Ece Yaprak
Professor and Division Chair, Engineering Technology
Contact
- 313-577-0800
- ab2544@wayne.edu
- Homepage URL
Ece Yaprak
Professor and Division Chair, Engineering Technology
Biography
Dr. Ece Yaprak is a Professor and Chair of the Engineering Technology Division in the College of Engineering at Wayne State University. She earned her BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan–Dearborn in 1980, followed by MS and PhD degrees in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in 1984 and 1989, respectively. During this time, she also worked as a product engineer at General Electric (after her BS) and Ford Motor Company (after her MS), gaining valuable industry experience.
Dr. Yaprak’s research focuses on computer networks and communications, particularly wireless communications and wireless sensor networks. Her work has been published in leading engineering journals, including IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, IEEE Transactions on Education, and the International Journal of Modeling and Simulation. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, the U.S. Navy, and industry partners.
She has held eight research fellowships at prestigious institutions, including NASA centers (John Glenn Laboratory at Case Western, Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, Ames Research Center at Stanford, and Johnson Space Center at Texas A&M) and the U.S. Navy’s SPAWAR Research Center in San Diego. Additionally, she served as a Fulbright Scholar at the Nokia Wireless Communications Research Center at the University of Oulu in Finland.
Dr. Yaprak has been actively involved with ABET accreditation since 2002. She served as a Program Evaluator for Electrical Engineering Technology and Computer Engineering Technology programs in the U.S. and abroad (2002–2012). From 2006 to 2012, she served on the IEEE Committee on Engineering Technology Accreditation Activities (CETAA) as a member, Vice-Chair (2008–2010), and Chair (2010–2012). She was an IEEE/ETAC ABET Commissioner from 2012 to 2017 and served on the ABET Board of Delegates representing IEEE from 2019 to 2023. Currently, she serves on the ABET Board of Directors as the Engineering Technology Area Director (2023–2026).
From February 2015 to February 2017, Dr. Yaprak served as a Program Director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education. In this role, she oversaw planning, budgeting, proposal review, interagency collaboration, and long-term strategic development in science and engineering education.
In recognition of her distinguished career, Dr. Yaprak was named an IEEE Fellow in 2025.
As Division Chair at Wayne State University’s College of Engineering, Dr. Yaprak continues to teach, conduct research, and lead the growth and development of undergraduate and graduate programs within the Division.