Award to ITU Team from Big Bang Start-up Challenge Competition

In the Big Bang Start-up Challenge event supported by ITU Çekirdek, in which the best initiatives are determined every year, the project of the ITU team named “Kozalak (Pinecone)” was among the top three startups.

The Big Bang Start-up Challenge event, in which the best startups that apply to ITU Çekirdek are determined, was held on Thursday, December 2, 2021, with the motto of “Pioneers” this year. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Big Bang witnessed 458 million liras of reward, cash and investment received by startups. In Big Bang 2021, 36 startups received 7 million 780 thousand TL in cash and prizes; 10 startups announced their total investment of 26 million 251 thousand TL on the Big Bang stage for the first time. The investment of 424 million 78 thousand 180 TL received by 41 ITU Çekirdek initiatives that received investment in 2021 was celebrated by being announced at the Big Bang. Startups that qualified to be in the top three with awards, cash and investments among the startups in the TOP 20 were Evodice, DeepSport and Kozalak.

The system called Kozalak, developed by the team that includes our Department of Landscape Architecture Dr. Muhammed Ali Örnek, our graduates Rana İmam, Rahme Nur Örnek and Suat Batuhan Esirger, can detect fire incidents in forests while at a small scale. With this device, which is attached with the help of a flexible strap without damaging the trunk of the trees, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, pressure and flammable, explosive and toxic gas levels in the environment can be measured in forest areas and information can be transferred to the main center every minute.