Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank stated that they are aware of the fact that the most important investment is the investment made in young people and people, and said, "That's why we increase our competition categories every year at TEKNOFEST and we introduce these competitions to include more young people in these competitions." said.
The International Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Races held in Kocaeli as part of the TEKNOFEST Aviation, Space and Technology Festival have started. Minister Varank, who came to TÜBİTAK Gebze Campus, where the competition was held, with Togg, visited the teams and signed the vehicles and wished the students success in the races.
STARTED THE RACES
Giving the start of the races, Varank said that young people at high school or university level participated in the competition by designing their own vehicles, and that the finalists tried to complete the track by spending the least electricity in the most suitable conditions in 3 trials.
EFFICIENCY RACE
Stating that this is not actually a speed race, Varank said, “It is an efficiency race. Thus, we give our young people the chance to develop their skills down to the most detailed stages of engineering. We just waved the start flag for our friends. High school teams started to compete. Competitions we designed for the technology fields that the world needs in the future.
41 DIFFERENT CATEGORIES
Stating that these competitions are organized in 41 different categories, from unmanned underwater vehicles to combat UAV competitions, Varank said, “More than 300 thousand teams from all over Turkey, over 1 million young friends, including international teams, applied to participate in these races. We organize these competitions gradually. Hopefully, we will present the awards of our brothers who came first in these competitions on April 27-May 1 in Istanbul.” used the phrases.
GREAT EXCITEMENT
Stating that the International Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Races continue with great excitement in Gebze, Varank said that these competitions will continue for 2 days and that the participants will participate in the organization in Istanbul according to their successes.
AWARDS WILL BE GIVEN TO PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN
Varank stated that the competitors will have the opportunity to exhibit their technologies in Istanbul to the citizens participating in TEKNOFEST from all over Turkey, and the winners will receive their awards from the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
INVESTMENT IN YOUTH
Pointing out the importance of investing in young people and people, Varank said, “We are aware that the most important investment is the investment made in young people and people. That's why at TEKNOFEST, we both increase our competition categories and promote these competitions in order to include more of our youth in these competitions. We diversify our support to them. As the Ministry, there are different programs we implement to train technology star youth in Turkey. We opened 81 experimental technology workshops in 100 provinces of Turkey. Here, we provide technology trainings to our children at secondary and high school levels, from robotics to coding.” said.
TEKNOFEST WORKSHOPS
Explaining that a new start will be made in the coming period, Varank said, “We will expand TEKNOFEST workshops all over Turkey. Our young people who will participate in TEKNOFEST will also be able to come to these TEKNOFEST workshops and work with their teammates, and they will be able to prepare for TEKNOFEST competitions much better by benefiting from our various supports, from mentoring to material support.” he said.
SUPPORT TO TEAMS
Minister Varank, on the question of whether the parts used in the competitions are domestic, emphasized that young people learn to work as a team and internalize this. Stating that they can see the progress of the teams every year, Varank said, “As we organize these competitions, we see that the number of stakeholders of private sector companies that want to support these competitions in Turkey increases. While we used to organize these competitions with the parts we supplied from abroad, now we can see that the supplier companies in Turkey contribute to these competitions, support the equipment used here, and produce this type of equipment for these races even if they did not produce them before.” he said.
INVITE ALL TURKEY TO TEKNOFEST
Minister Varank stated that they expect all of Turkey both to the campus in Gebze and to Istanbul between April 27 and May 1, adding that they will experience the enthusiasm of TEKNOFEST in Istanbul together with all of Turkey.
Minister Varank, Deputy Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır and TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal accompanied him.