Computer Science and Engineering 2013 graduate Serhat Can Leloğlu (BSCS'10 & MSCS'13) came third in the Hack-a-thon, held in California’s Silicon Valley by sponsors including Google, Oracle and BOX.  Can Leloğlu is currently a software engineer in FuzeBox, California.

Hack-a-thon is a 24- or 48-hour project competition and coding marathon on specific subjects and platforms.

Computer Science and Engineering 2007 graduate Sarp Centel (BSCS'07) was featured in the article “Mad Turks of Silicon Valley” in the Hürriyet daily.

Here is an excerpt of the article on Sarp Centel, a member of the team that develops mobile apps for Instagram:

Head hunters got him for Instagram

Sarp Centel is another Turkish national who has been enjoying success in Silicon Valley.  Sarp Centel was employed in the technology department of a mobile operator in Turkey.  He resigned to start his own business, but when that didn’t work out, he started working in a UK-based company.  Centel was discovered by Instagram’s talent hunters, and relocated to the Silicon Valley offices of the company.  Centel is now a member of the team that develops mobile apps for Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook for 1 billion dollars.  Centel says that he gained a year’s worth of experience in a month.  Centel continues, “When my own business did not end up well, I decided to work towards going to Silicon Valley.  The entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey is developing rapidly, but my objective is to gain experience in Silicon Valley for five years before starting a technology company in Turkey.”

The original article is available here.

For more information about Sarp Centel, you can visit his personal website.

The latest film of Beyza Boyacıoğlu, a 2009 graduate of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design who is currently a documentary director in America, was accepted to New York Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) Documentary Fortnight festival.

Boyacıoğlu’s documentary Toñita’s Club is a portrait of the last Puerto Rican social club in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  The documentary will premier during MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight 2014 festival.  The film will be a part of the American Stories short film program and will be screened on February 22 at 2 pm and February 23 at 5 pm.  Screenings will be followed by discussions with directors Beyza Boyacıoğlu and Sebastian Diaz.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/85047629

Toñita’s is a portrait of the last Puerto Rican social club in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a rapidly gentrified area that used to be a neighborhood of Caribbean immigrants.  The short documentary dives into the microcosm of Caribbean Club (also fondly labeled ‘Toñita’s’ after its owner Maria Toñita), in order to talk about urban space, displacement and identity. The film zigzags between nightlife and daytime activities at the club, and the testimonies of its regulars. Music and dance constitute a crucial part of the film as Toñita’s is a love letter to Nuyorican culture. When the club scenes are interrupted with interviews, each testimony touches upon a specific issue, such as the history of the neighborhood, gentrification, Nuyorican music and dance, and Puerto Rican identity. The interviews paint a complicated picture of the neighborhood and the local community. Caribbean Club regulars confront the new South Side with mixed feelings, as they also reveal a sweet-sour relationship with the past. A recurring subject in the interviews is the owner Toñita, the matriarch of the community, devoted to keep the club open “until she falls”.

Toñita’s is produced at 2013 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio and is a part of UnionDocs’ Living Los Sures project. This multi-faceted project restores Diego Echeverria’s 1984 film Los Sures, makes it accessible to audiences online, remixes local histories through a web documentary platform, and reinvestigates Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn today through a collection of short films.

Beyza Boyacıoğlu is a New York, Cambridge and Istanbul based documentary filmmaker, video artist and curator. She was a fellow in 2012-2013 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio in Brooklyn. She curates ‘Fiction-Non’, a documentary series exploring narrative/non-fiction hybrid films, at Maysles Cinema in Harlem. Her work as a video artist has been exhibited in many venues including MoMA (New York), The Invisible Dog Art Center (Brooklyn), NoteOn (Berlin), and Sakıp Sabancı Museum (Istanbul). Sabancı University Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design 2009 graduate Boyacıoğlu currently works as a videographer and a video editor at Harvard University.

www.tonitasdocumentary.com

3D revolution at Sabancı University

For the first time, macro-vascular tissue constructs were 3D printed by using self-supported live cells directly from medical images at the 3D Tissue and Organ Printing Lab.

Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences’ Manufacturing Systems Program professor Bahattin Koç and his team printed an artificial macro-vascular tissue construct using self-supported live cells at the 3D Tissue and Organ Printing Lab, Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM).

The ultimate goal of the 3D tissue and organ printing group led by Prof. Bahattin Koç is to use three-dimensional bio-printers to print anatomically correct parts of or an entire tissue/organ by using the patient’s own regular cells or stem cells.  Because the patient’s own cells are used, transplant rejection may not be a problem anymore.

The team was the first in Turkey and the world to use MR data to recreate an anatomically correct aortic tissue construct by using self-supporting live cell printing.  The project team used live cells in a 3D bio-printer to create an anatomically correct human aortic tissue construct directly from medical images.  Different from other techniques, the 3D structures printed by Sabancı University scientists are self-supported in 3D. 

About the 3D Tissue and Organ Printing

The 3D Tissue and Organ Printing Group used live human dermal fibroblast cells as bio-ink to print a part of aortic tissue.  Human blood vessel tissue consists of mainly three types of cells: fibroblast, endothelial and smooth muscle.  Fibroblast cells are the main cell types of connective tissue.  They synthesize the extracellular matrix and collagen needed for tissues.  Endothelium is the thin inner layer of cells of blood vessels.  Smooth muscle cells are found in inner organs such as blood vessels, esophagus and intestines.  The scientists continue their efforts to 3D bio-print macro-vascular tissue constructs with fibroblasts as well as endothelial and smooth muscle cells in a bioreactor.

The interdisciplinary team of researchers and graduate students in manufacturing systems, biology, nanotechnology and materials receive support from Prof. Devrim Gözüaçık and his team from Sabancı University for cell culturing and molecular biology at the initial part of the project, Prof. Mustafa Çulha and his team from Yeditepe University for cell culturing and molecular biology, Prof. Alpay Taralp from Sabancı University  for biomaterials and Prof. Bayram Koç from Gülhane Military Medical Academy in medical areas.

Sabancı University Manufacturing Systems Program Faculty Member Bahattin Koç explains the 3D Tissue and Organ Printing Project:

There are two main reasons why we focus on the aorta: First, the aorta is the largest artery in the body that caries blood to all other vessels.  Since no other blood vessel is as large as the aorta, it is not possible to replace the damaged aorta by an autologous graft.  Synthetic vessels made of plastic (dacron) are currently being used for treatment, but these are never as good as real human blood vessels.  Moreover, if artificial tissue or organs are to be engineered, we would first need blood vessels to supply oxygen and nutrition to them.  An interesting fact that few people know is that Einstein died of an aneurism in the abdominal aorta.  Aneurism is the expansion of a vessel like a balloon.  In later phases, this may cause the vessel to rupture, leading to internal hemorrhage and even death.  As a result of our work, we may be able to produce artificial aorta using the patient’s own regular or stem cells, eliminating transplant rejection.  We are at the beginnings of this work, and clinical studies may take years.

Unlike most of the previous scaffold-based tissue engineering studies, we use live cells as bio-ink in 3D printing.  Using the algorithms we developed, we calculate the optimal paths to print the cells by mimicking the anatomy of the tissue to be produced.  Another difference is that we print anatomically-correct tissues where all cells are self-supported in 3D. We determine how the support hydrogel structures will be used to support the cells.    After determining where and how cells and their support hydrogels are printed, we save these commands to a file, and then use this file to control the bio-printer.

Our overall goal is to obtain 3D print replacement tissues and even organs that is anatomically accurate and able to meet physiological needs.  We are not at the stage of building fully functional organs or tissues yet, but we are working towards this objective.

The previous research work of Bahattin Koç in 3D Tissue and Organ Printing

Sabancı University Manufacturing Systems Engineering faculty Bahattin Koç started his research on Additive Manufacturing or so-called 3D printing 16 years ago.  He has been working on tissue engineering applications of 3D printing for last 7 years, starting at the University at Buffalo (SUNY).  His research included the design and manufacturing of artificial skin and 3D support structures, known as scaffolds, to improve wound healing in a project supported by the US Department of Defense.  Koç has been working on 3D bio-printing of artificial tissues and organs using live cells for over 2 years.

By Melek Sarı

Canan Dağdeviren (M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering, 2009) is coming under limelight in the United States with her successful work.

Canan Dağdeviren is working on flexible and bendable electronic devices that can be implanted into the body or on the skin. Her work extends across physics, electronics, chemistry, materials, mechanics and medicine.

Dağdeviren was the top of the list in her field to be entitled to a Fulbright Doctoral Fellowship, which was given for the first time in Turkey in 2009, and was admitted to the Material Science and Engineering Department of The University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign. 

Her work, published in the prestigious American journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS),' explains a flexible, ultra-thin device that generates electricity with the motion of the heart, lungs and diaphragm, and can store that energy.

Dağdeviren says that her work in the cardiology center of the Arizona State University hospital yielded good results on sheep, calves and pigs –animals that have hearts that are comparable in size to humans– and that the energy generated from the motion of internal organs was sufficient to run a cardiac pacemaker.

Dağdeviren continued, “This technology stands to disrupt the existing technology, which is cumbersome, costly, and has no mechanical affinity to the heart whatsoever.  Being fully flexible and bendable like paper, the device ensures a close fit with curvaceous organs.  This provides an energy-efficient system that does not hinder the natural motion of the organs.”

Patented by Dağdeviren this week, the device was covered by a multitude of news media, including Smithsonian Magazine, Popular Mechanics, CBS News, LA Times, BBC News, Chemical and Engineering News, New Scientist, and Chemistry World.

Dağdeviren’s idea won her the “International Maria Pia” prize of USD 10,000 in 2012 among 40,000 students.  Starting July, Dağdeviren will work on artificial skin and organs at the Harvard Medical School.

Dağdeviren’s outstanding achievement will make it possible to replace clogged vessels or failing hearts.  The parts developed by Dağdeviren will be fully functional, and be able to generate their own energy by reading parameters that include pressure, temperature and blood flow.

Source http://www.amerikaliturk.com/news/manset/55992-canan-dagdeviren-abdde-is...

Sabancı University School of Management’s MBA Program will take part in the online MBA Fair held annually by The Economist.

The Economist Which MBA? will be held on February 5, 6 and 8, 2014.  MBA candidates can access the fair after filling out a very short form, and can visit the virtual booths where the most prestigious schools of the world introduce their MBA programs.  The fair is expected to attract more than 4000 MBA candidates from 145 countries.  Sabancı University MBA Programs Administrative Associate Burcu Albayrak, Professional Programs Director Yusuf Soner, former MBA Academic Director Can Akkan and Executive MBA Administrative Associate İpek İzet will participate in live sessions and provide information about programs.

Among the participants of the fair, 32% are from North America, 27% from Asia, 22% from Europe, 8% from Middle East/Africa, 6% from South and Central America, and 3% from South Pacific.

Live sessions (Turkish time)
Wednesday, February 5, 2014 14:00- 17:00 / 19:30 - 22:30
Thursday, February 6, 2014 17:00 - 20:00
Saturday, February 8, 2014 17:00 - 20:00

Please click below to visit the Sabancı University  School of Management MBA Program booth: http://mbaevent.whichmba.com/

The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium – (IWGSC), whose only Turkish implementer is a Sabancı University team led by Biological Sciences and Bioengineering professor Hikmet Budak, is to receive €1 million from Bayer CropScience for physical map completion.

The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) announced today that it will receive approximately €1 million (EUR) over the next six months from Bayer CropScience (BCS) to support physical mapping of several wheat chromosomes. The goal of BCS’s contribution is to accelerate the consortium’s wheat genome sequencing effort for drought- and disease-resistant wheat genes.

The only Turkish partner of this immense project is a project team of 7, led by Sabancı University Biological Sciences and Bioengineering professor Hikmet Budak. 

In the Turkish leg of the project, Sabancı University scientists supported by TÜBİTAK and the European Union will seek to complete the physical mapping of one other chromosome in addition to 1AL and 5D chromosomes.  These chromosomes carry the genes that control drought resistance, quality and disease resistance traits in wheat.  As a result, the efforts have direct implications on increased wheat profitability and food safety in Turkey, where wheat remains a staple in the diet.  The Sabancı University project team will make the actual/physical locations of the genes in the mapped chromosomes and their related genes and markers available to researchers in Turkish public and private research institutions first.

Other participating countries of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium include UK, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Norway, Estonia, Russia, India, China, Japan, Australia, Israel and the United States.

About the Wheat Genome Sequencing Project:

DNA sequencing of the wheat genome will be a critical tool in observing and determining the functions of wheat genes, and will help to develop new genotypes that are highly efficient.

The funding for the project is expected to create resources for the development of new and more sustainable wheat genotypes that are resistant to draught and disease, and to accelerate plant breeder and farmer production programs globally.

About the Sabancı University project team:

Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences’ Biological Sciences and Bioengineering program professor Hikmet Budak and his team have been working on the project since 2005, supported by TÜBİTAK and the EU 7th Framework Program. 

Professor Hikmet Budak has a doctorate in genetics and improvement from Lincoln University in Nebraska, with a minor in statistics.  After completing his degree, he was appointed as plant genetics coordinator in the same university.  Budak returned to Turkey in 2004 to join the faculty of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at Sabancı University.  His awards include a Turkish Academy of Sciences award and the Worldcomp06 achievement award in 2006.  Recently, an article authored by Budak in his area of research was published in the globally acclaimed scientific journal Nature.

About the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGCS):

The IWGSC, with more than 1,000 members in 57 countries, is an international, collaborative consortium, established in 2005 by a group of wheat growers, plant scientists, and public and private breeders. The vision of the IWGSC is a publicly available, high quality genome sequence of bread wheat that will enable breeders to develop improved varieties and lay a foundation for basic research in wheat, cereals, and plants.

Please click for the IWGCS press release

Our Alumnus Ergi Şener (BSEL’05 & MSEECS-LFI’07) won the “MasterCard Europe President’s Award for Innovation” with his “TV Commerce” Project.

The Project provides an easy shopping experience for users by online stores.

Ergi Şener is working at “MasterCard-Turkey” as a “Business Development Manager”. He is responsible for the business development strategies and management of innovation in 10 countries included Turkey.

The “Life Lab” exhibition, curated by our graduate Elif Gül Tirben (VAVCD, 2010) and including alumni artists Berke Soyuer (VAVCD, 2011) and Elif Süsler (VAVCD, 2009) opens at the Sanatorium Gallery on January 31st.

Venue: Sanatorium Gallery 

Address: Asmalı Mescit Cad.No 32A Tünel Beyoğlu 

www.sanatorium.com.tr 

Elif Süsler

Artists featured in the joint exhibition “Life Lab” to be held at the Sanatorium Gallery between January 31st and March 2nd are Cins, John Conway, Bora Başkan, Yunus Emre Erdoğan, Ece Gökalp, Sinem Mucur, Can Pekdemir, Berke Soyuer and Elif Süsler.  The curator of the exhibition is Elif Gül Tirben.

Berke Soyuer

The inspiration for the exhibition is French sociologist Bruno Latour’s study “Lab Life” conducted in a laboratory doing biological research on animals.  The study depicts the social aspect of the production of scientific knowledge, its openness to error, therefore criticism, and the communication issues between the “scientific clan” generating the knowledge and the people outside the clan.

Contrary to lab life, which defines scientific production and whose existence becomes manifest as a phenomenon that is separate from science or life as studied by science, the Life Lab exhibition is composed of a series of visual experimentations that deliberately disrupts (scientific) reality and the affinity with which we perceive our surroundings, with subjects ranging from anatomy to the footsteps on the Moon, quantum theory, and new life forms.  Being consistent with scientific fields, these experiments explore the amazing possibilities of life through visual representation, and suggest rethinking them as a whole, liberated from all categories and scientific processes.

Participating artists: 

Cins 

John Conway 

Bora Başkan 

Yunus Emre Erdoğan 

Ece Gökalp 

Sinem Mucur 

Can Pekdemir 

Berke Soyuer 

Elif Süsler