Organized by the Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters' Association (OIB), the "5th Automotive R&D Project Market" and "5th Component Design Competition", the biggest event of the year in Turkey's export champion automotive industry, took place on May 05-06, 2016 at TÜSSİDE, hosted by TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center (MAM).
Fikri Işık, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology, Kocaeli Governor Hasan Basri Güzeloğlu, Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality Mayor İbrahim Karaosmanoğlu, TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Arif Ergin, TÜBİTAK MAM President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahadır Tunaboylu, TİM President Mehmet Büyükekşi, OİB President Orhan Sabuncu and many industrialists and guests attended the event.
In his speech at the opening of the program, Fikri Işık, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology, stated that he believes that today will be a turning point for the automotive sector and the domestic automobile project, and said that they have taken a very important distance in the Turkish Automobile Development Project and provided information about the domestic vehicle.
In the 5th R&D Project Market, 23 thousand TL was awarded to the top three and two honorable mentions, and 39 thousand TL to nine project owners in the 5th Component Design Competition, totaling 62 thousand TL in prize money. The winners were also eligible to enter the ITU Çekirdek Program.
The 5th Automotive R&D Project Market and 5th Component Design Competition brought together industry representatives and project owners with the main theme of "new generation vehicles and advanced automobile technologies". The guests had the chance to listen to futurist and strategic consultant Gerd Leonard on the first day of the event, and Brad Templeton, President of Singularity University Informatics and Networks, who shaped Google's vision of autonomous cars, on the second day, with his presentation on "unmanned vehicles". Panels on "Vehicle Charging and Battery Technologies", "Industry 4.0", "Clean Energy Vehicles" were organized and "Innovalig Automotive Awards" were presented to their owners at the ceremony.
The first day's program also included a section on the studies conducted in Turkey and around the world on electric cars within the scope of the "Turkish Automobile Development Project" being carried out by TÜBİTAK MAM.
Within the scope of Turkey's 2023 Export Strategy, the activities aimed to increase added value in the automotive industry, to produce new products, technologies and methods needed by the sector, to encourage innovative designers, to develop industrial design and to present them to world markets.
