School:Middle East Technical University
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OVERVIEW
Middle East Technical University is founded under the name of “Middle East High Technology Institute” in 1956 to contribute to the development of Türkiye and Middle East countries and especially to train people so as to create a skilled workforce in the fields of natural and social sciences. METU’s motto is “We can change the world.” Since its foundation, METU, as an international research university, has been the leading university in Türkiye in terms of depth and breadth of research partnership on international level and the amount of funds generated from international research projects. Most of our departments accept only the top 1% of approximately 1.5 million applicants taking the National University Entrance Examination.
Promoting Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship:
Research at METU is not only carried out by doctoral students and faculty members. Undergraduate students can also take part in scientific projects in departments, research centers and the METU Design Factory, where professors from different disciplines work together.
A joint project of the Corporate Communications Office and METU Development Foundation, AdımODTÜ has created a fund to support the research efforts of undergraduate students through donations. In the past 4 years, approximately 800 undergraduate students have been supported with AdımODTÜ Undergraduate Research Projects Funding.
We have many student clubs, the number of which is over 100, including career clubs which promote I&E among students. They organize events such as summits about technology and leadership, annual TEDX event, an entrepreneurship fest, entrepreneurship competitions and they create content for media such as podcasts about entrepreneurship, YouTube videos for promoting I&E events on campus.
METU Design Factory aims to catalyze interactions among researchers and students from design studies, engineering sciences, social sciences, and other related fields in order to develop new and innovative products. The main goal of METU DF is to offer an inspiring and encouraging environment for interdisciplinary collaboration, where both academics and students from various disciplines work together using the space and production infrastructure provided. Students from all departments can work on a project in DF by taking Interdisciplinary Problem Solving (BA4148) elective course.
Fire-Up ChangeMakers is a program to build a student-led community to create change on campus, focusing on fostering entrepreneurship and social innovation capabilities of the students. It is run by Middle East Technical University Entrepreneurship Research Center (METU GIMER), İTU GINOVA and BRIGHT. The program offers a blended learning environment with experiential exercises, online videos, reading materials and executional tasks for the participants.The 6-week online training program requires hard work and a commitment to learn and apply entrepreneurial skills.
Apart from these, entrepreneurship is also supported by courses, minor and master programs at METU. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship, Economics of Technology and Innovation, System Thinking, Applied Innovation Based Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Interdisciplinary Problem Solving/Interdisciplinary Design Studio are some courses including I&E topics. Also, there are Entrepreneurship and General Management minor programs and MBA, EMBA master programs offered by Business Administration Department.
Encouraging Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship:
METU is known as a research university. METU supports faculty members by funding with the cooperation of METU Office of Sponsored Projects and TÜBİTAK(The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). Faculty members in METU remarked that the university is very supportive for research activities.(1)
Mustafa N. Parlar has worked as the Dean of Faculty of Engineering at METU between 1960-1970. The following awards are given each year by the METU Prof. Dr. Mustafa N. PARLAR Education and Research Foundation in order to evaluate the research and application studies and services of distinguished scientists and practitioners in all fields of science, to strengthen their work by documenting their competencies, and to encourage the growing generations.
- Honor Award
- Science Award
- Service Award
- Research Incentive Award
- Technology Incentive Award
- Other awards deemed appropriate by the Foundation Board of Trustees
METU TTO Pre-Seed Fund is established with the goal of accelerating the commercialization of scientific and engineering research outputs from the University's research by overcoming the "valley of death" that early-stage firms face while seeking equity financing. The aim of this funding is to break down the barriers to industry licensing of university technology or investment funding of start-up companies based on university technology.
