“Innovation Campus” Program Announces Winners

Samsung's "Innovation Campus" education program, implemented in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, Middle East Technical University, and Turkish Informatics Foundation, has produced award-winning students who are using artificial intelligence to find solutions to development challenges. Samsung Electronics Turkey, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Middle East Technical University (METU), and Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV), has announced four award-winning projects in the third cycle of its "Innovation Campus" education program, which aims to support youth who apply technology for a better world. The Innovation Campus education program, designed to equip disadvantaged and talented youth with technical skills, develop life skills, and provide employment opportunities, facilitates the transfer of Samsung's global knowledge in technology while supporting young people's competency-based development. The program, which contributes to youth employment, focuses on developing solutions that support progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Within the program, a jury comprising METU academics as well as futurist Ufuk Tarhan, journalist Şelale Kadak, and senior executives from Samsung, UNDP, and TBV selected the most creative, innovative projects that best utilized artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and served the SDGs most effectively. Selection criteria were established by Samsung, which conducts similar activities in more than 30 countries globally. The "Wildfire Forecasting" project by Hale Afra İriş, Özge Özkaya, and Gözde Gözütok won first place in the competition. The project aims to detect forest fires in early stages and reduce their severe impacts on the environment and human lives. A machine learning model was developed that predicts forest fires with 80 percent accuracy. This model will enable disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management teams to receive early warnings. Serkan Özdemir's Save Water project came in second place in the competition. Save Water helps prevent wastewater from harming the environment. The project uses a deep learning-based artificial intelligence algorithm to predict the oxygen level of wastewater released into nature. This aims to identify potential harmful situations in advance and accelerate actions to address them. The project can also be used as an inspection mechanism for factories by the ministry and other public institutions. The "F6: Food for Future - Future for Food" project by Nisa Nur Kılıç, Selçuk Gürses, and Murathan Saygılı was among the third-place winners. This project, which aims to predict and reduce future food loss, uses artificial intelligence to help forecast how much food will be lost, where, and for what reasons. Focusing on the food crisis, one of the greatest challenges of today and tomorrow, it aims to create both a future for food and food for the future. The DINo-SDGs project by Beyza Taşdemir and Cenk Arda Yılmaz was also selected in third place. The DINo-SDGs tool uses cutting-edge deep learning methods to successfully predict which SDGs texts provided as input relate to. It aims to contribute to achieving the SDGs by offering a classification tool that can be used by individuals and institutions across all sectors of society, from academia to industry. The Innovation Campus program, which produces solutions to achieve the SDGs and focuses on artificial intelligence, encompasses youth aged 18-29. More than 5,000 applications were received from Turkey. Applicant teams underwent technical tests and competency-based evaluations in the selection process. The 25 successful students earned the right to receive a certificate after completing a total of 350 hours of training in artificial intelligence from METU faculty members over five months. Participants also competed to receive financial support and coaching assistance to implement projects where they could showcase their experience and skills. The SDG AI Lab (Sustainable Development Goals Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), which provides support to the work of UN agencies and partners through artificial intelligence and big data research, coordinated with METU to provide curriculum and technology support. The SDG AI Lab organized training sessions on the use of artificial intelligence for participants while also providing expertise and mentoring support. UNDP also provided training to participants on the SDGs as part of the project. A 15-member expert team from Samsung and UNDP provided mentoring to the youth to support the projects. In addition to technical training, participants received training from senior human resources consultants on recruitment, CV preparation, and interview techniques. This year, before the awards ceremony, students also received training in effective communication and presentation techniques to enable them to present their projects more effectively.