The “Renewable Energy Resources” collaboration launched by Kalyon PV, Hasan Kalyoncu University (HKU) and Informatics Valley continues with work on developing autonomous (driverless) vehicle software and technologies. At the event held as the first step of the HKU and Informatics Valley autonomous vehicle collaboration, with the participation of Informatics Valley General Manager A. Serdar İbrahimcioğlu and his delegation, the vehicle platform ready for autonomous driving systems, developed at Informatics Valley, Türkiye’s largest innovation centre, was presented. At the event, the developers of the autonomous vehicle platform, United Teknoloji Group President Muhammed Alyürük and Ortem Chairman of the Board Ömer Şahin Karaman, gave information to students and teaching staff.
We Want to Build a Quality Collaboration with Informatics Valley
Stating that, as HKU, they attach great importance to artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and other mobility vehicles, Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli said; “We support the work carried out on these subjects, and we aim to develop our expertise and establish research centres. Many R&D studies on autonomous systems are carried out at our University. The Autonomous Vehicle for the Disabled and the Autonomous Underwater Drone you see here today are some of them. With Informatics Valley, with which we previously collaborated on solar energy technologies, we are determined to build quality collaboration in other technology fields as well, above all autonomous driving systems. As the first step of this, the autonomous vehicle platform developed at Informatics Valley has been made available for use in the R&D work carried out at HKU by our teaching staff and students. This way, we will be able to develop and test our own software more easily in the field of driverless vehicle technologies. We thank them for providing this opportunity. We have also signed the Türkiye Open Source Platform Agreement. All these developments will make a great contribution to the professional development of all our students, especially those studying in our Software Engineering and Computer Engineering departments. In addition, this platform will be of great benefit to our students preparing for the RoboTaxi-Passenger Autonomous Vehicle Competition and other TEKNOFEST competitions”.
A Model That Can Set an Example for All Universities
Congratulating Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli for bringing the autonomous vehicle platform to HKU, Informatics Valley General Manager A. Serdar İbrahimcioğlu stated; “We are trying to put into practice at HKU a model that can set an example for all universities. Our wish from now on is for our students to be role models through the contributions they will make as a result of this work. Today, software and coding training is given in robotic coding workshops using ready-made kits, but there is no such practice for the automotive sector. Türkiye is a strong country in automotive, but in order to train the human capital needed for new-generation automotive technologies and to create an entrepreneurship story unique to Türkiye, it is necessary to use ready-made platforms. This was also the origin story of our autonomous vehicle. I hope HKU researchers will contribute greatly to this work. Let us do this work together and bring the model example to life together”.
Autonomous Vehicles Will Race
Autonomous vehicles, which have become increasingly widespread recently, can travel in traffic without a driver, thanks to hardware managed by artificial intelligence-based algorithms (radar, lidar, GPS, odometry, computer vision, etc.), by perceiving the road, the traffic flow and the objects around them without needing a driver. A competition for autonomous vehicles is also planned to be held next year at HKU on a specially built track.
