• CIP 101 students hosted Zülal Tannur, one of Sabancı Foundation's 14th Season Changemakers and founder of NeuroVision AI Tech and From Your Eyes, on December 10, 2024. Zülal Tannur talked about her work at NeuroVision AI Tech, which develops machine vision solutions for a wide spectrum from humans to smart technologies. She explained how vision technologies work and talked about the steps involved in developing and implementing an idea to solve a problem.

Human Library was held at Sabancı University on November 26, 2024  at Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. As with normal libraries, the Human Library consists of readers, librarians, books, and book catalogs. The only difference between this library and the rest is that the books in the Human Library are people like you and us and they engage in a personal dialogue with their readers rather than just “being read”. The starting point of the library is “Do not judge the book by its cover!” and the books in this library are from different segments of society, struggling with prejudices and stereotypes, and with different life experiences. This year, Human Library welcomed the Books such as daughter of an Alzheimer’s patient, homeless, gay, bisexual, search and rescue, stutterer, ex-anorexic, a gay mother, a person with cerebral palsy, vegan, albino, female train driver, delivery worker, visually impaired guitarist, a person with tourette syndrome.
 

Beginner level Turkish Sign Language training was given to Sabancı University employees who want to communicate more easily and effectively with hearing impaired individuals between July 17 and August 21, 2024 at the Sabancı University campus.

Human Library: The Books That Read event, organized to create an environment of dialogue between the books that have previously participated in the Human Library event organized by Civic Involvement Projects, took place on July 3, 2024 at Sabancı University Altunizade Digital Campus. Gay mother, gay father, albino, search and rescue, cerebral palsy, tiny human and oncology mother participated in the event.

In the 2024 Spring Semester TOM@University Project, Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Faculty Member Süha Orhun Mutluergil shared the problems he encountered on campus and while teaching as a person with spinal cord paralysis with CIP 101 students. Within the project's scope, it was aimed at the students developing solutions to the problems encountered and producing a product in line with the feedback received. A portable organizer for his wheelchair was produced with the support of Sabancı University CoSpace and the carpentry shop during the design and production phase and delivered to Süha Orhun Mutluergil for his use.

Within the scope of May 10-16 Disability Week, Murat Kefeli, the founder of We Are Blind, one of the Sabancı Foundation 14th Season Changemakers and the winner of the Changemakers Program Sabancı University Special Award, and Meral Sözen from the We Are Blind team were the guests of the Civic Involvement Projects course on May 14, 2024. We Are Blind aims to ensure that blind people learn by "reading before they live" by sharing blind experiences and supporting independent blind lives. With this conversation, the students had an idea about Körüz Biz's website, its work, and voluntary support to We Are Blind They gained information that will raise awareness in communication with visually impaired people.

Expert Psychologist Begüm Kobanbay, a graduate of Sabancı University and former supervisor of CIP, gave training on Working with Children with Autism to CIP 101 students. The training covered autism and its symptoms, common misconceptions about autism, what to look for when working with children on the spectrum, and the use of reinforcers. A basic introduction to autism was completed to discover each child's unique interests and skills.

Within the scope of the TOM@University project, a Problem to Solution Workshop was held by CIP Overvisor Baran Gül for CIP 101 students on April 3, 2024. The workshop aimed for students to experience and internalize the maker mentality. In the first stage of the workshop, the problems that people with disabilities may experience were discussed. Afterward, the problems to be focused on were identified, and solutions were developed. The applicability of the solutions was evaluated, and more detailed modules were designed. After this process, the developmental aspects of the solutions were considered. Finally, it was planned how solution ideas could be developed in line with the feedback given to the solutions. 

An idea development workshop with Zülal Tannur, one of Sabancı Foundation's 14th Season Changemakers and founder of From Your Eyes, was held on December 20, 2023, as part of the TOM@University project. Zülal Tannur talked about the founding and work of From Your Eyes, which designs visual experiences for a wide spectrum of people and machines. The workshop provided information about how vision technologies work and discussed the steps to develop and implement an idea to solve a problem.

The TOM Ideathon event, which aims to produce solutions for the difficulties faced by visually impaired individuals when choosing clothes from their wardrobes, took place on November 8, 2023 at the Sabancı University campus. At the event, participants brainstormed and produced alternatives to solve a problem encountered in daily life. After the event, 3D Modeling trainings were also given to the participants in order to facilitate the implementation of the solutions produced.

The annual TOM Global Innovation Challenge is a competition among teams passionate about designing, engineering, and creating technological solutions. This competition contributes to TOM’s vision of creating affordable and open-source solutions, and by doing so, has the potential to help people with disabilities around the world. A team from Sabancı University also participated in the competition held in 2023. The team that developed an application called CODAssistant - (Communication Assistant for Deaf People), where hearing-impaired individuals can easily select their complaints when visiting the hospital, made it to the finals with this project they developed.

The Refugees Association provided “Living Together Training” to the MBA Program students of Sabancı Business School at Sultanbeyli Community Center on September 30, 2022. Within the scope of the training, information was given about the services offered at the Sultanbeyli Community Center. The legal regulations related to refugees in Turkey and the approach of verifying misinformation produced outside these legal regulations by showing the source and distinguishing between true and false information were shared. The training also included an interactive activity to enable participants to experience the role of another person in society and to reflect on concepts such as inequality, social exclusion, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes.

The TOM Build Party event took place at Ayvalık Küçükköy Sabancı University Creative Technologies Atelier between 5-7 July 2022. The event was attended by five volunteer students from Sabancı University and 15 students from Ayvalık Anatolian High School. In the event, a dice box, key holder, nail clippers, and violin prosthesis for those who do not have a hand or who cannot use their hands fully, and a walker for animals with disabilities were made using a 3D printer.