Teaching

Since 2010, teaching has been an important element of my academic life, and research has often played a central role in my teaching. Design studio courses often form the backbone of the industrial design curriculum. My studio classes at Kadir Has University were both a platform for students to learn through design research and practice, and an opportunity to explore contemporary design issues.

As such, studio courses i have instructed range from traditional product design and development processes to conceptual designs. In line with my research area, I have often shaped design studios under the themes of sustainability.

Design Studio Courses and Graduation Projects

Semester long design project involving user research, design and development of products and services.

Design studios with sustainablity themes

• Design for Slow Cities 1 - Seferihisar (2011) Graduation Project: Sustainable transportation solutions aiming to support locals in their daily tasks. The graduation project has also inspired me and my colleague Cinar Narter for a paper presented at the Green Age Symposium.

• Design for Slow Cities 2- Taraklı (2012) Graduation Project : Examining endonegous development opportunities the town and designing product service systems for fostering sustainablity.
• Design for Personal and Public Health (2013) Design Studio V: In cooperation with Basaksehir LivingLab, product and service designs aiming to improve public and personal health.
• Plants in near future urban life (2014) Design Studio II: Near future scenarios based on enhanced use of plants as a part of product design aiming to improve life quality and overcome future enviropnemental problems in urban such as lack of clean air, drinkable water and fresh food etc.
• Design for Refugees (2016) Design Studio IV - V: In coperation with an Istanbul based NGO “Small Projects Istanbul”, the project brief focused on examination of problems of Syrian refugees and obstacles encountered at the NGO’s services; and delivering product designs.
• Frugal Innovation: Design for K-12 Level Educaiton – Product Design Studio IV (2017)
• Urban Food Cycle with a Circular Design Perspective (2018)

Industrial partnerships

• Design of Upright Water Filter Vacuum Cleaner for Sinbo (Graduation Project)
• Stapler Gun Design for Furniture Industry
• Viko - Extention Cable Design

Undergraduate Courses

• Design Research: Introducing constructive design research methods.
• Systems Thinking: Introducing systems thinking and analysis tools to design students.
• Sustainability in Industrial Design: Introduction to sustainability issues and sustainable design tools and methods.
• Strategic Design: Design of Product Service Systems aiming urban interventions.
• Design Innovation and Product Strategies: Innovation theory, company strategies and design innovation process.
• Marketing for Industrial Designers: Fundamentals of marketing notions for industrial designers
• Principles and Processes of Industrial Design: Various Approaches of Industrial Design Process, tools and techniques
• Materials and Manufacturing Techniques: Introduction to materials and manufacturing techniques, use of material selection tools.

Graduate Courses

• Design for Social Innovation: The course aims to support students with necessary tools for the development of new and innovative solutions for unmet social needs by linking academic practice to market realities and available resources. The course uses both literature and cases investigates interwoven notions of social entrepreneurship, social innovation and design so that students develop an in-depth understanding of the interaction between theory and practice. Another purpose of the course is students to develop an academic article and/or tangible or intangible outcomes involving or representing their proposal.
• Design and Society: The course introduces the main challenges and obstacles of today’s social issues through and their relations with the act of design. The objective of the course is to gain a general understanding of the roles and responsibilities of design in societal issues.