Batın Mert Karahasanoğlu, a student at the Electronics Engineering Program, the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabancı University has been awarded IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-graduate Scholarship by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society with his “Phase Shifter” project, which is one of the lower blocks of the 5G circuit that he designed. Karahasanoğlu, who has a double major in Mechatronics Engineering Program, has also been awarded a Fulbright Master's Scholarship. 

Below is our interview with Batın Mert Karahasanoğlu. 

Hello, first of all, congratulations. Before we talk about the scholarships that you have received, can you tell us a little about how you decided to study Electronics Engineering at Sabancı University?         

B.M.K: I wanted to start my university life in Istanbul and I had 3 universities in mind. When I came for the introduction days of Sabancı, I listened to the speech of our then Rector, Nihat Berker, and then I had the opportunity to chat with him. I can say that the reason I prioritized Sabancı among my choices was what I heard from Mr. Berker. 

To tell you about the process of choosing my department, I have always had an interest in mathematics and physics. I was also curious about the working principles of smart tools, devices that can communicate with each other. I chose the Electronics Engineering Program because I thought it would satisfy my interest and curiosity. 

Currently, you are continuing your double major and minor education at our university. How was your decision-making process regarding that? 

B.M.K: Electronics Engineering to me is the factory floor, I am learning the working principles of every device around us that we describe as smart, how they work and what they do.   On the one hand, it was also interesting that these electronic commands turned into a physical movement. With my curiosity at this point and the lessons I received as a result, I decided that the Mechatronics double major would be suitable for me. Being a double major with two engineering majors was theoretically very satisfying, but I also wanted to have an idea about social sciences. I would say that the fact that it includes courses on international relations, economics, and is based on the topic of energy were the main reasons I chose the energy minor. 

What kind of things did you do during your undergraduate studies at Sabancı University? Can you tell us a little bit about your campus life, about the club work you were actively involved in? 

B.M.K: When I look at my undergraduate education at Sabancı University, I think I was able to achieve a balance both academically and socially. Because I was from out of town, I stayed in the dormitory all my college life. In this way, I took advantage of the low intensity of courses in the early years of my education and had different experiences in different clubs. Although I had no previous experience, I participated in sailing courses of SUSail because I was interested in sailing. After that, I learned Latin dances in SUDance and joined a performing group. At the same time, I picked up tennis and still continue to play. In later years of my education, I turned to more technical clubs. As of the beginning of last year, I was on the Board of Directors of the Motorsport Technologies club and the IEEE Student Branch. This is how I can summarize my undergraduate activities in Sabancı. 

You have received the MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-Graduate Scholarship of IEEE and a Fulbright Master’s Scholarship in America. Once again, congratulations. Can you tell us about these scholarships?

B.M.K: Thank you. The scholarship I have received from IEEE is an international scholarship that students who work at a high frequency at the undergraduate level can apply for with their projects. My final project was on 5G circuit design under the supervision of Prof. Yaşar Gürbüz. I designed the “Phase Shifter”, one of the lower blocks of the 5G circuit, was made entirely by myself. I applied with a report containing a logical explanation of the topology I chose, the design stages, the simulation performance of the design, and a literature comparison. I am also happy to have been awarded a prestigious award given in my field with the work I have done in return for a high work pace of about 9 months. At this point, I would like to thank Mr. Gürbüz and the SUMER team for their support in the project process.

The other scholarship I am eligible for is the Fulbright Master’s scholarship. This scholarship covers education and living expenses during your Master's studies in the United States. At the first stage, you create an application package containing the documents they ask for and submit it to the commission. If deemed appropriate, you will proceed to the interview stage. At this stage, you are interviewed by 2 professors from the field you want to have your Master’s in and 1 representative from the Fulbright commission. If you are deemed appropriate at the end of this process, you are eligible for the scholarship. 

What are your plans for the next semester regarding the scholarships that you have been awarded? 

B.M.K: I want to assess the scholarships I have received and have my master's degree at a good university in the United States. I am trying to decide on the universities I am going to apply to these days. Although I had some universities and study groups in my head, I could not make my decision yet. After completing my master's studies in electronics engineering, I am planning to start my business life at a global company. We are going through a process where there is a lot of uncertainty, so time will be a determining factor as well. 

Do you have any advice for our undergraduate students who are just starting Sabancı University? 

B.M.K: First of all, I would like to welcome them all.

I advise them to be curious and aware. Proper planning and time management have been the biggest gains of my university life. In this way, you realize that you do not have to choose between academic success and a fulfilling social life. I do a double major and minor, I did a an exchange program in Hong Kong, had an internship in Germany, I have been awarded two international scholarships, I am an active board member of two clubs, and I am currently working part-time at a global firm. I am not the first person to do this, and I will not be the last. The bigger your goals are, the bigger the steps you need to take towards that goal. All my best to you. 

“Sky is not the limit your mind is” 

Is there anything you want to add?         

B.M.K: Undergraduate life remains beautiful with memories, I thank all my friends involved in these memories, but especially Ufuk Avcı and Serra Güllü.

Founded by Sabancı University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2015, Turkey's first and only Big Behavioral Data Analysis and Visualization Laboratory (BAVLAB) continues its activities without interruption. BAVLAB has extend its protocol term until 2025 by including New College of Florida in its collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and will further expand its work on big data analytics. 

Selim Balcısoy, Prof. Pentland (MIT), Burçin Bozkaya

Our master’s students, doctoral students, and post-doctoral researchers have conducted studies under the management and guidance of faculty members within the scope of BAVLAB’s collaboration with MIT Media Lab. Two doctoral students from Sabancı University have visited MIT and two post-doctoral researchers from MIT have visited Sabancı University. More than 15 joint publications have been produced. In cooperation with MIT, a common benefit was created by carrying out different studies related to Sabancı Holding, Akbank, and Sabancıdx. 

The Directors of BAVLAB Selim Balcısoy, a Faculty Member at the Engineering and Natural Sciences, and Burçin Bozkaya, a Member at the Sabancı Business School shared their views about the expansion of the collaboration with MIT Media Lab with the participation of New College of Florida. 

Emphasizing that this collaboration is a new model which is based on academic excellence, does not receive any corporate funding, and continues with the logic of a collaborative work only for the advancement of science, Selim Balcısoy said "With the protocol signed by all three schools, our school's access to international scientific networks and its opportunities to contribute to joint research will increase." Burçin Bozkaya noted that with this cooperation between the three universities, both the scope of experience and connections that the students of Sabancı University can gain abroad, as well as the content and scale of research projects that can be carried out with the academic staff of the three schools, will greatly expand. Regarding the inclusion of New College in the ongoing collaboration between BAVLAB and MIT over the past 5 years, Bozkaya said “It will be possible for more graduate students to participate in research activities in the field of Data Science."

Our Faculty Member İsmail Çakmak Ranks First in Turkey and Sixth in The World in The List of The Most Influential Scientists of The World

A team consisting of scientists from the United States of America and the Netherlands identified the most influential scientists of the world based on variables such as number of scientific papers, number of citations, number of authors, authorship position, and citation to own paper and using a composite indicator scientific impact index. 

The study classifying 100,000 top scientists of the world into 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields was carried out under the coordination of Stanford University and published in the scientific journal named Plos Biology. The study included about 7 million researchers who have published at least five papers between 1996-2017 and listed 100,000 scientists. İsmail Çakmak, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences of Sabancı University, has ranked first in Turkey and sixth in the world in his field in The List of The Most Influential Scientists of The World, which included 196 scientists from Turkey. 

Conducting his studies on mineral nutrition of crops and nutritional physiology and focusing on micro-nutrient deficiency (particularly zinc and iodine deficiency) which has affected approximately 2 billion people in the world in recent year and is known as hidden hunger, İsmail Çakmak, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences of our university, has ranked 3394th among the list of 100,000 most influential scientists of the world, the first in Turkey and the sixth in the field of Agronomy-Agriculture. 

You can access the open database and list including 100,000 top scientists around the world on “https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/1/files/51ba39a5-4de9-4c79-b180-f0ca4d5747ed”. 

About İsmail Çakmak

İsmail Çakmak studies plant nutrition and nutritional physiology. His research in recent years focuses on micro-nutrient deficiency which affects approximately 2 billion people in the world today and is known as hidden hunger. Over the past 12 years, he has been conducting research in 15 countries to enrich grains such as corn, wheat, and rice which are often consumed by humans in terms of zinc, selenium, and iodine through agricultural strategies, and reduce the widespread problem of hidden hunger in humans.

According to the Scopus database, he has published more than 200 articles in international scientific journals. These articles were cited 17,400 times according to Scopus and 32,200 times according to Google Scholar. His H-index value is 70 according to Scopus and 91 according to Google Scholar.  

In 2017 and 2019, he was selected to the Highly Cited Researchers list by Clarivate Analytics (Thomson Reuters).  

He received the Science Prize of TÜBİTAK in 1999, the International Norman Borlaug Crop Nutrition Award of the International Fertilizer Industry Association (Paris) in 2005, the Crawford Fund “Derek Tribe Award Medal” (Canberra, Australia) in 2007, the Georg Forster Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Berlin, Germany) in 2014, the Science Prize of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (Atlanta) and World Academy of Sciences Prize in Agricultural Sciences (Trieste) in 2016.  In 2012, he was elected member of “the Science Academy of Turkey” and “the Academy of Europe”.

A team consisting of scientists from the United States of America and the Netherlands identified the most influential scientists of the world based on variables such as number of scientific papers, number of citations, number of authors, authorship position, and citation to own paper and using a composite indicator scientific impact index.  

The study classifying 100,000 top scientists of the world into 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields was carried out under the coordination of Stanford University and published in the scientific journal named Plos Biology. The study included about 7 million researchers who have published at least five papers between 1996-2017 and listed 100,000 scientists.  

Durmuş Ali Demir, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences of Sabancı University, has been included in The List of The Most Influential Scientists of The World, which included 196 scientists from Turkey.  

Conducting studies on quantum physics, the concept of time in the quantum world, and the fading of quantum leaps through gravitational attraction, Durmuş Ali Demir, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, has been included in the list of 100,000 most influential scientists of the world under the category of Physics. 

You can access the open database and list including 100,000 top scientists around the world on “https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/1/files/51ba39a5-4de9-4c79-b180-f0ca4d5747ed”. 

About Durmuş Ali Demir

Durmuş Ali Demir graduated from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, METU in 1991.  Demir, who completed a minor program at the Physics Department, METU at the same time, completed his Master's studies in 1993 and Doctoral studies in 1994 at the Physics Department of METU. He later conducted post-doctoral studies in the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA; 1996-1997), the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy; 1998-2000), and the Theoretical Physics Institute (Minnesota, USA; 2000-2003). Demir started working at Izmir Institute of Technology in 2003 and participated in the Eurasian Research Center Initiative of ICTP in addition to his administrative duties. He has been working as a faculty member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences of Sabancı University since 2019.

Durmuş Ali Demir is a member of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the Science Academy-Istanbul.  He received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He also received TÜBİTAK Incentive Prize, TÜBA Incentive Prize, Parlar Foundation Incentive Prize, and Sedat Semavi Science Prize.  He is one of the editors of LHEP Journal.

The Creative Technologies Atelier of Sabancı University, which aims to raise individuals who are aware of the world's problems, have the desire and ability to find solutions to the problems, and who are capable of achieving sustainable development, will organize remote (online) courses for primary school students in the region specific to the pandemic period.

The first module of the online program will be held between 7 September - 2 October 2020 in collaboration with Ayvalık District Directorate of National Education. Students will take courses on electronic prototyping, the programming language Python, electronics as a hobby, drone technologies, 3-D printers, and 3-D modeling. Students will learn the most basic information about the technologies of the future in the courses to be given by the employees of Collaboration Space, the fabrication laboratory located in the Information Center of Sabancı University.

Children in need will be provided with computers by Sabancı University within the scope of the program.

Objective of sustainability in the education of the youth and women

Established in 2019, Küçükköy Creative Technologies  Atelier of Sabancı University is organizing technology-focused courses for the benefit of society observing children’s right to education and equality in cooperation with the District Governorship of Ayvalık, the Ayvalık Municipality, and the District Directorate of National Education of Ayvalık.

Hosting different projects to ensure the sustainability in the education of the youth and women, educational activities in the Creative Technologies Workshop are carried out by the Faculty Members and students of Sabancı University. Children in the 8-15 age group and women are prioritized in courses.

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.”