Young People Will Show That Innovation Is Far Stronger Than the Pandemic

The deadline for submitting applications to the İnovaTİM Innovation Competition is one week away. The competition themed İnovasyon > Pandemi (Innovation Greater Than Pandemic) is organized by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), with Turkish Machinery Manufacturers as the main sponsor. Nearly 2,000 university students applied in the first two weeks of the competition, which has a final application deadline of 5 May 2020. The competition theme is Innovation > Pandemic (Innovation Greater Than Pandemic), and it seeks innovative projects that provide solutions to needs arising before, during and after the pandemic. Teams will be formed from applicant university students, and participants will work to develop their projects until 5 June 2020. Teams composed of university students will select one of 18 different scenarios falling under 3 main categories: "Before Pandemic", "During Pandemic" and "After Pandemic" to develop their projects. First, second and third place teams will be determined in each of the 3 main categories at the end of the competition. Based on the 18 different scenarios, the competition winners will receive total prize money of TRY 180,000, with first place in each of the 3 categories receiving TRY 25,000, second place TRY 20,000, and third place TRY 15,000. Every stage of the competition proceeds on a digital platform. Participants do not need to meet or communicate in person. The first thing those who wish to participate in the competition must do is download the application called Karga Karga on their smartphones and register. From there, competition candidates will share information about their competencies, experience and areas of interest. This information will be automatically evaluated by a system called the Özgelecek Algorithm, and 4-person teams will be formed by matching applicants according to their competencies.

Team members will share their project ideas through the Karga Karga application.

Following evaluation of these ideas, teams qualifying to advance to the second stage will be determined. In the second stage, teams will be asked to present their projects. During project presentation preparation, teams will also receive mentoring support in the digital environment. Teams will upload their project presentations to the system by 5 June 2020. The jury will evaluate the presentations and determine the winning teams.   Detailed information about the competition can be accessed from the relevant websites.