Adopting the mission to develop internationally competent and confident individuals advancing and fostering knowledge in every field and at international level, Sabancı University continues to work toward the fulfillment of the rights of children in need to education and equality, and to provide support to them in various parts of Turkey.

Sabancı University has allocated 230 PCs to Mardin Provincial Directorate of National Education to support students who, due to lack of technological means, cannot participate in the online education process which has started because of the pandemic. In the framework of the protocol signed with Mardin Provincial Directorate of National Education, PCs will be allocated to successful students in need for a period of one year.

Applications are now open for the Hakan Orbay Research Awards, given by the Sabancı University School of Management in honor of faculty member Hakan Orbay, who passed away in 2011.

Organized for the 8^th time this year, the awards program aims to support original projects of young researchers in the field of finance and microeconomics. This year's awards entail a “Young Researcher Award” of 10,000 TL and a “Doctorate Student Award" of 5,000 TL. 

This year the jury will consist of Benan Zeki Orbay from Istanbul Bilgi University and Aziz Şimşir, Eren İnci, İzak Atiyas, Koray Deniz Şimşek, Melsa Ararat, and Yiğit Atılgan from Sabancı University.

Interested applicants can submit their studies and a one-page resumé to orbayaward@sabanciuniv.edu.

The deadline for applications is July 20, 2021, and the winners will be announced on September 15, 2021. 

Please visit https://sbs.sabanciuniv.edu/tr/2021-hakan-orbay-arastirma-odulu for more information on eligibility criteria.

The project entitled “Automatic image recognition system for detection of COVID-19 infection through computerized tomography”, of which Sabancı University is the coordinator and Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine is the researcher, aimed to examine CT images automatically to detect any lung involvement. 

Prof. Dr. Berrin Yanıkoğlu, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, is the coordinator of the project and Associate Professor Fatih Gülşen, Associate Professor Onur Tutar, Dr. Bora Korkmazer from Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. Hümbet Nasibli, Alper Aker and Oğuzhan Acar from TÜBİTAK National Metrology Institute are researchers of the project. The system developed in the framework of the project can detect symptoms of COVID-19 infection in seconds. 

Covid-19 ve Sağlıklı Görüntüler

Since PCR tests take a long time and come with a high false positive rate, especially during the early stages of infection, the use of chest CT images to detect the infection was considered. The system was developed and installed in Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. The CT device is disinfected effectively after use by an infected patient, who is then isolated in the clinic to minimize infection at the hospital. 

In response to the call for projects entitled “Program of fight against COVID-19 and resilience” made by the development agencies under the coordination of the General Directorate of Development Agencies of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, TÜBİTAK opened two separate calls under the ARDEB (Support for Research Programs Directorate) and TEYDEB (Support for Technology and Innovation Programs Directorate) components for the projects, with some R&D potential presented by universities and private sector players. Following online assessment of applications received, it was decided to support 21 projects with a total budget of approximately 7 million TL. 

The project entitled “Automatic image recognition system for detection of COVID-19 infection through computerized tomography” developed through the collaboration of Sabancı University and Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine is one of the 6 projects supported under the ARDEB component.

Mehmet Can Yavuz, Berrin Yanıkoğlu

In addition, Sabancı University PhD students Sara Atito Ali Ahmed and Mehmet Can Yavuz, Sabancı University graduate Dr. M. Umut Şen and Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine students Dr. Rauf Hamid, Dr. Sabri Şirolu, Dr. Ali Ergun Eryürekli and Dr. Toghrul Mammadov took part in the project as researchers. 

The winners of “E-Sailing European Cup”, Europe’s first intercollegiate e-sailing championship, organized by Sabancı University Sailing Club (SU-SAIL) through VR Inhore platform, have been announced.

Organized to revive the competitive spirit of sailors from universities during the pandemic with further lockdown measures, and to bring university students together, the championship was attended by 60 students from 15 universities in 3 countries.

The championship was held over 4 days with sailing-lovers from Sabancı University, Acıbadem University, Bahçeşehir University, Bilgi University, Boğaziçi University, Bocconi University, Koç University, Maltepe University, Middle East Technical University, Piri Reis University and the University of Prague.

The sponsors of the event were Sabancı University, Redbull, All of Chrome, E-sailing Club, Reflect Studio, Alize Yachting and Sailranks. Quarter final matches were broadcast on the YouTube channel of eSailingClub, Turkey’s biggest sailing club, while the semi-final and final matches were shown on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook through eSailingTV, one of the eSports live broadcasters in the world.

Sabancı University Sailing Club (SU-SAIL) is the winner of the E-Sailing European Cup

After the four days of challenging matches, Sabancı University team became the winner of the E-Sailing European Cup, followed by Istanbul Bilgi University team, and Istanbul Technical University team.

Both the organizers and the winners of the championship, SU Sailing Team members said the following after the championship: “In this lockdown period when we had to stay away from sailing, SUCup enabled sailors from universities to come together and recapture their competitive spirit. We are really proud to be both the organizers and the winners of this successful event, which was held for the first time. We congratulate everyone who put their efforts in it and all the teams that competed in the championship.”

Members of BİLGİ team, who came second in the competition said, “due to the lockdown measures restricting physical activities to a great extent, the e-sailing concept became a perfect alternative for the sailing community. We sincerely thank SU Sail team and everyone else who contributed to this beautiful championship. We really enjoyed being involved in it, particularly due to the awards and the racing concept. We had a quite comfortable and entertaining race. We guess the broadcasting of the events presented a real festivity for lovers of sailing.”

Pointing out that they were able to come together and live the excitement of a sailing competition thanks to this beautiful event organized in a period where they had to stay away from sailing, members of Koç University Sailing Club team added, “we congratulate the organizers of this highly professional championship for their dedication. Hope to see you in the upcoming events!” Rabia Balcıoğlu from Yıldız Technical University team said she had a very pleasant time during the two weeks of competition, and added “the fact that it was a team game made it even more exciting. I am looking forward to participating in the upcoming events.”

Awards to the teams were given by All of Chrome, WWF Market and Eye Connection, the main award sponsors. Moreover, awards from Yves Rocher, Alize Yachting and FAM Coffee were given to the competitors.

You can watch video records of E-Sailing European Cup championship by using the links below.

Quarter finals:

-eSailingClub Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kugxLrltIAg

Semi-finals and final:

-eSailingTV Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T09QiVMEDE
-eSailingTV Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1008731805
-eSailingTV Facebook: https://fb.watch/5fBsHXSHP0/

Public institutions, development banks, business associations and professional women’s networks are taking action to increase the proportion of women on the boards of local companies.

The participants in the action have developed a roadmap to promote higher representation of women in companies’ decision-making bodies. The roadmap associates the objective of having diverse opinions and experiences in companies’ boards of directors and top management with the strengthening of corporate governance and improvement of financial, environmental and social performance.  

Listed companies in Turkey lag behind their global peers in terms of the amount of women on their boards. Nearly 40% of boards in Turkey are composed of only male board members.

Coordinating the action, Dr. Melsa Ararat, Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum Director, said, "Ambitious efforts of the participating institutions to develop the roadmap make us confident that the action will succeed. Every participant has their own perspective and reason to enhance women’s representation in their board and top management. These reasons include refreshing the so-called entrenched board structures to make them more effective, and encouraging stronger participation of women in business life through their involvement in the senior decision-making bodies of companies. We envisage that the implementation process will be fully inclusive and invite all the related parties, whether or not they have participated in the development of the roadmap, to be a part of the upcoming implementation efforts."

The roadmap has been developed in collaboration with EBRD, the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, Istanbul Stock Exchange, IFC, business organizations, TÜSİAD, TOBB, 30% Club Turkey, United Nations Global Compact Network Turkey, Corporate Governance Association of Turkey and professional women’s networks including KAGİDER, Women Corporate Directors and Sabancı University’s Independent Women Directors Platform.

Institutions and initiatives involved in the Steering Group and combining their forces for the implementation of the roadmap have agreed to achieve the following:

• Raising awareness about the benefits of having diverse opinions and experiences and more women on boards;
• Expanding and making visible the pool of women candidates “ready to take part in boards” through training, certificate and apprenticeship programs;
• Preparing a “set of tools to determine board member candidates” for companies to ensure that board nomination processes consider the skills and competencies of women “ready to take part in boards”; 
• Identifying regulations and regulatory tools that can be implemented to promote and encourage the establishment of more effective boards through representation of competent and skilled women.

These actions aim to create an environment which will facilitate the involvement of women in Turkey in leading roles in business life. The implementation process aims to ensure that boards are composed of professionals who can bring together people with the most suitable sets of skills, experience and perspectives to create successful and competitive companies, thus building more resilient and inclusive economies.

The roadmap suggests the establishment of a public disclosure platform aiming to collect gender distribution data in the decision-making mechanisms of both listed and unlisted companies, and an investment grade index based on this data.

Working on the roadmap, EBRD Turkey Director Arvid Tuerkner said, "Preparing for the post-pandemic future, inclusiveness should be one of the priorities for business leaders in Turkey. As a prominent institutional investor in Turkey, EBRD strives to secure stronger representation of women on boards in Turkey. Women’s representation enriches the decision-making process, demonstrates the quality of the recruitment and promotion process, and enhances the effectiveness of decision-makers. In addition, it makes considerable contributions to sustainability by strengthening inclusiveness of labor, products and services, and social cohesion."

IFC's Turkey and Russia Country Manager Arnaud Dupoizat said, “We are really happy to be a part of this important initiative together with EBRD and Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum. IFC is a strong advocate of gender balance on corporate boards. Representation of genders has long stopped being a social obligation, and has proven to be virtuous for companies, including its very positive contribution to the handling of climate risks. We consider gender equality on corporate boards to be an important component of the environmental, social and governance agenda in Turkey and we encourage Turkish private sector stakeholders to use this roadmap to pave the way for the presence of more women on boards."

TOBB Chairman Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As one of the biggest networks of women entrepreneurs in the world, with more than 7 thousand members, our organization carries out activities to increase the number of women entrepreneurs and empower women in business life.  In this context, our priorities include increasing the number of professional women and ensuring greater representation of women at senior management levels. We are ready to cooperate on the implementation of the roadmap prepared with the cooperation of the public and private sectors.

The Ministry of Family and Social Services’ General Directorate on the Status of Women commented, “As the Ministry, we find it very important that women have increased representation on boards. As a matter of fact, we can see that there is clear guidance in the 11^th Development Plan to head in this direction. In the Empowerment of Women Strategy Document and Action Plan, which we prepared as the Ministry, we included concrete actions. Going forward, our Ministry will continue to support all efforts for stronger representation of women in corporate boards and decision-making mechanisms.”

Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu, President of the Capital Markets Board said, “We support the inclusion of diverse opinions and experiences in boards, and enhanced representation of women on boards in the context of the contribution of capital markets to sustainable development.  Offering equal opportunities to increase the representation and participation of women in the world of business is very important for efficiency and financial value in the long term.”

TÜSİAD Chairman Simone Kaslowski commented, “As TÜSİAD, we believe that equal participation of women and men in economic life, decision-making mechanisms, politics and social life is a factor determining democracy and the development level of a country. We are developing projects for the private sector to empower women in economy and working.  Research shows that companies with more women on boards and top management are more successful at creating high added value, corporate performance and effective decision-making. We find it important to implement comprehensive practices with a roadmap in cooperation with the public and private sectors, NGOs and international institutional investors to eliminate barriers to women’s representation in top management positions in Turkey and to ensure gender equality in every field of business life.”

Ece Börü, member of the Corporate Governance Association of Turkey board said, “In order for a board of directors to make really effective decisions and create lasting value, it is important to have members with diverse competencies and perspectives, and gender balance. Any change of culture in this direction definitely enhances the overall performance of boards. The most effective methods of securing gender balance on boards include the establishment of communication networks and support for women in corporate life. We believe that well-determined policies, target-oriented training, development, and experience programs will bring highly performing and sustainable governance through models that support diversity and gender equality on boards.”

Anne Cairns, Global Head of the 30% Club said, “I am glad that 30% Club Turkey contributed to the development of the roadmap which encourages further participation of women in boards and top management in Turkish companies. Women’s participation in business decisions not only enhances companies’ social and environmental performance and the sustainable participation of women in labor, but also serves to disseminate ideals of equality and inclusiveness in society.”

The project which Burcu Saner Okan, faculty member of Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC), coordinates and has submitted in collaboration with Arçelik has been found worthy of support in the framework of the TÜBİTAK 1505 University-Industry Cooperation Support Program.

Burcu Saner Okan’s project is entitled “Development of hybrid-reinforced thermoplastic compound formulations through graphene made of waste plastic for the white goods sector, and cost-effective and lightened prototyping.” The project will last two years and aims to integrate recycled graphene made of waste plastic with thermoplastic composites, and its adaptation to serial production and scaling for use in the white goods sector.

Graphene from waste plastic will be provided by the Nanografen company, a Sabancı University spin-off, of which Burcu Saner Okan is a founding partner. The project is coordinated by Burcu Saner Okan, faculty member of SU IMC, and supported by Gülayşe Şahin, a TÜBİTAK 2244 scholar, Mustafa Sezer, R&D manager, and Dr Orkun Kaymakçı, technology team leader of the client company, Arçelik.

Mentioning the importance and details of the project, Burcu Saner Okan said, “So far, graphene has been used in specific and high-cost fields and projects such as medicine, sensors, batteries, supercapacitors and foldable touch screens. The fact that graphene is costly and cannot be distributed homogenously in polymer processing constitutes a barrier to its commercialization in commodity products in the plastics sector. In the scope of this project, graphene produced by Nanografen at low cost and in a sustainable way from waste plastic will decrease the amount of filling materials in plastics used in the white goods sector, lower the weight of parts and shorten the cycle period. At the end of the project, graphene will be converted into a commercial product and used in engineered plastics that are very commonly used in the white goods sector.”

Sabancı University – Science Academy Artificial Learning Summer School, which is designed by Sabancı University Data Analytics Research and Application Center (VERİM) and Computer Science and Engineering Program for graduate students and researchers under the umbrella of Science Academy, will be held online on June 23-25, 2021 with the contribution of high quality researchers from Turkey and abroad. 

The summer school will have the theme "Learning in Networks and Beyond Performance", and cover developments in the field of learning in networks, in addition to ethics, accountability and prejudice regarding artificial learning algorithms. The main speakers of the event will be Professor Yanjun Qi from Virginia University and Professor Karsten Borgwardt of ETH.

The event will be mostly in Turkish with some presentations in English. Please click here to learn more about the Artificial Learning Summer School and to register.

Sabancı University ranked in the band of 541^st to 550^th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, one of the world's most prestigious university rankings.

The London-based higher education ranking institution QS has announced its “World University Rankings 2022”. Sabancı University ranked in the band of 541^st to 550^th in the QS World University Rankings, one of the world's most prestigious university rankings. The number of Turkish universities in the rankings is 21. As in the last year, Sabancı University ranked 2^nd among the top Turkish universities. 

The top three universities in the world are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Oxford University (UK) and Stanford University (US).

In 2022, QS evaluated 1,673 universities and included 1,300 of them in the rankings. The evaluation is based on six indicators, namely academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), faculty/students ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), international faculty ratio (5%), and international students ratio (5%).

The solo exhibition of Murat Germen, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), is now at YapıKredi Bomontiada and Artcrowdistanbul Online Gallery. Cue Art Space is being inaugurated with Murat Germen’s exhibition at Yapı Kredi Bomontiada. Opened on May 17, the exhibition entitled “Folktale” can be visited at YapıKredi Bomontiada until June 6, and at Artcrowdistanbul Online Gallery until August 30.

The 20 works in the exhibition co-organized with Artcrowdistanbul Online Gallery can be viewed on the digital platform of artcrowdistanbul.com. The 10 works that can be visited at Bomontiada are single edition works that the artist manually intervened in. Some works at the exhibition can be acquired in NFT form in addition to the traditional physical editions. These special editions are the first works of Murat Germen in NFT format on Blockchain.

Murat Germen, member of FASS, is an artist who has been deeply involved in digital processes for 40 years, since his high school years. A graduate student at MIT at a time when analogue creation techniques started to transform into their digital equivalents, Murat Germen witnessed and had the opportunity to internalize this process in an institution laying the foundations of this transformation. Monitoring later developments about the digitization of photography, Germen made experiments about how what software could and could not do impacted the process of creation. At the same time, he worked on various scientific articles for printed materials and conferences due to his role as a full-time faculty member at Sabancı University.

Two such works, namely “Inadvertent - Ars Accidentalis” and “Aesthetics of Serendipity: Muta-morphosis” came to the forefront as theoretical studies as to when, how and on what occasion concepts such as chance, accident and fortune were involved in various stages of artistic creation in a digital environment. Continuing his theoretical studies by focusing on his own practice as much as possible, Germen thus aimed to establish a healthy relation between theory and practice. During these studies, “Ars Accidentalis” (Latin for “accidental art”) came as the first series of Murat Germen’s entry into the art sphere in Turkey in 2008. Following this series, the “Muta-morphosis” series came in 2009 and became one of the most remembered works of the artist about over-urbanization. Born out of an unexpectedly bad result and the accidental discovery of the “content-aware scaling” command in Photoshop, this series aimed to push the limits of the algorithm and describe fractures of imperfect, broken visualities arising from urban concentration.

In his “Folktale” exhibition, which will be simultaneously opened virtually/physically at Bomontiada and artcrowdistanbul.com online gallery in cooperation with Cue Art Space, Germen once again benefits from a haphazard digital transformation process. The photogrammetric 3D modelling method was used in the works, which were produced in 2019. While this method is usually preferred for photorealistic space documentation and virtual tours, the artist deliberately went to the “roughest” levels with his parametric preferences to decrease the fidelity as much as possible in the process of transforming a photo to a 3D model. The resulting, unexpectedly abstract visualities and the disengagement from realistic concreteness imply that the content that is transmitted through mainstream media as being objective is basically lacking, subjective, and biased, and that what is told is not the reality but today’s folktales.

Murat Germen ‘Folktale’ exhibition

May 17 – June 6 / Cue Art Space   Venue: YapıKredi Bomontiada

May 17 - August 30 / Artcrowdistanbul Online Gallery 

Recent developments in the Sea of Marmara were covered in the webinar entitled “What’s happening in the Sea of Marmara? Pollution, Warming and the Mucilage Problem”, organized in the scope of “Pandemic and Society” webinar series started by Sabancı University Istanbul Policy Center (IPC). The participants warned that the devastation in the Sea of Marmara was the death of an inland sea and such environmental disasters could cause further unexpected pandemics.

A webinar entitled “What’s happening in the Sea of Marmara? Pollution, Warming and the Mucilage Problem” was organized in the scope of the “Pandemic and Society” webinar series started by Sabancı University Istanbul Policy Center (IPM). Moderated by Senem Aydın Düzgit, IPC Research and Academic Relations Coordinator, the webinar hosted Levent Artüz, Leader of the MAREM (Monitoring Changing Oceanographic Conditions in the Sea of Marmara) project implemented by the Sevinç-Erdal İnönü Foundation and Ümit Şahin, IPC Climate Change Studies Coordinator, as speakers. The recent developments in the Sea of Marmara were discussed in the webinar.

“We are witnessing the death of the Sea of Marmara,” said Senem Aydın Düzgit, “The reasons for what is happening are global warming to some extent, but human mismanagement, errors or intentional policies to a much greater extent”. 

MAREM Project Leader Levent Artüz highlighted that the current situation in the Sea of Marmara was attributable to some wrong projects started in the 1980s, and the acceleration of the negative trend, particularly after the 2000s. Levent Artüz said the following about the issue: “In the scope of the project of cleaning the Golden Horn in 1989, undercurrents were used as conveyor bands to transport polluted water to the Black Sea without any purification or transmission projects. However, it was known that only 10% of the undercurrents moved to the Black Sea. It was known that that method would not work, but people insisted on it. What happened next? We saw fish die in 1989. We lost all the marine species in that period. The literature wrote about this event as drowning of fish. A major massacre occurred in the Sea of Marmara. Biodiversity disappeared. From the 1990s, jellyfish started to accumulate to build tiny islands. Fish species like swordfish and tunny, which had considerable economic value and were important for the ecosystem, disappeared. Other fish species shrank in size. The Sea of Marmara became turbid due to discharged wastewater. The effect of global warming in the Black Sea was 1 degree, while it was 2.5 to 3 degrees in Marmara, which continues to get warmer.”

Saying that there was a similar case of mucilage in 2007, Levent Artüz revealed that “It was a bit different at that time, but it did not attract that much attention since it did not become that widespread. From 2011, we started to see invasive species. In 2017, Marmara ranked second in the world for microplastic pollution. And in 2021, we have what we can see today.”

Levent Artüz emphasized that it was a disaster waiting to happen, and he continued, “In the first phase in 1989, biodiversity eroded. In the second phase of the pollution, some existing species grew exponentially while some others tended to disappear, and that was because of changes in the competition conditions. Some species just found a way out, became extremely abundant in a short period of time, and then faced extinction. When species died, their intracellular liquids spread to the marine environment. Due to difference of density, some liquids floated on water while some others sank deeper into the sea by taking the solid waste around them. We can encounter mucilage even 1,272 meters under the sea surface.”

IPC Climate Change Studies Coordinator Ümit Şahin said that the problem had come to the agenda in the course of the last month, although scientists had made continued warnings about it for many years, and the Ministry of Environment took action only one week ago. He continued, “When environmental problems reach a level visible to the eye and are covered in social media, authorities notice that there is an emergency. I think this is the biggest problem. If there had been no such images of the catastrophe, and showing that even the bottom of the Marmara Sea had been covered by mucilage, nothing would have been done. This case shows that we do not approach environmental problems in the absence of striking images and uproar over an emergency, and that the government is in no hurry to take any action.”

Underlining that the climate change was human-driven, Ümit Şahin said the following, “We view the environmental destruction in the Sea of Marmara from our own perspective, which is confined to our complaints like ‘we cannot swim in the sea, it smells, creates visual pollution, we cannot eat any fish’. However, there has been a serious ecological devastation for the last 40 years. All the marine species are becoming extinct, but we try to solve the problem when it becomes most challenging as we do not respect nature’s and the ecosystem’s right to life. Turning the atmosphere into a waste bin with greenhouse gases is the same thing as turning the Marmara Sea into a garbage dump with industrial and household waste. If we had not turned Marmara into a dumping ground, it would have been much less probable for this problem to happen, even despite the warming of the seas. Although global warming triggers this event, the main source of this specific problem is human factors.”

Sharing his evaluation of the Action Plan announced by the Ministry of Environment, Ümit Şahin said, “It is important that the Sea of Marmara has been declared a protected area, but it is not known how this can be achieved, how much financing will be needed, or for how long Marmara will remain a protected area. The expected population growth to accompany the Istanbul Canal will only worsen the pollution.” About the Action Plan, Levent Artüz said it was important that for the first time there was a consensus on the fact that Marmara was polluted, and that it was essential to make regulatory arrangements about the protected area status of the Sea of Marmara urgently. Artüz said, “The Sea of Marmara died in 1989. We have to learn lessons from that, and give up similar projects.”

A video recording of Pandemic and Society - "What’s happening in the Sea of Marmara? Pollution, Warming and the Mucilage Problem" webinar is available on the IPC’s YouTube channel, and you can find the related link below.