The 'ITS Türkiye' session, which was held on the first day of the International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference organized for the second time this year by Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University Intelligent Transportation Systems Application and Research Center, which was selected as a specialized university on "Intelligent Transportation Systems" by the Council of Higher Education (CHE), was held under the chairmanship of Esma Dilek, President of our Association and Deputy General Director of Communications of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University ITS Application and Research Center (BITSMER) President Prof. Dr. Mehmet TEKTAŞ and ITS Türkiye members attended the webinar where stakeholders' competencies, experiences and projects in the field of ITS were mentioned.
In her opening speech, Esma Dilek, who also moderated the webinar, said that I would like to express our gratitude on behalf of ITS Türkiye members to Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University ITS Application and Research Center (BITSMER) president Prof. Dr. Mehmet TEKTAŞ and his entire team for devoting the first session of the conference to our association. Stating that ITS Türkiye Association was established within the framework of the National Intelligent Transportation Systems Strategy Document and Annex Action Plan and that in November 2018, with the approval of the Minister of Interior, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Association of Türkiye was renamed "ITS TÜRKİYE" with its short name, Dilek continued his speech in which he also touched upon the activities of the association as follows:
"The 3rd of our SUMMITS International Intelligent Transportation Systems Summit, which has become traditional by our association, We have started our work to be held in Ankara on 9-10 March 2022. The work of the 5th edition of the Mind's Way in Transportation Awards, which is another event of ours, has started. We plan to announce our awards at the summit next year. Before the last summit, we started to work to carry out a new one of the trainings we organized jointly with ERTICO before the summit. Another important work will be our ITS Volunteers program. In this program, the preparations of which have been completed, we have designed it as a new platform for those who want to participate in studies without being a member of the association, especially students and new graduates. We have signed an agreement with a professional agency in order to make our stakeholders aware of all these works and to use our social media accounts more effectively. ITS Türkiye is an organization that exists with its members as a Non-Governmental Organization. We currently have a total of 47 members from the public, academia, civil society and private sectors. Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipality, ICA İçtaş Astaldi Third Bosphorus Bridge and Northern Marmara Motorway Investment and Operations Inc. and Yapı Merkezi İdis Engineering Ind. & Trade Inc. have applied for membership and are our stakeholders who we foresee to be officially members of our association as of next week. We will gain even more strength with the participation of new members."
In the session where our members explained their work and projects in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems, potential collaborations and business ideas were born and our stakeholders who participated in the session had the opportunity to have more detailed information about the ITS projects in our country. We would like to thank Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University BITSMER for giving us this opportunity, and all our members and stakeholders who participated.
