The First Turkish University in Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Education Network: BAU

Bahçeşehir University has joined the Make Impact Consortium, in which 20 universities from different countries come together under MIT's leadership and open their laboratory and educational resources to one another. Through this membership, BAU students will have the chance to attend summits and training seminars held on 4 different continents and to carry out research projects with member universities.

Bahçeşehir University, which offers its students educational opportunities in different parts of the world through its agreements and collaborations, has become a member of the Make Impact Consortium, in which 20 universities from various countries come together under MIT's leadership and open their laboratory and educational resources to one another. The consortium will serve many purposes, such as connecting all member universities through the same system and facilitating continuous communication and project production among students and academics. With this membership, BAU students will now have the opportunity to obtain mini-master certificates from MIT, receive special training, attend summits and training seminars to be held in 20 different cities around the world, and carry out research projects with member universities. In addition, the laboratories to be brought together on an interdisciplinary basis at the BAU Future Campus, as well as all of BAU's resources, will be opened to the universities in the consortium, so that not only BAU students but also students from all over the world will be able to become part of the BAU family. In this way, Türkiye has now joined the consortium's member countries, including the United States, France, Australia, Japan, Colombia, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Canada.

"WE WANT TO OPEN OUR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO THE WORLD"

As part of the collaboration, a signing ceremony for the membership was held with the participation of BAU President Prof. Dr. Şirin Karadeniz and Make Impact Consortium Senior Program Manager Saana McDaniel. Speaking before the signing ceremony, Prof. Dr. Şirin Karadeniz said: "In addition to the university entrance exam, with ApplyBAU we had opened another path for children and young people who want to be part of the university with their dreams, their projects, the products they have developed, the patents they have obtained and the companies they have founded. In this way, we welcomed wonderful young people into our university and created and designed different spaces for them, such as dedicated laboratory workspaces and an incubation center, under the mentorship of our faculty members. The startups that emerged here have now turned into patents that exist and are known in Türkiye. But what we want to do with MIT, and especially with the Make Impact Consortium, is to open these young people up to the global world. They are in no way behind young people in other countries. We wanted them to present their projects to the whole world by joining such a global university and business network with the ideas they develop. Let their projects now find a place in different parts of the world, let them found companies, and if they want to change something, let them develop it not only with their friends at their own university but also with their peers in other countries within the MIT network."

"WE OFFER THE OPPORTUNITY TO BRING 4 DIFFERENT CONTINENTS TOGETHER IN THE SAME PROJECT"

Saana McDaniel said that she very much liked the university she visited for the signing ceremony and that the young people are about to undertake very exciting initiatives. Stressing that there is a great deal to learn from different universities in different parts of the world, McDaniel said that BAU will also contribute a great deal to the consortium. McDaniel added: "I had the opportunity to tour the university and see very exciting things happening on campus. We saw that even more can be done. In our meetings, we discussed how important it is for students who are passionate about entrepreneurship to have a space where they can bring the prototypes they dream of to life, and in this respect we agreed with BAU to take serious steps toward a facility that students can use 24/7. The consortium currently includes universities from 4 different continents. As MIT, we are open to supporting not only BAU but all the universities in our network and to sharing the resources we have with them. We stay in touch with our members in different parts of the world through an application we have developed. Students at all participating universities can create their own profiles in the app, and thanks to these profiles, a student with an idea who wants to found a startup or any company will have the chance to found their company globally by meeting students not only from Istanbul and Bahçeşehir University but from the 4 different continents in the consortium. For now, the consortium has brought universities into the network. In the second phase, we will start to include corporate partners. In this way, we aim to provide our students not only with the opportunity to connect with other universities but also with internship and job opportunities at the other major companies that will join the network."