Turkey’s largest aviation and technology festival, Teknofest, this year once again helped young people develop their skills in technological design.
Many talented young people from across the country attended the festival, which was launched Thursday and ended Sunday in southeastern Gaziantep province, to receive support and get expert opinions on their projects.
Aleyna Akın, 18, who works with a science center in the northwestern province of Sakarya, said competitors learned more about points they could improve on at the event.
"At Teknofest, we learn how to introduce our project in the right way," she added.
Akın's team has developed a vegetable-based hydrophobic project which absorbs oil in water and helps clean the environment.
Teknofest is an annual event aimed at allowing young people to showcase their abilities in technological fields, such as rocketry, robotics and aerospace design.
The four-day Teknofest gathered youth from across the country to showcase projects they have spent the year preparing. The festival is jointly organized by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3) and Industry and Technology Ministry.
Cooperation opportunities
Nine-year-old Ayşe Arya Atan, a young science enthusiast from the eastern province of Mardin, said her team found an opportunity to cooperate with other teams on similar projects. The team is working on producing self-healing cement using spirulina and calcium lactate.
Fellow 9-year-old and team member Hasibe Üşenmez said that thanks to their project, buildings could become stronger and earthquake-proof. They are also planning to attend upcoming technology events.
Social benefit projects
Meanwhile, Kerem Berker Pınar, a 16-year-old student from Garip Zeycan Yıldırım Science School in the Black Sea province of Samsun, said Teknofest worked to broaden participants' perspectives.
Pinar's project aims to send messages to security personnel when non-disabled people park in parking spaces reserved for disabled people.
Kaan Aydeniz, 18, studying at Izmir Science School in the Aegean region, said his project had also received support thanks to the event.
Aydeniz's project aims to develop a robotic surgical arm that can be used by doctors, even remotely, he said.
The project – labeled the Virtual Reality (VR) Supported 3D Micro Teleoptic Surgery System – is cost-effective and provides an advantage with its VR glasses technology, Aydeniz said.
Aydeniz and his school have participated in the previous Teknofest events and received awards in various categories.
This year's installment featured competitions in around two dozen different fields, including biotechnological innovation, agriculture, environment and energy, transportation, education and helicopter and jet engine design.
The annual event was originally set for April but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Teknofest is held in the metropolis of Istanbul in odd-numbered years and is held in various Turkish cities in even-numbered years.
Somalia lauds Turkish support for young inventor
A Somali lawmaker on Monday praised Turkey's support for Guled Abdi, a young inventor from the East African country who was invited to attend Teknofest and will receive a scholarship for further education.
"The support Guled Abdi has received will not just be for his personal ambitions, it will benefit Somalis at large. Thanks for making his dreams come true," senator Ilyas Ali Hassan said in a statement.
"There are great talents in our great nation ... we need friends like Turkey to help us tap them," he said.
The 17-year-old makes unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) models using extremely limited resources. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu invited Abdi to Gaziantep to join the event having seen him in a video that went viral on the internet.
Hassan, who is also the foreign affairs secretary of the Himilo Qaran opposition party, said Turkey had come to Somalia's aid at its times of greatest need.
"I would like to send my special appreciation to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu @MevlutCavusoglu for not only personally arranging for the airlifting of Guled but also for the scholarship grant and other technical educational support he will receive while in Ankara," he said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Hassan said Turkey was a friendly country, and that bilateral relations in the fields of economics, infrastructure and education were making huge progress since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's 2011 visit to the Horn of Africa country.
Turkey is also supporting Somalia's military to help fight against the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab group and has the largest overseas military facility in Somalia.
'We will continue to support you'
Çavuşoğlu met Abdi and his family in Ankara, vowing to support him in his endeavors.
"When we saw the plane models that he made with limited means in Somalia, we said that this talent should be at #Teknofest," he tweeted, adding, "Keep chasing your dreams, Guled, and we will continue to support you."