Knowledge to Impact Talk Series: How Will Robotics & AI Shape the Near Future? Guest Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Erol Şahin
Knowledge to Impact Talk Series
Organised by METU Alumni Association UK
We are pleased to introduce the Knowledge to Impact Talk Series, an initiative that brings together distinguished voices from academia and industry to share insights, experience, and forward-looking perspectives.
Invited Speaker:
Assoc. Prof. Erol Şahin
Director, ROMER (Center for Robotics and AI), Middle East Technical University
Dr. Erol Şahin will share his insights on:
"How Will Robotics and AI Shape the Near Future?"
Dr. Erol Şahin is the Founding Director of ROMER (Center for Robotics and AI) at METU — a leading excellence center in Türkiye established with €6 million in government funding. The center brings together more than 60 faculty members and 120 researchers.
He holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Systems from Boston University and earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Bilkent University. He has held prestigious research positions at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (Marie Curie Fellow) and IRIDIA at Université Libre de Bruxelles.
A leading authority in swarm robotics and autonomous systems, Dr. Şahin has secured over €10 million in research funding from the European Union, TÜBİTAK, and major industry partners including ASELSAN and Beko. His award-winning work on the EU-funded RoboRoyale project was featured on the cover of Science Robotics and received the Edge of Government Award at the 2024 World Government Summit.
About the Knowledge to Impact Talk Series
The series brings together guest speakers from academia and industry to share knowledge, perspectives, and professional experience across disciplines and geographies.
Its aim is to explore how knowledge — whether academic or practice-based — can be transformed into meaningful real-world impact, while fostering intellectual curiosity and cross-disciplinary learning.
Through shared expertise, the series seeks to build a global learning community, promote evidence-based thinking, and encourage collaboration across borders and sectors.