Owl’s Up: Young Talents Share Their TEKNOFEST 2024 Successes

Three successful teams that competed at TEKNOFEST 2024 gathered at İstanbul Nişantaşı University NeoTech Campus for “Owl’s Up: From Zero to Success,” sharing their experiences with young people. Participants included DEPUS, second in Entrepreneurship; Hermes, first in Wireless Communication; and CloudSentry, eighth in Air Defence Systems.

Sharing their experiences of TEKNOFEST and its finals, the teams answered questions about teamwork, project development and crisis management. Advising future competitors, they emphasised that the finals offer opportunities to experience different cities and cultures alongside competition. They summed up the demanding process by saying that TEKNOFEST has no losers and the real work begins at the finals.

Ministry of Youth and Sports İstanbul Youth Activities Branch Director Durmuş Can congratulated the teams and emphasised determination and perseverance. He said their accounts of working with a ten-year horizon reminded him of the determined efforts, ten years earlier, of the talents now leading Türkiye’s technological advances. He also highlighted the contribution of ministry camps and programmes designed to engage young people in civil society activities and develop 21st-century skills.

Talha Dağ, Science and Technology Coordinator at the Ministry’s İstanbul Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports, discussed his own TEKNOFEST experiences and the directorate’s projects. He described support including consultancy, mentoring, laboratories and accommodation. Emphasising opportunities such as Dene-Yap workshops and Science and Technology Laboratories, he concluded that achievements like TEKNOFEST projects require imagination and time management as well as technical skills.

The event concluded with participation certificates presented to the young talents.