The panel organized by the Turkish Engineers Association under the theme "Becoming an Engineer" was held hosted by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority.
The panel was attended by, among others, the Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, TMD President Yaşar Yekebağcı, Türkiye Kamu-Sen President Önder Kahveci, and MHP Deputy President Yaşar Yıldırım.
In his opening speech at the panel, Sayan expressed the current importance of engineering by saying, "Engineering constitutes one of humanity's oldest and most important professions. Engineers, who design and build the products and systems that humanity needs using science and technology, actually shape and transform a society in the process. In today's world where digital transformation is rapidly taking place in every sector, it would not be wrong to say that there is an engineer's touch in every service and product that makes our lives easier."
Stating that they have conducted important studies on the education of young people and girls, Sayan said, "When we look at the numbers, we see that there are approximately 25 million engineers in the world. This number is expected to reach 30 million worldwide by 2030. In European Union countries, 41% of the approximately 18 million scientists and engineers are women. In Turkey, 44% of those working in science and engineering fields are women. Turkey leads many European countries such as Germany, France, and England in the employment of female scientists and engineers. We are pleased that our girls and young people are interested in these fields. Within the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), of which our country is a founding member, studies are being conducted to encourage our girls and young people in information and communication technologies, and we are making significant contributions to these efforts at various levels."
Emphasizing the importance of the vision for domestic and national production, Sayan stated, "Current global power balances show that for our country to raise its voice even more for the future of the world and to more strongly defend the principle of justice and mercy for humanity that it upholds at regional and global levels, it is of great importance that we develop systems containing high technology. In this direction, we are advancing with determined steps in our domestic production journey in the field of communication. When determining our strategic goals and policies, we place the vision of domestic and national production at the center."
Underlining that "Big data" is today's most powerful resource, Deputy Minister Sayan said, "Many institutions and organizations related to technology attach utmost importance to big data and make very large investments. Massive data centers are being established with computer and network hardware for the collection, storage, processing, and distribution of data. Producing value from data has become the most valuable business model. At the same time, artificial intelligence applications are increasingly spreading in every sector."
Sayan concluded his speech with the words, "There is a lot of work for engineers to do, and our country needs the ideas and efforts of valuable engineers like you and valuable workers in other disciplines. No stopping, keep going on the path."