Today is 23 April National Sovereignty and Children’s Day – one of the most exciting and happy days for our nation. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of our Republic, dedicated the very day that the Turkish Grand National Assembly was established to children and this is a significant example of his vision. It is also a very valuable to us, because just as the Assembly laid the foundations of our Republic, children shape the world and steer the future.

To understand what the world will be like in the future, we need to look at today’s children. What they do, what they are interested in, what games mean to them… These indicate how the world will be like tomorrow. And the future comes in a hurry.

Today’s children cannot imagine a world without the concepts, technologies and devices that previous generations could not even dream of. They grow up and develop with technology. Their perspectives, systems of thought, approaches are fed by the infinite opportunities of technology, especially the digital technology. That is why they can cross borders a lot more easily. When the opportunities of digitalization are combined with their powerful imagination, great works and inventions emerge. Writing codes, developing robots, inventing things, creating their own online media are natural parts of their lives.

As adults, our responsibility is to support such conscious and productive children. That is why I am very enthusiastic and proud of our projects aiming to help children confidently prepare for the future. For instance, our employees support the robotics and mechatronics initiatives at Darüşşafaka High School and encourage young students to think more innovatively. We have provided voluntary engineering support to Darüşşafaka Robotics Club, namely Sultans of Turkey, for a robot that won the FRC Robotics Competition in the USA. In addition, our engineers at Siemens Turkey give coding trainings to the female students at Darüşşafaka and support them in their career paths as voluntary mentors.

Encouraging more female students to study engineering is another initiative that we adopt and put great emphasis on. With the Female Engineers Project held in cooperation with our Diversity Council and Turkish Education Foundation (TEV), our female engineers offer mentoring to young female engineering students to support their theoretical knowledge with experience and practice.

We attach great importance to the projects for the children and young individuals, because we know that we need to take responsibility for all children to build a better world. We need to support them and help especially those with fewer means to confidently preparefor the future. I hope such initiatives continue in a larger scale not only at Siemens Turkey, but also in the business world and throughout the country.

Happy 23 April National Sovereignty and Children’s Day to all children!

Today is a special day. Every year we celebrate the 24^th of November to remember our teachers and pay respect to them. On one hand, we remember our own teachers and on the other, we consider the day as a chance to show our gratitude, love and respect to the teachers of our children, if we have any. Or if we are teachers, we hear from our past students and also enjoy the chirping of those we still teach: “Happy Teacher’s Day!” That’s all good. But sadly, teaching as a profession is still very far away from the point that it deserves to be. We have not yet been able to provide our teachers, the architects of today and tomorrow, with an environment where they will have no other concern than to teach and educate. However, none of these facts can damage the importance of this profession. So, what is the definition of “the best teacher” to me and what is the first and foremost reason for attaching such great importance to teaching?

In my opinion, the best teacher is the one who is always open to innovations, who sticks to this habit even in age of maturity and never closes the doors for what’s new. Access to information is very easy for today’s children, I realize this best when I listen and talk to my kids. Therefore, I do not and cannot ever be contented with what I teach them myself.

The best example so far for our teachers is, of course, Atatürk – the leader who established the foundations of this opportunity for them. But in fact, we have not seen the best examples yet. The best example will be the next generation. Why? Because the new generation is a modern one, seeing innovation neither as a risk nor a reason for fear. That will be our greatest luck. We always talk about the great potential of Turkey. Unless we have teachers to turn this potential into value for the individuals and the society, that potential will remain unproductive. Thus, innovative teachers who teach and encourage students to think with an innovative perspective will be the greatest fortune for us. One day, when we actively participate in space studies as a country, we should remember that our teachers, to whom our parents first entrusted us as young children, have played a great role in this success.

Happy Teacher’s Day.

My children complain that the internet connection at home is insufficient. My youngest son even asked me once what we used to do when there was no social media. I told him that we used to play marbles, make toys such as cars, and write letters. In amazement, he said “How come? Did you make your toys yourselves? But that should take a very long time!” The conversation came to the conclusion that it becomes more and more uncommon to produce something with our own hands. That reminds me of an interview with Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most creative fashion designers of our times. I remember having read the interview and discussions in the German newspaper “Die Zeit”. Mr. Lagerfeld explained the subject as follows:

Is there anything that we do with our hands anymore?

Is there anyone who writes letters by hand anymore?

Is there anyone who can knit a sweater anymore?

Is there anyone who can make a kite for his kid anymore?

Instead, we write e-mails on our smartphones that use spelling software to predict what we want to write as we currently write it. All our clumsiness is made up by electronic devices everywhere. Everything that is produced by modern businesspeople can be reproduced, copied, viewed, googled, saved, and printed (3D). People in service-based society are exempt from manual works so as to focus on intellectual ones. Thus, they can have more time for other works.

So now, what will we do with all this time?