Software Engineer @ GraphAware · Hume team

Hello, I'm Yusuf. I think in nodes & edges.

I build graph visualisation, graph analytics and graph database software with Neo4j. In my spare time I make apps like Book Conqueror, a calm PDF reader that helps you build a reading habit.

See my latest project

GitHub

neo4j$

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years shipping software

years deep in graphs

1st

TigerGraph Graphathon 2020

Neo4j

Certified Professional

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Recent projects

Things I've built because I wanted them to exist. The newest one comes first.

Book Conqueror

// new · macOS · free

Make reading immersive.

A calm, distraction-free PDF reader for your Mac. Reading goals, streaks and statistics help make books a habit. Reading and exporting highlights are free, there's no account to create, and your books stay on your Mac.

🔥Goals, streaks & achievements
📊Per-book & daily statistics
✍️Export to Obsidian, Logseq, Readwise
🖼️Highlights as quote cards
🎹Focus music: Bach, Chopin
🤖Book Pal, an AI reading buddy
🔊Read aloud
😴"Awake check" while you read

Get it on the Mac App Store bookconqueror.com ↗

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Turkish readers can get it as Kitap Fatihi

Book Conqueror reader view showing Moby-Dick

// more projects

namaz-vakti-api api

Calculates Islamic prayer times from a location-based solar schedule. The free REST API behind Vakti App.

API docs Source

Davraz graph viz

Software for visualising and exploring graphs, built on Cytoscape.js. It aims for strong complexity management, lots of customisation and ease of use.

Source

Vakti App app

A sleek Muslim prayer times app. Free, ad-free and open-source.

Try it App Store

Play Source

Hasap web

A web-based, general-purpose math calculator designed to be as easy as possible for real-life calculations. Free, ad-free and open-source.

Try it Source

irem npm

Search for any place on earth in any language. A Node.js library bundling a database of 350,000+ places with GPS coordinates and alternative names.

npm Source

Contra Color npm

Give it a colour and it finds a contrasting one (not necessarily the optimal one).

Try it Source

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Why graphs?

Most interesting data is about relationships. Graphs make those relationships first-class, and I enjoy every part of that: storing them, querying them, measuring them and drawing them.

Visualisation

Good graph layouts make complicated systems easier to understand. I've worked on Cytoscape.js extensions, layouts and complexity management at i-Vis, and now on Hume's visualisation at GraphAware.

Analytics

Centrality, communities, shortest paths and temporal patterns. I've written custom algorithms as Neo4j user-defined procedures in Java, and I won hackathons with GSQL on TigerGraph.

Databases

I'm a Neo4j Certified Professional and I write a lot of Cypher. I care about data models that match how people actually think and queries that stay fast as the data grows.

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Experience

The path that got me here.

Software Engineer

Sep 2022 — now

GraphAware · Ankara, Turkey (remote)

I'm on the Hume team, working on a graph analytics platform built on Neo4j.

Graph Visualization
Neo4j
Graph Database
Cypher
TypeScript
Vue.js
Git
Docker

Scientific Research Engineer

Mar 2019 — Jun 2022

i-Vis Research Lab · Ankara, Turkey

Built highly customisable, generic and modular graph visualisation tools.

Graph Visualization
Cytoscape.js
Neo4j
Cypher
Graph Database
TypeScript
JavaScript
Angular
Java
HTML/CSS
Heroku
Docker

On the front end we used TypeScript, JavaScript, Angular and Cytoscape.js. I used and developed many Cytoscape.js extensions, and spent a lot of time on Angular to keep the architecture modular and maintainable.

On the back end I used Neo4j as the graph database. We usually talked to it directly over HTTP. I wrote a lot of Cypher, and I developed Neo4j user-defined procedures in Java for custom graph algorithms.

Being an engineer in a research lab is unusual, and I loved it. I find it very satisfying to make algorithms and software faster, and it's great to see academic work used in real products by big companies instead of staying on paper.

R&D Engineer

Jun 2018 — Mar 2019

Sestek · Ankara, Turkey

Full-stack web developer. Fixed bugs across the back end, front end and database, and built synchronisation for large, continuously changing data.

C#
.NET
Entity Framework
IIS
Windows Services
ExtJS
JavaScript
MS-SQL
PostgreSQL
Multithreading
Full-text search
Git
TFS

I enjoyed working with databases of hundreds of gigabytes. It was valuable experience to work on big projects alongside many hardworking developers, and with international customers.

Software Engineer

Sep 2017 — Jun 2018

Etgi Group · Ankara, Turkey

Built a real-time chat module in AngularJS on the Firebase Realtime Database, made basic Android and iOS apps, wrote a Zoom API client and maintained the existing system.

C#
ASP.NET
JavaScript
AngularJS
Firebase
NoSQL
Android
Java
iOS
Swift
MS-SQL
Azure
Zoom API

Starting a career as a remote developer is hard, and so is being a new graduate at a start-up with few people to learn from. My colleagues helped, but I learned to work things out on my own. I got good at using Stack Overflow and stopped being afraid of new technologies: MS-SQL, NoSQL, Android Studio, Xcode, gulp, Azure and more.

Summer Intern

Jun 2016 — Sep 2016

Fraunhofer IIS · Erlangen, Germany

Built an extension for ZEN (microscope software) that brings Fraunhofer's image processing libraries into ZEN to analyse images of lamella microscope slides. My supervisor and the team were wonderful.

C#
WPF
C++
C++/CLI
SVN

Summer Intern

Jun 2015 — Sep 2015

Etgi Group · Ankara, Turkey

Built basic mobile apps with Xamarin and did small web tasks in JavaScript and AngularJS.

C#
Xamarin
JavaScript
AngularJS

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Education

Both degrees in Computer Science at Bilkent University.

M.Sc. · 2017 — 2021

Bilkent University

Computer Science · GPA 3.21

I focused on graph visualisation and machine learning, and most of my classes were in machine learning. Working in industry and taking classes at the same time was hard.

B.Sc. · 2012 — 2017

Bilkent University

Computer Science · GPA 3.26

A year at the School of English Language, then four years in the engineering faculty. I tried to learn as much computer science as I could, took plenty of online courses, and did many small projects to get hands-on experience.

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