Living Lab Innovation and Technology Competition

Living Lab Innovation and Technology Competition Associate Professor Pınar Oğuz Ekim, Faculty Member at İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi (İEÜ), placed second in Turkey in the Başakşehir Living Lab innovation and technology competition with autonomous delivery robots developed together with 3 of her students. Associate Professor Pınar Oğuz Ekim, Faculty Member in the Department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering at İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi (İEÜ), founded 'Advoard Robotics' in 2020 together with her students Bekir Bostancı, Mehmet Emre Söyünmez and Sercan Çağdaş Tekkök. The team from İEÜ, which concentrated its work on autonomous robots, developed a transport robot last year that can plot routes through artificial intelligence and reduces the need for human labor by two-thirds. The robot, which can be used in supply centers, warehouses or many sections of factories of large companies, caught the attention of firms. 'Advoard Robotics', which also received investment support of approximately TRY 2 million from a company in the United States, made a rapid entry into the domestic market. Vestel became the first customer of the robot, which emerged from exemplary collaboration between an academic and students. Beginning discussions with companies abroad, Associate Professor Ekim and her students also placed third in Turkey in the Future of Automotive Design Competition held in October of last year in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Turkish Exporters Assembly and Automotive Industry Exporters Association. Associate Professor Ekim subsequently succeeded in ranking in the top 5 among 38 women entrepreneurs in the Techno Women Entrepreneurs Academy Program held by the TİM-TEB Entrepreneurship House, which was established in cooperation with Turkish Exporters Assembly and Turkish Economy Bank. Associate Professor Ekim represented Turkey by participating in VivaTech, Europe's largest entrepreneurship and technology fair held in Paris, the capital of France, this year. Most recently, Associate Professor Ekim placed second in the 'Başakşehir Living Lab' innovation and technology competition, which features numerous ambitious projects from across Turkey. Associate Professor Ekim, who achieved significant success in the 'Academic-Educator' category, also received a TRY 50,000 prize. Associate Professor Ekim said she was pleased to be deemed worthy of the award and stated: "My 'Advoard Robotics', which I founded with my students, continues its rapid development. By combining my experience with my students' energy and enthusiasm, our greatest goal on this path we have embarked upon is to expand abroad. We have realized our first partnership with Vestel regarding the use of our fleet robots. Beyond that, we continue discussions with numerous domestic and foreign companies. We believe we will reach our goal by expanding abroad."

3 different load capacities

Associate Professor Ekim continued: "For example; you have a large warehouse spanning thousands of square meters belonging to your factory. Transporting a material from there and placing it where desired or retrieving it by human labor is laborious, time-consuming and error-prone work; however, thanks to our robots that communicate with each other (as a fleet) and plan the most efficient routes with the help of artificial intelligence, and which have different load capacities such as 100, 500 and 1,000 kilograms, it is possible to perform these operations 3 times more efficiently. Our robots also have 3-centimeter precision in finding the designated location. This has been proven through tests to be excellent in navigation. Thanks to their user-friendly interface, it is possible to monitor the robots and issue work orders even through smartwatches. We also opened a showroom in a 75-square-meter area at İzmir Bilimpark, where companies can visit and inspect our robots."