{"693262":{"#nid":"693262","#data":{"type":"news","title":"CS Ph.D. Student Gains Industry Insight at Apple","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor many graduate students, an internship offers a chance to see how their research holds up outside the lab. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/oytunkuday.com\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOytun Duran\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, a third-year computer science Ph.D. student, had that opportunity this summer at Apple.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuran spent nearly four months interning at Apple\u2019s headquarters in Cupertino, California. His work during the internship focused on Apple\u2019s Foundation Models, a series of generative AI models that power Apple Intelligence, and on the large-scale infrastructure and tooling around them. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuran\u2019s research interests lie at the intersection of computer architecture, systems, and machine learning. More recently, he has focused on making artificial intelligence (AI) workloads more accessible, sustainable, and cost-effective. Duran is co-advised by Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eiclab.scs.gatech.edu\/pages\/team.html#PI\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYingyan (Celine) Lin\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.anand-iyer.com\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAnand Iyer\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003Ein the School of Computer Science.\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuran said he saw the internship as an opportunity to gain industry experience and apply his knowledge to real-world problems. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIndustry research is particularly exciting to me because you can work on challenging problems while also seeing how these ideas can translate into systems and products at a very large scale and impact nearly a billion lives,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a research intern, Duran especially appreciated the level of independence he was given. He was expected to take initiative to find problems on his own and then develop solutions with his mentors. Although Duran liked taking ownership of his work, he also came to better understand the value of outside input. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne thing I\u2019m continuing to improve is recognizing when it\u2019s more efficient to ask for input earlier rather than spending too much time trying to solve everything independently,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuran said he enjoyed the internship, especially the people he met. However, the biggest highlight for him was presenting his work.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI had the opportunity to present several times, including to larger audiences across different organizations, and I really enjoyed discussing the findings and getting feedback from people with different perspectives,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to the technical knowledge he gained, Duran said the experience gave him a new perspective on how research and engineering work in industry. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI realized that combining strong research with real business needs can often create much greater impact than research alone,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI really enjoyed seeing my work translate into something with broader, tangible impact, and that has influenced the kind of work I want to pursue in the future.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor many graduate students, an internship offers a chance to see how their research holds up outside the lab. \u003Cstrong\u003EOytun Duran\u003C\/strong\u003E, a third-year computer science Ph.D. student, had that opportunity this summer at Apple.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A computer science Ph.D. student spent his summer interning at Apple, gaining industry insight and experience. "}],"uid":"36532","created_gmt":"2026-10-15 22:14:47","changed_gmt":"2026-10-15 22:31:08","author":"Morgan Usry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681444":{"id":"681444","type":"image","title":"OytunDuran.JPG","body":null,"created":"1792103427","gmt_created":"2026-10-15 22:30:27","changed":"1792103427","gmt_changed":"2026-10-15 22:30:27","alt":"Man standing outside in front of rainbow sculpture ","file":{"fid":"265852","name":"OytunDuran.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/15\/OytunDuran.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/15\/OytunDuran.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":149185,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/15\/OytunDuran.JPG?itok=A_XEkfLm"}}},"media_ids":["681444"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMorgan Usry, Communications Officer, morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}