İstanbul Technical University
ITÜ Cekirdek Project Competition 2013
The results of the ITÜ Cekirdek Project, which operates within the ITÜ ARI Teknokent and enables the training of new generation entrepreneurs, have been announced. The KarıncaLAB team became the winner of ITÜ Cekirdek 2013 with their Lego-like toy project consisting of small electronic modules.
ITÜ Cekirdek, one of the most productive technokent structures in Turkey, The results of the 2nd year of ARI Teknokent’s social responsibility project ITÜ Cekirdek’ have been announced. In the ceremony held on 14.12.2013, KarıncaLAB won the finals where a total of 13 teams competed, while Tesla, BioGuy and Saffar were deemed worthy of 2nd, 3rd and 4th place respectively.
With this result, KarıncaLAB received the Elginkan Foundation Technology Award. as 100,000TL, Tesla group received 50,000TL as Cardtek Group Special Award, BioGuy group received 25,000TL as Ege Kimya Special Award and Saffar received 10,000TL as Agito Special Award.
In addition to these 4 groups that were ranked, 3 teams whose ideas were found suitable for commercialization; Go Energy, Autonomy and Acrome, will benefit from free office opportunities for 1 year at ARI Teknokent Türk Telekom Incubation Office. The winning companies; they will use the offices allocated to them without paying any fee and will be able to benefit from all infrastructure services, as well as common work areas, laboratories and consultancy services free of charge.
“We invest in young people and their imagination”
In his opening speech at the ITÜ Cekirdek Final, ITÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca stated that the projects that will shape the future of Turkey will come from ITÜ Cekirdek, while ITÜ ARI Teknokent Director Kenan Olpan expressed the following views in his speech:
“Acting with the vision of increasing national technological development and global competitiveness level, ITÜ, ITÜ ARI Teknokent and ITÜ NOVA TTO launched the ITÜ Core Project’ with the belief that “the most important investment is investing in youth and their imagination. Starting from the projects they have produced in the field of technology, young people who aim to establish their own business and be their own bosses, We open our doors to entrepreneurs at İTÜ Cekirdek; an entrepreneurship ecosystem that includes Pre-Incubation, Accelerator, Competition and Incubation stages all in one. Thanks to the services offered through İTÜ Cekirdek, we aim to germinate and develop technology-based ideas, and then commercialize them. In order for ideas to cease being ‘dreams’ and turn into applicable and commercializable projects, we offer all the possibilities of both our technopark and our university to entrepreneurs. As a non-profit and very successful structure with its many stakeholders and supporters, İTÜ çkerdek, today rises on the shoulders of all its stakeholders. Our debt of gratitude to our stakeholders is endless.”
“All First”
İlhan Ümüller, General Manager of Elginkan Foundation, the main stakeholder of İTÜ ARI Teknokent, said; “As Elginkan Foundation, we are the main supporter of such competitions, but what is important for us is not to be a supporter but to be considered a stakeholder. We are the children of a generation that grew up with the phrase “invention”. However, we have overcome this as a generation. As the Elginkan Foundation, we are happily standing by our universities and entrepreneurs with the support we provide. I consider all 13 finalists who made presentations today as first place winners,” he said.
