The faculty and staff-members of the Leahy Center are a diverse and hard-working bunch. While the Leahy Center of course provides excellent internship opportunities and project based learning to students of Champlain College, and gives a nationally-recognized course in cybersecurity and digital-forensics: it is the Leahy Center’s permanent staff-members and part time faculty who allow for any of this to happen, at all. The Leahy Center is an organization, after all, and no organization gets very far, at all, without dedicated professionals who work to make it as great as it can be.
But who are the Leahy Center’s faculty? In these segments, we will have various faculty of the Leahy Center tell us a bit about themselves, their positions, why they give their time to the Leahy Center, the expertise they bring to the table, the impact they have on the Center’s projects, and how they aid students and student-interns.
So, let’s hear from one of them, now!
From Dr. Murat Gungor:
One of my passions is the removal of barriers and difficulties, in the world, to make life easier for others. And software is one of the exceptional tools to achieve this. With the right software solutions, you can have a positive impact on many lives. However, building the right software demands qualified people, and you can only get qualified people with quality education. With years of professional experience, I know the expectations of the software industry. For this reason, I joined the teaching force to share my knowledge and experience, to educate and train future software engineers to join me in removing barriers and difficulties and making the lives of others easier.
I have been serving in the role of Leahy Center Faculty since the fall of 2021. I lead a team that develops software to automate data extraction from various IoT devices.
The projects we work on at the Leahy Center offer solutions to real-life problems and have actual end-users. This excites and motivates both me and my team. Our students are lucky to gain industry experience while still studying. I am happy and proud to contribute to and witness their development, growth, and success; and I am excited to find solutions to real-world problems.
Having extensive academic and industry experience, teaching at a professionally focused teaching-centered institution, Champlain College, has been an excellent choice for me. The Leahy Center takes that pleasure a step further, in that I can holistically apply all these experiences to real-life problems. I bring theoretical and practical skills in software engineering, expertise in software development and software quality improvement, management of software projects, object-oriented programming, design, and development.
My job is to monitor a given project and work to keep the project in-line with the parameters needed of it. I help to prioritize the tasks at hand, as well as motivate and guide my team-members to achieve what we need to; I direct my team members to the use of available resources, and connect them to the right people for help. I also aid in the orientation of new team members. In short: I keep the team and the project focused, and moving toward the target end-goal.
I am here to be a good role model, not just technically, but socially as well. Because the essence of a successful software project depends on both aspects. I work to build the team’s spirit, such that we melt ourselves into one, dedicated body: to achieve the common goal of ending a successful project with a satisfied customer.
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We thank Dr. Gungor for his time and consideration in answering our questions, and the Leahy Center thanks all of its staff and faculty for their service. It is faculty like Dr. Gungor who make the Leahy Center great, and allow us to do our work with the quality that we do. We’re always willing to lend a helping hand, and hire on anybody looking to continue their career in cybersecurity, with us, or those who need a place to get their start in the field.
So from us, and Dr. Gungor, thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!
Dr. Murat Gungor is an Associate Professor teaching Information Technology and Sciences. Prior to joining Champlain College, he has taught Software Engineering courses at Bilkent University and TOBB University in Ankara, Turkey. He has also worked in the industry, holding various positions— from researcher and software engineer, to project manager and director-level assignments. His main area of expertise includes object-oriented programming, software architecture, design and development, structural analysis, and quality improvement.
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Written by James Kallenbrum ‘23 // Professional Writing