“The 2nd Creative Minds” contest which was held under the slogan of “An Idea Changes the World” by GAU has been finalized with the selection of the best projects.

The opening speech for the 2nd Creative Minds contest was given by the President of the Committee and GAU Vice Rector - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zafer Ağdelen. Ağdelen reported in his speech that the interest in the Creative Minds contest has increased as it initially aimed to gather talented young people from Turkey and the TRNC. Ağdelen underlined that more than 100 pieces of work were presented to the committee for assessment and only 6 finalists were selected by the jury members.

The jury members for the contest were GAU Founding Rector and Chancellor of Board of Administrators - Serhat Akpınar, GAU Vice-Rector - Cemile Esenyel, GAU Vice-Rector - Prof. Dr. Sadık Ülker, Baybars Altuntaş who was previously selected as the Entrepreneur Guru of the year by the President of USA Barack Obama, KTSO President - Ali Çıralı and Member of the Board of Chamber of Cyprus Turkish Engineers and Architects Association - Sümer Kaya. Almost 100 contestants competed in the contest and only 6 were selected as finalists.

The winner of the contest was the “Gold Eye” project designed by Serdar Zeybek, the runner up project was “Accessible Glasses” by Abdurrahman Korucu and the second runner up project was “Remote Controlled Electric Vacuum Cleaner” by Furkan Şafak Baş. The winner’s award was presented by GAU Vice-Rector - Prof. Dr. Sadık Ülker, the second runner up award was presented by Vice-Chancellor of Board of Administrators - Cemile Esenyel and the second runner up award was presented by GAU Founding Rector and Chancellor of Board of Administrators - Serhat Akpınar.

GAU Founding Rector and Chancellor of Board of Administrators - Serhat Akpınar presented the award of appreciation to Baybars Altuntaş and Vice-Chancellor of Board of Administrators - Cemile Esenyel presented an award each to KTSO President - Ali Çıralı and Member of the Board of Chamber of Cyprus Turkish Engineers and Architects Association - Sümer Kaya.

Altuntaş: “GAU is a leading university as it is a Creative Entrepreneurship Project and supports Young Entrepreneurs and Inventors”

Baybars Altuntaş who gave a brief speech during the award presentation stated that GAU is already a Creative Entrepreneurship Project itself and has significant success internationally. Altuntaş who is the member of the Board of World Entrepreneurship Form and the special executive representative of Turkey and the Balkans, emphasized that they will be honoured to have Serhat Akpınar as the representative of TRNC. Furthermore, Altuntaş announced an vitiationon to the winner of the contest - GAU 2nd Creative Minds - to the TV show entitled “Do You Have an Idea?” which will be broadcast on SKY Türk channel. Altuntaş also thanked GAU for the support to young entrepreneurs and inventors.

GAU stated that the Creative Minds Contest aims to increase productivity as interest in this contest is significant by all regions of Cyprus and Turkey. GAU finally announced that they are open to any kind of support with regard to similar projects.