UMIT YAPANEL, PH.D., Board Member Innovator
in AI & Education, Former Board President at Magnolia Public Schools, and
Founding Board Member at Lotus School for Excellence Dr. Ümit Yapanel's extraordinary journey in
education spans over two decades, characterized by his leadership roles and
unwavering commitment to advancing educational excellence and equity. As the
Board President of Magnolia Public Schools (MPS) from October 2012 to June
2018, he successfully navigated the organization through significant growth and
external challenges. Under his guidance, MPS, serving approximately 4,000
students across 10 schools in the South LA area, flourished. His leadership at MPS was marked by a
strategic focus on innovation, student empowerment, and community engagement,
which established a benchmark for educational excellence in Southern
California. In the EdTech industry, Dr. Yapanel's
contributions as an AI Architect are significant. He currently leads two major
EdTech projects: atom.live, a multilingual & interactive online book
platform designed to break down language barriers for children globally so that all the world's beautiful children can enjoy the world’s most beautiful
stories, and Elegant AI Academy that equips students in grades 4-12 with AI
skills essential for the future AI-driven world. His past roles include
innovating in children's speech development at www.lena.org, leading the
development of audio and speech processing algorithms at TDK, Inc., and serving
as a key figure in speech recognition and enhancement at Audience Inc. At
McDonald’s Corp. - Tech Labs (2019-2021), as Senior Manager of the
Conversational AI Group, Dr. Yapanel was instrumental in developing an AI Agent
taking drive through orders. At DeGirum, Corp, he focused on developing
advanced computer vision models and algorithms. His stint as an adjunct faculty
member at the University of Colorado at Boulder, teaching Digital Signal Processing,
adds to his impressive profile. Holding a BSc and MS in Electrical and
Computer Engineering, and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University
of Colorado at Boulder, Dr. Yapanel's vision in STE(A)M education is to inspire
and prepare students for careers in science and engineering. To contact Dr. Yapanel please use umit@magnoliapublicschools.org |