Cooperation agreement inked

During the symposium Professor Adnan Akay, Provost of Bilkent University, and Prof. Albert Heuberger, Director of Fraunhofer IIS, signed a cooperation agreement between the two organizations. This framework agreement foresees exchanges of academic staff involving Bilkent graduate students and professors, as well as Fraunhofer IIS scientists and German students from universities affiliated with the institute.

Prof. Heuberger is excited about the joint effort: “For several years, we have made very good experiences with students from Bilkent University coming for internships or thesis work to Fraunhofer IIS. Recently, we also started our first joint research project in computer-assisted microscopy for medical applications. This framework agreement is another step towards deepening and widening our relationship with an extremely open and reputable university."

With the outcome of the joint symposium, hosted at Bilkent University, Provost Akay is entirely satisfied: “Several project ideas with common research interest have been discussed. We're excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Fraunhofer IIS on these projects that have both practical and theoretical impact. We are hopeful that successful completion of these projects will fuel collaboration on broader scale projects.”

The joint symposium is designed to facilitate a more intensive exchange of research information and results and allows the parties to co-develop concrete project proposals. Day one is set aside for presentations, while day two involves meetings between various project teams to discuss and develop ideas. Fraunhofer IIS is represented by a team of ten scientists who are interacting with professors, post-doc students, PhD students and graduate students from Bilkent University.

The Bilkent-Fraunhofer IIS symposium is funded by TÜBITAK (the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) as part of the German-Turkish Year of Research, Education and Innovation 2014.