Awards of 2nd Term Innovative Software Competition (Y³) Given
The 2nd term winners of the Innovative Software Completion (Y³) Program initiated by the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) received their awards at a ceremony attended by President of Defense Industries Prof. İsmail DEMİR and many sector representatives.
Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Prof. İsmail DEMİR stated that the efforts to produce critical components for the defense systems needed by the Turkish Armed Forces, entirely with domestic and national means, were being carried out and that they started to get the first outcomes of such efforts with the R&D Panels held for that purpose. Prof. DEMİR: “We have successfully completed 47 R&D Projects thus far, and 62 projects are still in progress. The total budget of our R&D Projects is TRY 3.5 billion.”
“In recent years, there have been developments in software technologies that are moving at a dizzying speed, and software has become the most fundamental component for all technologies. We continue our efforts on sub-technologies that support Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Broadband Technologies, Robotics, Autonomous Systems and Cyber Security technologies which are directly related to software technologies among emerging and groundbreaking technologies. We have initiated several projects simultaneously in Artificial Intelligence Technology. Last year, we completed the Swarm Intelligence Focus Technology (OTAĞ Network) activities, considered as a ‘game changer’ technology for future combat environments. With the Defense Industry Wide Area R&D (SAGA) Calls we announced this year for Swarm Intelligence Technologies, we collected and started to evaluate project proposals that will make our country superior in the combat environment.”
DEMİR also stated that among the targets of the Presidency of Defense Industries was to consider the "National Artificial Intelligence Strategy" published in cooperation with the Presidency's Digital Transformation Office and the Ministry of Industry and Technology in terms of the defense industry and to develop an action plan accordingly. “Today's Artificial Intelligence technology has started to offer innovations that will increase performance in almost all systems, especially to increase autonomous capabilities. It is also obvious that countries adopting Artificial Intelligence technologies in the quickest way and that are transforming their systems swiftly into these technologies will soon gain an advantage over others. To that end, we plan to take the SSB Artificial Intelligence Platform into service as early as possible. With this platform, our aim is to speed up the activities in the field of artificial intelligence and to render our industry more productive.”
In 2021, 2 competitions with the themes of SATELLITE and GAG (Wide Area Surveillance) were organized, and the competition was conducted by METU OGAM (Center for Image Analysis).
50 competitors participated in the SATELLITE themed competition, which was organized for the automatic detection of various targets (building, hangar, landed and offshore ship, heliport, POL, radome, aircraft, runway and alternate runway, tunnel entrance and bridge) from Electro Optical Satellite Images. All 11 participants who uploaded algorithms generated results and 7 users succeeded to compete in all targets.
43 competitors participated in the GAG themed competition, which was organized for the automatic detection in various target classes (automobile, large vehicle, human) from the images provided by Wide Area Surveillance (GAG) Systems. All 13 participants who uploaded algorithms generated results and all users succeeded to compete in all targets.
At the award ceremony held at the Presidency of Defense Industries, a total prize of TRY 150,000 was given to the winners within the scope of the 2nd Term competitions (SATELLITE, GAG). The list of the awards is given below:
In the Satellite field
First Prize: Prof. Dr. Hakan ÇEVİKALP,
Second Prize: HAVELSAN A.Ş Emre Başeski,
Third Prize: SDT A.Ş. Halil Sunar
In the GAG field
First Prize: Kuartis- Dr.Osman Serdar Gedik ve Emre Can Sevindik
Second Prize: OBSS- Fatih Akyön
Third Prize: SDT A.Ş.- Öner Ayhan
The Innovative Software Competition (Y³) is a program that aims to work with companies and organizations that are competent in innovative software technologies, especially in Artificial Intelligence, in a broader and more sustainable structure, to expand the capability/competency map in Turkey, and to collaborate with high-performing participants on projects conducted within the SSB. The related program was initiated in 2019 and 2020 exclusively for Innovative Image Processing Technologies and the 2nd term competitions were organized within this scope.
During the ceremony, the 3rd term of the program was also signed. In this context, 3 separate competitions will be held and these competitions will be conducted by 3 universities. The related agreements were signed between SSTEK A.Ş, a subsidiary of the SSB, and universities for 3 competitions on the following subjects:
Fırat University - Synthetic Data Generation with Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN)
Istanbul Technical University (ITU) – Reinforcement Learning Based Swarm Strategy Development
Middle East Technical University Center for Image Analysis (METU OGAM) - Route Consolidation for Moving Target Tracking
