The theme for the 2023 edition of the Sakıp Sabancı International Research Awards, the first and only international award program in Turkey in the field of social sciences, organized annually by Sabancı University, is “the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye: Republicanism in Theory and Application”.

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Carried out by the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) with the support of the Sabancı Foundation for 15 years, the Purple Certificate Program continues to reward teachers and teacher candidates in the field of gender equality. Teachers and teacher candidates from different branches and classes were awarded at the Purple Certificate Program Gender Equality in Education Awards, which were granted for the second time this year.

During his speech at the award ceremony, Sabancı University President Prof. Dr. Yusuf Leblebici pointed out that that they were pleased to come together for the Purple Certificate Program Gender Equality in Education Awards just before Teachers' Day on the 24th of November. He added, “These awards have a special place as it is the first award program on gender equality presented to teachers and teacher candidates in Turkey”.

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Leblebici continued: “At Sabancı University, we have been carrying out pioneering studies in the field of gender equality since our establishment. In addition to academic freedom, we have principles that are expressed in our Non-Discrimination Statement, Sexual Harassment Policy Statement, and Domestic Violence Prevention and Support Statement. As of last year, we implemented the “Gender Equality Action Plan” that we had been working on since 2019 with SU Gender. We view the Gender Equality Action Plan, by which we aim to reflect our stance on gender equality in every aspect of our academic and administrative mechanisms, as a living project. The Purple Certificate, one of SU Gender's longest-running projects, accomplishes another important task by focusing on the education of future generations on gender issues through our esteemed teachers. The new generations who will grow up with gender awareness will be able to look at the world without the filter of differentiating themselves from their peers in terms of identifying the sources that feed inequalities. They will be able to gain the necessary awareness for a world without gender stereotypes and discrimination.”

THE PURPLE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IS A LONG AND COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM

 

During her speech at the ceremony, Nevgül Bilsel Safkan, General Manager of the Sabancı Foundation, said: “With the experience we have gained over nearly half a century, we know that ensuring gender equality and having women and girls in education and business life are the prerequisites for social development. The Purple Certificate Program, which is among our programs in the field of gender equality, which in turn is the cornerstone of our foundation's general approach and work, is very valuable to us as it is the most comprehensive and longest-running program we have developed in this field. The fact that there is no other similar program aimed at raising awareness of gender equality through teachers makes the Purple Certificate special. The Purple Certificate Program began its journey 15 years ago as a component of the United Nations Joint Program for the Promotion of the Human Rights of Women and Girls. Since its inception, the program has always had a structure that renews itself, develops, and learns continuously. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the program.”

MORE THAN AN EDUCATION CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The keynote speaker of the Purple Certificate Program Gender Equality in Education Awards, Program Jury Member and Boğaziçi University Faculty Member Aylin Vartanyan, said: “The Purple Certificate is more than an education certificate program: It is an advocate and supporter of a model which provides ethical lenses through the educational content it has offered over the years, which is egalitarian, and which invites participants to see students and educators as creative and productive human beings beyond the stereotyped expectations of society. It is important to remember at this point that the English word "education" comes from the Latin educare or educere. The “educare” approach has an understanding that includes a learning experience with mental or physical skills, discipline, and prioritizing students’ education in a discipline. Educere, on the other hand, proposes an understanding that guides the teacher's relationship with the student and serves the student's physical and mental well-being as well as the cognitive learning process. The Purple Certificate program tries to offer an experience that opens the eyes of the participants by providing the gender equality education with an educere approach, and invites the participants to create and share their own curricula by looking through the same lens.”

1 MILLION STUDENTS REACHED THROUGH THE PURPLE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

SU Gender Director Prof. Dr. Hülya Adak noted that the Purple Certificate Program was first organized by Sabancı University academics in 2007 as part of the United Nations Joint Program for the Promotion of the Human Rights of Women, and gradually came to play an important role in SU Gender's becoming a center of excellence. Adak continued: “This year, we are celebrating the 15-year adventure of the Purple Certificate together. In 15 years, we have reached over 5,000 teachers, and considering the number of students they reach throughout their lives, nearly 1,000,000 students. The content and scope of the Purple Certificate have grown and diversified over the years. The Purple Certificate was first organized for teachers and then for teacher candidates. Efforts to design educational materials were added to the education programs. From these efforts, classroom materials on subjects including literature, physical education, mathematics, and history were produced. Purple Files were inspired by the studies we carried out with teachers. One of the most important modules of the Purple Certificate was the Purple File workshops, in which teachers prepared classroom materials in their own fields.” Adak added, “In this award ceremony, which we held at the intersection of World Teachers' Day (October 5), Teachers' Day in Turkey (November 24) and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25), we dream of creating an environment where we can unite all our efforts in the field of gender equality, and share our fight against violence and our ideals of an educational culture based on equality, diversity, and inclusion with all teachers.”

6 TEACHERS AWARDED

Within the scope of the 2nd Purple Certificate Program Gender Equality in Education Awards, the İpek Gürkaynak Creative Pedagogy Award was granted to guidance teacher Büşra Nur Serdar, who attended the Purple Certificate Summer School this year from Istanbul, and English teacher Berna Diblen, who attended the Purple Certificate Winter School this year from Hatay.

Elif Selçuk, a teacher of religious culture and moral knowledge in Denizli, who attended the Purple Certificate Winter School in 2021, and Huriye Yeliz Öztürk Lider, a teacher of philosophy in İzmir, who attended the Purple Certificate Summer School in 2022, won the Gender Equality - Egalitarian Practices Award.

Evrim Dilara Onat, a Turkish Language and Literature teacher in Istanbul, who attended the Purple Certificate Winter School in 2022, received the Purple Seed Award, while Nurbanu Yıldız, a psychological counseling and guidance teacher in Kayseri, who attended the Purple Certificate Winter School in 2022, received the Incentive Award.

After the award ceremony, a panel entitled “Gender Equality in Education and New Pedagogical Approaches” was held with the participation of the winning teachers.

Major Fest, which is the Program Selection Festival of our university, will be held on the Tuzla campus between 28 November and 7 December 2022.

 

Organized twice a year to help SU undergraduate students in their major program exploration journey, Major Fest encompasses various activities such as program presentations, alumni panels, and workshops. At Major Fest, students have the opportunity to meet with faculty members and alumni from all undergraduate programs.

 

Program sessions will be in English, workshops will be in English and in Turkish.

 

Information about the festival is available at the addresses below.

 

https://www.sabanciuniv.edu/majorfest

 

https://www.sabanciuniv.edu/exploremajors

 

You can get more information about the Major Fest 2022-23 Fall Semester event program by sending an e-mail to majorfest@sabanciuniv.edu.

 

 

 

Sabancı University has signed a cooperation agreement with Ericsson on the development of network architectures used in communication systems to be built on 6G, and the algorithms and infrastructures necessary to protect the security of these systems. 

The signing ceremony took place with the participation of Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici, Ericsson Deputy General Manager and Head of Research Dr. Magnus Frodigh, and Ericsson Turkey General Manager Işıl Yalçın. Sabancı University faculty members Özgür Erçetin and Cemal Yılmaz attended the event, where the latest developments in communication technology were shared, with a presentation of their joint project with Ericsson on cognitive and autonomous network research. Within the scope of the event, a cooperation agreement was also signed between Ericsson and Istanbul Technical University (ITU). Ericsson Research Turkey, one of Ericsson's 13 research centers worldwide, actively contributes to Horizon Europe, the European Union's main research and innovation-focused funding program.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici said, “As Sabancı University, we remain assertive in Turkey and in the world in the fields in which we are strong in research activities. It is an honor for us to be among the universities with the highest research project budget in Turkey. Currently, more than 25% of our university budget comes from research projects. In addition, we are the university that graduates the highest number of students every year in the field of Computer Science and Computer Engineering in Turkey.

We demonstrate our assertiveness in the field of hardware design and software, algorithm development, cybersecurity and network design through our research in 5G, which we started many years ago, and our current research in 6G. We have very strong experience in integrated circuit design for high frequency and sub-terahertz applications. The people who make the most pioneering studies in these fields in Turkey are among our teaching staff members. It is very valuable for us to work together with Ericsson Research and to explore this important field together”.

Ericsson Turkey General Manager Işıl Yalçın made the following comments: “Collaborating with academia and supporting the local innovation ecosystem have always been our priorities since the day we started operating in Turkey. We would like to emphasize once again our belief in the importance of cooperation with the leading academic institutions of our country. These collaborations not only enable Turkey to contribute significantly to global research on new technologies, but also nurture and develop the skills of the country's qualified human resources. In addition, as the Hexa-X project continues at full speed, we will continue to work with academia to explore future connectivity solutions, especially 6G technology, with the goal of a more connected digital future”.

 Sabancı University signed an agreement with TEI to develop composite engine parts.

 

Within the scope of the agreement signed by TEI General Manager Prof. Dr. Mahmut F. Akşit and Sabancı University President Prof. Dr. Yusuf Leblebici, the "Fan Inner Casing System Development Project from Composite Material in Turbofan Engines" will be carried out at the Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC). 

While the use of composite material technology in aviation engines provides a competitive solution by enabling lightweight engine design, it also provides a major advantage by providing greater strength. The use of composite materials in aviation engines is becoming widespread thanks to developing manufacturing technologies. 

Speaking at the signing ceremony, TEI General Manager Prof. Dr. Mahmut F. Akşit noted that they have been carrying out a range of different projects with Sabancı University for many years, especially in the field of additive manufacturing, and that the works to be carried out in the context of this agreement will take the cooperation between the two institutions to the next level. Akşit said that the parts produced in the aviation industry are especially difficult and complex, and that they have achieved important outputs as a result of the hard work of all the teams involved in the projects they carried out with Sabancı University. Akşit continued: “The project for the development of this system, which will be used in Turkey's most powerful engine, will be an important step on this path, on which we will move towards more challenging projects”. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Sabancı University President Prof. Dr. Yusuf Leblebici said, “Sabancı University has been carrying out very important and successful projects on composite materials and additive manufacturing for years. We have been working with TEI for a long time, especially on additive manufacturing, and we have achieved very good results so far. Today, in addition to all these efforts, we are undertaking a project that will open the door to the use of composite materials in the aviation industry. With this agreement, as Sabancı University, we will continue to support TEI's work with our researchers and staff members at our center. We are also proud that we have made Turkey one of the few countries in the world that has a say in this field”.

The project of Sabancı University, awarded within the scope of the B Group R&D Project Call of the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes, will be a hope for Wilson‘s disease patients. When the project is completed successfully, a permanent gene therapy prototype will be created for Wilson’s disease patients. Thus, patients will not have to take drugs for their entire lives and will not need liver transplants.

Sabancı University's new project will start a new era in the treatment of Wilson's patients, with a prevalance rate of 1 in every 30 thousand people in the world. With the new project developed, it is aimed to treat hereditary Wilson's Disease (WD), which causes copper accumulation in many organs, through a gene therapy in which the full-length ATP7B gene is delivered to liver cells by a virus under its own control, using hybrid gene technology. 

The project entitled "Improving copper metabolism with a hybrid gene therapy approach and developing a new treatment method for Wilson's Disease", led by Dr. Cavit Ağca, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, was also entitled to support within the scope of the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes (TÜSEB) Group B R&D Project Call. 

Sabancı University Faculty Member Cavit Ağca, the project coordinator, stated that they aim to increase the quality of life of patients by contributing to the treatment of WD and other rare diseases with the hybrid gene therapy approach they offer within the scope of the project. He continued as follows: 

“This new gene therapy we have designed will be a beacon of hope for Wilson's patients. When the project is successfully implemented, only a single dose injection for life will be sufficient for treatment. The strategy we will put forward for WD will be a pioneer not only for WD, but also for all other gene studies. In addition, we believe that our project will lead to the presentation of other gene therapy projects in the future and will affect the visibility and prevalence of studies in this field in our country.” 

Carried out under the leadership of Sabancı University within the scope of TÜSEB Group B R&D Project Call, which aims to support strategically important R&D projects in the field of health technologies that produce original scientific knowledge in the field of health, solve problems,  and develop products with high added value and commercialization potential, the project is  expected to last for 24 months. The project is carried out in partnership with Ceyda Açalan Ayhan and Müjdat Zeybel, both from Koç University.

Sabancı Business School will hold the third Business Analytics Workshop on Friday, November 18, between 09:30 and 16:00 in Auditorium at Sabancı Business School.

Participation is free of charge and only registration is required for the event. You can click here to register.

Poster Session: Within the scope of the event, the Workshop also invites poster presentations on research and projects in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), data science and business analytics. Please send the title and abstract of your work to businessanalytics@sabanciuniv.edu until 5 November 2022 for peer evaluation.

For more detailed information about the Business Analytics Workshop, you can visit https://businessanalytics.sabanciuniv.edu.

Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) is looking for innovative ideas about biotechnological raw materials and additives for food, medicine and cosmetics with NormDea. Within the scope of university - industry collaboration, innovative ideas of academicians and students from Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Food, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy or related departments, FOR WHICH INVENTION DISCLOSURE HAS BEEN MADE, will be implemented. Ideas that can be applied to the industry will be selected by the jury consisting of the leading people in their fields and will meet the investors.

Application Dates

September 15 - October 30, 2022

Application: SUNUM Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center

sunum@sabanciuniv.edu

Application deadline: October 30, 2022
Preliminary assessment: October 30 - November 15, 2022
Investor presentations: November 15 - December 15, 2022
Results: December 27, 2022

Subjects

Biotechnological raw materials and additives for food, medicine and cosmetics

Terms and Conditions
• For academics, having academic studies in the fields of Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Food, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy or related fields.
• For students, studying in the fields of Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Food, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy or related fields.
• Having previously made an invention application for the idea subject to the application.
• The applicants whose ideas that have passed the preliminary assessment will be brought together with investors.
• A confidentiality agreement will be signed with the idea owners about the protection of their ideas.

For more information, https://sunum.sabanciuniv.edu

The Smart Campus Project, which will be implemented within the scope of the European Commission EuroGia Energy Cluster and coordinated by EnerjiSA, has been accepted. This project is expected to be the start of various other similar projects, which will contribute to transform Sabancı University campus into a pilot area where new energy generation and distribution scenarios will be studied and tested.

In the first phase of the project, energy produced by PV installations to be placed in certain lodging units will be tested under block-chain-based peer-to-peer energy transfer algorithms and micro-grid distribution scenarios over mobile applications and will be studied in various aspects.  In the later stages of the project, the campus will also be supported by sustainable elements such as electric scooters, electric charging stations using PV equipment and electric shuttles. The project will be carried out under the coordination of Ankara Project Office, and in addition to EnerjiSA, project partners include Paycore and Blok-Z companies from Turkey, Grupo Erre and The Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo from Portugal. Sabancı University faculty members Dr. Kamer Kaya and Dr. Orçun Çetin will also take place as a researcher.