Vodafone Turkey Foundation’s 7th Advisory Board Meeting was held in Vodafone Future Lab with the participation of Eczacıbaşı Holding Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Education Reform Initiative Chairman Üstün Ergüder, Fiba Holding Chairman Hüsnü Özyeğin, Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) Chairman Yavuz Canevi, Esas Holding Board Member Ali Sabancı, Vodafone Group Europe Region CEO Serpil Timuray and the President of Vodafone Turkey Foundation Hasan Süel.

Advisory Board Members toured Vodafone Turkey’s “smart technology center”, ITU Vodafone Future Lab, and at the end of the meeting, they developed coding projects under the mentorship of the participant children of the ”Coding Tomorrow” project. 

The 7th Advisory Board Meeting of Vodafone Turkey Foundation, which operates in the development of society with the aim of contributing improvement of the quality of life, was held in Vodafone Turkey’s “smart technology center”, ITU Vodafone Future Lab. The last year of Vodafone Turkey Foundation was evaluated in the meeting, with the participation of Eczacıbaşı Holding Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Education Reform Initiative Chairman Üstün Ergüder, Fiba Holding Chairman Hüsnü Özyeğin, Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) Chairman Yavuz Canevi, Esas Holding Board Member Ali Sabancı, Vodafone Group Europe Region CEO Serpil Timurayand the President of Vodafone Turkey Foundation Hasan Süel. 

At the meeting, Vodafone Turkey Foundation Chairman Hasan Süel shared detailed information about the Foundation’s current projects and the future targets, especially about the ”Coding Tomorrow” project and also stated that:

“As the Vodafone Turkey Foundation, we have been working to be the pioneer of social development and change since 2007. We create value by offering technology to the service of life and support the projects that provide social benefits. With these projects, which are conducted under the leadership of our valuable Advisory Board Members, who are among the leading names of the business and academic community, we lead the way in social responsibility. Until today, we have touched the lives of 4 million people by making social investments worth 41 million TL. We regularly meet with our Advisory Board Members to exchange ideas and opinions. In this meeting, we informed them about the latest developments of our Foundation, sharing about our flagship project ”Coding Tomorrow” which has reached more than 43 thousand children in 60 provinces in 3 years. Our members gave important feedback to our projects and shed light on our future activities. ” 

They visited ITU Vodafone Future Lab

Before the meeting, members of the Advisory Board toured the ITU Vodafone Future Lab and informed by Vodafone Business Director Meltem Bakiler Şahin about the features of this center in which Vodafone R & D team and ITU Ph.D. students working groups consistently produce new projects and currently have 30 solution partners with 34 different smart technology experiences. Şahin stated that ”İTÜ Vodafone Future Lab hosts many different end-to-end experiences from the internet of objects to image processing technologies, from fixed infrastructure solutions to robotic process automation solutions, from artificial intelligence technologies to machine learning laboratory technology experience as the journey of Turkey became an important center for digitalization”.

They were mentored by the children

At the end of the meeting, Vodafone Turkey Foundation Advisory Board Members came together with the children who get coding training within the scope of ”Coding Tomorrow” project. The Advisory Board Members, who were mentored by children, were divided into two groups and developed coding projects for the social problems assigned to them. While the first group, which was assigned to lay out a flower garden, measured the level of moisture and water supply according to the need to develop an irrigation system; the second group, which was assigned to install an earthquake escape system, developed a system that gives audible and visual warning in case of an earthquake.

A collection of foulards and handkerchiefs created with the paintings of children from Mardin were presented as a gift to the members of Vodafone Turkey Foundation Advisory Board.