A new research and development center that will bring together scientists from İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ) and product development businesses from the Informatics Industry Association (TÜBİSAD) is expected to be among the country’s largest R&D facilities.
İTÜ Rector Muhammed Şahin and TÜBİSAD Chairman Turgut Gürsoy on Wednesday signed the protocol that pushes the button for the new project, which will cost approximately $45 million in total. Domestic and foreign corporations such as Hewlett Packard (HP) are also supporting the project. The center, called Digital Base, will be completed in one-and-a-half years.
In their speeches the participants emphasized that the project would become a technological base for Turkey in two to three years’ time and improve Turkey’s technological standing as well as provide job and career opportunities for students during training.
Information Technology and Communications Authority (BTK) head Dr. Tayfun Acarer and the dean of the faculty of computers & information at İTÜ, Dr. Eşref Adalı, also attended the signing ceremony on Wednesday.
Adalı said, “If a university does not cooperate with information technology businesses, it would be like a hospital without a faculty of medicine.” He also stressed the importance of the information technology and communications sector.
Acarer also delivered an address during the ceremony. In addition to his expectations for the new center, he also commented on the music-sharing website Fizy.com, which had been shut down in recent months. “The site was banned because of copyright issues, and we are continuing our work to minimize restrictions on the Internet,” he said.
