We are happy to come together with our students back on our campus after a long while. We wish the Sabancı University family a healthy and successful academic year.

The Switzerland-based ArtTech’s annual forum will be held for the first time in Turkey on September 28, 2021 with a hybrid event organized in collaboration with Sabancı University. Bringing together prominent people from the world of culture, arts and economy in addition to international researchers, engineers and scientists, the forum will be hosted by Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum.

Looking for answers to questions like “Where is technological innovation heading in the arts? Are cultural institutions making the most of technology? How do start-ups invest in cultural and artistic heritage projects?” since 2017, ArtTech builds an ecosystem to explore and test innovative solutions to promising entrepreneurs, and find new questions.

Organized in collaboration with Sabancı University, ArtTech Forum 2021 will have world-famous designer Refik Anadol and author Metin Arditi as speakers and include two panels entitled “Trends and Investments in Cultural and Creative Industries” and “Heritage preservation and technologies, focus on Turkey and region” with a focus on Turkey and the region. Moreover, the 5^th ArtTech Prize will be awarded to one of the 8 innovative startups selected by an international jury.

ArtTech Forum 2021 will start at Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum with the opening speeches of Yusuf Leblebici, president of Sabancı University, Patrick Aebischer, Chairman of ArtTech Foundation, Roland Brun, Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of Switzerland in Istanbul, and will bring together prominent people in the world of culture, arts and technology through panel discussions.

Please click to see ArtTech Forum 2021 Program.

* The event will be in English.

A project implemented by Leila Haghighi Poudeh, postdoctoral researcher at Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center (SU-IMC) is entitled to receive support within the framework of the TÜBİTAK 1001 program.

Leila Haghighi Poudeh’s project is entitled “Development of New Ionic Conductor Prepreg Interlayers and Their Application to Structural Energy Storage Systems by Using a Multiscale Engineering Approach”. Researchers and advisors from the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) and Composite Technologies Center of Excellence (CTCE) are also involved in the project.

Mehmet Yıldız, Vice President of Sabancı University, Fevzi Cebeci and Bekir Dizman, members of FENS, and Merve Senem Seven, post-doctoral researcher at FENS are involved in the project as researchers. Canan Atılgan and Yusuf Menceloğlu, members of FENS act as advisors to the project.

Talking about the importance of the project, Poudeh said the following: In recent years, development of energy storage devices has played an important role in development of emerging technologies such as aviation, portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. Although many research efforts were deployed for development of high-performance energy storage devices, integration of such systems resulted in a considerable increase in the weight of structural components. Such systems usually have a laminated structure composed of carbon fibers that are modified as electrodes, glass fabric as a separator and an electrolyte that is filled in between the two layers. The main challenge of this field which also inhibits the utilization and commercialization of multifunctional energy storage devices, is the trade-off relationship between mechanical performance and charge storing capability. This project aims to overcome this problem and improve the performance of such systems by following multiscale material design framework.

Mentioning the aim of the project, Poudeh said the following: Planned to last three years, our multidisciplinary project will contribute to the two PHD theses. The aim of the project is to develop alternative electrolyte chemistries by using computational and experimental approaches, and to manufacturing ionically conductive electrolyte/separator prepregs that can be implemented within any energy storage system. In the final stage of the project, it is planned to develop and evaluate a laboratory-scale prototype with a structural, electrochemical and multifunctional perspective to validate the concept of power composites.

COVID-19 VACCINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR DORMITORIES IN THE 2021-2022 ACADEMIC YEAR 

In the framework of the Regulation on Accommodation Services in Higher Educational Institutions issued by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and published in the Official Gazette dated 02.07.2020, No 31173, which also applies to the accommodation services provided by our University, necessary health measures must be taken.

Therefore, our students who will stay in our dormitories in the 2021-2022 Academic Year are required to submit their vaccination cards validated by the related authorities, indicating that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Furthermore, our students who previously contracted COVID-19 are requested to submit their positive PCR test results. The right to introduce further arrangements made by the Ministry of Health, the Higher Educational Council, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and any other relevant authorities is reserved.

Based on the above, only those students who have received at least 2 doses of vaccine with the last dose administered at least 14 days before their admittance to our dormitories will be permitted to enter.

According to the decision of the Ministry of Health, people who have contracted COVID-19 can be vaccinated after 1 months following their recovery. In this case, to be able to have their dormitory registration completed, students who have been already contracted COVID-19 but whose vaccination time has not arrived as of their date of entry to the dormitory must consent to booking an appointment and receiving their vaccines as soon as they are eligible to the vaccine.

You are kindly requested to email your vaccination cards and PCR test results referred to in the announcement to healthcenter@sabanciuniv.edu . 

Accommodation Service Unit / SER

The Orientation Program, which the all new undergraduate students of Sabancı University will participate, will be held on 23rd-24th of September, 2021. On the first day of orientation, the entire program will take place online. The second day program of the orientation will take place face to face on campus. Presentations can also be followed online via the web.

Please click to read details of the Orientation Program.

A project submitted by Deniz Can Kolukısa, researcher in Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center (SU-IMC) is entitled to receive support within the framework of the TÜBİTAK 1001 program.

Deniz Can Kolukısa’s project is entitled “Development and Experimental Validation of Parallelized Hybrid SPH-PD Particle Method for Fluid-Solid Interaction Solutions of Hydroelasticity Problems”. Mehmet Yıldız, Vice President of Sabancı University, Adnan Kefal, member of Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), and Murat Özbulut, faculty member from Piri Reis University are involved in the project as researchers.

Regarding the aim and the importance of the project, Deniz Can Kolukısa said the following: Thanks to the studies to be carried out in this project, a generalized computer code with interconnected operation on a GPU will be developed. This code will bring together the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method, which is a particle-based, computed hydrodynamics method growing more popular every day, and the Peridynamics method, which is a particle-based, relatively new method turning out to be very successful at modelling big deformations, cracks and damage propagation in solid mechanics simulations to provide solutions to fluid-structure interaction problems with multiphysics characteristics. In this framework, the algorithms to be developed in order to improve and combine these methods will be verified through experimental studies, which will enable us to monitor structural deformations instantly with the help of the innovative inverse finite element method (IFEM). In this project, progressive damage to thin plates and shell structures that are subject to out-of-plane cyclical hydrodynamic loads will be examined wholly for the first time. Therefore, a computational engineering tool will be developed to facilitate the examination of progressive damage scenarios and hydroelasticity behaviors of many underwater and surface structures and structural elements such as boats, bridges, and offshore platforms in order to enhance their structural safety.

MUNICIPALITIES’ EFFORTS AIMED AT GENDER EQUALITY WILL HAVE A STRONGER MULTIPLIER EFFECT

‘Workplace Policy Development and Implementation Guide for Combating Domestic Violence Against Women at Municipalities’ prepared within the framework of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum’s Business Against Domestic Violence (BADV) project has been shared with the public. Talking about policy development steps and some successful examples, the Guide is expected to reinforce the multiplier effect of municipalities’ efforts towards gender equality.

A new step has been taken in the ‘Business Against Domestic Violence (BADV) Project’ carried out by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) and supported by the Sabancı Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with TÜSİAD, which aims to mobilize companies to act against violence suffered by working women by using the managerial and organizational capabilities of the business world.  ‘Workplace Policy Development and Implementation Guide for Combating Domestic Violence Against Women at Municipalities’, prepared within the framework of the project, has been published. Rümeysa Çamdereli, Director of Research of the YA DA Foundation, talked about the content of the guide during an online meeting moderated by Sevda Alkan, BADV Project Manager. 

The guide includes steps, tools, methods and successful examples for municipalities, as employers that adopt gender equality in the workplace, for the development of policies and instructions that enable workplace and employees to be the least impacted by domestic violence against women. The guide also has some recommendations to municipalities that they can implement in their relations with subsidiary companies and other stakeholders to extend their combat against domestic violence. Within the framework of the BADV project, it is planned to do a pilot run of the guide in 3 voluntary municipalities in 2021. 

Nevgül Bilsel Safkan from Sabancı Foundation, one of the stakeholders of the project said, “As Sabancı Foundation, we believe it is essential to ensure collaboration across sectors to generate durable solutions to a multi-dimensional problem such as gender inequality. In this context, we are proud of supporting the Business Against Domestic Violence project, which has been bringing together academia, civil society, international organizations and the business world since 2016.” Nevgül Bilsel Safkan continued:

“Companies that are trained and benefit from the guide within the framework of this project not only ensure gender equality among their employees but also contribute remarkably to social justice. It is very exciting to see this guide, proven to be very effective long ago, adapted to municipalities, which have an important role not just as a social services providers but also as employers. Talking about policy development steps and some successful examples, the guide is expected to reinforce the multiplier effect of municipalities’ efforts towards gender equality. We are very glad that the BADV project, which is a good example not only in Turkey but also in the rest of the world, has been applied in municipalities.” 

Zeynep Başarankut Kan, Representative of the UNFPA to Turkey, said the following:

“We hope that with this guide municipalities will find more effective solutions to inequalities, which are the root causes of gender-based violence. We believe that with the recommendations in the guide, municipalities in their capacity as responsible public institutions and employers will assume ownership of the matter and re-design their institutional policies for women and with women, and implement their policies more effectively. Implementation of this guide will make municipalities safe workplaces for women working at risk of violence. The UNFPA has been working for a long time to increase the number of women-friendly cities and to enable the most vulnerable groups to access rights and local services. With the inclusion of municipalities in the BADV project, which is implemented in collaboration with Sabancı University, we aim to expand our local efforts and impact.” 

THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING COMPANIES REACHES 90

Ebru Dicle, Secretary General of TÜSİAD reminded us that TÜSİAD has provided support for the BADV project since 201, and continued:

“We are working so that more and more companies become involved. When we set off, our aim was to generate an applicable and reproducible model, and act against violence against women with all our institutional capacity. The number of participating companies, which has reached 90, shows the private sector’s commitment and ambition. The participating companies have carried out training, applications and awareness-raising activities not only for their own work environment but also for that of the companies included in their supply chains and even their clients.  The fact that the impact area of the project keeps growing is promising in terms of eliminating this vital problem.

The “Business Against Domestic Violence” project is one of the concrete and effective examples of academia-civil society-private sector cooperation. Participation of municipalities in this cooperation will more than reinforce the existing efforts. Gender equality is a concern not only for women but also the whole society. We have to continue to work in collaboration and solidarity with each other to build a country where women live safely.”

After the guide was introduced, a panel entitled “The importance of local administrations as employers in the fight violence against women” was held. Moderated by Melsa Ararat, Director of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, the panel hosted Zelal Yalçın, Coordinator of the Social Policies Center of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Istanbul Planning Agency and Özgün Akduran, member of Istanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences. 

Melsa Ararat summarized the panel discussions as follows: “People working for municipalities and their subsidiary companies constitute approximately 17% of total registered workforce. We do not know the rate of women employees in municipalities.  What we know is that this rate varies from 7 to 26%. These rates are below the rate of women in private companies. At the management level, underrepresentation is a worse problem. 11% of municipal assembly members are women while 50% of service employees are women. Our panelists have just said that mayors of 3 out of 30 metropolitan municipalities, and of 25 out of 519 metropolitan district municipalities are women. Municipalities and municipal subsidiaries must be the safest workplaces for women. The steps that municipalities are to take to ensure that women stay safe and healthy both in their workplaces and at home will contribute to the rising of women to higher decision-making bodies in municipalities and have a transformative effect by touching every layer of society.”

Emphasizing that women were appointed to deputy secretary general positions at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for the first time in 2019 following the local elections, Zelal Yalçın continued, “Local administrations create a multiplier effect in implementing equality policies. They spread equality street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, district by district. Therefore, the implementation of the guide offers a very important, practical, applicable, concrete and sustainable program to expand and make permanent the culture of equality. The guide is applicable to all the local administrations.”

Özgün Akduran underlined that the guide was one of the most original contributions thanks to its proposal for a risk assessment regarding municipality employees’ incurring or committing violence. Akduran said that if the training recommended by the guide was not limited to managers and other employees who request it, and covered all the municipality staff, then the project would be more sustainable. He also touched upon the multiplier effect of the guide. He said that when employees, especially those in citizen-facing roles, gained awareness of the framework, the dimensions of violence against women, and how to prevent it through risk assessment, questionnaires and training, they would not only notice various forms of violence that they and their colleagues could be subject to, and take action, but also stay aware and vigilant about any similar experience that their fellow citizens could have. For example, staff members in charge of distributing social benefits, health staff working in municipal clinics, and social workers and trainers in vocational courses like ISMEK should be able to notice that the women they are in contact with have been subject to violence and guide them to the right place in such a case. 

You can reach “Workplace Policy Development and Implementation Guide for Combating Domestic Violence Against Women at Municipalities” via this link.

Melsa Ararat, Director and Principal Researcher of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, has been selected as RSA (the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) fellow.

As a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce which was established in London in 1754, Melsa Ararat will work with the other fellows of the Society to help bring together people and ideas to solve social problems and build a better future.

The Oxford Dictionary notes that the word ‘sustainability’ was first used in an environmental context in the RSA Journal in 1980. Please click here for more information about the RSA, which has fellows selected from 80 countries in the world.

Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Dr. Fatih Birol is included in TIME 100 list of “the World’s Most Influential People in 2021”. Also acting as the Honorary Chairman of Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate Change (IICEC), Dr. Birol is the only person from Turkey on the list. Former Secretary of State of the US and the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Kerry speaks highly of Fatih Birol and says, “A trusted counselor to world leaders, Birol is an objective authority on what it will take to slash carbon emissions and save our planet.”

Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and Honorary Chairman of Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate Change (IICEC), Dr. Fatih Birol became the only person from Turkey to be included in “The Most Influential People of 2021” list of the TIME magazine, one of the most prestigious news and politics magazine in the world.

Sharing the same list as people such as Joe Biden, the US President, Frans Timmermans, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Donald Trump, former US president, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Dr. Birol has been the Executive Director of the IEA since 2015. Under his leadership, the IEA has moved to the forefront of global efforts to reach international climate goals while ensuring that the social and economic impacts of clean energy transitions are at the heart of policy-making and energy security is safeguarded. After taking office, Dr. Birol led the IEA in its first comprehensive modernization program since its creation in 1974. These efforts focused on “opening the doors” of the IEA to major emerging economies including Brazil, China, India and South Africa; making the IEA the global hub for clean energy transitions; and broadening the IEA’s energy security mandate beyond oil to also cover electricity, natural gas, renewables and the critical minerals needed in many of today’s clean energy technologies. With new governments joining the IEA, under his tenure the Agency’s share of global energy demand has risen from 40% to 75%.

Recipient of numerous state decorations

Dr. Fatih Birol joined as a junior analyst in the mid-1990s and rose to the position of Chief Economist responsible for the IEA’s flagship World Energy Outlook. Dr. Birol has been named by Forbes as one of the most influential people in the world of energy and by the Financial Times as the Energy Personality of the Year. He chairs the World Economic Forum’s (Davos) Energy Advisory Board. He is the recipient of numerous state decorations, including the Japanese Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun, the Order of the Polar Star from the King of Sweden and the highest Presidential decorations from Austria, Germany and Italy. Before the IEA, Dr. Birol worked at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna for six years. He earned a BSc degree in power

engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul and received an MSc and PhD in energy economics from the Technical University of Vienna. Dr. Birol was awarded a Doctorate of Science honoris causa from Imperial College London in 2013. He is an honorary life member of Galatasaray Football Club.

Kerry: “Birol is an objective authority”

Former Secretary of State of the US and the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Kerry spoke to TIME magazine about Fatih Birol. He said, “In a world where facts are assaulted, Fatih Birol combines the best of high-tech data, optimistic know-how and old-school rhetorical finesse. A trusted counselor to world leaders, he’s an objective authority on what it will take to slash carbon emissions and save our planet. His data-driven approach is like Moneyball for the clean-energy revolution.” Kerry continued, “Birol has transformed the International Energy Agency from a body mostly monitoring oil markets into a leading adviser to the world’s major economies across the full suite of energy technologies. Building on over 10 years of analysis, this year his IEA released its first comprehensive road map for reaching global net-zero emissions by 2050 and minimizing the risk of catastrophic climate impacts. Countries including India, China, Indonesia and Colombia have all asked him to chart road maps to speed climate action and reach net-zero emissions. When we get there, and if we get there in time, trust that Fatih Birol guided the course to turn words into reality."

For more information about IICEC, please visit https://iicec.sabanciuniv.edu websites.

Horizon 2020 ACCTING will address impacts of Green Deal policies

Since 2019 SU Gender has achieved remarkable success in securing substantial EU funds for research and cooperation, including four EU Horizon 2020 projects that are currently running - GEARING-Roles (2019-2022), seeking to strengthen gender equality mechanisms; WHOLE-COMM (2021-2025) and Re-ROOT (2021-2024), examining migration and integration at different urban scales and layers; and RESISTIRE (RESpondIng to outbreaks through co-creaTIve sustainable inclusive equality stRatEgies) developing a gender+ approach to the unequal impacts of  the COVID 19 pandemic; as well as two Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellowships that began in 2021:  FASS Faculty member and SU Gender Board Member Aslı İkizoğlu’s project "Learning the Language of Belonging: Barriers to Inclusion in Refugee Education" and SU Gender Visiting Researcher Deniz Gündoğan İbrişim’s project “Postimperial Memories: Gender and Trauma in the Anthropocene.” 

Recently, SU Gender has been awarded a fifth EU H2020 project, funded under the Behavioral, social and cultural change for the Green Deal. All together 117 proposals were submitted to this call and only two were awarded. ACCTING (AdvanCing behavioural Change Through an INclusive Green deal), which has been funded with a full score of 15/15, is a 40-month long project with a total budget of 5 million EUR (with a Sabancı University budget of 155.675 EUR). The project  brings together 12 institutions from 11 countries in a strong multi-disciplinary and multi-sector consortium, being coordinated by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and including as project partners Örebro University (Sweden), Yellow Window (Belgium), Knowledge & Innovation (Italy), Zentrum für Soziale Innovation (Austria), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, European Secretariat (Germany), Sabancı University (Turkey), University of Lisbon (Portugal), South East European Research Center (SEERC), Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania) and European Citizen Science Association (Germany). At Sabancı, the project will be led by Ayşe Gül Altınay and Kristen Sarah Biehl.

The main aims of ACCTING are to a) contribute to the success of the European Green Deal programme with a range of research activities on how to avoid and reduce the unequal effects of both climate change and  the policy responses to climate change in different local and national contexts and b) to identify, make visible, and learn from the inspiring changes that are happening on the ground, often with the initiative of marginalised groups, women and the younger generation. Building on previous research initiatives, ACCTING proposes an interdisciplinary conceptual and methodological framework, inspired by strategic policy design-thinking and co-creation. This will be implemented through 1) research activities along eight interdisciplinary thematic research lines, implemented as experimental studies in four to eight countries, each based on a first research cycle of narrative analysis and a second research cycle of multiple methods (e.g. interviews, focus groups, geographical information systems); 2) an extensive mapping and comparative intersectional analysis of inspiring initiatives of local bottom-up sustainable practices facilitating behavioural change relevant for vulnerable or marginalised groups in Europe; 3) multi-actor creativity to translate research insights into operational tools using the method of Open Studios; 4) the concretisation of these insights and creativity into potential solutions, tested as ten pilot actions led by local stakeholders and actors; and 5) wide open-access dissemination of research results, policy recommendations and a future research agenda; and finally, 6) a robust impact evaluation of the project and its findings.

As Principal Investigators under SU Gender, Ayşe Gül Altınay and Kristen Sarah Biehl will be supporting ACCTING in numerous tasks including developing the mapping exercises of local bottom-up initiatives/best practices and supporting their analysis; carrying out experimental studies along three of the thematic research lines; supporting the development of gendered and intersectional perspectives in research activities; developing and implementing the Open Studio methodologies; as well as furthering new research agendas and dissemination of project results. SU Gender and the principal investigators will be bringing to the project disciplinary expertise in anthropology, sociology and gender studies; methodological expertise in qualitative methods, comparative case studies, life histories, interviews, ethnography; along with specific research expertise in working with diverse inequalities and marginalized groups. ACCTING will also build on the ongoing RESISTIRE project, co-coordinated by Ayşe Gül Altınay, Kristen Sarah Biehl and Nazlı Türker, in its focus on inequalities, its goal of “leaving no one behind” in research and social change, and its co-creative methodologies.

ACCTING will also benefit from and contribute to SU Gender’s Transformative Activism Program, co-coordinated by Ayşe Gül Altınay, Özge Ertem and Nazlı Türker, which entails exploring embodied transformative methodologies and pedagogies for social change. The activists and civil society organizations in the Transformative Activism network that work at the intersections of the climate crisis, ecological change and gender will be key resources and allies for the ACCTING project.

In addition, ACCTING will greatly complement the new line of research on ecology and climate change at SU Gender initiated by Kristen Biehl in recent years. In March 2019, Biehl organized two events, an international academic panel event examining the climate crisis through the lens of gender inequality, and an activist event, exploring feminist approaches to ecological change, although both had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. In July 2019, Biehl was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Human Rights Research Grant to comparatively investigate how civil society in Turkey working in the fields of migration and environment incorporate gendered approaches into their work and organizational culture, the results of which are soon to be published.