Ankara Hackathon

6 – 8 June 2024

Schedule of the hackathon in local time in Ankara

Local host

TUBITAK

TUBITAK is the national R&D funding agency of Türkiye. One of its main role is to provide R&D and Innovation supports to increase awareness of science and technology in society with support programs, science publications and organisational supports. TUBITAK is also the national coordination office of Framework Programmes since 2002, and an active partner of both Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities missions with different platforms as National Contact Point(NCP) network, Capacities Project, Ncp4Missions project, DUT Partnerhsip and CETPartnerships.

Challenges

Addressing extreme rainfall and water scarcity in Yalova 

Heat islands 

Addressing improper irrigation and pesticide misapplication 

Restoring aquatic balance amidst nutrient overload 

Combatting mucilage for marine ecosystem restoration 

Mitigating fossil fuel impact on climate by converting marine energy 

Reducing green areas, and destroying nature to build concrete-intensive cities 

The lack of knowledge about critical climate issues 

Addressing the growing concern of the CO2 emissions 

Empowering local communities with actionable climate insights 

Sustainable water management for Turkey‘s future 

Battling the urban heat island effect in our community 

Energy consumption during summer heat waves 

Sustainable energy solutions for disaster-affected areas 

Tackling local carbon emissions in Turkish communities 

Sustainable water management and urban green planning  

Addressing freshwater scarcity in Turkish communities 

Protecting natural habitats and controlling insect populations  

Mentors

Beril Alpagut

More than 18 years’ experience in architectural design, engineering and energy sectors. Effectively managing innovation in Horizon 2020/Europe SCC & Mission projects, specifically “PEDs/PCEDs”. Special interest in replicating, upscaling, and disseminating the implementation results in the EU context.

Halil Ibrahim Culfuk

Halil Ibrahim is an expert in sustainability and circularity. As the former Head of Sustainability at Kipas Holding, he led key initiatives and founded the Sustainability Institute Association in Turkey in 2019. His work continues to inspire many in the field.

Agis Georgiou

Agis Georgiou is an expert in Data Science & AI. He’s a Business Consultant and Entrepreneur in AI. In the past, he held several roles in multinational tech companies and startups in Europe. He holds a master’s in Data Science and Entrepreneurship from Eindhoven University of Technology.

Eylem Tasdemir

Eylem Tasdemir works as a CommUnity Manager at EIT InnoEnergy, fostering growth and innovation among young engineers in the energy sector by organizing company visits, speaker series, hackathons, and case-solving events.

Jury Members

Ipek Gursel Dino

Dr. Dino (PhD) is a Professor of Architecture at METU. Her research mainly focuses on climate change, energy transition in the built environment, computational design and data-driven methods for performance assessment. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Corina Murafa

Dr. Corina Murafa is an independent public policy expert, activist and university lecturer in climate, energy and sustainability. She is currently a lecturer with Bucharest University of Economic Studies, a founding member of the Romanian Energy Poverty Observatory and a member of EESC.

Zoran Puljic

Zoran Puljić directs the Tech 4 Impact Fund. He is one of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs and a prominent member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network.

Yannis Charalabidis

Yannis Charalabidis is Professor of Digital Governance and Entrepreneurship at the University of the Aegean, in Greece. With experience in leading software companies, he has published 10+ books and 300+ papers in international journals and conferences, on ICT-enabled business transformation.

Baha Kuban

Climate change, sustainable urban development specialist with experience in corporate R&D, innovation management, HE smart cities projects and expert evaluator for EC FP 6-7-8-9, Innovation Fund Denmark, Serbian Academy of Sciences. Urban Sustainable Energy and Climate Adaptation Plans.

Meet the winning teams from the local hackathons that will participate in the final!

Explore the innovative technological or social solutions that triumphed at each local hackathon, and discover more about the winning teams and their members.