While our department has its own research-oriented laboratories and one research-dedicated building, our faculty members and research assistants carry out various studies and projects with partner research centers at or in association with METU:
ARC
Ayaslı Research Center at METU Electrical & Electronics Engineering Dept.
The building of Ayaslı Research Center (ARC) is donated by Dr. Yalçın and Serpil Ayaslı, alumni (EE ’68 and EE ’73) and previous faculty member of the METU Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. The 3,400 m2 ARC building was designed by late Behruz Çinici and it houses 19 research labs, 2 clean rooms, an ‘anechoic room’, and an ‘antenna tower’, as well as seminar and meeting rooms and reading areas.
A pioneering and significant example of energy sensitive building in Turkey, the ARC building supplies its own energy from the photovoltaic panels placed on its roof that forms the south facade and from the flexible (membrane) photovoltaic system used for the first time in Turkey. The system which constantly monitors and records solar energy production by the two photovoltaic systems, and the building’s energy consumption will serve the experimental and research purposes of the ARC.
OGAM
METU Center for Image Analysis
Due to the enormous increase of visual data, automatic inspection of this data by computers is extremely necessary. Increase in visual sensors in systems in both civilian and military applications, consumer products with visual data generation capability, as well as sharing such data through internet makes automatic analyis is inevitable.
METU Center for Image Analysis (OGAM) was founded on 14 August 2014 by the mission of fostering interdisciplinary research between researchers in the field of image analysis at various departments, institutes and faculties of the university and giving support to project proposals as well as ongoing projects by full-time dedicated researchers in this center.
MEMS
MicroElectroMechanical Systems Research Center
MEMS activities at METU have been started in 1995 within Electrical and Electronics Eng. Dept., and since then, a number of research projects have been conducted that are supported by various national and international institutions, including TUBITAK, State Planning Organization (DPT), MSB Ar-Ge, SSM, European Union 6th and 7th Framework Programmes, NATO SfS Programme, NSF, TOFAS, and Intel.
As a result, a considerable amount of knowledge and experience has been gained, and the first MEMS center is established in Turkey in 2008, which is called METU-MEMS Center. In METU-MEMS Center, a wide-variety of microsensors and components has been and is being developed, including low-cost CMOS infrared detectors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, DNA analysis systems, biosensors, micro power generators, chip cooling systems, acoustic sensors, humidity sensors, temperature sensors, frost sensors, piezoresistive and capacitive pressure sensors, and various RF MEMS components. Some of the developed prototypes show compatible performances to the best examples in the world, and efforts to commercialize these microsensors and microsystems are currently continuing.
GÜNAM
Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications
GÜNAM is the leading and most comprehensive national center in the development of solar energy technologies including photovoltaic, concentrating solar thermal, and cross-cutting technologies such as high performance buildings, smart grids, and smart cities with a mission to be a global player in this field. With this vision and perspective, GÜNAM’s infrastructure and human capital has been expanding in recent years. New facilities such as Crystalline Si Photovoltaic Pilot Line establishment has been constructed in a new and separate building. GÜNAM is well integrated to European Union through projects such as EU-SOLARIS and CHEETAH and through institutions such as EERA (European Energy Research Alliance) and EUPVTP (European Photovoltaic Technology Platform). At national level, GÜNAM is working with many research institutes and universities all over from Turkey, a well as public and private sector institutions. GÜNAM has already been recognized nation-wide through a series of new collaborations, already running projects and national networks.
RÜZGEM
Center for Wind Energy Research
“METU Center for Wind Energy – METUWind” is established in 28 February 2011. The center is funded through a three-year multi-million dollar project provided by the State Planning Agency of Turkey (The Ministry of Development). Potential areas of research include rotor blade aerodynamic and structural design and optimization, unsteady rotor aerodynamics, integrated design of wind turbine systems, wind farm design and optimization, topographical analysis and micrositing, energy storage, power electronics and smart grid systems, innovative control techniques and adaptive control, smart structures, composites (thermoplastics), mechanics of composite materials, material characterization, damage mechanics, structural optimization, structural dynamics and aeroelasticity, innovative manufacturing techniques for composite blades, tower and foundation design, architectural integration.
ENDAM
Energy Materials and Storage Devices Research Center
The Center was formed on March 11, 2018, in a period exceeding two years and as a result of negotiations with stakeholder organizations. ENDAM focuses on the development and production of new generation anode and cathode active materials and electrolytes for all types of batteries and supercapacitors, mainly chargeable (secondary) batteries, in a manner that encompasses energy materials and storage devices in general.
MODSİMMER
TAF Modeling and Simulation R&D Center
Modeling and Simulation Center (MODSIMMER), founded under the cooperation of Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Undersecretariat for Defense Industries in 1998, brings experts and academics from various disciplines together with the aim of developing products and technologies in the Modeling and Simulation area of critical importance. In this scope, representatives from public and private foundations working in this area are provided with informative seminars and chance to use hardware and software laboratories that are hard to obtain in financial terms. Furthermore, MODSIMMER is the lead organizer of the first national conference in the area: National Defense Applications Modeling and Simulation Conference.