Özyeğin University Student Wins First Place in Türkiye at IEEEXtreme

Özyeğin University students achieved outstanding success at the 19th annual IEEEXtreme programming competition, organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), earning distinction both nationally and internationally.

Held on October 25, 2025, the competition brought together more than 9,000 teams worldwide, including 110 teams from Türkiye. Özyeğin University was represented by eight teams. Over the course of 24 hours, participants tackled programming challenges of varying complexity, demonstrating advanced algorithmic thinking and problem-solving skills. Özyeğin University students delivered particularly notable results in this highly competitive environment.

Turgay Bulut, a graduate of the Undergraduate Computer Science Program and a current student in the Thesis Master’s Program in Artificial Intelligence, competed individually and ranked first in Türkiye, placing 106th globally. A team composed of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Computer Science students Emir Tarık Arıcı, Nurkan Fatih Altunel, and Hüseyin Acemli achieved fifth place in Türkiye and ranked 247th worldwide. Kaan Büyükkıvanç, a Civil Engineering graduate and a current student in the Civil Engineering Master’s program (with Thesis), achieved the success of ranking 22nd in Turkey and 741st globally. With the support of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr. Hamza Makhamreh from the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department served as proctor for the teams throughout the competition. Altay Ege Gülkıran, a member and former president of the IEEE Özyeğin University Student Branch, and Göktürk Poyrazoğlu, Chair of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department and advisor to the IEEE Student Branch, also contributed to the smooth execution of the event.

At Özyeğin University, we regard our students’ achievements in such a competitive and prestigious international competition as a source of great pride. These results reflect not only their excellence in problem-solving, algorithmic thinking, teamwork, and resilience but also the University’s strong commitment to hands-on, experiential engineering education.

The accomplishments achieved at the 19th IEEEXtreme competition further demonstrate the potential of Özyeğin University students to excel in software development and to play a leading role in the global engineering ecosystem.