Keep Calm and Study Hard :D

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Through the years in this blog, I am glad that I have been able to share many stellar moments of mine such as being the head judge in a primary school science competition and conducting an automotive day for high school students. My latest Hong Kong adventure was also among those great moments. And after that, a fantastic spring semester welcomed me in Istanbul with tons of projects and course assignments.

Under these circumstances, I doubtlessly had to be a diligent student (nerd) :D Although I am only posting my significant moments as mentioned, I wanted to share something less vibrant this time to give a glimpse of my nerd engineering student side in this post. Gratefully, I found a variety of related photos to share as a great pose giver :D

I would like to start by my BAU Barbaros Library pose from February 2016, as the proof to show that I studied hard but enjoyed at the same time :D

My favorite place to study with my dear studymates is our Faculty of Engineering building's Bosphorus terrace with high backed benches and colorful moving desk stools in there.

Even I found a gorgeous classroom selfie taken in March 2016.

After a long day in April 2016, my dear “cool” studymate Mr. Sefa Tekin and I preferred to relax and pose on executive chairs in Faculty of Law building :D Unfortunately, these chairs are not found in our faculty building :(

Waistcoat and tie, my traditional presentation outfit :D These photos are from one of my in-class presentations in May 2016 with my pre-presentation pose taken by my lovely mom at home.

Although this photo is from the fall semester 2016, I would like to end this post by showing my late night study sessions with my dear studymates before the exams. It seems that I was the only one who maintained to stay sober :P :D

BAU Hong Kong 2016 Winter School

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Proudly, I was in Hong Kong for two weeks before the last one and attended my university BAU's Hong Kong 2016 Engineering and Management Winter School. As I emphasized in my BAU Industrial Engineering, I am Coming!!!! post, Bahcesehir University (BAU) has its own satellite campuses and abroad academic centers. And it is conducting variety of abroad programmes like the one that I participated in.   

Attended the winter school on BAU Board of Trustees scholarship. Took globalization, management and sustainable engineering lectures covering international organizations, One Belt-One Road Initiative and green energy systems with great field trips.

I have overcome jet lag, organized my photos and collected more from my friends and lecturers :D Now, it is a great pleasure for me to share my experiences with you. At this point, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Dr. Kelvin Leung, BAU Hong Kong Director, who designed this fantastic winter program and so kindly hosted us in Hong Kong. Let's start with some of my class and field trip poses:

This photo is from Dr. Solomon's management class where we learned three essential managerial skills: Technical skill involving process or technique knowledge and proficiency, human skill involving the ability to interact effectively with people and conceptual skill involving the formulation of ideas.

And the photo above is from Dr. Francis' globalization lecture. We covered the levels of establishing a global market space with collaborations between governments, universities, trade associations and companies.

These two photos are from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). We had a field trip to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's headquarters and exhibition area on the 55th floor of IFC Tower Two which has the gorgeous Hong Kong Central view above. HKMA issues banknotes only in the denomination of ten Hong Kong dollars. Interestingly, the role of issuing other banknotes is delegated to the note-issuing banks in the territory which are HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of China.

Here, I am in front of the Golden Egg in Hong Kong Science Park which is named as Charles K. Kao Auditorium to pay tribute to the Nobel laureate “Father of Fiber Optics”. In Hong Kong Science Park, we discovered sustainable engineering solutions especially for transportation, cities and buildings. 

Besides these two field trips, we also visited Hong Kong Trade Development Council's SME Centre that gives counseling for small and midsize enterprises, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and CLP Power Hong Kong which is a major utility company in Hong Kong.

After the class and field trip photos, it is the time to share my personal Hong Kong poses :D

Firstly, I would like to share a fantastic Hong Kong night panorama from the windy Peak of Hong Kong Island. 

And this photo is from the famous Symphony of Lights, the world's largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness World Records. There is also an iconic red sailed Hong Kong junk boat passing through Hong Kong Harbour in the photo above.

My Hong Kong Central poses from top to down: HSBC building and Bank of China Tower in the background, I am with IFC Tower Two and Hong Kong Wheel, and inside the wheel.

Even before coming to the Hong Kong, The Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui has always attracted me with its brand identity including its classy building and “Peninsula Green” Rolls Royce fleet. 

In front of 1881 Heritage (the former marine police hq) located in Tsim Sha Tsui.

After night poses, I want to share some poses from my day explorations. Here, I am in front of the Western Market in Hong Kong Island which is the oldest surviving market building in Hong Kong and located close to the Hollywood Road where is famous for antique shops. 

And here, the famous Nathan Road of Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). It was a bit gloomy day.

Not just Hong Kong, I also visited Macau which is the other special administrative region of People's Republic of China. It takes an hour to go Macau from Hong Kong by ferry. With its lavishly ornamented casinos, cathedrals, The Ruins of St. Paul's and historical streets, Macau was interesting to discover.

I also would like to share a collage of miscellaneous Hong Kong pictures. From left to right: a Chinese new year tree in our hotel lobby, serene Stanley Bay where is in the southern part of Hong Kong Island and a popular residential neighborhood among expats and Mong Kok Ladies Market where you should not forget to bargain :D

My second collage of miscellaneous Hong Kong pictures. From left to right: an example of bamboo scaffolding which is even used for much higher buildings, the historical Central Pier, the iconic green Peak Tram and a typical Hong Kong apartment building facade.

Hong Kong... It was a great pleasure to participate in BAU Hong Kong Engineering and Management Winter School, attend great courses with field trips, hang aroung Tsim Sha Tsui and Hong Kong Island after classes, and enjoy delicious Chinese food :D

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!