Trainings were held for the female inmates and guards of the Adana Karataş Penitentiary as part of the “Mor Güvercin - Purple Dove” project implemented by the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum in association with the Youth Re-autonomy Foundation of Turkey and the KAMER Foundation with the approval and cooperation of the Ministry of Justice General Directorate of Penitentiaries, the financial support of the European Union Central Finance and Contracts Unit and the consultancy of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

On the first day of training between January 12 and 15, 2015, project introduction seminars were held for female inmates and guards, and the importance of NGO work in penitentiaries was explained.  On the second and third days, female inmates were separated into 12-25 and 25 and above age groups for training.  The training provided by KAMER on the second day focused on the themes of violence and discrimination.  On the third day, the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum held a workshop on “Gender.”  Attorney Cansu Selmin Demir facilitated a workshop on “Women’s Rights.”  On the fourth day of the project, Associate Professor Aslı Akdaş Mitrani gave training on “The Role of Prison Personnel and Psycho-Social Services in Penitentiary Relations” to guards and personnel.

Prior to the activity in Adana, a four-day project was held in the Denizli Bozkurt Women’s Open Prison, where 300 inmates attended a seminar titled "Post-Release Life and Advice-Support Mechanisms.”  The seminar was joined by YRFT, KAMER, local women’s NGOs, the Denizli Bar Association and experts from Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers (ŞÖNİM).  Group sessions on discrimination, women’s rights and gender issues were held with 40 women in the 18 to 25 and 25 and above age groups.  A seminar on legal rights was held with 10 girls between the ages of 12 and 18, and a workshop on the importance of NGO work in penitentiaries was given to 12 guards.

The project will be repeated in the Ankara Sincan Women’s Penitentiary on February 16-17-18-19 and in the Izmir Şakran Women’s Penitentiary on March 23-24-25-26.

About the project:

The Mor Güvercin-Purple Dove Project is based on the idea that women’s shelter homes planned to be commissioned in 24 provinces around Turkey may be a viable alternative for women who have been imprisoned and seek to rejoin social life in a disadvantaged position.

The project aims to improve the visibility of female inmates and provide them with alternatives that will generate value in post-release life while seeking to develop relationships among local NGOs, women’s shelters and penitentiaries.  Other objectives of the project are to reveal the vulnerability of prison inmates to violence against women, help inmates gain a sense of women’s rights, and inform them about women’s shelter homes.

At the end of the project:
- 120 female inmates in the 12-25 and 25 and above age groups in women’s penitentiaries in 4 provinces will have received knowledge about women’s rights, gender and violence against women.
- 400 inmates in 4 provinces will have learned more about women’s organizations and shelter homes for their post-release use, and have gained awareness about their rights.
- 40 guards and 12 psycho-social services specialists (52 personnel in total) assigned to women’s penitentiaries will have received information about women’s rights and civil society, and have developed closer ties to civil society.
- One guard from each penitentiary (4 in total) will have been chosen to liaise between penitentiaries and women’s shelter homes and NGOs, acting as an NGO representative.
- The project will have contributed to former inmates utilizing women’s shelters in 24 provinces of Turkey post-release.
- Local women’s nongovernmental organizations will have assumed liaison role between women’s shelter homes and penitentiaries.

The project is implemented by the Youth Re-autonomy Foundation of Turkey, active in the area of juvenile delinquency since 1992, in association with the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum and the KAMER Foundation with the approval and cooperation of the Ministry of Justice General Directorate of Penitentiaries, the financial support of the European Union Central Finance and Contracts Unit and the consultancy of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.  The project began in February 2014 and will continue for 18 months in four women’s penitentiaries in Turkey (Ankara, Adana, Izmir and Denizli).

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences members Ali Koşar and Devrim Gözüaçık developed the SUTAB – a variation on the water gun that will enable affordable, completely harmless treatment of cancers, tumors, enlarged prostates and kidney stones.  The SUTAB project was widely covered in the Hürriyet daily.

The SUTAB project led by faculty members Ali Koşar and Devrim Gözüaçık utilizes the micro-cavitation technique, or the abrasive power of water bubbles caused by boiling, to eliminate kidney stones, prostrate, cancer and tumors without harming the patient.

SUTAB will be the first device of its kind to be manufactured in Turkey and will be a breakthrough in healthcare.  With SUTAB, patients will have access to affordable and completely harmless treatment of cancer, tumors, prostate and kidney stones for the first time in Turkey.

The project team collaborated with Professors Mustafa Ünel and Asıf Sabanovic from Sabancı University, Professor Sinan Ekici from Maltepe University and Professor Hüseyin Üvet from Yıldız Technical University for prototype development.

The Hürriyet coverage of the project (in Turkish) is available here.

Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) at Sabancı University in partnership with the European Academy Berlin (EAB) would like to announce the dialogue project Likeminds – German-Turkish Junior Expert Initiative, a project supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Following four exceptional years of exciting topics and discussions, the Likeminds – German-Turkish Expert Initiative is going into its fourth year of operations under the title “Energy: Fuel for Economies, States and Societies.”

We would like to invite you to apply for our program and/or to spread the news among your professional and/or private networks and refer interested individuals to our program. We have attached the announcement with a short description of the program for this purpose.

“Likeminds” is a bilateral exchange and dialogue program between Germany and Turkey. It aims to connect young professionals and invites them to participate in issue-focused discussions, connecting them professionally as well as personally.

“Likeminds” hopes to serve as an exchange program and a platform geared towards future leaders in Turkey and Germany respectively and aims at creating a dialogue for better understanding and future cooperation beyond the span of the program.

“Likeminds” consists of three components: a preparatory workshop, held simultaneously in Turkey and Germany, followed by two tours d’horizon in which the participants visit both countries. At the workshop, participants will choose different aspects of the year’s focus topic to be elaborated during the program year. At the tours d’horizon, they get the opportunity to discuss their chosen issues with German and Turkish leading experts from politics, economy, academia, and media. We would like to particularly invite those individuals to apply, who have not necessarily had a focus on Germany previously.

Under this years’ topic “Energy: Fuel for Economies, States and Societies,” we hope to discuss and discover the mobilization of likeminded people, in which people get together and make something happen – a way in which social movements function everywhere in the world. Whether it is social questions, ecological challenges, human rights or anti‐discrimination topics – Germans, just like people in Turkey, regularly pick up on these topics, making their concerns visible to public attention and campaigning for social change.

We would like to invite you to apply for our new program and/or circulate our announcements to individuals that you find suitable for the program. Please click here for the application form. The deadline for applications is 1 February 2015.

For questions, please get in touch with Melike Ayşe Kocacık, Program Assistant at 90 2164839000/3144 or makocacik@sabanciuniv.edu

Sabancı University Faculty and Researchers Make a Difference

For the September 2014 term, 18 Sabancı University projects were chosen to receive TÜBİTAK support

Sabancı University received TÜBİTAK support for 18 of its projects in the September 2014.  The 18 projects receiving support under the 1001, 3501 and 1005 programs comprise 69% of total submissions.

In terms of number of projects per faculty member, Sabancı University did 1.6 times better than the closest competitor.  This is up from 1.4 times better in March 2014.  According to the September 2014 selection results, Sabancı University accounts for 3.4% of all projects supported nationwide within the 1001, 3501 and 1005 program, compared to 2.3% in the March 2014 term.

TÜBİTAK September 2014 – Projects Supported within the Program for Supporting Scientific and Technological Research Projects (1001)

Associate Professor Albert Levi, FENS, "Secure Communication in Body Area Networks"

Associate Professor Devrim Gözüaçık, FENS, "Analysis of the role of microRNA 376 family on tumor formation and development "

Professor Erhan Budak, FENS, "Development of Analytical Modeling and Measurement Methods for High Performance Grinding Processes "

Associate Professor Gözde Ünal, FENS, "Localization of Brain SubThalamic Nucleus using Joint Diffusion MRI-Functional MRI Analysis for Parkinson Patients: Application to Deep Brain Stimulation "

Professor Henning Stichtenoth, FENS, " Polynomials over Finite Fields: Theory and Applications II "

Professor Hikmet Budak, FENS, " Reference sequencing of the 5DS chromosome of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) "

Assistant Professor Hüsnü Yenigün, FENS, "Using Modern Parallel Computation Technologies For Cerný Conjecture Falsification And Construction Of Reset Sequences "

Professor İbrahim Tekin, FENS, " Multiport wideband single antenna for MIMO based wireless communication systems and mobile phones"
Associate Professor Kemalettin Erbatur, FENS, " Quadruped Robot Design, Construction and Control "

Dr. Özlem Oral, SUNUM, " The Effect of active PKC izozymes on Autophagy Mechanism and Identification of target Autophagy genes"

Associate Professor Selim Balcısoy, FENS, "A Visual Analytics System based on Spatial Augmented Reality and Physical Visualizations”

Dr. Tolga Sütlü, SUNUM, " A cell-based screening assay for the identification of cancer immunotherapy targets"

Professor Uğur Sezerman, FENS, " Identification of epigenetic and other factors and their target pathways in colon cancer aetiology"

Professor Yaşar Gürbüz, FENS, " Design of fully integrated 94 GHz radiometer for passive millimeter wave imaging using SiGe BiCMOS technology "

TÜBİTAK September 2014 – Projects Supported within the Career Development Program (3501)

Dr. Feray Bakan, SUNUM, " Synthesis of calcium phosphate nanoparticles for siRNA delivery and in vitro analysis of the gene silencing effect of siRNA loaded nanoparticles "

Assistant Professor Hakkı Yazıcı, FASS, " Optimal Redistributive Taxation under Directed Technological Change "

TÜBİTAK September 2014 – Projects Supported within the National Program for Supporting New Idea and Product Research (1005)

Dr. Lale Işıkel Şanlı, SUNUM, " Scale-up Development and Fabrication of Multi-functional, High Strength and Electrically Conducting Graphene Fibers "

Assistant Professor Özge Akbulut, FENS, " Design and fabrication of silicone-based composite human tissue and organ models for surgical simulations "

2014-2015 Spring Term Dormitory Fees and Payments

The dormitory fees for our undergradute and graduate students in the 2014 - 2015 Academic Year Spring Semester are listed below, and are required to be paid to Akbank brunches with company code '815 under the ATS' (Subscription Payment System)between the dates 2015 January 19 and January 23. Under this system, you must provide first your student number (example 00012345), name and surname for access to the amount you are required to pay, which will then be collected in cash. The Artı Para accounts opened for payment of tuition fees in instalments cannot be used for dormitory fees.

Dormitories will be open through the semester break.

We wish you a good holiday.

Dormitory Management

2014 – 2015 Academic Year Spring Semester Dormitory Fees / Per Person (VAT included)

Undergraduate students:

4 person study rooms  1.500 TL

4 person rooms            2.500 TL

2 person rooms            3.675 TL

Graduate students:

2 person rooms            3.675 TL

1 person rooms            5.250 TL

Studio apartments (Hall F-G)    5.500 TL

Students entering dormitories for the first time are required to pay a deposit fee of 850 TL.

The CDP Russia Climate Change Report 2014 was revealed at an event in Moscow as part of the CDP Russia initiative implemented by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum in association with the Coca Cola Foundation.

The CDP Russia Climate Change Report 2014 focuses on Russia’s business response to climate change including management, corporate strategies, as well as climate risks and opportunities.  Data for the report was collected directly from the largest Russian companies who were asked on behalf of hundreds of international corporate investors to respond to CDP’s standard climate change questionnaire.

2014 saw the highest rates of response from Russian business to CDP under new management by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, with 14 companies responding to the questionnaire.  The list of respondents include Russian energy giants Gazprom, LUKOIL, NOVATEK, Surgutneftegas, the biggest Russian steel-maker EVRAZ, Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill and other well-known market players. Some companies did not submit their data directly but referred to these data having been included in the responses submitted by their parent companies outside Russia.

Responses submitted by the companies were assessed by the EY Russia team using CDP’s scoring methodology and the companies were ranked from top to bottom with regard to their efforts and achievements in climate disclosure and performance. During the conference in Moscow, the top-scoring companies were recognized and celebrated. In 2014, the top climate disclosure score was demonstrated by Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill, a newcomer to CDP climate program. Gazprom, NOVATEK and EVRAZ were also acknowledged for their continuous efforts and commitment to climate disclosing through CDP.

The foreword to the report was written by CDP CEO Paul Simpson, and the introduction to the report was written by Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum and CDP Turkey Director Dr. Melsa Ararat.  According to the report, 89% of companies integrate climate change to their business strategies, the managements of 33% of the companies take measures to encourage efforts against climate change, and 56% of companies establish targets for reducing carbon emissions.

The report suggests that one of the critical risks in Russia is the change in physical climate parameters.  Changes arising out of climate-related developments are viewed as opportunities.  The report considers changes due to statutory amendments both as risks and as opportunities.

Out of all respondents, 78% disclosed their direct (Scope 1) and 67% disclosed their indirect (Scope 2) emission data.  The respondents that commission independent third parties to validate their data comprise 33% of all companies.
Now that the Russian government is undertaking to introduce GHG reporting and regulation, CDP report and conference are seen as testing-the-ground exercise that shows the level of Russian business’ readiness and willingness to deal with climate change and to disclose relevant information to investors, customers, government and other interested parties. 

The report and the conference attracted a lot of interest. More than 100 participants attended the conference representing Ministries, Russian business, governmental bodies, non-government and international organizations, foreign guests and media.

The bilingual report (Russian and English) is available at: https://www.cdp.net/CDPResults/CDP-Russia-climate-change-report-2014.pdf

The CAP (Company Action Projects) Competition held as part of the School of Management’s MBA Program concluded.  Nine teams competed in the event.


The Best CAP Award went to the Microsoft Open Academy team of Berk Kocaman and Nazlı Kocaman, the Best CAP Presentation Award went to the Coca Cola İçecek team of Büşra Durmuş, Catalina Barcenas Santos and Elnur Aliev, and the Best CAP Report Award was given to the Yıldız Holding team composed of Anum Amin Ali, Chitrali Das, Coşay Kaçar and Mohsin Iqbal Ghaziani.

he jury panel of the CAP Competition included KPMG Corporate Financing Services Department Head and Partner Hande Şenova, Accenture Financial Services Department Director Erdal Güner and AT Kearney Partner Micheal Weiss.

14th ELAE result code explanations are as follows:

SL (Satisfactory in the ELAE): indicates students who have received the required grade or above in the January 14th ELAE and who have gained the right to start their faculty studies as Spring (irregular) Freshman in the 2014-2015 Spring Semester.

EL: (Exempt from the ELAE): indicates students who are exempt from the January 14th ELAE. These students have already gained the right to start their faculty courses in the 2014-2015 Spring Semester.

UL (Unsatisfactory in the ELAE): indicates students who have not been able to obtain the required grade in the ELAE.*

NA (Non-attendance): indicates students who did not attend the exam and is equivalent to a “UL” grade*.

Grade bands are as below:

Postgraduate candidates who have taken the January 14th ELAE will be informed of their results by their faculties.

A Placement Exam will be given to inactive/prepared outside students who want to continue at FDY on the 19th of January at 9 a.m. They should contact to SL Directorate on the 16th of January at 4 p.m. latest.

IMPORTANT: Students have the right to study FDY only for the two years following their initial registration at SU.

Please see the link for your ELAE results.

We wish you success in your studies,

The School of Languages Directorate

Materials Science and Engineering 2009 Master’s Graduate Canan Dağdeviren celebrates yet another achievement.  Canan was named on the “30 Under 30” list of the best young scientists in the world compiled by Forbes magazine.

As the only Turkish scientist on the Forbes list, Canan implemented her award-winning “battery-free cardiac pacemaker” project last November.  The chip developed by Canan converts the kinetic energy of heartbeats to electricity, powering the pacemaker without the use of batteries.  Canan calls her invention a “wearable pacemaker” which is a thin film that converts the energy released by the movements of the heart, diaphragm and lungs to electrical energy, and stores it.

Canan said the following: “The heart is vital to all humans and beats 40 million times per year.  I wanted to design a flexible device that would be attached to the surface of the heart to convert its mechanical energy to electrical energy, and I succeeded.  Although conventional cardiac pacemakers have useful lives varying between 5 to 7 years and have to be replaced by a risky operation, these pacemakers generate all the energy they need to run, and eliminate the necessity of multiple pacemaker operations.  I wanted the heart to be self-sufficient and the device to be harmless to the heart.  My design obtains the energy it requires from the body.”

Curated by Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Ayşe Gül Altınay and Işın Önol, the “Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing” exhibition held at Depo in September and October 2014 was extensively featured in the international feminist art journal n.paradoxa.

The UK-based international feminist art journal n.paradoxa contains an extensive coverage of the “Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing” exhibition organized by Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum, Columbia Global Centers l Turkey, and Columbia University Center for the Study of Social Differences and DEPO.  The coverage includes interviews with curators Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Ayşe Gül Altınay and Işın Önol discussing the purpose of the exhibition, the preparation process, and the contributions of the artists to discussions on issues of gender, memory and war.

Featuring the works of woman artists from Turkey and the world, the exhibition will be available for viewing at the Kuntshalle Exnergasse in Vienna between March 17th and April 3rd, 2015.  The exhibition will be accompanied by panel discussions and talks.

Initially held at Depo in September and October 2014, the exhibition included works by artists Gülçin Aksoy, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Hakikat Adalet Hafıza Merkezi (Center for Truth, Justice and Memory), Gülsün Karamustafa, Susan Meiselas, Nar Photos (Serra Akcan, Fatma Çelik, Gülşin Ketenci, Aylin Kızıl, Serpil Polat), Lorie Novak, Emine Gözde Sevim and Aylin Tekiner.

The feminist art work displayed in this exhibit imagines memory as part of a larger  politics of resistance.  It mobilizes memories of past and present violence precisely to create the conditions and the motivations for social change. Bringing together women artists many of whom are themselves direct witnesses to oppression and terror, the exhibit also reveals moments of resilience, resistance, and creative survival. The artists gathered here use memory in innovative ways.  They foreground unofficial acts of witness and forms of commemoration--embodied practices, performances, photography, testimony, street actions—that provide alternative histories and different political imaginaries than do official archives, memorials, museums, and state commemorations.  They make visible not only violent crimes and their gendered dimensions, but also the intimate texture of lives and communities that have survived or are fighting to survive immense destruction.
 
Exhibition Catalog: http://socialdifference.columbia.edu/publications/mobilizing-memory-women-witnessing-exhibition-catalogue/

n.paradoxa: http://www.ktpress.co.uk/nparadoxa-volume-details.asp?volumeid=35

Kuntshalle Exnergasse: http://www.wuk.at/WUK/KUNST/Kunsthalle_Exnergasse/KEX