Drones will combat, rockets will fly at Istanbul Tekno Fest

Özgür Korkmaz - ISTANBUL

Tekno Fest, Turkey’s first aerospace and technology festival that is set to take place Sept. 20-23 at Istanbul’s new airport, will host a number of events and competitions. 

Tekno Fest is organized by the Turkey Technology Team Foundation (T3) to showcase the country’s rapid advance in technology and promote technology advances.

Activities at the festival will include educational programs for middle and high school students, competitions for university teams and sponsorship of emerging technology initiatives.

Competitions will be organized under 12 different categories, including rockets, artificial intelligence and unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Those kids who take part in the festival in the future will do what Elon Musk is doing now,” said Selçuk Bayraktar, the chair of the board of trustees of Turkey Technology Team.

“There has been strong interest in the festival from abroad and Turkey. We have invited the world’s best entrepreneurs. We have received more than 1,000 applications from more than 60 countries. The world’s best hackers will also be here. Some 2,357 people applied for the hacking competition. Some 64 competitors from 25 countries will take part in the drone competition,” he said, adding that 2,000 teams will compete.

Bayraktar expects more than 20,000 visitors.

Drones and rockets

As part of the event, the festival will host the World Drone Cup with competitors from China, Japan, Brazil, and the U.S.

The aim of the Unmanned Air Vehicle Combat Competition is to ensure competitors who develop technology for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles gain competence in original design, production and reporting.

According to the organizers, this will be the world’s largest competition in terms of the number of countries taking part. Drones with speed up to 250 kilometers per hour will compete in the event.

The other major event at the fest will be the rocket competition, which targets particularly undergraduate and graduate students.

The aim of the rocket competition is to improve the skills of students by increasing their interest in space technology. Teams will compete in separate categories, namely low altitude category with commercial rocket motor and high altitude category with commercial rocket motor.

The fest will also host an extraordinary event: HackIstanbul 2018 CTF contest.

HackIstanbul 2018 CTF (Capture the Flag) contest will gather thousands of hackers from 132 countries worldwide to exhibit their skills, according to the organizers.

Hackers’ skills will be pushed to the limits by advanced real life cyber-attack scenarios prepared under the guidance of world’s foremost experts.

The festival’s sponsors include Aselsan, Baykar, IGA, İsbak, Roketsan, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Turkish Airlines, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and TÜRKSAT.