January 6, 2025

Students showed great interest in the Academic Thesis Program (ATP), which was launched in cooperation with the Council of Higher Education and the Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB). A total of 421 applications were made to the program from 119 universities and 58 departments.

The universities with the highest number of applications are Gazi University, Yıldız Technical University, Sakarya University, Yozgat Bozok University and Fırat University.

With the ATP, artificial intelligence in the field of defence industry will be considered as graduation projects at the undergraduate level and thesis studies at the graduate level at universities. The program aims to increase competencies in the field of artificial intelligence in the defence industry, contribute to the need for qualified human resources in the sector, and establish a strong cooperation between academia and industry in the field of artificial intelligence.

For the ATP, 62 of the 71 topics determined by the SSB were preferred at least once. Out of 421 applications, 356 were accepted, of which 288 were individual and 68 were teams. Of the accepted applications, 258 were undergraduate and 98 were graduate students. The accepted students had the opportunity to shape the technologies of the future and contribute to the country's defense capabilities in order to increase their competencies in the field of artificial intelligence in Türkiye's defense industry.

- 90 mentors from 20 companies will take part-

Students will continue their graduation or master's thesis studies with their academic advisors at universities, but will also receive additional technical support and guidance throughout the process from mentors appointed by industry experts.

ATP will have 90 mentors from 20 companies. Students will submit three interim evaluation reports to their mentors in January, March and June, and the mentors will score the works by taking these reports into consideration.

Following the submission of the final theses in June, an event will be organized where successful students will present their theses and make presentations. At the event, the most successful students will receive awards such as candidate engineering internship program, international conference participation support, and project support.