Although during the last decade, Turkey has risen to the 17th strongest economic power of the world a lot of disparities in the country remain with the western part of the GAP region (Southeastern Anatolia Project) being the second poorest region.
The main purpose of this project is to strengthen the cooperation between the private sector and higher education institutions in order to increase the capabilities of the regional workforce and improve the overall attractiveness of the western part of the GAP region (Southeastern Anatolia Project). This project is part of the strategic initiative of Harran University (HU) to establish a Center for Virtual Reality in cooperation with stakeholders from the university, private sector and several governmental organizations. During this project the opportunities of this technology in the different vertical sectors will be shown and the necessary training requirements elaborated in detail.
HU consisting of 13 faculties with more than 1000 teaching staff and 23 000 students will cooperate with Germany's OTTO-VON-GUERICKE-UNIVERSITAET MAGDEBURG in cooperation with Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation and the private company Visionair3D (Netherlands). The latter two institutions will provide knowledge transfer in the fields of Virtual Reality and advanced visualization systems.
Activities to be carried out during this project consists of knowledge transfer by means of site-visits and an international congress, development of curricula based on the outcome of  workshops for determination of research and training needs and the implementation of a train-the trainer program. The methodology to be used in this project will be based on PMI's “Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)”. Project management will be carried out by HU's Project Management Office (PMO)
As a local impact, new teaching and research capabilities of HU in the field of VR will be created. It will facilitate to establish a Center for VR and thus, will attract more scientific staff and students from Turkey to this University. Urban planning at the Metropolitan City of Sanliurfa and other municipalities will be enhanced and the attractiveness of this city will be increased.  As a regional impact, the usage of VR in the private and governmental sector will become better known. In the long term, this will contribute to the creation of new job opportunities in the ICT sector especially, for the younger people. Urban planning in all municipalities of the region will be enhanced.
This project is funded under the European Union’s ERASMUS+ KA203 program, which is implemented by the National Agency of Turkey.
 

News

1. Workshop of "Virtual Reality Collaboration Project"
On 7.12.2017, the opening ceremony and 1. Workshop of the "Virtual Reality Collaboration Project" were hold at the Conference Hall of Şanlıurfa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ŞUTSO).
2. Workshop of "Virtual Reality Collaboration Project"