Innovative Project Competition Awards

The second Ankara Cyberpark/Bilkent University Innovative Project Competition concluded last week with the awarding of prizes to the winning students.
The students received their awards at a ceremony held at Mithat Çoruh Auditorium on May 12. Participants and guests had the opportunity to mingle during the reception that followed. Radio Bilkent, the competition's press sponsor, contributed to the awards ceremony by making the announcements and playing music during the project exhibition and reception.
The first prize went to team 5.15 for their Clipnoz project. The second prize was received by the Creditronics team for their BasOde project. Third prize went to the VirCorp team for their VirKey project, and the I,Secure team received the honorable mention for their Drowsy Driver Detection System (3DS) project.


 

SATM and VSTHS Graduation Awards

"And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever."
With this solemn pledge from the "graduates' song" playing in the background, and a hundred zany scenes from the students' yearbook flashing on the large screen, the 12th annual SATM/VSTHS graduation awards came to a conclusion amid spontaneous and resounding applause.
Earlier, Kamer Rodoplu, Director of the Schools, had hosted twenty-five guests from the schools’ corporate partners at a luncheon at the schools' Le Piment Rouge restaurant. Each year, executives from the companies at which SATM students spend their industrial training semester help to select and join in honoring students who have made notable contributions to academic, business, extracurricular and social activities during their undergraduate years. A few words of commendation, a commemorative plaque, a gift from the company, plus a warm handshake or kiss from the corporate presenter, awaited each of the students recognized at this year's ceremony.
Following the awards, a drawing was held at which four lucky students, one from each of four departments, won a ticket to the Graduation Ball. Truly, a great time was had by all.

Also in this issue:

Distinguished Teachers Honored
 

Bilkent University is pleased to announce the recipients of the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award for 2005. Each of the recipients was chosen by students for demonstrating outstanding teaching abilities and for contributing to students’ academic and intellectual development.
The Bilkent News asked this year's "Distinguished Teachers" about their reactions to receiving this award.


Asst. Prof. Levent
Akdeniz (MAN)
I am honored to receive this year's Distinguished Teacher Award. This prestigious award is the most meaningful event in my teaching career. I am grateful to those who nominated me for the award and to my colleagues, who have provided a supportive environment here at Bilkent. Most importantly, I am grateful to my past and current students, who have a strong desire for knowledge and have made my teaching career an enjoyable experience for me.


Asst. Prof. Tarık Kara (ECON)
I am surprised and honored by this award. I am surprised because Bilkent has many excellent instructors (several of them were my former instructors). Being one of the recipients of such an award among many excellent instructors is probably due to the fact that I was always lucky to have excellent students, which made teaching a pleasure. Still, I would like to thank Prof. Semih Koray and Prof. William Thomson, who taught me, among many other things, how to teach. I would like to thank my family for their patience and understanding when I could not spend too much time with them. Last but not least, I would like to thank my former and current students, who have taught me many things about teaching and made this job a pleasure.


William Wardall Sawyer (CS)
I am surprised and of course greatly pleased by this award. I thank God for all His help during my teaching career, and that includes my supportive family, friends and wonderful colleagues. This is a great honor to be chosen, especially since there are so many fine teachers here at Bilkent. This award is an encouragement to continue working to improve my teaching, to try new approaches and to stay student-focused. Working with the bright and highly motivated Bilkent students such as I have these past five years has been my great pleasure, and I look forward to the future.

IAED Instructors’ Project Funded by Turkey Development Competition
 

Six instructors in the Bilkent Interior Architecture and Environmental Design Department have received funding to implement a project proposal submitted to the 2005 Turkey Development Marketplace Competition.
The competition, which is supported by the World Bank, received a total of 765 project entries. Dr. Nilgün Çuha, Nerkis Kural, Serpil Ozaloğlu, Sezin Tanrıover, Dr. Sibel Ural and Dr. Semiha Yılmazer submitted a proposal entitled "Children Attraction Center." The project was one of 35 selected to go on to the next step, a verbal and visual presentation to World Bank jurors. As a result of their presentation on May 3, the Bilkent group was chosen to receive a grant to fund their proposal.
The idea of the proposed center is to provide children with access to the urban life of their neighborhood. It will be established in the middle of a community, affording everyone easy access. Children will have the opportunity to be involved in the design and implementation of the project, which will also give them experience in working in cooperation with adults.
The construction and building of the facility will be supervised by experts, and waste materials will be used to minimize construction costs. Activities funded by the competition grant are to be completed within 12 months.

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