Great Support from European Union to Our Faculty Members’ Projects

Textile Technologies and Design faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay’s project titled ReTex and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alper Gürarslan’s project titled SmartWaste are granted support within the framework of EU’s Horizon Europe Program MSCA SE-2021 call, while Chemical-Metallurgical Engineering faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Alper Aydın’s project titled ECHO is granted support within the framework of EU’s Horizon Europe Program CL5-2022-D3-01 call.

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Textile Technologies and Design faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay’s project titled ReTex and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alper Gürarslan’s project titled SmartWaste were deemed worthy of support within the framework of EU’s Horizon Europe Program MSCA SE-2021 call, while Chemical-Metallurgical Engineering faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Alper Aydın’s project titled ECHO was deemed worthy of support within the framework of EU’s Horizon Europe Program CL5-2022-D3-01 call. Industrial and research organizations from different countries will take part in the projects.

The supervision of ReTex, one of the supported projects, is under the responsibility of ITU. The main goal of the project is to create a world-class international and cross-sectoral organization network. To develop sustainable electronic textile materials, regenerated fibers produced from recycled cotton using environmentally friendly methods will be used instead of traditional textile materials. During the project with a budget of 814,200 Euros, 11 partners from 8 countries will exchange knowledge and skills to create sustainable textile materials, and collaborative research will be carried out between different countries and sectors. Through international mobility within the project, researchers will develop new skills, explore new research environments and enrich their career development. 

The main purpose of the SmartWaste project, which will be supervised by ITU, is to create a world-class international and cross-sectoral network of organizations working in the field of sustainable smart textile materials by replacing traditional and high-cost textile materials with sustainable materials. During the project, next generation researchers will be trained in the field of sustainable textiles and innovative products will be developed. In the project with a budget of 943,000 Euros, 10 partners from 6 countries will exchange knowledge and skills to create sustainable textile materials by strengthening joint research between different countries and sectors. World-renowned textile, material and polymer scientists, chemists, software engineers and designers will work together in this project. 

The project titled ECHO, which will be supervised by Department of Chemistry Engineering faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Alper Aydın on behalf of ITU, involves the development and pilot applications of a flexible, modular, and plug-and-play sustainable thermal energy storage system. In this way, the heating and cooling requirements of a building can be met for at least four weeks without the need for primary energy resources (natural gas, etc.) or city electricity. The modular-designed system can be used in many places from small apartments to large buildings. The total budges of the project, which has 17 partners and a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6-7, is around 7.1 Euros.

About Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Atalay completed his master’s and doctorate studies in the field of smart textiles at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Having done post-doctoral research in soft robotic systems at Harvard University in the USA, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Atalay received a Marie Curie Individual Research Fellowship within the scope of the EU Horizon 2020 program in 2019. He continued to work in the field of smart textiles and soft robotics with various international and national projects he undertook. His project titled TEXWEAROTS was granted support by EU’s Horizon Europe European Research Council (ERC).

About Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alper Gürarslan

After completing his master’s degree in Textile Chemistry at North Carolina State University, Dr. Gürarslan earned a double Ph.D. in Fiber and Polymer Science and Material Science and Engineering. Subsequently, he conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the same university. Having started to work at ITU in 2017, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alper Gürarslan received support for 4 European Union and 4 TÜBİTAK projects. Within the scope of these supported projects, he continues his studies in various fields from medical textiles to two-dimensional materials, from wearable electronics to sustainable fibers at ITU Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design.

About Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Alper Aydın

After completing his master’s and doctoral studies at ITU, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aydın went on to work as Asst. Prof. Dr. at the Technical University of Munich and Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf – Germany. He has several national/international projects and publications on phase change materials, energy storage applications and thermal processes. His current research interests include the development of novel PCMs, micro/nano encapsulation and composite material synthesis. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aydın is a member of ITU Synthetic Fuels and Chemicals Technology Center (ITU SENTEK) Thermal Processes Research Group.