September 24, 2025 — The first “New Beginnings for Collaboration – Academia–Industry Dialogues I” event, organized by Bilkent University Technology Transfer Office (TTO), took place at the Bilkent Rector’s Residence with strong participation.
The program, opened with a welcome address by Prof. Dr. Orhan Aytür, continued with insightful speeches from Prof. Dr. Ekmel Özbay (NANOTAM) and Fikret Çınar (Nurol Makina), who shared perspectives from academia and industry. Following these talks, participants gathered around three thematic areas, Greener Future, Digital Horizons, and Better Living & Health, to exchange ideas in dedicated discussion corners. These conversations, far from formal presentations, advanced in a dynamic format where participants shared views and explored potential joint projects and collaboration opportunities.
The event brought together 37 company representatives from various firms across diverse sectors, including defense, digital technologies and artificial intelligence, agricultural machinery, and industrial automation, along with 32 academics from various departments of Bilkent University. This diverse participation enabled the direct exchange of knowledge and needs between academia and industry.
The expertise of academics in the thematic areas, combined with the practical perspectives of industry representatives, contributed to generating recommendations that could translate into tangible collaboration opportunities. Participants discussed which types of university outputs could create faster value while also reflecting on expected transformations and cooperation models likely to gain prominence in the coming years.
Bilkent TTO extends its sincere thanks to all academics, company representatives, and supporters of the organization who contributed to the success of the event.