SENSEnews: A Vision Becoming a Reality

Our SENSEnews project started under the code name of 1a1, when we first observed the levels of accuracy on human-like meaning extraction by our semantic algorithm from fast moving content, like news and social media blurbs. The precision we had achieved enabled us to devise a new and proprietary method for news scoring that could produce a chart showing the "performance" or "state" of things in real-time as portrayed in the eyes of the media. Our team member, the late Dr. Pentti Kouri, ignited the flame by suggesting that the way we score news could become an incredible instrument for financial markets. Sadly, he passed away in 2009, not being able to see the end product of his vision and insights.

Scientific research on Project 1a1 was led by Dr. Riza Berkan, and also involved valuable deliberations with economists Prof Roman Frydman of New York University, and Prof Onur Ozgur of the University of Montreal. Because all other stock analysis methods (such as technical analysis) use only "price" curves, we were very excited to ultimately produce a new curve, we termed as a SENSEnews chart. The question of how well this new chart reflected driving forces behind stock prices soon became apparent when we made comparisons using actual data. By mid-2010, we knew that we had invented something that had never been done before: a new stock indicator based on the impact of news.

Based on their combined extensive experience in financial markets and commercializing online Web services, Melek Pulatkonak and Babur Ozden contributed to the overall user interface design and other user experience factors of SENSEnews Stock Indicator and SENSEnews Indexes. Hidden technical ingenuity belongs to our technical team headed by Oguz Akgungor, Scott Tibaldi, and Kartal Guner, working behind the scenes. Todd Gailun, a former analyst at Morgan Stanley, provided valuable input to the social media aspect of SENSEnews.

We dedicate SENSEnews to the memory of Prof. Pentti Kouri, whom we miss dearly.


Dr. Riza C. Berkan, Inventor and Chief Scientist
Dr. Berkan is a nuclear scientist by training with a specialization in artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic. He is the author of several articles in the area of artificial intelligence, including the book, Fuzzy Systems Design Principles, published by IEEE in 1997. He is currently the founder and CEO of hakia. Between 1990 and 2000, Dr. Berkan worked for the United States Government and handled multiple Lockheed Martin Energy Systems and Westinghouse projects. Riza Berkan holds a B.S. in physics from Hacettepe University, Turkey, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee with a specialization in artificial intelligence.

Dr. Pentti Kouri (1949 - 2009), Co-inventor, Economist
The late Dr. Kouri was a New York based economist and venture capitalist. He helped to create, fund and manage several technology-based startup companies, including most recently hakia, KMOS Inc. and the Bandwidth Technology Corporation. A member of the board of Nokia in the 1980's, he taught at Stanford, Yale, New York, and Helsinki universities, and worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Kouri supported the arts and sciences. He was a member of the advisory board of the Dahlem Institute (Berlin) and of the visiting committee of the Department of Economics at MIT. He also served on the board of the DIA Art Foundation and was a member of the President's Council of the Guggenheim Museum.

Prof. Onur Ozgur, Chief Economist
Onur Ozgur is an economist at the University of Montreal. He does research on social and economic dynamics and studies the influence of social interactions, norms, customs, fads, rumors, and other determinants of individual choices on the economy, and on human lives. Prof Ozgur has a B.A. degree in management from Bogazici University, an M.S. degree in economics from Bilkent University, both in Turkey. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University.

Melek Pulatkonak, Marketing and Operations
Ms. Pulatkonak serves as the Chief Operating Officer of hakia. Prior to hakia, she was an associate partner of Star Venture Group (SVG), an advisor of the board of directors at the Istanbul Stock Exchange, and a research associate at the New York Stock Exchange, where some of her academic work was published. Ms. Pulatkonak holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.Sc. degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Babur Ozden, Marketing and Business Development
Babur Ozden has been CEO of Berggi, President of DataCert, CEO of LenSec, and CEO of Superonline. He is a member of the board of advisors at Transpera, SnapShop, Emota, and ATDynamics. Babur holds an undergraduate degree in computer sciences from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from Rice University. Mr. Ozden lives in Portola Valley, California near Menlo Park and Palo Alto.

Oguz Akgungor, System Architect
Oguz Akgungor is the application software architect of SENSEnews. He has previously architected software systems for credit card automation, and natural gas field operations automations. He has also worked on the Yahoo! store. Oguz holds a BS degree in Mathematics from Bogazici University, and an M.S. degree in Education Science from Yildiz Teknik University in Istanbul, Turkey. He resides in New York.

Scott Tibaldi, VP of Data Processing
Mr. Tibaldi is the chief software architect of the generator side of hakia, where data collection and storage takes place. He has more than a decade's worth of experience in computer system architectures and is fluent in a dozen of programming languages, including the .Net platform. Mr. Tibaldi attended West Virginia Wesleyan College where he majored in Computer Sciences, with a minor in Business.

Kartal Guner, VP of Products
Kartal Guner is currently vice president of products at hakia, where he is responsible for the design and development of hakia's product portfolio. Previously the co-chief architect there, he helped design hakia's scalable infrastructure. Kartal attended the State University of New York (SUNY), and has been published by IEEE.


Todd Gailun, Evangelist
Todd has advised investment analysts at two of the world's largest hedge funds, on equity investments in technology. He worked at Morgan Stanley as an analyst during the Internet boom/bust period, where he participated in high-yield financing for Amazon.com, Nextel, and many telecom start-ups. As an expatriate in Stockholm, Sweden, he managed the customer development for Ericsson Telecom's VoIP and IP VPN solutions. He holds a BS degree in finance from Georgetown University, and is also a graduate of The Hotchkiss School.

SENSEnews.com is owned and operated by hakia.com