Bilişim Vadisi, Turkey’s leading technology and innovation hub, hosted the Turkish Natural Language Processing (TDDI) Competition as part of TEKNOFEST, the world’s largest aerospace and technology festival. Now in its 5th year, the competition aims to enhance the knowledge, skills, and competencies of young people in the field of artificial intelligence.

Supporting Turkish Youth in Artificial Intelligence

Organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the T3 Foundation, the competition is designed to support Turkish youth in the field of artificial intelligence. The event aims to contribute to the development of user-friendly and high-performance libraries and datasets for processing Turkish texts.

Purpose and Scope of the Competition

The Turkish Natural Language Processing Competition aims to create an ecosystem by increasing the number of open-source ideas and products in the field. Held on August 8-9, the event showcased innovative ideas and projects in Turkish natural language processing. The competition, conducted in two categories—”Open” and “Natural Language Processing Scenario”—encouraged participants to push the boundaries of technology.

Intense Competition and Major Prizes

The competition attracted 313 teams and 887 participants. Among the finalists, 163 teams and 531 competitors engaged in fierce rivalry. Throughout the competition, 17 mentors and 15 jury members provided guidance to the participants. In the end, the winners in both categories received 100,000 TL for first place, 80,000 TL for second place, and 60,000 TL for third place.

Highlighted Speeches of the Event

In his closing speech, Bilişim Vadisi General Manager Erkam Tüzgen emphasized the significance of the competition and mentioned their efforts to spread the culture of technology development in Turkey. Turkish Language Association President Prof. Dr. Osman Mert expressed his optimism about the youth’s projects and highlighted the importance of the Turkish language.

A Promising Competition for the Future

T3 Foundation Board Chair Elvan Kuzucu Hıdır highlighted the significance of this year’s in-person competition, noting that such opportunities for young people to develop themselves were not available in the past. She emphasized that the competition is organized within the framework of the 2021-2025 National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, with the goal of creating international brands in the field of Turkish natural language processing.