Musa Sadık Ünal, a student at the Computer Engineering Program, the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabanci University, won the first place in the education category of TÜBİTAK 2242 Research Projects Competition for University Students with his project titled “PIC-TALK: Developing Open Source Hardware Prototype for Education of The Visually Impaired and Creating An Integrated Digital Platform”.

120 competed in the TÜBİTAK 2242 Research Projects Competition for University Students under 9 categories: “Smart Cities and Transportation”, “Information and Communication Technologies”, “Education”, “Food and Agriculture”, “Machine Manufacturing and Automotive”, “Health”, “Defense, Space, and Aviation”, and “Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. In the final stage, the projects were evaluated by a jury consisting of academics according to the criteria of originality/innovation, method and process, applicability and/or usability, added value and/or widespread impact. 

The project of our student Musa Sadık Ünal, who won the first place in Turkey in the education category with a project aimed at the visually impaired, will be exhibited at Teknofest on 27 September 2020.  Musa Sadık Ünal will receive his award at a ceremony at Teknofest. 

Musa Sadık Ünal, who aims to eliminate the problems encountered by the visually impaired in their educational lives with this project that he started in high school, explained his project and goals for the readers of gazeteSU. 

Hello, first of all, congratulations for winning the first place in Turkey in the Education category in TÜBİTAK 2242 Research Projects Competition for University Students.How did you decide to enter this competition?What were the application conditions for the competition?

M.S.Ü: I have been participating in project competitions since high school. For this year, I wanted to participate in TÜBİTAK 2242 research projects competition for university students. To enter the competition, you must first upload a report about the project that you have prepared to the TÜBİTAKsystem. After the preliminary evaluation, the selected projects are invited to the regional exhibition. The regional finals for projects that passed the first stage this year were organized in the form of online video conferences. The finals were held online on 9 and 10 September and the projects were evaluated by expert academics of the field.

Can you tell us about the project that you participated with?How did the idea of this project come about?Was it a project that you started before entering the competition?

M.S.Ü: I started this project in high school. My goal with this project is to eliminate the difficulties encountered by the visually impaired in their educational lives and to contribute to their adaptation to social life.  In this direction, the project aimed to develop open source technologies, as well as to create an ecosystem in which these technologies can also be developed by users. 

We are developing both software and hardware for the project. For the moment, it is designed in four key stages as tactile display, smart wristband, application interface, and developer platform. First, we made an electronically controlled tactile display that can produce the desired shape (e.g. geometric shapes, geographical shapes, function graphs, etc.) with 64 different points (pins) independent of each other (8x8).

The display allows the visually impaired to make sense of the three-dimensional shape of any image in a digital environment by touching the display.

Thanks to the smart bracelet, they can interpret shapes, colors, and mathematical expressions (function graphs, geometric shapes, etc.) in the digital environment with a vibrating glove.

All devices and software designed within the scope of the project were shared freely. Users will be able to listen to image descriptions on both computer and smart devices with the application interface, and in addition, they will be able to use many educational and social applications.

We have developed an online education infrastructure especially for the Covid-19 process we are experiencing this year. Thanks to this educational infrastructure, we established an interactive online education platform for the visually impaired. We are working with Furkan Güneş (Medical School student at Atatürk University) in the project.

You won the first in Turkey with your project, do you plan to take this project further?

M.S.Ü: We want to take the project further the project especially in the field of education infrastructure. Creating more accessible technologies for the visually impaired is our main goal in this project. At the same time, we are working on an accessible museum for the visually impaired. It will be added to our platform soon.
 
What is your advice to students who are just starting our university this year?

M.S.Ü: My advice to the friends who are just starting will be that they should do research on practical areas in addition to academic education and participate more in such competitions. The PROJ201 course is a very good opportunity for this.

Is there anything you want to add?

M.S.Ü: I would like to thank my dear teacher Ersin Ertürk, who encouraged us to participate in project competitions in high school and guided and advised us from beginning to end in project processes, and Prof. Dr. Volkan Patoğlu.

As part of the Supporting Public Institutions for Tendering Preparations (STEP) Project, the “Leadership Development Program” designed for EU Experts serving at the Directorate for European Union Affairs started in virtual classrooms with the cooperation between the Executive Development Unit (EDU) of Sabancı University and Yenibirlider Association!

The program was opened with the participation of Ambassador Faruk Kaymakçı, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Director of EU Affairs; Prof. Dr. Fuat Keyman, the Deputy Rector of Sabancı and the Director and Board Member of IPC; Dr. Cüneyt Evirgen, the Director of the Executive Development Unit of Sabancı University; and Jülide Erdoğan, the General Manager of Yenibirlider Association. The program carried out in live virtual classroom environment continued with the lecture of Prof. Dr. Fuat Keyman titled “New World Order After COVID”.

The 6-module program consists of 8 half-day virtual classroom lectures and one video lecture. Department Heads of the Directorate of EU Affairs participate in each session as moderators. In addition to lecture, the program includes 4 different Inspiring Speech sessions organized by Yenibirlider Association. The program will continue with lectures on New World Order After Covid, Networking and Collaborations, Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0, Personal Leadership and Development, Negotiation and Persuasion, Being an Effective Team, Leadership in VUCA World, Strategic Thinking, and VUCA World. 

The projects of our faculty members at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) were found eligible for support under the TÜBİTAK 1005 Program.

The purpose of TÜBİTAK 1005 - National New Ideas and Products Research Support Program is to support applied research and/or experimental development projects that will be reduce the technological foreign dependency and/or will increase international competitiveness of Turkey, by developing a national or international new product, process, method, or model.

One of the projects supported under TÜBİTAK 1005 is the project titled “Development and Characterization of A Biosoluble Polymer-based Micro-needle Array: Technological Platform for Intradermal Glucosaminoglycan (GAG), Chondroitin Sulfate (CS), and Hyaluronan Transfer”. The project team led by Bekir Bediz, a Faculty Member at the FENS, includes Technical Expert Büşra Tuğba Çamiç, Researchers Feray Bakan and Meltem Sezen, and Part-time Researcher Güralp Özkoç from the Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (NRAC) of Sabancı University. 

Within the framework of the project proposal, the team is planning to create a precise and reproducible production methodology of bio-soluble and bio-compatible micro-needle arrays that can be used to transfer drugs and/or bio-active materials into the skin. The production method developed thanks to the project will allow for production and characterization of prototype micro-needle arrays for the transmission of biological material necessary for the treatment of osteoarthritis. 

Another project supported under TÜBİTAK 1005 is the project titled "An Innovative and Domestic Product in Cleft Palate Surgical Skills Training; Anatomical and Modified Cleft Palate Surgical Skills Training Model". Özge Akbulut, a Faculty Member at the FENS, is a researcher in the project team, which also includes Figen Özgür from Hacettepe University as the coordinator, Bahriye Inci Gökalan Kara from Pamukkale University and Murat Kara from Ankara Education and Research Hospital as researchers. 

The project will allow for designing a composite training model beyond the simple and expensive products used as a simulation platform in existing training, allowing surgeons in our country and around the world to receive the best training. Product design, prototyping, and sample production for tests will be carried out at Sabancı University, while product testing and the impact assessment of the training that surgeons will receive using the product on their performance will be carried out at Hacettepe University. By using the prepared model in surgical skill training, the risk of complications in patients will be reduced by ensuring that assistants or surgeons practice in a comfortable environment, and more surgeons will be trained on complex techniques.

Cleft lips and palate are the most common congenital anomaly of the head and neck region, with an average incidence of one in 700 births. Although there is no comprehensive study conducted in Turkey, it is estimated that this rate is one in 500 births in our country. It is noted that surgeons need training in issues such as cleft lip-nose repair and correction of complications that may develop during the operation. 

The third project to be supported under TÜBİTAK 1005 is FENS Faculty Member Özgür Gürbüz’s project titled “Full Duplex Wi-Fi Device and Novel Full Duplex Radio Technologies”.

Full-duplex transmission is one of the latest wireless technologies with the potential to double the spectrum efficiency by allowing a radio to receive and send signals simultaneously, which makes it one of the alternatives considered for the next wireless local area network standard, Wi-Fi 7. The purpose of this project is to develop an original, domestic full-duplex Wi-Fi network device prototype and two novel full duplex radio prototypes with non-linear and Multi-Input Multi-Output transmission. 

SU Gender and Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) received the Swedish Institute Creative Force grant for the international collaborative project entitled "#Genderstruggles: Building Community Resilience via Creativity and Digital Media.”

The project will start in January 2021 and last for 12 months. SU Gender researcher Zeynep Gülru Göker will coordinate the project with three external experts: Aslı Polatdemir (Bremen University), Olga Selin Hünler (Frei Universitesi) ve Selin Çağatay (Gothenburg Universitesi). At RWI, RWI Turkey program’s chief advisor İlhami Alkan Olsson and researcher & program advisor Aysel Madra will coordinate the project activities with contribution from Şebnem Keniş as external advisor. 

"#Genderstruggles: Building Community Resilience via Creativity and Digital Media” aims to create digital platforms for the exchange of best practices, know-how and expertise among feminist and LGBTI+ activists/activist-scholars in Turkey and Sweden to promote resilience in the face of anti-gender mobilizations. As part of the project, several digital participatory workshops will be organized around themes such as resistance strategies, digitalization, sustainability in a digital world, solidarity networks, community engagement and outreach. Narratives, drawings/illustrations produced during and upon gatherings will be posted on a website that will serve as a showcase of gender struggles, a vehicle of empowerment and a source of inspiration for a larger community of gender equality proponents and activists. With a transnational focus, the project will investigate the strategies of actors facing similar problems in different contexts, create a dialogic platform for the co-creation of knowledge on resistance and resilience in the face of anti-gender mobilizations.  

In a special ceremony, the first Honorary Doctorate Degree of Sabancı University was presented to Jan Nahum, member of abancı University Board of Trustees Member and Chair of the Board of Directors of Hexagon Consulting. After the ceremony, a panel entitled Sabancı University: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow took place. With the participation of Sabancı University’s Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı and Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici, the foundation of Sabancı University, its journey to the present day and its future vision were discussed. The panel was moderated by Sabancı University Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Social Impact Fuat Keyman.

Güler Sabancı stated that Sabancı University’s education system, digital vision and approach of ‘creating and developing together’, makes it a 21st century university. She continued, “Sabancı University as the first non-departmental university in Turkey, is, with this structure, able to meet the needs of today’s world by allowing transitions between disciplines. We can clearly see the advantages of this structure during the pandemic period. With the breaking point that the pandemic has brought about, new university programs will be created to meet the newly emerging needs. As our university has no departments, we will be able to respond to these new needs with new programs.

Güler Sabancı pointed out that, with the pandemic, the world has become more complex, and added, ‘We can see that we cannot overcome this virus with one or more disciplines. In today’s world, we need to consider a more interdisciplinary approach. In our university we tell our students, ‘You can decide on the program you would like to study after you are enrolled to our university. In fact, you do not need to choose only one program. You can take courses outside your field.’ I believe the students of 2020 are fortunate in this sense. They are the first generation that has experienced online education in its actual sense. Being forced to adapt to a different structure, makes them much stronger.”

In his speech at the panel, President Yusuf Leblebici said: “When I joined Sabancı University as a young faculty member, I observed that everyone was contributing, progress was fast, and it was a constructive environment. There was a sharing environment that I felt I contributed to with the first course programs and the construction of the laboratories. This sharing culture lies in the core and the DNA of the university. For the university’s future path, we will continue to consult with both our faculty members within and external stakeholders to continue to develop together.”

Yusuf Leblebici emphasized that our target in the future is to open up more to the world. He stated: “Our university has a significant potential to open up to the world with both its centers and its interdisciplinary programs. With the inclusion of topics such as food engineering, energy technologies and smart cities in our interdisciplinary programs, we foresee that we can take serious steps. Under the leadership of science and by using technology, we will advance and continue to make a difference in the areas we focus on.”

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center (SU-IMC) Integrated Manufacturing Webinar Series continues with Prof. Dr. Francesco Tornabene's "Mechanics of Arbitrarily Shaped Doubly-Curved Shell Structures Made of Anisotropic and Advanced Materials Using Higher-order Strong and Week Formulations" seminar.

Please click to register webinar. 

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center (SU-IMC) organizes series of thematic seminars/webinars at different levels of academia and industry to understand and prioritize the recent institutional, organizational and technical developments for the Composite Structures. 

SU-IMC Thematic Webinar Series program

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center (SU-IMC) organizes series of thematic seminars/webinars at different levels of academia and industry to understand and prioritize the recent institutional, organizational and technical developments for the Composite Structures. 

This main focus of research areas is the complete value chain of composite structures including composite modelling, manufacturing, processing, and structural health monitoring. There will be various Renowned Experts and Keynote Speakers, who will be giving academic and industrial talks regarding the Composite Materials and Structures at the SU-IMC Thematic Webinar Series.

All seminars will be conducted online and open to the public in the form of a webinar.

Please click to register.

The SU-IMC is a world-leading Composite Technologies Center of Excellence that provides industrial-scale design and analysis, tests, prototype manufacturing services of advanced composite materials. In addition, the SU-IMC provides graduate education, training, and consultancy services in the fields of integrated manufacturing for industrial companies and governmental agencies. For more information, please visit our website: https://suimc.sabanciuniv.edu/.

Commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the passing of the great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, an online ceremony will be held on Tuesday, November 10th, 2020, starting at 8:45.

Berk Esen, member of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, will take part in the ceremony with his speech entitled “Atatürk from the Perspective of a Young Academician”.

The ceremony will be held in Turkish. 

Registration link: https://sabanciuniv.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j_xbQVfPSEamX7Fw7jAdPQ

Senem Aydın-Düzgit elected as a board member to the executive board of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE). 

Senem Aydın-Düzgit, faculty member of Sabanci University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) and the Academic Affairs Coordinator at the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), has been elected as a board member to the executive board of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE).  YAE (https://yacadeuro.org/) is a pan-European initiative of outstanding young scientists for networking, scientific exchange and science policy; providing input and advice towards shaping European-wide science policy. Established in 2012, YAE has 157 members across Europe. This is the first time a faculty member from Turkey has been elected to the YAE board.  

Sabancı University awarded its first Honorary Doctorate to Sabancı University Board of Trustees Member and Chair of the Board of Directors of Hexagon Consulting, Jan Nahum. After the ceremony,  a panel entitled  "Sabancı University: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" took place with the participation of Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı and Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici.

Sabancı University's first Honorary Doctorate was presented to the Member of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University and Chair of the Board of Directors of Hexagon Consulting, Jan Nahum for special contributions to the education community, to the world of industry and to the collaboration between academia and industry. Güler Sabancı presented the Honorary Doctorate diploma to Nahum at the ceremony held on Monday, October 26th, 2020.

In her speech, Güler Sabancı said, “As Sabancı University, in the past 20 years we have introduced many firsts and we have always acted very meticulously with regards to these firsts. I would like to thank our Academic Board for showing the same meticulousness with regards to our first Honorary Doctorate and for approaching our Board of Trustees with the recommendation of Jan Nahum. Jan Nahum, with his extraordinary energy, has wholeheartedly participated in the processes at our university, and has made a great contribution to the entire Sabancı University family with his on point analyses of both the business and academic worlds.  It is not easy to ask the right questions. Jan Nahum has always asked the right questions and guided our university in a constructive way. He always shares what he knows with those around him; he is a faculty member through the nature of his contributory personality. We are delighted to present the first honorary doctorate of our university to him."

Noting that Jan Nahum has made a great contribution especially in the area of industry-university cooperation, Güler Sabancı continued with these words, “Although we, as a university attach great importance to university-industry cooperation, unfortunately, our country is tarrying in relation to this issue. Sabanci University is a model in this area in Turkey. While establishing our Composite Technologies Center of Excellence with the support of Jan Nahum, we took great care to set a good example. One of Jan Nahum's most important characteristics is that he can foster cooperation. As a university we have always created and developed this together. On behalf of the Sabancı Group and Sabancı University I extend our thanks to him. With Jan Nahum now as a representative of both the business world and the academy we will continue to develop our work further.”

Now our Target is to Be One of the Best Universities in the World

Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici, in his speech at the honorary doctorate ceremony said, “We have celebrated our 20th anniversary as Sabancı University. In 20 years, our university has indeed fulfilled the ambitious goals set initially and has exceeded them. We see that our university is continuing its progress with the same acceleration and excitement. One of the initial founding goals of our university was to become one of Turkey's leading universities, attracting the best students of Turkey. Today we have achieved this goal. In all of the areas which we focus on we have attracted the best students in ​​Turkey.

Yusuf Leblebici stated that Sabancı University has started to gain a befitting  reputation worldwide as a research institution and he continued, saying “We are no longer satisfied with being one of the best universities in Turkey but also aim to become one of the best universities in the world. In doing so, our research identity will play an enabling role. We want to attain prominence with our identity as a scientific research institution, which is the foundation for providing the best and highest quality education, not only in Turkey but in the world. It is not possible for us to do this alone. Especially, if we want to progress as a research university, we have to work closely with industry. We have set out a strategic plan for this and adopted it as our road map from now onwards. Jan Nahum continues to contribute to the roadmap we have developed for the next 20 years.”

One Must not Be Afraid of Failure While on the Path to Success

Jan Nahum expressed his feelings of honor at being awarded Sabancı University’s first Honorary Doctorate. He said, "Sabancı University has put  its signature under many firsts. It is  one of the most successful universities in Turkey. It is a great honour that such a university should give me the title of first honorary doctor. I would like to thank everyone who has deemed me worthy of this.”

Jan Nahum, drawing attention to the fact that humanity has been going through a difficult period, and that the education system in Turkey was also experiencing difficulties, said: “Humanity has passed through great tribulations/hardships, such as the great immigration that emerged with the melting of glaciers, the great carnage caused by the Plague in the Middle Ages and the First and Second World Wars. Each time civilization progressed much faster and took great leaps forward. This is how we should evaluate this period we are going through. When there are obstacles to overcome, human history has always recorded greater progress.

I fought hard to make the Turkish automotive industry competitive with the world. Not renouncing my dreams, I worked hard for them, even ready to resign if necessary to realise them.  I, too, have experienced failures, as well as success. If you want to avoid failure while on the road to success, inevitably you distance yourself from success. It is important not be afraid of failure and to learn from failure. It is necessary to make strong connections between the new and the old and the inexperienced and the experienced. Sabancı University, as it has done in the past, is one of the change agents that will shape the future. Thank you for deeming me worthy of this award."

After the ceremony, in the  panel entitled “Sabancı University: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, the foundation of the university, its development up until today and the vision for its future was discussed with the  participation of Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı and Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici. The moderator of the panel was Sabancı University Vice President Fuat Keyman.

About JAN NAHUM

Born in Ankara in 1950, Jan Nahum completed his high school education at Istanbul Robert College. He completed his university education at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London in automotive design, a department which only accepts four students each year. Nahum received the "Penguin Design Award" for research he engaged in on “Economic Vehicles”. He started working in 1973, in Otosan as a Project engineer. In the nine years following 1975, he served as department design head and coordinator respectively at the R&D Center of Koç Holding. Nahum, transferring to Otokar in 1984, was the general manager of the company for ten years and during this period, he was the driving force behind Otokar's Land Rover and armored vehicle production which led to its activity in the defense industry. In the three years following, he was the general manager of Tofaş, a partner of Koc Holding Fiat, and during this period, he pioneered the Doblo project which led to Tofaş’s transition to serious R&D activities and its transformation to a production base for Fiat. Nahum was the executive director of the company between 1998 and 2002 and was later the deputy chairman of Tofaş and FIAT S.P.A. until 2004, at the same time continuing his duties as head of the international business development department. Nahum, who, in 2004, became a member of the board of directors of Karsan Otomotiv, operating under the Kıraça Holding, served as the general manager of Petrol Ofisi between 2005 and 2007. Nahum played a leading  role  in  the establishment of the family firm, Hexagon Danışmanlık ve Ticaret A.Ş. in 2005. He identified the firm’s sectors of focus as ones that are closely concerned with Turkey's future:  the automotive, renewable energy, environment and emerging technologies sectors. Besides the chairmanship of Hexagon Consulting and Trade Inc., Nahum has also been the executive director of Karsan since 2008. Nahum, who is married with three children, specializes in automotive design, industrial engineering and energy.