Bilkent CS Student Wins CardSmart Award
Emre Çalışkan, a Bilkent Computer Engineering senior student, is the winner of the 2012 CardSmart competition. Held for the first time this year, the competition asked university students to develop innovative mobile payment and retailing applications for smartphones. The event was organized by the Cardtek Group's SmartSoft company, with the award ceremony taking place during the annual Cardtek Bosphorus trade fair.
Emre's program "CepteBilet" took first place from among more than 100 projects. Cardtek General Manager Murat Göksenin Güzel presented the prize during the ceremony held at the İstanbul Maslak Sheraton.
CepteBilet enables mobile phones to be turned into digital tickets, eliminating use of paper tickets. All of the information usually found on a paper ticket is stored in a mobile phone using QR code technology. Through the use of CepteBilet, up to 500,000 TL per year in paper ticket costs could be saved in Turkey. The application also offers event-goers, who do not have to print their tickets in advance, easy and convenient entrance to concerts, films, sporting events and similar activities.