Jane K.

I became an active member of the IEEE Balıkesir University Student Branch, where I had the opportunity to meet many engineering friends. In my second year, I took on the roles of Co-Coordinator and Administrative Board Member. However, in the second semester of the second year, the pandemic emerged. Believing that I needed to maintain my motivation, I started preparing for the ALES exam to the best of my abilities. In my third year, I formed a team and started working on a project for Teknofest. When the pandemic situation eased, we returned to the campus and began our R&D efforts. As a result of our endeavors, we reached the finals of Teknofest 2021 in September and created the prototype of the AWAXEN Autonomous Harvesting Robot. Throughout this process, I continued on my path without paying attention to phrases like "you're wasting your time." In 2022, with our renewed team, we developed an Autonomous Analysis Tool as our graduation project and applied to the TÜBİTAK 1512 call. By presenting a paper, we gained the opportunity to participate in numerous projects. Now, I am experiencing the joy of graduating with a GPA of 3.01. I feel the excitement of successfully completing projects and being a finalist and Advisor at Teknofest 2022. Throughout this journey, my greatest supporters have been my mother, followed by Ms. Elis and my esteemed professors. I am also grateful to my AWAXEN team. Certainly, we will face challenges, but I believe that we will succeed once again. In addition to this story, I would like to mention that I pursued a Master's degree and currently work as a Computer Engineer.