On Saturday, December 20, 36 teams of students from the GE443, GE444 and GE445 courses presented their transdisciplinary senior projects to three panels of experts from the public and private sectors. Each panel judged the projects from one of the three courses, choosing a first-prize winner for that course.
FEASS GE courses have become the ultimate arena for senior FEASS students to conduct project management in transdisciplinary teams. GE projects have continued to impress expert panelists since the launch of the courses in 2012. A novelty of the fall 2014 GE courses was the fact that several panelists were Bilkent alumni.
Students in all three courses worked on their team projects intensively throughout the semester. Students in GE443, ”Social Challenges in Turkey,” analyzed multiple social challenges by integrating different disciplinary perspectives. They presented their projects to an expert panel consisting of Mustafa Egeli (Havelsan), Gökhan Koyuncu (Central Bank) and Clemens Hoffmann (Bilkent University, IR). First prize was awarded to the project “Regional Dimension of Welfare State Provision in Turkey.”
In GE444, “Human Mobility and Development,” students explored different dimensions of human mobility in relation to issues of development. Their panel consisted of Arınç Atak and Pelin Öztürk (Deloitte Turkey), Ozan Çakmak (International Labor Organization), Hakan Erten (Ministry of Development) and Bilgi Can Köksal (Ministry of European Union Affairs). First prize went to the project “Labor Force Participation of Migrant Women in Ankara.”
The third panel evaluated projects from GE445, “Power and Globalization,” which explored how power works in the global political economy. The students presented their work to Çağatay Telli (Ministry of Development), Senem Yıldırım (İpek University), Başar Arı (Ministry of EU Affairs), Gökçer Özgür (Hacettepe University) and Murat Özmen (Ministry of the Economy). The project “BRICs in Africa: The Rise of a Peripheral Power?” was awarded first prize.
At a reception held in the FEASS atrium following presentation of the awards, students, their parents, the panelists and the FEASS GE course lecturers celebrated yet another successful semester of interdisciplinary teamwork.
GE443 and GE445 will again be offered to senior students in the Departments of Economics, International Relations, and Political Science and Public Administration during the 2015 spring semester.
For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/FEASSGE4XX.