Hacettepe University, one of Turkey's leading research universities in scientific production, took its place at the Aviation, Space and Technology Festival (TEKNOFEST) Istanbul with its domestic technologies and innovative projects. TEKNOFEST Istanbul, held at Atatürk Airport between September 17-21, 2025, hosted many events that brought technology and excitement together. Hacettepe University, which continues its education in the field of science and technology in the light of universal values as a research-priority university, attracted attention with its success at TEKNOFEST.
Hacettepe made us proud with its awards
Within the scope of the festival, more than 565 thousand teams and 1 million 100 thousand Competitors applied to the competitions organized in 58 main and 137 sub-categories. Students and faculty members of our university, which was represented at TEKNOFEST Istanbul with 304 Competitors, including 154 individuals and 14 teams, and whose 28 projects reached the finals, were deemed worthy of many awards.
First prize in the Nuclear Energy Technology Competition
Teams consisting of students from our university were deemed worthy of awards within the scope of TEKNOFEST Istanbul. The Neutron Interdisciplinary Team, consisting of Hacettepe University students, was awarded the first prize in the Conceptual Design Category of the Nuclear Energy Technology Competition.
In the Swarm UAV Competition, Simurgh Y Team, consisting of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Community of our university, brought our university the third place and the “Most Original Software” award.
Our Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Society Simurgh Y and PGM Pura teams were awarded fourth place in the Free Mission Category of the International UAV Competition with equal points.
They received their awards from President Erdoğan.
At TEKNOFEST Istanbul, our university achieved a significant success in the Scenario Category of the Turkish Natural Language Processing Competition. The competition, which aimed to make telecom customer services fully autonomous using large language models (BDM) and agent systems, was held as a two-day hackathon at the Gebze Bilişim Vadisi campus and organized by Bilişim Vadisi. Hacettepe University teams won both first and second place awards.
The "Kermits" team, captained by Research Assistant İsmail Furkan Atasoy, won first place in the Artificial Intelligence Department and received the highest recognition for their achievements. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented Atasoy with the award.
Second place in the same category was awarded to the "Fifty Token" team, comprised of Begüm Sude Uslu, Emre Tahtalı, and Enes İsmet Bal, third-year Computer Engineering students, and Yiğit Kaya Balcı and Arda Ağaçdelen, third-year Artificial Intelligence Engineering students. The second-place team was presented with their awards by Selçuk Bayraktar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TEKNOFEST.
All inventions of our faculty members were found worthy of awards
Faculty members of our university achieved a meaningful success at the award ceremony held within the scope of TEKNOFEST Istanbul. All inventions of the faculty members of our university, who had four applications to Turkish Patent ISIF'25, were deemed worthy of the award.
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şahmaran, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürkan Yıldırım and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şahmaran, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürkan Yıldırım and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Damla Nur Çelik's invention titled “Cement Binder Composite Coating Material and Production Method” was deemed worthy of a gold medal.
Prof. Dr. Güneş Esendağlı, Dr. Utku Horzum and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Diğdem Yöyen Ermiş was awarded the silver medal for their invention titled “Biomarker Panel Specific to Myeloid-Derived Suppressive Cells.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bilsay Sümer, Assoc. Onur Ergün, Prof. Dr. Levent Sennaroğlu, Assoc. Dr. Münir Demir Bajin, Assoc. Dr. Harun Artuner, Prof. Dr. Cenk Toker, Assoc. Dr. Dinçer Gökcen, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Onur, Prof. Dr. Nilay Bereli, Prof. Dr. Adil Denizli, Prof. Dr. Gonca Sennaroğlu and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gonca Sennaroğlu and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Merve Batuk's invention titled “A Hearing Aid With Hidden Use Feature” and Prof. Dr. Halil Murat Aydın's invention titled “A Tissue Filler Comprising Hyaluronic Acid Gel” received bronze medals.
Significant degree in Turkey with Patent
Nadir Aksoy, a student of our university, achieved a significant degree in the “Turkey with Patent: 4th Universities Patent Competition” organized within the scope of TEKNOFEST Istanbul. Aksoy ranked eleventh with his project “High Torque Compressed Air Powered Engine” in the field of Mechanical Engine.
