BAU Takes First Place at Teknofest with Unmanned Underwater Systems

Bahçeşehir University's (BAU) Baurov team, which competed in the unmanned underwater systems category at Teknofest 2020 in Gaziantep, won first place. The team's 40,000 lira prize and trophy were presented by Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu.

The Aerospace and Technology Festival 'TEKNOFEST 2020', held in Gaziantep under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation), came to an end with an award ceremony. The festival brought together thousands of young people from all over Türkiye. In the fiercely competitive festival, 100,000 young people competed with their projects in 21 different categories this year. Competing in the unmanned underwater systems category at Teknofest, Bahçeşehir University's Baurov team came first and won the 40,000 lira prize. The team received its award from Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu.

Team captain Kağan Kapıcıoğlu, who said they were happy to receive the award, stated: "This year we competed in the unmanned underwater systems competition organized by ASELSAN. We were asked to complete a total of four tasks, two manual and two autonomous. First, we completed two manual tasks: underwater cleaning and assembly. Then we carried out two different autonomous tasks: passing through a ring and positioning at a ring. These autonomous tasks run entirely on code inside the robot. It does its own detection and targeting, navigates on its own towards the target and completes the task. We won first place with this project. Our Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu also came here and listened to our projects. He honored us greatly."

BAU Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Berke Gür said that the robots seen at Teknofest are only part of Bahçeşehir University's work in underwater robotics, adding: "Surface and underwater technologies are very important for our country. Their importance is truly growing within the scope of the Blue Homeland concept. Students carry out the work here themselves from their first year; they produce everything themselves. They gain tremendous experience with these robots. And today we came first. We are very happy."