The “Coding Marathon” organized in collaboration with BTK Academy and Huawei Turkey R&D has been completed.
The “Coding Marathon,” held in collaboration with BTK Academy and Huawei Turkey R&D, was concluded with an award ceremony. Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, who attended the opening of the program, stated that the future of information and communication technology lies in the hands of young people. Noting that they always prioritize directing young people and children towards technology in their technology-related efforts, Sayan said, “With this desire, we established BTK Academy. In line with our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s National Technology Initiative vision, we have accelerated and strengthened our efforts to become an institutional academy aimed at training the human resources needed to achieve a breakthrough in science and technology. The BTK Academy Online Education Platform, established with domestic and national resources, became the gateway to education for our youth during the difficult times of the pandemic when online education came to the forefront, showing us how important a step we took in the past.”
Expressing his feelings about Huawei, one of the architects of the project, Sayan said, “There is a strong collaboration between China and our country rooted in history. The historic Silk Road served as a bridge between Eastern and Western civilizations, enabling not only cultural exchanges between societies but also technology transfer alongside trade between countries. The silk, which was the most important commodity transported along the Silk Road at that time, has now given way to data in the digital age. Today, both countries’ young populations, qualified workforce, knowledge accumulation, economic and technological capacities stand out as our common denominator. Moreover, among G20 countries, our country and the People’s Republic of China represent the top in the data of the fastest-growing countries for years, along with a friendly and sweet competition.”
Deputy Minister Sayan: Data Production Has Never Been as Fast as Today in Human History
Defining coding as the alphabet of today, Sayan said, “Data is now the most valuable treasure. Thanks to technology, data production has never been as fast as it is today in any period of human history. The widespread broadband internet infrastructure and tremendous progress in data speeds, combined with developments in data processing and storage technologies, have reached enormous dimensions in the size of produced data. The amount of data in the world today exceeds 40 zettabytes. It is estimated that in the near future, with many objects and devices connected to the internet, the amount of data produced will reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. In a more striking expression, the amount of data produced in the last 2 years is more than the data collected since the beginning of humanity. Given this situation, those who make sense of data today, create value, and generate added value are the winners,” he shared.
Deputy Minister Sayan: If You Have an Idea, You Can Knead It with Knowledge and Turn It into a Product
Emphasizing that the most important issue in this field is finding a brilliant idea, Sayan said, “If a game or application written is successful, it can spread quickly in a short time, be downloaded millions of times from dozens of countries, and its developers can receive the reward for their efforts. This situation provides great motivation for our young people interested in the software world. Having a good idea and the software skills to implement it is enough to reach billions of users. Of course, the main competition lies somewhat in the entrepreneurial spirit. A good entrepreneur is not one who follows an existing path, but one who paves a new path, shortens the path, or provides a more scenic and comfortable route. I wholeheartedly believe that the young friends here will not settle for what exists, and with their intelligence, talents, and determination, they will discover new paths and develop high value-added products for our people. We will always be the greatest supporters of our youth,” assuring that they will stand by the youth in this regard.
Emphasizing the necessity of producing our own technology ourselves, Sayan said, “I’m sure you all follow; two game companies established by Turkish entrepreneurs have been acquired by foreign investors. The amount paid for these companies exceeds the value of many companies known as established firms in various sectors for years. The most important point here is not the value of the companies, but the interest they receive from the outside world in terms of acquisition and the success of Turkish entrepreneurs. It is the understanding that a good idea and a good product will always have a buyer. From this, we see that digital entrepreneurship is on its way to becoming one of today’s most valid business models. We see that nearly 80% of entrepreneurial ideas are based on software. While companies leading the world 20 years ago were energy or finance companies, today’s market leaders are mostly information technology and especially software companies. If you have an idea, if you can knead your idea with knowledge and turn it into a product, doors open. There are important opportunities and strong potential for everyone in the field of information and communication technologies. The most important capital is knowledge and labor. With your shining eyes and strong motivation, you will hopefully take our country further ahead and achieve great successes,” he concluded his speech.
President Karagözoğlu: The World’s Most Important Companies Are Technology Companies
Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, also attended the award ceremony. Speaking about how technology makes our lives easier, Karagözoğlu said, “With almost everything being connectable to the internet, the Internet of Things market, which was worth 2.9 billion dollars in 2016, is expected to reach 17.7 billion dollars by the end of 2021 with an annual growth rate of 43%. The technology providing the greatest added value in this growth rate is undoubtedly artificial intelligence. Today, artificial intelligence is already used in many areas such as finance, defense industry, health, computer games, marketing, and transportation. This situation highlights the need for trained human resources in information technologies, especially in software, for all countries. With services being transferred to digital environments in every field from banking to automotive, from education to health and security services, the demand for software is also increasing.”
Stating that the world’s most important companies are technology companies, Karagözoğlu said, “While we continue our efforts to create strong infrastructures in the electronic communications sector, we conduct trainings in the field of information and communication technologies for the education of our children and youth, who are our future, and carry out studies to increase our trained human resources in terms of quantity and quality. We aim to train competent personnel at the core of our own resources for the production of domestic and national technologies. Every step taken towards further development of the information sector will contribute to increasing our country’s global market share and exports in this field. For this reason, as BTK, we attach great importance to the development of human resources and education in the information sector in our country,” he stated.
Drawing attention to the significant advantage of the young population in our country, Karagözoğlu said, “Especially in the field of 5G, we are conducting studies with our stakeholders to direct our youth to this area and benefit from their potential. We support our young people pursuing graduate education at prestigious educational institutions such as METU, Bilkent, and Hacettepe University with our operators. Through our 5G Valley Open Test Field studies, which bring operators and universities together, operators and companies developing products in this field have the opportunity to test their software and equipment. The studies and tests conducted here provide knowledge accumulation and experience to the participants, while contributing to the training of experienced experts needed in 5G technology.”
Following the speeches, awards were presented to the 10 contestants who successfully completed the marathon and stood out among 2,368 participants.