News

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökhan İnce and Dr. Kadir Özlem from our Soft Sensors Lab actively participated in ICTurkiye 2025, a premier event organized under the "Horizon Europe" programme by TÜBİTAK and the European Commission. Held in Ankara, this strategic gathering brought together researchers, innovators, public institutions, industry leaders, and funding experts to explore synergies between science, innovation, and collaboration in the digital transformation landscape.

Our lab’s co-founder and faculty member, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay, who completed both his MSc and PhD studies at the University of Manchester, has been awarded the Study UK Alumni Award in Science and Sustainability by British Council Türkiye. He was selected from among three finalists in recognition of his pioneering contributions that foster sustainable change and scientific innovation.

We are proud to announce that Associate Professor Dr. Özgür Atalay, one of the co-founders of our lab, has been nominated for the prestigious Study UK Alumni Awards 2025 in the Science and Sustainability category. This recognition highlights his outstanding contributions to the field of smart textiles, wearable electronics, and soft robotics.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay, our cofounder and recipient of an ERC Starting Grant, became the only researcher from our country to be awarded support under the ERC 2024 Proof of Concept call with his project titled "TexSoRVA: Textile-Based Soft Robotics for Virtual Reality Applications."

Our research team attended the “2025 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration” held in Germany between January 21-24, 2025. In the “Textiles and Robotics Workshop” session of the symposium; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür ATALAY made his presentation titled “The Manufacturing of Textile-Based Soft Robotics for Wearable Applications” and Asst. Prof. Dr. Aslı TUNÇAY ATALAY made her presentation titled “Textile-Based Sensors for Soft Robotic Applications”. In the demo session, developed technologies were shown to the attendees.

Members of the Soft Sensors Lab, which specializes in electronic textiles and soft robotics, represented our university at the STRATCOM event organized by the Directorate of Communications of the Republic of Turkey. Dr. Kadir Özlem, a research assistant in our faculty, and Çağatay Gümüş, a research assistant in the Department of Textile Engineering, participated in the event, where they showcased their cloud-based telerehabilitation application.

You can access the details of our interview with Anadolu Agency about “STEWART - Sports acTivitiEs With weARable Technology”, one of the projects carried out in our laboratory, from the link below

Our lab has been granted a patent certificate from the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office under the number TR 2022 004079 B with his invention titled "Textile-Based Wide Area Pressure Sensing Arrays".

The Soft Sensors Lab team participated in SAHA Expo 2024 from October 22 to 26, where they showcased their innovative products at the Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) booth. The event offered an excellent opportunity to display their advancements in electronic textiles and IoT technologies to a diverse audience.

The patent titled “Textile Based Wide Area Pressure Sensing Arrays” was the result of the joint work of the founders of the Soft Sensors Laboratory, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür ATALAY from ITU Textile Engineering Department and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökhan İNCE from ITU Computer Engineering Department won a bronze medal at the ISIF’24 9th International Invention Fair.

At the “2024-2025 Higher Education Academic Year Opening Ceremony”; the doctoral thesis “An Architectural Research Framework for the Neuroscience of Human Experience” was completed by Dr. Tülay Karakaş under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökhan İnce, one of Soft Sensors Lab founders, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilek Yıldız Özkan was deemed worthy of the “Fine Arts and Architecture Award” at the YÖK Outstanding Achievement Awards.

Our esteemed Rector Prof. Dr. Hasan MANDAL honored us by visiting our laboratory. During the visit, we shared information about the projects being carried out in our laboratory with him.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay was a guest at the “ITU Science and Technology Talks” and talked about the concept of smart textiles, the contribution of smart textile products to society, and everything you need to know about wearable robotic systems.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alper Gürarslan's SmartWaste project was featured in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine. The article focuses on studies using two plants to reduce the environmental damage of synthetic fibers within the scope of sustainable fashion.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay gave an invited talk and joined the panel discussion at the Future Material Conference in Hungary. As a frontrunner researcher in the area of textile-based soft robotics, he discussed the importance of soft robotics in healthcare applications.

Horizon Europe European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant will support our Textile Technologies and Design Faculty Member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Atalay’s project titled “TEXWEAROTS”.

According to the latest list of the world's most influential scientists, created annually by scientists from Stanford University, was recently published by Elsevier, 50 academicians from ITU were included. Assoc. Dr. Özgür Atalay is also involved in the list. We congratulate him on his outstanding achievement.

In the Biotechnology and Innovation Competition conducted by Teknofest, the TexRobots Team (Kadir Özlem, Ayşe Feyza Yılmaz, Fidan Khalilbayli, Ömür Fatmanur Erzurumluoğlu) won the first prize with their “Texrobot for Hand Paralysis Rehabilitation” project.