ODTU Teknokent, the first and most prestigious technopark in Turkey, was established in the premises of Middle East Technical University (ODTU). The university is poised to found a research and development and software technopark that will house local and global technology companies, in which convenience technologies will be designed and built.

The center is expected to achieve software exports of $500 million. Supported by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, ODTU Teknokent is preparing to establish the new technology center that will bring Turkey the technology of the future.

The Information Technologies Innovation Center is a technopark specialized in R&D and software technologies and it is located on the Eskişehir highway, where researchers, IT professionals, students and citizens can easily reach.

The center will be established on the ODTU MET campus on the premises of the university. Near the b building of Information and Communication Technologies, the center is three kilometers away from ODTU and ODTU Teknokent and eight kilometers away from Bilkent University and its technology center Bilkent Cyberpark. It takes nine kilometers to reach the center from another Ankara university, Hacettepe, and its technopark.

Therefore, the center will operate in a region in Ankara where intensive research and development activities are carried out and which bears high innovation potential.

The Information Technologies Innovation Center is expected to open by the end of the year and start operations in the first half of 2018 with an area of 33,500 square meters for informatics and telecommunication companies.

Accommodating large local and global companies, ODTU Teknokent aims to institute a value-creating innovation ecosystem in which globally acknowledged technology products and companies are blossomed and it will house global technology firms.

The center will develop information technologies that will make life more convenient and will generate a synergy that will produce global-scale added value for the economy.

Moreover, the outcomes of scientific R&D and technology activities will be released to the public. To that end, habitats (fair areas, demo/simulation centers, exhibition areas and conference halls) that will enable the first-hand experience of the convenience, which information and communication technologies produced at the center could provide, will be formed.

ODTU Teknokent general manager Mustafa Kızıltaş told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Information Technologies Innovation Center will employ around 500,000 people in the area of IT and telecom with at least a university degree and expert in the field.

Indicating that R&D departments of the global companies will be located in the center, Kızıltaş said the names of the companies that cannot be shared at the moment will be made public in the coming days.

He gave information about the activities to be carried out in the center and its economic targets.

"The first goal we set for the center was software exports of $500 million per year. In general, studies based on IT and innovation will be carried out. To be a bit clearer; the center will host IT and telecommunication companies that will carry out unique studies especially on robot technologies, industrial technology development, 5G/advanced communication technologies, cloud solutions, large data, internet of things, digital transformation in industry (Industry 4.0), cybersecurity and smart cities," he said.

"You know that technopolises are re-assertive and business centers where universities, research institutes and industrial organization carry out their R&D and innovation studies. The Information Technologies Innovation Center is not only a business center housing R&D and companies that develop technology but it is also a living space with high quality and diversified social domains," he said.

A technopark is an organized research and business center, where academic, economic and social infrastructure meets.

Technoparks host universities, research institutions and industrial enterprises together in the same environment and facilitates them to do research, development and innovation activities through mutual transfer of know-how and technology for the sake of realizing value-added products.

ODTU Teknokent is the first and the most innovative technopark in Turkey and it hosts more than 330 tenant companies, 60 percent of which were established in its premises. It employs more than 5,800 personnel and it has 137,000 square meters of closed area reserved for R&D operations.

It has accomplish many R&D activities in aircraft/helicopter systems dynamic modeling and simulation, aircraft/helicopter control systems development, satellite systems development, alternative energy and fuel projects, wind and hydro turbine design, vehicle tracking systems, test and measurement systems design, power sources and energy feed systems, lase applications, sensor technologies, advanced materials research and microelectromechanical systems design and application projects.

The companies that are operating at the ODTU Teknokent are involved in R&D activities in software and information technologies (51 percent), electronics (19 percent), mechanics and design (15 percent), medical technologies (6 percent), energy and environment (6 percent) and advanced materials, agriculture, food, aviation and space, automotive account for the remaining 3 percent, altogether.