Istanbul students design glacier black box for Antarctic research

ISTANBUL

Two students in matching ARGEM shirts hold a small project box outdoors.

Three high school students in Istanbul developed a black box device for glaciers to track structural changes, earning a spot to test their invention at Türkiye’s Antarctic research base.

Tenth and 11th-grade students Yusuf Mert Dalgıç, Abdullah Nazım Karanfil and Emrullah Gürpınar from Üsküdar Research Development Education and Application Center (ARGEM) High School won the annual Polar Research Projects Competition. The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) organizes the event to give the high school students a chance to conduct research in the Arctic or in Antarctica.

The group is one of four winning teams this year. The students will test their project at the Turkish base in Antarctica if they pass the final interview stage expected in October. The team spent nearly two and a half years working on the device, designed to be placed inside glaciers to collect regional data.

Functioning similarly to a flight data recorder, the device stores data to help researchers determine the cause of any incident preventing information transmission to the main center. “Unmanned aerial vehicles are mostly used in Antarctic research,” Dalgıç said. “These vehicles cause high costs and can create reliability issues,” he said.

“We developed a device to handle fracturing, cracking and melting in glaciers in a much more detailed way,” Dalgıç said. Karanfil said the system can store data by using very low energy.

Türkiye has expanded its polar activities over the past decade, launching annual national science expeditions to Antarctica. Researchers at the temporary Turkish scientific camp on Horseshoe Island conduct extensive studies on climate change, marine biology and polar ecosystems.

The government aims to establish a permanent base on the continent in the near future to elevate its consultant status in the Antarctic Treaty System, ensuring long-term participation in crucial global environmental research.

This critical step will also support future innovations by young local scientists in this field.