Ali Efe İRALI

About Me

I graduated from Istanbul University's Economics Department in 2011. In 2014, I obtained my Master's degree from the Journalism Department at the same university, and in 2019, I completed my doctoral studies in the Radio-TV and Cinema Department at Istanbul University. I've been working with web technologies since 2009, starting with PHP and JavaScript, later adding Adobe Shockwave for 3D simulations. Then I shifted to WebGL. Between 2011 and 2015, I worked as a 3D Designer at Istanbul University. From 2017 to 2020, I held multiple roles at Nisantasi University, including serving as a Research Assistant in the Journalism Department, the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Art & Design, and ultimately, the Head of Communication Design. During that time, in 2018, I started as a regular columnist on the economics of e-sports for Para Dergisi, a weekly economics magazine, a role I continue to this day. Between 2021 and 2025, I served at Istanbul Aydin University's Fine Arts Faculty in the Cartoon & Animation Department, contributing to quality management and social responsibility projects in various roles. During this period, I structured and coordinated The Wisdom Program which is an educational program tailored for individuals aged 60+ as one of Türkiye's unique third-age university examples, serving more than 150 seniors. I also led several social responsibility projects aimed at supporting students with disabilities, resulting in 3 Barrier-Free University Flag awards (physical, social and educational accessibility categories) for the Faculty of Fine Arts from the Council of Higher Education. I also contributed to KUMSA, a 24-week digitalization of cultural heritage project combining art, design, history, law, web technologies, modeling and scanning, delivered online to high school students across seven regions to enhance their interdisciplinary awareness. Additionally, I participated in developing The Importance of High School in Career Path, a nationwide webinar series reaching over 10,000 middle school students.

In 2023, I was awarded an associate professorship in Communication Studies, specializing in Digital Communication, New Communication Technologies, and Communication Economics by the Turkish Interuniversity Board. Also in 2023, I became a co-founder of an AI powered KMS and educational technologies company, VATUT Tech Inc., thanks to the support of Türkiye Development Fund through TÜBİTAK’s 1512 Individual Young Entrepreneurship Program (BİGG). Since April 2025, I've been serving in the Digital Game Design Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.