Our Department's Students Achieve Third Place in Türkiye at TEKNOFEST 2026
TITLE: National Third-Place Finish at TEKNOFEST 2026 for the Zeronetech Team, Featuring Our Department's Students
At the TEKNOFEST Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan) 2026 competitions held at the Gölcük Shipyard Command, the Zeronetech Team—whose core team includes students from our department—achieved third place in Turkey with their autonomous unmanned surface vehicle named "Kılıç & Arslan," which features their own original design and autonomous software. Developed in line with the National Technology Initiative (Millî Teknoloji Hamlesi) vision and contributing to autonomous maritime technologies, this project highlights a successful interdisciplinary collaboration by our students Ali İhsan Kerem Kahya, Fatma Sıla Kaplan, Kaya Furkan İpekçi, and Sude Perçin, alongside their teammates from other departments of our faculty and different universities.
Our team, which received praise from the Chief of General Military, the Commanders of the Naval and Land Forces, the President of the Defense Industry Directorate (SSB), and senior executives of defense industry companies at the TEKNOFEST exhibition area, has also taken a step towards an international vision. The team also recently won the "Best Human-Machine Interface" award at the NJORD Challenge 2026 competition held in Norway. The team will participate in TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026, which will be held in Şanlıurfa from September 30th to October 4th, 2026.
Prof. Dr. Erhan Cengiz, Dean of the Rafet Kayış Engineering Faculty at Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University (ALKÜ), expressed his pride in this technological success, noting its contribution to our country's vision of full technological independence. Prof. Dr. Alper Kürşat Uysal, Head of the Computer Engineering Department, congratulated the students for successfully translating their engineering education into practical, high-technology applications, and wished continued success to the team in the future competations.
