Istanbul, Türkiye — Learning artificial intelligence often begins with code: how to work with data, build a model and interpret its output. But for this year’s Samsung Innovation Campus AI graduates in Türkiye, learning new technology also changed what they noticed about the world around them.

What environmental cost is hidden behind everyday social media use? Why does life expectancy vary so widely between countries? How is fossil fuel use shaping global carbon emissions? And why do some schools still lack reliable access to electricity?

The students took part in the same AI program, yet the problems they chose to explore were very different. What connected them was a shared shift: new skills had given them new ways to look at the world around them.

Samsung Electronics Türkiye runs Samsung Innovation Campus in partnership with UNDP Türkiye. This year, an AI class was offered at Yıldız Technical University in collaboration with Sektör Kampüste, part of the National Technology Academy led by Türkiye’s Ministry of Industry and Technology.

From Learning New Skills to Asking New Questions

The students were not simply given a problem and told which technology to use. Over 15 weeks, they explored how emerging technologies can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, developed their own project ideas and learned how to collect, prepare and analyze data.

As the course progressed, they worked with tools and approaches including GIS, machine learning, natural language processing, cloud deployment and deep learning. Supported by mentors from Samsung Electronics Türkiye and UNDP Türkiye, each team turned an initial question into an AI project they could test, refine and present.

Along the way, technology became more than a subject to study. It became a way to investigate questions that had previously seemed distant, abstract or easy to overlook.

The result was four very different projects and four different ways of looking more closely at the world.

Four Questions That Became Projects

• Cihan Özsoy, Ahmet Emir Cengiz and Begüm Erdoğan turned their attention to something millions of people do every day: using social media. The team built an AI model to examine the digital water footprint associated with everyday social media use, seeking to make the environmental impact of digital habits more measurable and visible.
• Kübra Tuğçe Kızılboğa, Feyza Nur Aydınoğlu and Regaip Tanberk Ay asked why people in some countries live longer than others. By analyzing data from across Europe and Asia, they explored how healthcare investment, education, access to clean water and digital infrastructure relate to life expectancy.
• Emre Başoğlu and Barkın Atmaca used 20 years of data from 176 countries to develop an AI model for forecasting global carbon emissions, examining the relationship between fossil fuel use and emissions.
• Faruk Kılınç, Fatmagül Kaya and Roza Maiko Akın focused on electricity access in schools. Using AI, they explored how energy access, socioeconomic conditions and educational infrastructure are connected, making disparities between countries more visible through data.

The projects addressed very different issues, but they shared the same starting point. Each team had identified a question it considered worth understanding and used what it had learned to explore that question more closely.

The teams presented their projects at the program’s final event, where their work was evaluated by a panel of academic experts and outstanding projects were recognized.

The event also featured Discover the Superpower Within with Artificial Intelligence, a session with artist Beyza Doğuç and Oğuz Ergen, a UNDP Samsung Generation17 Young Leader and environmental and climate activist. Together with the students, they explored the connections between AI, creativity and social impact.

The final presentations marked the end of the course. But they also showed how far the students had come. They had not only learned how AI works; they had experienced what it means to turn a problem into a question, investigate it with data and begin working toward an answer.

What Comes Next

These four projects are early steps, not finished answers to issues such as the environmental impact of digital life, global carbon emissions or inequality in education. What stands out is the shift in the students themselves.

The interest that began with “I want to learn AI” had become a more active question. “Could I use AI to understand this problem?” Perhaps that is one of the most important changes learning can make.

Samsung Innovation Campus has been running in Türkiye since 2019. Over the past six years, the program has received more than 25,000 applications from students at 200 universities nationwide, and more than 90% of its graduates have gone on to find employment.

For this year’s four teams, the end of the program also marks a new beginning. They may continue exploring the questions they started with or discover entirely new ones. Where those questions will lead them and what they will choose to build next is still theirs to decide. What has changed is how they see the problems around them. Not simply as things to observe, but as questions they can investigate and act on.

Samsung Innovation Campus will continue to support more young people as they learn, ask questions and find their own ways forward.



About Samsung Innovation Campus
Samsung Innovation Campus is a global education program that helps youth build advanced IT skills and practical capabilities to unlock better opportunities. Through structured courses that cover topics like AI, big data, and IoT, as well as hands-on training and expert mentoring, participants gain the tools to thrive in the digital era. Tailored programs are available for underrepresented groups including women and girls, and people with disabilities, to expand access to IT education. Graduates pursue various career paths including IT employment, tech-driven startups, and social impact initiatives.
To learn more, visit https://csr.samsung.com/en/program/samsung-innovation-campus