This semester at Bilkent, the University Case Competition (UCC) offered its first-ever interdisciplinary course in Network Architecture and Service Provider Design. Four teams composed of CS, EE and MAN students spent 2 months and a few sleepless nights getting their projects ready for a nine-member jury that included network architecture and marketing experts, venture capitalists, CEOs and academics. After presenting their projects, the participants received their course certificates and the winning team was awarded $4,000 cash by Nortel.

In presenting the award, Cem Ayvaz (Netaş's Marketing Director) noted that all the projects were impressive and well prepared, and it was very difficult to select just one as the best. However, in the end, the jury selected "Netstation", a project developed by Gürkan Ensari (MAN IV), Yelda Helvacıoğlu (MAN IV), Ahmet Kocamaz (CS IV), and Ali Cengiz Beğen (EE IV), as the project that they felt would best represent Bilkent University in the international competition.

Netstation, which is similar to an ATM machine, provides Internet services, such as video conferencing and access to homepages containing local content and advertising, at shopping malls and airports. The project developers explored the availability of this type of service in public locations and found that it was an open market with very few potential competitors.

Upon hearing that they were the winners, team member, Gürkan Ensari said, "the project exhausted us but it was worth the effort. We will each receive 1000 dollars to make the nine-day journey to Canada, but more importantly, we have gained valuable experience and made a successful presentation to high-level managers in the real business world. Now we are looking forward to visiting the corporate headquarters of Nortel in Canada and to exchanging ideas and experiences with winners from other universities. Another plus will be the chance to explore recruitment opportunities with Nortel and Netaş." Yelda Helvacıoğlu added,"We worked very hard right from the beginning of the course. The crucial part was generating ideas in our brainstorming sessions and then selecting one specific idea to focus on. However, we also had to spend a lot of time doing market analysis and preparing financial statements. Ultimately, I am happy that our team has been selected to represent Bilkent University and a bit excited because I will be going to Canada for the first time."

Nafiz Baysal (MAN/IV)