ONLINE

// IDENTITY VERIFIED — WELCOME, VISITOR

GÖKHAN
“KHAN” BALIK, Ph.D.

Cybersecurity, AI & GIS Researcher · Systems Developer

Building AI-driven geospatial cyber risk intelligence to protect the critical infrastructure systems that modern life depends on.

[ VIEW RESEARCH ] [ GITHUB ↗ ] [ DOWNLOAD CV ]
gokhan@gb-console: ~ 
gokhan@gb-console:~$ whoami
GÖKHAN "KHAN" BALIK, Ph.D.
gokhan@gb-console:~$ cat role.txt
Cybersecurity, AI & GIS Researcher
Systems Developer — Cyber x GIS × AI × Risk
gokhan@gb-console:~$ ./current_focus --cycle
> geospatial cyber risk intelligence█
STATUSACTIVE RESEARCHER & DEVELOPER
LOCATIONST. LOUIS, MO, USA
FOCUSSYSTEM RESILIENCE
RECORDPUBLIC / VERIFIABLE
SIGNAL: VERIFIED0PUBLICATIONS
INDEX: SCHOLAR0CITATIONS
INDEX: SCHOLAR0H-INDEX
FUNDING: SECURED0FUNDED PROJECTS
HONORS: LOGGED0OTHER FIELD AWARD
PRESS: ON RECORD0MEDIA INTERVIEWS
BUILD: COMPLETE0AI PLATFORMS BUILT
TENURE: ACADEMIA0YEARS IN RESEARCH

01// MISSION_BRIEF

My work addresses a single, unified problem: how cyber risks emerge, propagate, and cascade through the interconnected infrastructure systems that societies depend on — and how AI, geospatial intelligence, and rigorous risk modeling can be combined to see those risks before they become failures.

Across more than a decade of research — from a Ph.D. in GIS-based risk modeling to graduate work in cybersecurity with an AI emphasis — I have built a coherent body of independent work: a published article on GIS-enabled cybersecurity and four completed platforms spanning geospatial risk intelligence, network security assessment, NIST-aligned risk scoring, and trustworthy document-grounded AI.

The objective ahead: resilience-informed decision-making for critical infrastructure protection — analysis that is transparent, evidence-grounded, and usable by the people who keep essential services running.

02// DEPLOYED_SYSTEMS

Four original platforms, one research trajectory — each system extends the last, from network visibility to organization-wide risk intelligence. Selected documentation, technical descriptions, and code publicly available on GitHub.

PRJ-001

CyberGRIP — AI Geospatial CIKR Risk & Resilience Intelligence Platform

● FLAGSHIP

An AI-assisted platform for identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing cyber and resilience risks across critical infrastructure systems — integrating geospatial intelligence, network science, and risk modeling to support resilience planning, mitigation prioritization, and resource-allocation decisions.

  • Models infrastructure interdependencies and cascading-risk pathways to surface critical nodes and disruption impacts
  • Combines deterministic risk scoring with geospatial intelligence for transparent, risk-informed decisions
  • Grounded AI-assisted decision support — recommendations traceable to evidence, not black-box output
$ cyber grip --analyze --sector energy --model cascading
> interdependency graph: built · critical nodes: ranked · mitigation plan: ready
GISNetwork ScienceRisk ModelingResilience AnalyticsDecision Support
[ PUBLIC RELEASE IN PREPARATION ↗ ]
PRJ-002

AI-Assisted Network Discovery & Security Assessment Tool

● DEPLOYED · APACHE-2.0

Discovers, classifies, and maps network assets — combining automated asset discovery, topology analysis, and security assessment to improve network visibility and support dependency-aware cybersecurity planning.

  • Enumerates wired and wireless devices, reveals device specifications, and generates topology maps
  • Flags security risks through AI-assisted analysis of complex network environments
  • The foundation for later work in cyber risk intelligence and infrastructure interdependencies
$ netscan --subnet 10.0.0.0/24 --classify --topology
> devices enumerated · topology mapped · risk flags: raised
PythonAsset DiscoveryTopology MappingSecurity Assessment
[ SOURCE ↗ ]
PRJ-003

AI-Assisted Risk Assessment Framework — NIST-Aligned

● DEPLOYED · APACHE-2.0

Identifies, analyzes, and prioritizes cybersecurity risks across organizational environments by integrating deterministic risk scoring, control-gap analysis, and NIST-informed guidance for mitigation planning and resilience improvement.

  • NIST-aligned risk scoring that identifies control gaps and translates findings into mitigation actions
  • Deterministic scoring combined with AI-assisted support for transparent, traceable decisions
  • Produces assessment outputs usable by both technical teams and executive decision-makers
$ riskframe --assess --standard NIST-CSF --gaps
> control gaps: identified · priorities: ranked · actions: generated
NIST CSFRisk ScoringControl-Gap AnalysisMitigation Planning
[ SOURCE ↗ ]
PRJ-004

Document-Grounded AI Assistant & RAG Framework

● DEPLOYED · OPEN SOURCE

Generates trustworthy, evidence-based insights from organizational documents by integrating retrieval-augmented generation, source attribution, and faithfulness verification — built for explainable decision-making, risk analysis, and compliance workflows.

  • Answers questions from uploaded documents and shows exactly which sources were used
  • Vector-based retrieval with evidence attribution and faithfulness verification
  • Designed for domains where an unverifiable answer is worse than no answer
$ ragassist --query "exposure controls" --cite-sources --verify
> answer: grounded · sources: attached · faithfulness: verified
RAGLLMSource AttributionFaithfulness Verification
[ SOURCE ↗ ]

// SUPPORTING_TOOLS

Multi-Server Password Manager Automates root/user password rotation across data-center servers, with GUI PYTHON · GUI ↗ Subnet IP Availability Scanner Finds empty, clean, unused IPs via multi-level checks — ping, SSH, control panel PYTHON · NETWORK ↗ Object Detection — Satellite & UAV Imagery Small-object detection under variable atmospheric conditions; >90% precision YOLO · COMPUTER VISION ↗ UAV Wind-Turbine Crack Detection Infrared + RGB imagery workflows; YOLO detection with Mask R-CNN segmentation MASK R-CNN · TF2 ↗ LLM Q&A Application LangChain + OpenAI powered question-answering app with Streamlit frontend LANGCHAIN · STREAMLIT ↗ Student Registration System Freeware for academics that cut registration processing time by 80% DESKTOP APP · FREEWARE ↗

03// RESEARCH_LOG

2026SCOPUS-INDEXEDFIRST AUTHOR

Integrating GIS and Cybersecurity: Spatial Intelligence for Critical Infrastructure Risk and Resilience

Balik, G. (2026). GIS Odyssey Journal, 6(1), 45–62.

[ DOI: 10.57599/gisoj.2026.6.1.45 ↗ ]
2026PEER REVIEW COMPLETE · SPRINGER NATURECO-AUTHOR

Privacy-Preserving Decision Support for Emergency Department Triage: A Simulation-Based Benchmarking of On-Premises Retrieval-Augmented and Cloud-Based Large Language Models

Balik, G., et al. (2026). Springer Nature journal, SCI-indexed. Peer review completed; awaiting editorial reassignment.

Grown out of a co-led AI-based medical diagnostics project — benchmarking privacy-preserving, on-premises AI against cloud LLMs for clinical decision support.

Full record of 30 publications and citation metrics: GOOGLE SCHOLAR ↗ · RESEARCHGATE ↗ · LINKEDIN ↗

// COMMENDATIONS

OTHER HONORS1 music composing award
PRESS2 media interviews on research work
SCHOLARSHIPGraduate scholarship recipient, Webster University
LEADERSHIPCybersecurity CTF Team Leader, Webster University
SERVICEOrganizer, national & international symposiums and workshops
FUNDING6 competitively funded research projects

04// SERVICE_RECORD

[2025.08 — PRESENT]

Cybersecurity, AI & GIS Researcher · Systems Developer

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT — SELF-EMPLOYED · ST. LOUIS, MO · ON-SITE

Independent research and systems development at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, GIS, critical infrastructure, cyber risk assessment, NLP, computer vision, and intelligent decision-support systems. Current work includes four security platforms — an AI geospatial CIKR network risk & resilience intelligence platform, an AI-assisted network discovery & security assessment tool, a NIST-aligned AI risk assessment framework, and a document-grounded RAG assistant — and two peer-reviewed research papers. Additional projects and research papers are under development.

[2024.08 — 2025.07]

Ethical Hacker · Programmer · IT Support Technician

STALLIONDC LTD., U.K. — PART-TIME, REMOTE

Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment for data-center environments, with documented mitigation guidance. Built automation apps for Linux and network support workflows — a 25% gain in operational efficiency by eliminating repetitive manual work.

[2023.10 — 2024.02]

Computer Vision Engineer — Internship

SEATTLE-BASED TECH COMPANY, WA — REMOTE

Developed a YOLO-based object detection model for satellite and UAV imagery, detecting small objects under variable atmospheric conditions. Built a real-time preprocessing pipeline for images, video, and live streams, achieving over 90% precision. Delivered two wind-turbine crack-detection workflows using UAV infrared and RGB imagery (YOLO + Mask R-CNN).

[2012.02 — 2025.07]

Associate Professor · Researcher · Lecturer

TRAKYA UNIVERSITY & EGE UNIVERSITY, TURKEY — FULL-TIME

Thirteen years of academic research and teaching: 6 funded projects, 30 publications, 90 citations (h-index 5), 1 other field award. Co-led an AI-based medical diagnostics project (publication in press). Developed a student registration application that reduced processing time by 80%. Organized national and international symposiums and workshops.

05// TRAINING_MATRIX

DEGREES

2025 — 2027 M.S. Cybersecurity — AI Emphasis Webster University, St. Louis, MO · GPA 3.9 · Scholarship · CTF Team Leader
2024 — 2027 A.S. Computer Programming Anadolu University — remote, concurrently with graduate study · GPA 3.4 ·
2011 — 2018 Ph.D. Landscape Architecture Ege University, Turkey · Dissertation: “Creating a GIS-Based Ecological Risk Assessment Model” — the origin of my GIS risk-modeling work · GPA 3.9 ·
2006 — 2010 M.S. Landscape Architecture Ege University, Turkey · GPA 3.2 ·
2001 — 2006 B.S. Landscape Architecture Ege University, Turkey

CERTIFICATES_&_BOOTCAMPS

Complete Cybersecurity BootcampZERO TO MASTERY · 2024
Complete Ethical Hacking BootcampZERO TO MASTERY · 2025
Web Security & Bug Bounty: Penetration TestingZERO TO MASTERY · 2025
TryHackMe — Security Training PathsTRYHACKME · 2025 — ONGOING
Complete A.I., Machine Learning & Data ScienceZERO TO MASTERY · 2023
Complete Python DeveloperZERO TO MASTERY · 2023
Statistics with PythonZERO TO MASTERY · 2024
+ continuous hands-on labs & CTF practiceSTATUS: ACTIVE

// TECHNICAL_SKILLS

CYBERSECURITY DOMAINS
AI SecurityApplication SecurityNetwork SecurityVulnerability ManagementCyber Risk AssessmentNIST FrameworksOWASP
CYBERSECURITY TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Burp SuiteWiresharkMetasploitNmapKali LinuxVirtual MachinesOpen-Source Security Tools
AI, MACHINE LEARNING & DEEP LEARNING
Large Language Models (LLMs)NLPRetrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)Computer VisionMachine LearningDeep LearningPyTorchTensorFlowScikit-learn
DEVELOPMENT & ENGINEERING
PythonBashSQLPHPHTMLCSSJavaScriptVBAC#GitHubAnacondaDocker

06// ESTABLISH_CONNECTION

Open to research collaboration, speaking, and cybersecurity / AI engineering & research roles. Every claim on this site is backed by a public record — follow the links and verify.

EMAIL gokhanbalik77@gmail.com GITHUB github.com/gokhan-balik ↗ LINKEDIN linkedin.com/in/gokhan-balik ↗ SCHOLAR publications & citations ↗ RESEARCHGATE research profile ↗