Within the scope of the RoboKaratay Project, supported by the Mevlana Development Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Technology's Social Development Support Program and carried out by Karatay Municipality and Karatay District Directorate of National Education, the “Karatay Robot Competition” was organized.

Karatay Mayor Hasan Kılca, MEVKA Secretary General İhsan Bostancı, Konya Provincial Director of National Education Seyit Ali Büyük, MÜSİAD Konya Branch President Mehmet Hilmi Kağnıcı, Karatay District Director of National Education Sami Sağdıç, AK Party Konya Provincial Deputy Chairman Mehmet Ay, AK Party Karatay District Chairman Mehmet Genç, Memur-Sen Konya Branch President Nazif Karlıer, educators, and students attended the ceremony held on the first day of the competitions.

Delivering the opening speeches of the program, Karatay Mayor Hasan Kılca stated that they provide all possible support to teach young people the technologies of the future; “To keep pace with technological developments, we implemented our Robokaratay project in cooperation with the District Directorate of National Education and with the contributions of MEVKA. Within the scope of the project, we established robotic coding workshops in 10 of our schools in our district. Now, we are organizing the Karatay Robot Competition within the project. The main purpose of organizing these competitions is to prepare our children and young people for the technologies of the future. We know very well that our children will strengthen Turkey's future and its qualified human resources day by day, and they will develop themselves holistically. In cooperation with TÜBİTAK, we had established TÜBİTAK Popular Science Publications Libraries in primary, middle, and high schools in our district. We also continue to deliver “TÜBİTAK Science and Technology” and “Science Child” magazines free of charge to all middle and high school students in our district who register. I believe that with all these efforts, we contribute to raising a generation equipped with knowledge and technology. These young people will produce works that will make a name for themselves in their fields in the future. All our children participating in the competition, whether successful or not, will form the main backbone of our country's strength. As Karatay Municipality, we will continue to provide all kinds of contributions to this process,” he said.

Afterwards, MEVKA Secretary General İhsan Bostancı, who took the floor, said, “With the developments in communication technologies, concepts such as industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, 5G, and the internet of things, whose names we hear more and more every day, are becoming indispensable parts of our daily lives.  Accordingly, we see that the use of robotic applications, in line with technological possibilities, is increasing in a very wide range from education to the service sector, from health to logistics, from production to operational processes in our country as well as in the world. It is already evident that robotic applications, whose usage areas and purposes are expanding day by day and which provide time and cost advantages by reducing the error rate in all processes thanks to the dominance they provide in the workforce and their automation capabilities, will shape the world of the future. In addition, the common aspect of the predictions put forward regarding the professions of the future in reports prepared in the field of education and employment is that the primary criterion sought in the employees of the future will be “digital competence.” At this point, this project, implemented to support the training of qualified human resources with the digital competencies needed to realize the national technology move in our country, is also of great importance as it will enable our young people to be trained in strategic areas such as software and robotic coding, which are shown among the professions of the future. Within the scope of the project, workshops capable of providing training in areas such as graphic design, web design, augmented reality, UAV flight training, artificial intelligence, and 3D design were established in the RoboKaratay center, which was brought to life at Kılıçarslan Borsa İstanbul Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School by Karatay Municipality and Karatay District Directorate of National Education with the support of our Agency, and applied training was given to hundreds of students in these established workshops. With the Karatay robot competition, which will last for two days, it is aimed to spread robotic coding to the grassroots, increase awareness of coding literacy and digital technologies, and strengthen the motivation of our young people in this field through the reward method. Throughout the competitions, over 400 students from 45 schools in our Karatay region will showcase their skills in 9 different categories, both having fun and gaining experience in robotic applications, the profession of the future. We have full faith that such projects and competitions implemented will make significant contributions to our country becoming a nation that not only follows the technological developments experienced today but also develops effective policies by analyzing global developments, and to achieving the goal of a pioneering Turkey that produces high technology and added value in the digitalizing world, as determined in the “2023 Industry and Technology Strategy” Document, and will be an important source of motivation for our youth, who are the guarantee of our future. As an institution, we thank Karatay Municipality for its great contributions to the realization of this project, which we attach great importance to, Kılıçarslan Borsa İstanbul Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School, which is the implementation school of the project, the Provincial Directorate of National Education, the Karatay District Directorate of National Education, and our ministry and agency experts who took part in the project process, and I hope that the competitions to be organized will bring benefits to our city, region, and country,” he said.

After the protocol speeches, the participants launched the competitions organized in 9 different categories, including SpongeBob Robot Competition, Freestyle Sumo Wrestling, Game Design Competition with Scratch, Tozkoparan Line Follower Robot Competition, Fast Line Follower Robot Competition, Egg Collecting Robot Competition, UAV (Drone) Robot Competition, and Freestyle Category, in which 412 students from 45 schools will compete for two days.

In the competitions that will last for two days, all schools will receive a robotic set worth 1500 TL, and for the category, advisors and students separately; the 1st place award will be 750 TL each, the 2nd place award 500 TL, the 3rd place award 250 TL, and an Honorable Mention Award of 750 TL will be given.