"The KTO Karatay University TEKNOFEST Student Club is a student club established to contribute to Turkey's national technology initiative and to support the active participation of university students in scientific, technical, and innovative production processes. The club's main objective is to develop conscious preparation processes for TEKNOFEST competitions, to spread a project culture throughout the university, and to enable students to gain competence in technology-based fields.
The club's activities encompass various technical disciplines such as aviation and space technologies, information systems, artificial intelligence, energy, biotechnology, robotics systems, and educational technologies. Accordingly, students gain practical experience in areas such as design, analysis, production, reporting, presentation, testing processes, and project management. These processes also contribute to the development of teamwork, problem-solving, communication, entrepreneurship, innovation, and technical certification skills.
The club's vision is to conduct sustainable and innovative technology studies at KTO Karatay University, achieve success on national and international platforms, especially TEKNOFEST, and contribute to our country's technology production capacity. In the long term, it aims to increase industry-university collaborations and foster entrepreneurship." The goal is to ensure integration into the ecosystem and to transform the developed projects into viable solutions.
Under the umbrella of the community, various projects and events have been carried out to date, targeting different age groups both within and outside the university. Activities include:
1) Education and Workshops
Step-by-Step TEKNOFEST Event: An informative event organized to introduce TEKNOFEST competition categories, application processes, reporting criteria, and project preparation stages.
Little Dreams, Big Ideas — Ünides Project: A social responsibility project aimed at increasing technology awareness among children and young people. The project aims to support scientific curiosity at an early age.
3D Creativity Workshop: In this workshop, which offers a hands-on production experience, participants learned the logic of three-dimensional design and created their own products.
LightLab: Illuminated Badge Design Workshop: In this workshop, where electronic circuit principles were taught practically, participants produced their own illuminated badge designs.
Mini Airplane Design Workshop: A workshop introducing basic concepts related to aviation and aerodynamics. Participants designed and tested mini airplane models.
All of the mentioned workshops were conducted exclusively for KTO Karatay University students.
2) Promotion, Awareness, and Academic Studies
High School Presentations: Informative presentations were given at secondary schools regarding TEKNOFEST, competition culture, and university experiences; increasing the interest of high school students in technology-based projects.
Technical Trips: Technical trips were organized to various technology companies, production facilities, and R&D centers to support university-industry collaboration. This allowed students to observe sector dynamics firsthand and contributed to their career planning.
The community also formed project teams in TEKNOFEST competitions, managed the application and reporting processes, provided technical support training, and developed a mentoring model to help new participants adapt to the process.
The KTO Karatay University TEKNOFEST Community continues to create a high-quality working platform for students interested in technology, aiming to reach more students each year, lead more projects, and successfully represent our university in the field of technology.