Atılım University Graduates Its First ‘Breakthrough Entrepreneurship’ Class
22.10.2014

Projects from 14 different universities were accepted within the scope of the call issued by TÜBİTAK TEYDEB (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey – Technology and Innovation Funding Programmes Directorate) to launch the entrepreneurship and innovation trainings at universities. “Breakthrough Entrepreneurship Project” from Atılım University was deemed successful and eligible for a full (100%) grant.

In the four-month-long “Breakthrough Entrepreneurship Project”, Essentials of Entrepreneurship, Effective Presentation Techniques, Effective Negotiation Skills, Business Process Modelling, Designing Project Proposal and Project Management, Management Skills, Leadership and Decision-Making Techniques, Access to Financial Resources and Management of Investor Relations, Strategy, Technology and Innovation Management courses were given in modules. 12 students were graduated at the end of the first term and they presented their business ideas before a jury composing of Atılım KOSGEB-TEKMER, TEB Enterprise House, Koç University Business Incubator and IBM Enterprise House. Our potential entrepreneurs were deemed successful by the jury.

Let us take a look at our graduates and what they do. One of our graduate teams composed of Asst. Prof. Besim Baranoğlu (PhD), Res. Asst. Ayça Göçmen, Mustafa Gücenmez and İhsan Doğaç Usta provides low-cost access via cloud to some engineering programmes which cannot be bought by most of the SMEs due to their high costs. Our team is preparing to apply for Techno-entrepreneurship Capital Support of TÜBİTAK with their project named CalCloud.

A social entrepreneurship project was also launched by Mustafa Gücenmez in Business Pre-Incubator at Atılım University. Within the scope of the project students from the departments of computer engineering, software engineering, information systems engineering and electrical and electronics engineering are trained in groups to work in projects which would be in demand in the market and they are encouraged to design a project in a very disciplined way. The goal is to help students achieve experience before being graduation.

Müzeyyen Karagöz took part among 14 entrepreneurs out of 350 applicants all across Turkey within the scope of Sakura project launched by Daikin. She is going to get her own air conditioning distributorship with the capital by KOSGEB KALDER and the support of Daikin.

ERA TELEMETRİ team consisting of Eray Okkalı and Uğur Sezgin started distributing their temperature-humidity monitoring system developed with the contributions of JERA Electronics to pharmaceutical warehouses and pharmacies in Ankara. 45 products were sold in a month.

Successful projects and promising business ideas of our students were monitored with great interest and encouraged by Atılım University. Students deemed successful with their projects were awarded certificates of appreciation by Prof. Abdurrahim Özgenoğlu (PhD), President, in a ceremony held on October 21, 2014. Vice Presidents, Deans and academic staff members participated in the ceremony as well.

‘Breakthrough Entrepreneurship Programme’ launched by Atılım University will continue for three consecutive academic semesters.