Sabancı University Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) hosted Professor Zafer Toprak.

Professor Zafer Toprak spoke about his latest book “Türkiye’de Yeni Hayat” at an event hosted by the Sabancı University Istanbul Policy Center. Professor Toprak told the story of his book, which discusses how the quest for modern living evolved into social trauma in the near history of Turkey, to a large audience from academic and cultural circles.  

Sabancı University Istanbul Policy Center  (IPC) hosted a discussion by Professor Zafer Toprak on his latest book "Türkiye'de Yeni Hayat". The event took place at Minerva Han in Karaköy with a large audience consisting of students and faculty from various universities, and listeners interested in recent history. 

Delivering introductory remarks, Sabancı University Faculty Member and IPC Director Fuat Keyman said, “We have always loved to introduce Zafer Toprak’s work. He is a prolific researcher and scholar of history who bases his work on profound research. This book is another great move by Zafer Hoca." 

Discussing the story and content of his latest book, Professor Toprak spoke about how the quest for modern living in the recent history of Turkey turned into a social trauma. 

The book concentrates on the period between 1908 and 1928, when the postwar Republican Turkey turned its face to the West and imposed radical changes on its lifestyle to find a "new life." The book also deals with neo-statism shaped by restorative control mechanisms in response to individual and social tremors experienced in the societal devastation of World War I. Being a period of time when Ottoman cultural codes were brought under question, these years also contain the social trauma sustained during the quest for the "new people" of the country. 

The book visits themes in sociology, psychology and anthropology to shed light on political science. 

IMIS (International Management and Industrial Engineering Summit) which is one of the most comprehensive student event in Sabancı University is organized by Industrial Engineering Society (IES) every year. This year, IMIS’18 Risk Intelligence is going to take place on 3th and 4th March in Sabancı University Performing Arts Center.

**The event will be held in Turkish. 

Materials Science and Engineering 2009 master's graduate Canan Dağdeviren spoke at the UN General Assembly on occasion of February 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Science. 

Canan Dağdeviren was invited to make a speech at the third International Day of Women and Girls in Science, established by the United Nations in 2015 to increase the role of women and girls in science and encourage participation in STEM education and research at all levels, where she stated that her greatest influence on her successful journey in science was Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, and his statement that "If one day science contradicts my words, then science must prevail."

Discussing her passion for science since early in her childhood, Dağdeviren said that she frequently visited Turkey to meet with children and teenagers to motivate them to take up scientific studies, and kept in touch with them over social media.

Click below to watch Canan's speech.

We have been accepted to the membership of SEFI (European Society for Engineering Education), the largest communication network among engineering education actors in Europe.

European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI, https://www.sefi.be/about/ )

With the SEFI membership, Sabancı University now has a place in a platform where concrete plans are developed and implemented to improve and expand engineering education in Europe.

The network provided by SEFI, where our Vice President Şirin Tekinay is a Member of the Board of Directors, will enable our students and faculty to make use of cooperation or long-term exchange programs between institutional members.

Benefits of SEFI institutional membership include:

• The participation in the political debate on higher engineering education and therefore, becoming an actor in the discussions on higher engineering education policies in Europe
• The promotion of our institution to a European and international audience through wider publicity for our events, new courses and programs
• Access to new innovative and best practice and to knowledge sharing
• Participation in European frontier activities in the SEFI Working Groups
• Networking opportunities
• Participation in general SEFI activities (Standing Working Groups and Ad Hoc Task Forces), annual Conferences (with reduced registration fees), Deans Conventions, International Cooperation, and International Projects
• The SEFI Publications, for free or with a special price reduction

About SEFI

Founded in 1973 as non-profit international organisation, SEFI, the Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs (European Society or Engineering Education), is the largest network of higher engineering education actors in Europe.

SEFI maintains official relationships with UNESCO and the Council of Europe, as well as with many other engineering organisations all over the world.

SEFI is a founding member of EuroPACE, IACEE and of IFEES. At the beginning of 2011, in cooperation with IFEES, SEFI established the International Institute for Developing Engineering Academics (IIDEA).

SEFI is also a founding member of ENAEE, the European Network for the Accreditation of Engineering Education, which is the first example of a European Engineering Education Accreditation body.

Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) member Meltem Elitaş won funding from the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie International Fellowship and Research Exchange Actions.

Being competitive and hard to enter, MSCA programs are considered the pinnacle of international funding and a great prestige for the scholar and their country.

The 24-month Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Action project titled "Development of Microfluid Devices and Mathematical Models for Measuring the Individual Antibiotic Reaction of Cells" is implemented by FENS Faculty Member Dr. Meltem Elitaş with FENS Faculty Member Dr. Ali Koşar as advisor, and was chosen for support under the Individual Fellowships of the MSCA by the Reintegration Panel (RI).

The subject of Dr. Meltem Elitaş’s project:

Antibiotic resistance is becoming a severe public health issue as it causes infections that were believed to have been eradicated, and because alternatives to replace antibiotics in use cannot be developed. One of the key shortcomings in the field is the lack of adequate, suitable devices and mathematical models to investigate the resistance developed by germs agains antibiotics. This project aims to develop mathematical methods and laboratory equipment that will be used to study antibiotic resistance and develop new drugs for treatment.

Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions seek to improve human potential in research and technology, support the careed development of researchers, encourage researcher mobility between countries and industries, and develop Europe and Turkey into a center of attraction for researchers.

MSCA Individual Fellowships provide opportunities to experienced researhcers within and outside Europe to learn new knowledge and disseminate what they learn. In particular, the program provides support for researchers who had worked in Europe before and seek to return and become reintegrated. The Intra-European Exchange Component provides exchange opportunities between the universities or industrial companies in EU Member States and associated countries like Turkey, which are part of the Horizon 2020 program.

Computer Science and Engineering PhD graduate and visiting faculty member Duygu Karaoğlan Altop won the inaugural "Cyber Security Doctorate and Graduate Dissertation Prize" given in association with the Public Cyber Security Society. 

Duygu won the prize with her dissertation under advisor Professor Albert Levi on Security for Body Area Networks. In her dissertation defense, our graduate emphasized the importance of security among the sensor nodes that receive, store and communicate sensitive personal information, highlighting an example where a hijacking the EKG signal of a cardiac pacemaker can allow perpetrators to give an electic shock to the wearer of the pacemaker. Altop said that not only could these devices be targeted for attacks, but also could compromise the security of personal information.

We spoke to Duygu about the intricacies of personal information security and her award-winning research.

Can you briefly discuss your dissertation?

The title of my dissertation is "Secure Intra-Network Communications for Body Area Networks". Body Area Networks use widely-available communication techniques to enable real-time, continuous and remote monitoring of an individual's health. 

What was the system you developed? 

Using wearable sensors, these networks monitor the vital signs of their users without disrupting their daily lives. Since these sensors collect sensitive medical data about individuals and transmit them over wireless networks, their security is critical. But the security capabilities of these sensors is quite low unlike our phones or computers, so the methods used in other applications cannot be used here, and system-specific models are required. We developed a system where sensors can generate cryptographic keys from physiological signs that they monitor, such as EKG, blood pressure and pulse rate. 

In other words, the keys that encrypt the communication among sensors that measure physiological signs were created out of the very signs they measured.  This eliminates the need for the user to remember a password, and creates a truly unique and personal encryption key. We discussed the results of our study in three conference papers and three journal articles.

What would you like to say about the prize you won?

I think it will motivate people who work in this area. I was happy and proud to be recognized by an important organization. My advisor, Professor Albert Levi, deserves much credit for his unwavering support throughout my studies.

Cybersecurity is a critical factor nowadays.  Is there anything you would like to say about this matter?

Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly popular lately. We should have been paying attention all along. With our extensive use of the virtual world, security has become a critical area. Concerns that had been overlooked in the beginning are slowly coming under the limelight. Universities are now addressing this issue, and here at Sabancı University, we are now accepting students to a non-dissertation master's program on cybersecurity.   

Dear Sabancı University Community,

We remember our Founding President, the distinguished scientist Tosun Terzioğlu, on the second anniversary of his passing, and commemorate this emotional day with the inauguration of the Tosun Terzioğlu Mathematics Chair.

The objective of the Chair will be to support and develop research in Mathematics.    

In addition to the Chair, a Visiting Program will be endowed to improve collaboration opportunities and boost the research potential of the Sabancı University Mathematics Group. The Chair will reflect our university philosophy of building an organization that is participatory, application-oriented, sensitive to student and stakeholder needs.

We are working to find an ideal candidate for the Chair, who will have outstanding influence in their field, possess superior research skills, and be able to cooperate in areas beyond Mathematics. We will share information about their areas of research and projects when the position is filled.  

We are confident that the Chair will produce studies that honor the memory of Tosun Hoca, who will always be in our hearts with his pioneering spirit in generating and disseminating scientific knowledge, and we are always ready for support. 

Sincerely,

Hasan Mandal 

Acting President

Call for Instructor Proposals - ECON Courses

Sabanci University Summer School (June 25 - August 17, 2018) has job
openings for university instructors concerning the following
undergraduate courses in economics:

ECON204 Microeconomics
ECON301 Econometrics

The courses will be conducted in English. For more information about the
courses, please visit Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences website:

http://econ.sabanciuniv.edu/

The applicants should have previous teaching experience of these courses
at the undergraduate level and should send a package containing their
C.V., and evidence of teaching ability to:

Sena Balkaya
Summer School Office
E-mail: summer@sabanciuniv.edu

Accommodation for accepted instructors will be provided at the Sabancı
University campus. Moreover, associated economy class return flight
tickets of accepted instructors will be reimbursed upon confirmation.

Application deadline is March 8, 2018. The evaluations will start
immediately.

An article on HarvestPlus-HarvestZinc project published in Turkey's #1 newspaper Hurriyet on February 7, 2018 

Prof. Ismail Cakmak has been travelling for 9 years, from country to country, field to field, to train farmers to tackle hidden hunger, which affects 2 billion people worldwide. 

Rice field in India

Prof. Ismail Cakmak, a faculty member of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Sabanci University, has been travelling from country to country, field to field, for 9 years, to fight hidden hunger. The major donour to this fight against hidden hunger is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  As a consequence of the modern varieties that spread with the green revolution in agriculture, agricultural productivity increased significantly, although the proteins and micronutrient content of the food we eat has diminished.  There are still 815 million people facing hunger, i.e. do not have access to food, in the world. 2 billion people suffer from hidden hunger, even if they have access to food. 

Maize field in Zambia

MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENT

Hidden hunger occurs because the foods consumed by these people are deficient with respect to micronutrients which are essential for a healthy life. CSOs, universities, scientists and fertilizer companies collaborate to tackle hidden hunger, which affects women and children the most. Micronutrient deficiency affects children’s cognitive and physical development, and immune systems of all. HarvestPlus one of the global projects fighting against hidden hunger.  HarvestZinc project is under the umbrella of HarvestPlus and is led by Sabanci University. The aim of HarvestZinc project is to biofortify staple crops with zinc. Sabanci University has received USD5.5 million for this project up until now. 

Rice field in Thailand

BIOFORTIFICATION IN THE FIELD

To date Prof. Ismail Cakmak has given seminars in about 45 countries on this research topic. The national and international projects he has led, have received over USD16 million in funding. Prof. Ismail Cakmak, the winner of the the 2016 World Academy of Sciences Prize in Agricultural Sciences, said that; “In developing countries, specifically in rural areas, people meet a huge part of their daily energy needs from staple foods. Therefore a simple solution for tackling hidden hunger is to biofortify in the field the staple crops consumed every day. This is achieved via breeding and fertilization. We are trying to teach this by reaching out to the farmers. In the project countries, this process is supported through farmer subsidies. It is more cost-effective to fortify staple crops, than to tackle deficiencies through supplements. In developing countries, 5% of the domestic income is lost to hidden hunger. This is not only a health issue, but also an economic development issue”.

Hurriyet Journalist Mesude Erşan and Ismail Çakmak

Farmer pays USD15 for 1 hectare

Prof, Ismail Cakmak said that the process of micronutrient fortification via fertilization costs the farmer 15 dollars for 1 hectare of land. He stated that “This is not a high cost and is covered by all means by the yield increase. Farmers are incentivized when they realize that the micronutrients in their grains are valued”. The projects differ across countries, based on the most commonly consumed staple of each country. For example in the context of the project conducted in Zambia, farmers are trained to fortify maize with zinc during planting. 

Planting rice in Thailand

TURKEY’S SOIL IS DEFICIENT TOO

Prof. Ismail Cakmak reminded that the iodine and other micronutrients levels are low in crops in Turkey, and that these levels need to be increased. He explained as follows, “Wheat consumption in Turkey is very high Soils in Turkey are micronutrient deficient. Hence, fighting hidden hunger should be among the top priorities. We never discuss hidden hunger in Turkey, but we should discuss it at least as much as we discuss obesity”.

WE FOCUS ON INCREASING IRON AND ZINC

Prof. Ismail Cakmak has been implementing the HarvestZinc Project in 12 countries, including Turkey, over 4 phases. Prof. Ismail Cakmak stated that “in the forthcoming three-year phase of the project, we will continue to conduct research activities in China, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey. We have partnerships in the universities in these countries. We focus on increasing iron, zinc, iodine and selenium levels in commonly consumed staple crops in these countries.”.

Rice field in China

Resource: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/dunyanin-gizli-aclikla-savasinda-tahilin-efendisi-40733534