The world's largest Aviation, Space and Technology Festival "TEKNOFEST'21" was held at Istanbul Atatürk Airport between September 21-26, 2021 with great interest and excitement in its fourth year. This year, TEKNOFEST'21 hosted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nobel Prize winner Turkish scientist Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar.
Organized by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and bringing together hundreds of thousands of young inventors, TEKNOFEST Aviation, Space and Technology Festival, TÜBİTAK was the organizer of exciting and competitive competitions this year. Organizing 12 of the 36 different categories of competitions, TÜBİTAK broke new ground at the festival with brand new competitions this year. The Inter-High School Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Competition, the International Free Mission Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition and the High School Students Polar Research Projects Competition were organized by TÜBİTAK for the first time this year. A Challenging Mission category was added to the Rocket Competition for the first time this year.
Record applications for competitions!
The competitions, one of the most important parts of the festival, were held with a wider participation than last year. 20,197 teams and over 100,000 young people applied to take part in the festival, which received applications from 81 provinces and 84 countries. The enthusiasm of the festival, where competitions, seminars, talks and air shows were held, and local-national products were exhibited, was transmitted to millions through live broadcasts on social media accounts.
On August 31, the excitement of TEKNOFEST competitions started with the Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Competitions at the Körfez Race Track and continued with the Rocket Competition in Aksaray Salt Lake, the International and High School Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition and the International Free Mission UAV Competition at Bursa Yunuseli Airport, and the Robotaxi-Mobile Autonomous Vehicle Competition in the Informatics Valley. While the Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Competition was held at TEKNOFEST21 on September 21-26, the final of the Biotechnology Innovation Competition was held in the TEKNOFEST area on September 21-25. The top three projects in the High School Students Polar Research Projects Competition and the top three projects in the University Students Research Project Competitions were exhibited in the TEKNOFEST area. The award ceremony of all competitions was held at TEKNOFEST21 on September 25 and 26.
The winners of TUBITAK Competitions received their awards
The first award ceremony was held on September 25, 2021 with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar. The winners of the Rocket Competition, High School Students Polar Research Projects Competition, University Students Research Project Competitions, High School and International UAV Competition, International Free Mission UAV Competition, Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Competition, Biotechnology Innovation Competition and Pardus 21 Bug Finding Competition organized by TÜBİTAK received their awards from President Erdoğan.
The second ceremony took place on the last day of the festival. The winners of the competitions received their awards at the ceremony where Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, TEKNOFEST Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar and TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal were present.
(Click on the link to see the list of prize winners click here.)
Prize shower
In the technology competitions organized in 21 different categories within the scope of TEKNOFEST, which aims to increase Turkey's human resources trained in the fields of science and engineering, 100 thousand young people in 20 thousand 197 teams competed fiercely throughout the festival. More than 3 million TL was awarded to the winning teams in the competitions organized within the scope of the festival.
TEKNOFEST 2022 in Samsun!
TEKNOFEST, which set out with the slogan of National Technology Move, will continue its way in Samsun in 2022. The technology fire of TEKNOFEST Black Sea will be lit in different cities of the Black Sea, with Samsun as the center.
Delivering the closing speech, TEKNOFEST Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar announced that the first TEKNOFEST abroad will take place in Azerbaijan next year. Bayraktar noted that many countries, including TRNC, Ukraine and Indonesia, have received requests for TEKNOFEST.
"With TEKNOFEST, we want to instill in young people the understanding that 'We can do the best'"
In his closing speech, Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank said, "We have come to the end of TEKNOFEST, which we have realized with the vision of the National Technology Move in order to become a country that develops, produces and exports technology, rather than using it. The enthusiasm this year and the excitement of young people was worth seeing."
Emphasizing that Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar participated in TEKNOFEST this year to set an example for our youth, Minister Varank said, "Each of our young people and students participating in TEKNOFEST will be the Aziz Sancars of the future."
Minister Varank also said, "We are a nation that has distributed justice to the world and established civilizations. What we need to do is to be self-confident as our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan instilled in us, to be able to say 'we can do the best, we can do the most beautiful, we can succeed'. With TEKNOFEST, we are trying to instill this in our youth. These things don't happen with money, they happen with heart, and Turkish youth have this heart. We believe that they will make Turkey one of the most powerful countries in the world."
Emphasizing that TEKNOFEST is a team game, Varank emphasized, "All our stakeholders have made great efforts." Minister Varank said "TEKNOFEST Black Sea will light the fire of technology in the country." and handed the flag to Samsun Governor Zülkif Dağlı.
After the closing speeches, TEKNOFEST'21 came to an end.
