Selin, passionate about robotics and AI, Turkey

I strongly believe in using AI and technology for good to make the world a better place and keep all living things’ life easier.

Hi, I’m Selin. I’m from Istanbul, Turkey. I’m 16 years old.

So it actually all started with my dog Korsan. He was, like, the best dog. The reason I love animals this much. When he died, I was really sad, and I decided I wanted to bring him back to life, and I thought about how I could do it, and then I thought about, like, doing a robot version of him. So I did a fast drawing of him, and at the time, I was also doing a math project, and I had to interview my dad’s mechanical engineer friend, and then at the end of the interview, I showed him the drawing. He told me I had to learn coding.

With, like, Coolest Projects, I found a reason and, like, motivation to do my projects, and that was IC4U. IC4U is a robot guide dog for blind people. When I heard I won, I was like, "Me?" I wasn’t like, "Me." So I didn’t believe it, but it was, like, amazing. And then when I returned back, I immediately started working for next year’s Coolest Projects.

It has shaped my life a little bit. Like, I really do enjoy working on coding. I think it made me aware of my surroundings, but, like, more deeply.

There was one week for my exams and my mom texted me saying, "Can you call me urgently?" And she said, "We’re going to Portugal next week." And I’m like, "I have exams, why are we going?" And then she told me I was nominated for the Most Aspiring Teen Award. I was really surprised at that moment. And, like, then, last year I was accepted into the Stanford AI4ALL summer camp, and my team and I worked on faster and more accurate prediction of the lung cancer. Something like a little bit of code can, like, detect an object and stop a blind person from crashing into something dangerous. Or to, like, see a little code piece predicting a dangerous situation like cancer.

I do hope people and AI work together in the future to make the world a better place. So I hope I will be a role model, and I actually know it’s hard to start at first, but, like, interests are gender-free. But to just, like, start, be curious and courageous, and, like, never let setbacks stop you so you can actually accomplish, like, your dream and to follow it and to never give up.