Academic-student partnership brought another award

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Oğuz Ekim, Faculty Member, Izmir University of Economics (IUE) came second in Turkey in the innovation and technology competition called Başakşehir Living Lab with the ‘autonomous transport robots’ she developed with her 3 students. Making a difference with her robot project that can draw a route through artificial intelligence and reduces the need for human power by two thirds, Ekim received her award at the ceremony held in Istanbul. Having been selected as one of the 5 most successful women entrepreneurs in the Techno Women Entrepreneurs Academy Program with the 'Advoard Robotics' company she founded with her students, and being awarded the third place in the Future of Automotive Design Competition, Ekim achieved great success by receiving an award for the third time in about a year.

IUE Lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Oğuz Ekim, Faculty Member at IUE Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, , founded the company ‘Advoard Robotics’ in 2020 together with her students Bekir Bostancı, Mehmet Emre Söyünmez and Sercan Çağdaş Tekkök. Concentrating their work on autonomous robots, the IUE team developed a transport robot last year that can draw a route through artificial intelligence, reducing the need for human power by two thirds.

ATTRACTED THE INDUSTRY'S ATTENTION

The robot, which can be used in the supply centers of large companies, in their warehouses or in many parts of the factories, attracted the attention of the companies. ‘Advoard Robotics’, which also received investment support of approximately 2 million lira from a company in the United States, made a rapid entry into the domestic market. Vestel became the first customer of the robot, which was created as an exemplary academic-student collaboration.

AWARDS CAME IN A ROW

Starting to meet with companies abroad, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim and her students also came third in Turkey in the Future of Automotive Design Competition held in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, the Turkish Exporters Assembly and the Automotive Industry Exporters' Association in October last year. Later, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim managed to be among the top 5 among 38 women entrepreneurs in the Techno Women Entrepreneurs Academy Program organized by the “TIM-TEB Entrepreneurship House”, which was established with the cooperation of the Turkish Exporters Assembly and the Turkish Economy Bank. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim represented our country by participating in VivaTech, Europe's largest enterprise and technology fair, which was held this year in Paris, the capital of France. Lastly, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim came second in the innovation and technology competition called ‘Başaksehir Living Lab’, where many ambitious projects from all over Turkey took place. Having achieved great success in the category of ‘academic-teacher’, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim also received an award of 50 thousand liras.

GOING GLOBAL

Stating that she is happy to be awarded, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim said, “‘Advoard Robotics’, which I established with my students, continues its rapid development. Combining the energy and excitement of my students with my experience, our biggest goal is to expand abroad. We made our first partnership with Vestel for the use of our fleet robots. In addition, we are in talks with many domestic and foreign companies. We believe that we will reach our goal by expanding abroad.”

3 DIFFERENT CARRYING CAPACITIES

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekim continued as follows: “For example, you have a large warehouse of thousands of square meters belonging to your factory. It is a laborious, long and error-prone job to transport a material here with human power and place it in the desired place or get it. However, thanks to our robots with different carrying capacities such as 100, 500 and thousand kilograms, by communicating with each other (in a fleet) and planning the most efficient routes with the help of artificial intelligence; it is possible to perform these operations 3 times more efficiently. Our robots have a precision of 3 centimeters at the point of finding the determined position. It has been proven by tests that they are quite good at finding directions. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, it is possible to observe the robots even on smart watches and give work orders. We also opened a showroom in a 75-meter area in Izmir Bilimpark, companies can come here and examine our robots.”