Prof. Dr. TUĞRUL OKTAY

Summary of your current activity:

I am working on state of the art technologies in aerospace engineering such as morphing, drones, UAVs, active flow control, helicopter latest technologies and applications. I am also interested in sustainable aviation and sustainable development topics. In addition, drone market is in my primary focus. I also contributed some important outputs to drone market.

Airborne agriculture is also in my focus. Drones are used in many agricultural operations. This satisfies green, smart and competitive missions. My products (i.e., morphing drones both fixed wing and VTOL) obtained from my R&D projects is valid for previously mentioned purposes. These products are also so suitable for transforming agri-food. Since drones are so small with respect to the traditional farming machines, they waste much less fuel with respect to the traditional ones. Therefore, my products obtained from important projects (capturing EU funded projects, and also many other scientific projects) also can be evaluated in the class of mission green fuels and also minor carbon emission.

Achievements:

2026

-{In Top %1 Scientists in 2026 (427 out of 66382 authors in aerospace/aeronautical engineering) by Stanford University/Elsevier}

-{My name has been placed among the top %0.05 of the scholars in the world “2026 Top Scholar by ScholarGPS". Actually, I am the 2^nd best scientist in aircraft engineering and systems design areas in the world with respect to the quality criteria of ScholarGPS Ranking Analytics}

-{Best and Most Impressive Author in Autonomous UAVs sub-area in Scopus in 2026}

-{ My name has been placed among the top1000 scholar of the scholarly index in the world “2026 Top1000Scholar". Actually, I am the 3^rd best scientist in Aerospace engineering and Control systems area in the world with respect to the impact criteria of ScholarlyIndex.}

2025

-{In Top %2 Scientists in 2025 (898 out of 62704 authors in aerospace/aeronautical engineering) by Stanford University/Elsevier}

-{My name has been placed among the top %0.1 of the scholars in the world “2025 Top Scholar by ScholarGPS". Actually, I am the 2nd best scientist in aircraft engineering area in the world with respect to the quality criteria of ScholarGPS Ranking Analytics}

-{Best (1st ) and Most Impressive Author in Autonomous UAVs sub-area in Scopus in 2025}

Description of your general research and technological or market background:

My fields of expertise are in general helicopter theory, control theory and UAVs. In addition, I am interested in manufacturing of them.  I am also interested in sustainable aviation and sustainable development topics. Drone market is one of my important interest areas. Aviation market is also one of my primary interest areas. I have important contributions into drone and aviation market.

Airborne agriculture is also in my focus. Drones are used in many agricultural operations. This satisfies green, smart and competitive missions. In especially in last 10 years in my R&D projects green applications, agricultural operations and transforming agri-food is in my focus.

 Please visit my EU funded project below (it become very popular for education of potential drone users for agricultural operations).

https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2018-1-TR01-KA203-059632

Description of your sector experience with particular focus on market application of R&D results:

I help many companies for designing and manufacturing of UAVs/drones. I am also helping them for automation systems.  I am also interested in sustainable aviation and sustainable development topics. I have completed many R&D projects related with novel UAV/drone design and manufacturing. My products have been applied in market recently especially in agricultural tasks, mapping, safety and also green energy considered missions. Please visit my projects in my research gate website:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tugrul-Oktay/projects

Description of your SME programmes experiences and if applicable, any project assessment/evaluation and project monitoring activities:

I prepared SME Phase I and II projects. I am also interested in EUREKA and Eurostars Programme.  In addition, I am working on sustainable aviation and sustainable development topics. Aviation and drone topics are also in my focus. In last five years I became evaluator for many different evaluation centers such as:

-National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation-NCSTE-Kazakhstan (more than 10 times since 2018)

-Latvian Council of Science Evaluation (LZP) – Latvia (since 2021)

-Research Council of Lithuania Evaluation (LMT) - Lithuania (3 times- 2024, 2025, 2026)

-Central Project Management Agency Evaluation (CPMA) - Lithuania (2026)

-National Centre for Research and Development Evaluation (NCBR) - Poland (2025, 2026, 2027)

-The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic Evaluation (TA-CR) - Czech Republic (2025-2026)

-National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation-Serbia

-National Research Foundation of Ukraine Evaluation (NRFU) – Ukraine (2026)

-Georgia- National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement Evaluator (NCEQE) – Georgia (2026 - 2027)

-Albanian Quality Assurance Agency in Higher Education Evaluation (ASCAL) - Albania (2026 - 2027)

-Montenegro Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education - Montenegro (2026 - 2027)

-Montenegro Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation - Montenegro (2025, 2026, 2027)

-Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA) - Kosovo (2025 , 2026, 2027)

-StandICT, Horizon Europe (2026-2027)

-National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation - Bulgaria

-National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation - Croatia

-The Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic through its Department of Evaluation of Creative Activities - The Periodic Evaluation of Research, Development, Artistic and Other Creative Activities / Verification of Excellence in Research (VER) Evaluation - Slovakia (Panel Chair for all panels of 2025-2026 in information and computer sciences)

-National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation-Republic of Turkey (more than 1000 times)

-Research and Development Centers- Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Industry and Technology (more than 20 times)

-Erasmus + Strategic Partnerships in European Union (more than 500 times)

-For Eureka Eurostars (more than 10 times)

-For Horizon 2020 European Commission

-For market (KOSGEB in Republic of Turkey)

and many other different projects were evaluated by me in last 5 years especially.