-tuning models (e.g., BERT), optimizing retrieval-augmented generation(RAG), and improving privacy clause classification.

I graduated in June 2024 from Sabanci University with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering. For two semesters, I worked as a Learning Assistant for the course Computational Approaches to Problem Solving.

I also completed my Erasmus exchange program in Computer Science and Engineering at Uppsala University in Sweden.

In my final year at Sabanci University, I began working on my graduation project centered on habit formation, employing causal inference and machine learning techniques to investigate the factors influencing the establishment of consistent exercise habits. You can access our paper via this arXiv link.

During my university years, I worked in the industry as a Data Scientist at Mars Athletic Club.

Interests

• Machine Learning
• Natural Language Processing
• High Performance Computing