Burçin Çakır
Asst. Prof. Burçin Çakır of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Asst. Prof. Seçil Gönültaş of the Department of Psychology have been awarded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) postdoctoral fellowship grants through the European Commission’s Horizon Europe research funding program.
Dr. Çakır’s project will focus on chip design for efficient processing of machine learning techniques. It is expected that the work will contribute to the production of a prototype chip for use in constructing energy-efficient/sustainable electronics for AI processing. Her grant is a three-year global fellowship; the project will be conducted at both Bilkent University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Seçil Gönültaş
Dr. Gönültaş’s project will examine the bystander responses of non-refugee youth to intergroup bullying of refugee youth in Turkey, with the goal of understanding the interplay of developmental and intergroup processes in order to promote prosocial bystander responses. The project comprises two studies, the first of which will examine social–cognitive and intergroup-related factors in the bystander responses of Turkish young people to intergroup bullying of their Syrian peers. The second study will test the effectiveness of a novel intervention program that includes components of intergroup contact, outgroup mentalizing and the use of role models in promoting prosocial bystander responses. By combining multiple methodologies, the project will help to identify the factors that pose a threat to the inclusion and well-being of refugee youth and to harmonious intergroup relations.
The MSCA grants support research training and career development focused on innovation skills. The MSCA program promotes innovative research training as well as career and knowledge-exchange opportunities through cross-border and cross-sector mobility of researchers, preparing them for current and future societal challenges and enhancing the attractiveness of research centers in Europe and Turkey.