"İlk İşim Girişim" competition for the prospective entrepreneurs with applicable business ideas was finalized. The competition was conducted through collaboration between Çalık Holding, focused on serving people and societies in Turkey as well as close geographies, and Yıldız Teknik University, one of longest established schools of Turkey with over 100 years of history.
During the contest which was held in Otag-ı Humayun, YTU Davutpaşa Campus with jury members including Çalık Enerji's General Manager Osman Saim Dinç; Gap İnşaat's Project Director Ender Hıdıroğlu; Abraaj Group's Board Member and Partner Selçuk Yorgancıoğlu; and YTU TTO Project Executive Prof. Dr. Cengiz Kaya, 10 young final nominees competed with their projects.
Up to a total of 1 million TL funding to top three projects
The winning team of the competition was comprised of İlkay Şenel, Melda Altıkatoğlu and İbrahim Işıldak from the Department of Bioengineering at YTU with their Project 'Vein Imaging Spray'. Awarded with the first prize, the 'Vein Imaging Spray' project is intended to be effective to detect veins in infants and children, cancer patients, elderly, and individuals with dark skin whose vascular access is difficult to be visualized. The spray poses no side effects for the human health thanks to its bio-compatible nature and highlights vascular access after a few seconds following application on the body. This affordable product aims to facilitate the procedures in the healthcare sector, eliminating painful vascular access processes experienced by the patients.
The second prize was received by Assist. Prof. Dr. Utku Büyükşahin from HTMSS İleri Teknoloji Mekatronik Sistemler with his project 'Artificial Skin with Tactile Sensation'. This project is about plating of missing limbs with an artificial skin featuring sense of touch for disabled people. It is possible to transmit to brain touch and heat sensations sensed by the artificial skin, making the individual to feel their artificial limbs like prosthetic hands, arms, or legs as their own limbs.
The third prize in the competition was given to Ayhan Parlar from the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department at Istanbul University. The project named as 'High output stevia rebaudiana production using plant tissue techniques and extraction of natural sweeteners from this plant" aims to increase production of natural and harmless sugars in order to be able to prevent negative effects of artificial and other sugars for the human heath. This project also intends to boost stevia production in Turkey, making the country one of the dominating players in the large markets.
Other 7 finalists and their projects involved in this tough competition:
QLoad: Berkin Gülay, Erdem Emekligil, Ahmet Oğuz Kansız
Wearable Ideas: Gülsüm Çiğdem Çavdaroğlu
Energy-saving Smart Power Outlet: Umut Akparlar
Device for Detection of Diabetes at Early Stage: Ulaş Çırpıcı
Development of Wireless RF Energy-harvesting Battery-free Sensors: Assist. Prof. Dr. Hakan Paşa Portal, Assist. Prof. Dr. Sibel Zorlu Porta
Arşın Smart Virtual Market: Behboud Bashiri
Tartaros Mythological Puzzle Game: Mustafa Yurt, Oytun Önal, İbrahim Çavdaroğlu
About Çalık Holding
Established in 1981, Çalık Holding today operates as an international industrial group in the energy, construction, textile, finance, mining, and telecom sectors across 17 countries with around 24,000 employees. As one of the leading Turkish investors in the Central Asia, Balkans, Middle East and Africa, the Group has a consolidated asset size of around 7.5 billion USD. Çalık Holding is highlighted as a leading and powerful player in the main sectors on which it focuses leveraging its long-established corporate structure, rich company culture, highly qualified human resource as well as its reputation, reliability and strong financial standing.
About YTU Technology Transfer Office
Yıldız Technical University Technology Transfer Office is a dynamic organization committed to ensure effectiveness of university-industry coordination, support research activities commercially and through consultancy, and deliver initiatives in the areas of briefing, training, project support, collaboration, intellectual & industrial property rights, entrepreneurship and incorporation. With a history of more than a century, Yıldız Technical University targets achieving world standards in education and research both in qualitative and quantitative terms and takes steps towards being a modern university training qualified workforce and offering benefits to its local community and society in every field with a student population of 30,000 supported by around 3,000 academic and administrative personnel at 10 Faculties, 3 Graduate Schools and 3 Institutes.
