Fellow:Sude Özcan
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Bio
Sude Özcan is a University Innovation Fellows candidate from Middle East Technical University, having majored in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with a minor in Mechatronics. Born and raised in a tiny borough in Çanakkale, Turkey, she has not ceased to make robots since she was 12 years old!
She became interested in robotics in middle school because of a science teacher that really went the extra mile and due to Science Heroes Association's help is able to compete in First Lego League (FLL) for the past three years. Those early experiences with robotics only served to stoke the fire of her passion for engineering, resulting in guiding her to Çapa Science High School in Istanbul, a very selective school where she continued to found a new robotics club and participate in the First Robotics Competition (FRC) and CERN's competition at the Beamline for Schools.
She had to finish her sophomore year at METU, where she served as the first female president of the METU Robotics Society. As the president of the society, she is responsible for leading teams on projects regarding formula cars, rockets and satellites, clean energy vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, etc. She needs to ensure supervision of technical research, proper documentation, and connections with the right companies and researchers. In this respect, she led the society to make technical training programs arranged for new members and was instrumental in the organization of the 20th International METU Robotics Days attended by more than 15,000 people.
Sude is currently a researcher with the Communication Network Research Group (CNG), where she actively participates in developing IoT projects for sustainable cities and the ERC-funded 'Go Space! '. In this project, she is contributing to the leading-edge research in satellite communication and smart city technologies. Her role includes both technical research as well as academic publishing and collaboration with industry. The involvement of Sude with the Young Guru Academy (YGA) comes from her personal experiences and the challenges she faced while growing up in a small town. After that revelation, that it would be very important to make education more inclusive and how technology could close that gap, she became an initiator as a volunteer with YGA in order to bring opportunities for learning to children in regions highly damaged by earthquakes. As part of YGA, Sude works to bring the TWIN Robotics Kits closer and more understandable to kids in order to inspire a new generation of innovators. This work is simply an extension of the lifetime commitment to the use of technology for social good.
Passionate about solving new problems, Sude wants to become a researcher-engineer who, while taking on existing challenges, also brings up a new generation of engineers who can make an impact in the world. Her ultimate aim is to continue with her volunteer work in areas that have high social impact to provide an example for prospective engineers.
Achievements
-Made her first robot when she was 12.
-First female president of the METU Robotics Society since its founding in 2000, leading over 350 engineers and 5 project teams.
Social media profiles
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sudeozcan
GitHub: github.com/sudeozcans
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sude.ozcans/
X: x.com/sude_ozcans
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sude.ozcan.771282
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