9 Nisan 2000, Turkish Daily News
Campus
Scene Bilkent University
 Kaynaşlı Education
Center seeks volunteers
Bilkent has recently opened a social services and education center to serve the Kaynaşlı
earthquake survivors. Services are being provided for the residents of a tent village
there, both young children ages four to 14 as well as their parents. Courses on computers,
music, drama, math, and English are being offered as well as folklore and sports
activities.
A television and video room has also been established, and daycare is being provided for
children ages four to six. The center has two dorms with showers to accommodate up to 20
volunteers who wish to stay overnight. The Executive Board of this project is comprised of
Zeynep Köksal (dean of students), Dr. Rasim Özyürek (director of training programs) and
Yener Ergüven (assistant chair in tourism and hotel management at Bilkent’s vocational
school of tourism and hotel services)…
…Computer voice program developed for visuallly handicapped
The Bilkent University computer engineering department has announced the release of a new
computer program called “OKU” (read) design expressly for the use of visually
handicapped people who speak Turkish. The OKU program is expected to provide them with
further opportunities to use computers for research and course work.
OKU is able to read aloud a given text in clear Turkish. Visually handicapped people can
listen to all written documents- such as books, papers, journals- that are stored in the
“txt” or “rtf” formats. OKU can also serve as a word processor; during the typing
or editing of a document, OKU reads out each keystroke and each word just after it is
typed. Its volume can be adjusted by means of the keyboard, so users have no need for a
mouse or any other visually based tools.
The program is free to download and install from the Internet, via
www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~guvenir/Oku. It has been developed by Associate Professor H. Altay
Güvenir with the help of his students Bertan Arı and Ümit Çatalyürek. For more
information call Altay Güvenir at (312) 266 44 95. Or e-mail guvenir@bilkent .edu.tr.
Nasuh Mahruki receives Bilkent Award Last week
Nasuh Mahruki, a 1992 graduate of Bilkent’s management department, received the Bilkent
University Distinguished Service Award at a ceremony organized by Dost Kulübü and the
“Bilkent’liyiz” alumni magazine. He was presented a gold medallion by Ali
Doğramacı, Bilkent’s rector, for his contributions as a Bilkent graduate to search and
rescue operations in Turkey and Abroad.
Nasuh, who is the founder of AKUT, Turkey’s Search and Rescue Team, and one of the
publishers of Dost, Turkey’s first outdoor magazine, is also the first Turk to climb Mt.
Everest. When he asked about his leadership skills, Nasuh responded that taking the
initiative is a quality he learned in Bilkent University through his management studies
and also through his involvement in Dost outdoor activities. He said that in order to
succeed, one must first decide what one wants, then sets goals, and finally proceed to
realize them systematically, taking reasonable risks in the process. Nasuh stated that he
does things for the sake of having new experiences and learning. Nasuh is planning to
climb K2, a 8,611-meter-high mountain in Asia, and the second tallest peak in the world.
Only 164 people have succeeded in reaching its summit due to the perils of the climb… |
