Automotive Day for the Students of İzmir SciTech

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

As an automotive enthusiast and a BHSSciTech alumnus, I was the guest of the İzmir High School for Science and Technology, which is a sister school of my high school BHSSciTech, for the Automotive Day on the last thursday. My high school Principal dear Mr. Tolga Yıldız and İzmir Bahcesehir College’s Principal dear Mrs. Zerrin Altunkaya organized this fantastic day and made me so honored by inviting me to conduct it.

We started with a trip to Key Classic Car Museum in İzmir. I guided students in there and informed them about car brands' heritages and inherited design identities. After the museum trip, we returned back to their school and I gave a lecture to them on the global automotive industry. I introduced them the actors of the automotive industry with some inspiring stories and explained them the factors affecting car brands’ success. We also had a fantastic chat about the recent automotive news, green powertrain technologies and car production process upon their questions and project ideas. 

As above, I explained them the significance of automotive industry through the decades, as one of the most prestigious industries in the world, which has many well-known global brands that are instantly recognizable to customers, with their logos, products and design languages. This fantastic fisheye photo is taken by Mr. Yıldız :D

Here, I am with Mrs. Altunkaya and Mr. Yıldız in the super sports hall of the museum next to a Countach 25th anniversary edition and an orange Diablo.

And lastly, I would like to end my post with a lovely collage of the museum from Mr. Yıldız's lens.

2 Years of CharityOnBoard

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

It has been more than two years since CharityOnBoard was founded. That's why I wanted to write this post to serve as a coverage of its activities and achievements. CharityOnBoard has started its journey to share charity foundations' campaigns and events, and it currently uses its Facebook page mainly. With its aim to increase awareness among the society for charities, CharityOnBoard has reached more than 2300 followers in social media. Majority of its followers are from Turkey.

Above, a screenshot of our Facebook page. CharityOnBoard mostly makes its posts in Turkish, also shares the English promotional materials of international charities with Turkish explanations, considering Turkish people who do not speak English.

Frankly, 2300 people is a quite small number of followers for a social media page. But what makes me very proud is, CharityOnBoard has reached more than 2300 aware individuals by the help of our goodwill ambassadors who shared CharityOnBoard with their acquaintances through social media. 

Another point that makes me very proud is, charity foundations like Koruncuk (Turkish Foundation for Children in Need of Protection) appreciated our support and emphasized their precious thanks to us in their own posts. As an example above, Koruncuk said: "Dear Koruncuk Friend, There is a message for you from CharityOnBoard too! Thanks CharityOnBoard".

With its followers and charity network, CharityOnBoard has become a small but aware community in two years.

(Please note that the social responsibility project CharityOnBoard that I founded and managed ended its all activities in December 2015. In addition to its Facebook and Blogger pages that I managed, CharityOnBoard used to have an affiliated Twitter page—established and run by one of my COB volunteer friends—for a very brief period of time in August 2013 only. Honestly, CharityOnBoard's growth was below my expectation. As one of the reasons, it did not have a country focus while covering charities although the vast majority of its followers were from Turkey only. Additionally, I, as the director, had to better canalize the efforts of my dear friends and acquaintances who volunteered to be the goodwill ambassadors of CharityOnBoard. Besides, I was quite busy in 2013-14, i.e., CharityOnBoard's first year, since I made college applications and started university in that year. But I had a great personal gain, my social responsibility and awareness increased while managing CharityOnBoard.)

My Life at BAU So Far / Sparkgo, We've got spark!

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Photos of my very first presentation at BAU 

from Introduction to Industrial Engineering course :D

It has been a long time since my last blog post. Yet I was quite busy as a college freshman. Just within my first months at Bahcesehir University, I have been selected to BAU Turkish Classical Music Choir and become a part of a brand-new organization at BAU called Sparkgo:

Headquartered at Bahcesehir University (BAU) Istanbul, Sparkgo was founded in June 2014 to unite passionate and productive students from different majors, such as engineering, design, law, communication and economics, under the professional perspective of a company for creating products and services from zero. As a technology startup, it aims to become a pioneer of IoT products and related services in Turkey. 

Since August 2014, I am a part of Sparkgo's multidisciplinary team. As "The Corporate Honcho", I am responsible for the operations and strategy development at Sparkgo. I am working on the plans for corporate development and developing marketing strategies, such as a product personalization program offering color options for Sparkgo's smart plug (planned to be our first B2C product) based on home decoration themes to attract modern customers. Additionally, I outlined a program to gain word-of-mouth momentum by converting our future customers into brand advocates. I also designed a launch campaign for our smartplug to promote it as a "servant" by highlighting its features that aim to make people's life easier.

To enrich this post, I definitely want to share some of my Sparkgo moments and poses:

First of all, my corporate pose. I especially chose to wear a spread collar shirt to bring some youthfulness to my pose while wearing a gorgeous paisley tie.

My pose with my dear teammate Mr. Sahin during Intel Technology Conference 2014. 

This month, Kadir Has University invited us related to how the "Sparkgo Concept" can be applied at KHas FabLab. Above, I am with Ms. Goksu and KHas FabLab's coordinator Mr. Demir in front of a historical fuse box. 

Birthday Sparkles! Here I am with my precious colleague Ms. Kelleci, aka Cake Boss, in a lovely surprise birthday party for us at our cosy office in April 2015. Ms. Kelleci is famous for her delicious cakes, but this one was not hers :D

And lastly, one of my all time favorite poses :D It is taken by Mr. Sahin in February 2015 at our headquarters in BAU Besiktas Campus. 

(UPDATE: In July 2015, I resigned from my duties at Sparkgo in an amicable way. It was due to the abrupt change in the business focus and plans of Sparkgo. Before the change, a chic smart plug was planned to be its first commercial B2C product. Sparkgo had a multidisciplinary team consisting of around 10 people working on marketing and R&D (including software developers, embedded systems engineers, mobile developers and industrial designers). I was a senior team member responsible for business development and marketing, as detailed in my post above. Thanks to Sparkgo, I've gained fantastic friends from different majors and become familiar with the startup ecosystem in Istanbul).

BAU Industrial Engineering, I am Coming!!!!

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

What a great excitement, what a great feeling! 

Proudly, I am going to have an Industrial Engineering Bachelor's Degree at Bahcesehir University (BAU) in Istanbul/Turkey on BAU's admission system ApplyBAU's merit-based full scholarship.

BAU's Main Campus in Besiktas, downtown Istanbul. An urban campus which is located along the serene beauty of Bosphorus.

A world university in the heart of Istanbul, BAU provides an international education of the highest quality with its well-established global partnerships. BAU is the leading private university in Turkey's region in terms of full-time international student enrollment. BAU also has its own abroad satellite campuses and academic centers. Furthermore, BAU conducts a comprehensive CO-OP programme (integrated educational model of university study and the business world) with 1500 local and 150 international partners. Besides, BAU is a partner of Startupboothcamp, and Startupboothcamp Istanbul is located at BAU Besiktas Campus. With all of these and more, BAU is a visionary international university which is proudly mine :D

Above, I am with my ApplyBAU Acceptance Letter.

I have been awarded ApplyBAU full merit scholarship in May 2014. As a brand new university entrance system for Turkey, Bahcesehir University's ApplyBAU is an admissions system like the other international colleges' ones. You submit a portfolio, including your CV, various essays about yourself and some test scores like TOEFL. ApplyBAU's admissions team evaluate your application and then invite you to have an interview if you are qualified enough. I applied to B.Sc. Industrial Engineering program so I had an interview with the Head of Industrial Engineering Prof. Erkan Bayraktar. We had a chat about the automotive industry, therefore the interview was fantastic for me :D

I always hoped to share my moments, works and achievements with you from an international institution. Gratefully, my dreams have come true. I have become a member of BAU, a world university in the heart of Istanbul!

I'm Officially Graduated :D

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

As an official grad of BHSSciTech—Bahcesehir High School for Science and Technology in Istanbul, the first science & technology high school and one of the highest ranked high schools in Turkey— it is a great honour for me to make a post about this precious milestone in my life. I got the photos today, so I am curious to share my poses with you:

My studio poses and suit pose for the graduation.

We, BHSSciTech Class of 2014, had our cap throwing graduation ceremony at our school campus in Bahcesehir/Istanbul on June 23, 2014.

Above, I am with my very dear teacher Mrs. Sinem Ergen Çorak (second on the left) and my lovely parents. As the main actors of the event, my friends and I were on the red carpet. Proudly, I was saluted as "an Istanbul Gentleman and the founder of CharityOnBoard" :D My tie was gifted by my dear friend Mr. Olmezsoy—burgundy as my favorite color :D

Just one day later, our prom was held in Ciragan Palace Istanbul. We had a cocktail party in Pierre Lounge and a fine dining in Mabeyn Ballroom. For the overall, it was a fantastic experience.

All the grads together, BHSSciTech and Bahcesehir College High School Class of 2014. I am in the very last row with Miss Nur Erek.

What a fantastic honor, I posed with precious ladies in the following photos :D 

A great selfie with Miss Nur Erek at the entrance of Çırağan Palace.

And gorgeously with Miss Naz Geyikçi inside the palace.

Lastly, I am with my dear friends Mr. Zafer Çavdar and Miss Naz Geyikçi.

Before finishing my words, I would like to say that both our graduation ceremony and the prom have brought me an awesome delight. Now, I am officially graduated from BHSSciTech!

Memories—Miscellaneous

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, I came across with my photos from fantastic events while checking my external harddisk. Most of them are from the last year and I just wanted to share them with you in this post.

This photo above is from April 2013, during my salutation to Mr. Turgut Senol who is the founding general manager of the Teknopark Istanbul. I had the chance to meet Mr. Senol in February 2013, in a presentation that I made. During that presentation, I had a great chat with Mr. Senol about automotive industry in general and a possible Turkish car brand. Relatedly, I shared my ideas for establishing a mid-class green car brand.

 Again, I am with Dear Mr. Senol while he is so kindly honoring me by announcing me to the audience as an "Automotive Genius". That's why there is a smile on my face :D

Here, I am on the stage with Ms. Yagmur Karalar in a commemoration event for Turkish artists and scientists in October 2012. I performed a Turkish scientist Prof. Mustafa Inan and Ms. Karalar was the actress Afife Jale.

And lastly, this precious moment is from March 2013 while I am making the opening speech of the Science Week.