The International Relations Office organized “”3rd International Staff Week” on our campus from May 13th to 17th within the framework of the Erasmus+ project.
This year's event, conducted in collaboration with Koç University for the first time. We hosted participants from 24 different countries, 31 different institutions at total 43 administrative and academic representatives including Czechia, India, Iran, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Kosovo, Romania, and Russia. Participants from Koç University visited our campus on Tuesday, May 14th, while our participants joined the program at Koç University campus on Thursday, May 16th.
The event began with an opening speech by our Secretary-General, Ali Çalışkan, introducing our university, followed by a presentation from Evrim Güngör Devecioğlu, Manager of the International Exchange and Cooperation Office, who provided insights into the structure of our international office and highlighted SÜ's prominent digital mobility practices. On the second day, our Vice President, Prof. Dr. Cem Güneri, shared information about Sabancı University's education and research policies, as well as the work of the International Relations Office, outlining the targeted activities within SÜ's internationalization strategy.
Additionally, Prof. Dr. Meltem Müftüler Baç, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, delivered a speech titled "The new crossroads for Turkey: Global and Regional Challenges". Prof. Dr. Kemal Kılıç discussed "Learning Agility and VUCA", while our faculty member Kerem Kılıç presented "How to Make Better Decisions" with an interactive participation. Furthermore, Zeynep Bahar provided insights into CIP Projects, as a best practices of our university.
During the event, faculty members from the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Berrin Yanıkoğlu and İnanç Arın, shared information about our "Artificial Intelligence" studies. Our students also presented their projects as part of the ENS course and received great admiration and appreciation from the participants. Our students Kaan Akçay, Mustafa Ozan Yaman, İbrahim Ege Oral, Ömer Can Öztürk, and Deniz Çetin provided information by simulating their project titled "Designing and Implementing an LLM-based Course Assistant for Sabancı University", while Kutay Yüceak, Eray Öztürk, Steven El Khaldi and Beyzagül Demir presented their project "Designing and Implementing an LLM-based Assistant for the Dean's Office at Sabancı University" in a similar manner.
Additionally, active exchange students at our university, Esther Bergmans (Wageningen University), Yaqub Dent (La Trobe University), Enas Ibrahim Abu Toubeh (The University of Jordan), and Ning Chen (Shanghai University), shared their experiences about Sabancı University and Istanbul.
As one of the most grant-receiving foundation universities, our university continues to promote international student mobility and collaboration, offering opportunities for academics to teach or conduct research in other countries. Moreover, it provides our administrative staff with the chance to gain experience in the administrative units of different universities abroad and learn best practices.