Prof. Dr. Hasan Umur AKAY

Automotive Engineering deals with the problems and the needs of the automotive and the related industries. Additionally, the vehicles and machinery used for transport, agriculture, construction and defense are within the scope of interest of automotive engineering. The design of such vehicles, the integration of parts manufactured by related industries, the preservation of the environment and safety are major areas of interest of automotive engineers.

Automotive engineers are interested in research, design and development of automotive requirements and their implementations. The Department of Automotive Engineering at Atilim University was established with the vision of providing undergraduate education to students on the fundamentals and applications of automotive engineering, research on advanced technology and technology transfer. Forming cooperation with industry to produce correct, feasible and economic solutions to the emerging engineering and management problems of the industry are among the main goals of the department.

From their freshman year onward, our students are given a design oriented education which is reinforced by a “Design Project” that they implement during their senior year. Currently our final design project is a Formula type racing car which has a top speed of 200 km/h and has been entering an international competition on a formula race track for the past four years. We intend to develop this project with improved designs every year. We won the third prize in 2016 at New Hampshire, USA.

The automotive sector and its close relations with other industries create a large spectrum of job opportunities. According to the data from 2015, there are fifteen companies in Turkey that produce vehicles and many small companies that manufacture parts for them. On the other hand major industries such as mechanical manufacturing, steel, petro-chemical, rubber, glass, electrical and electronics are directly related to the automotive industry. As a result of increasing amount of investments, armored vehicles are being produced for both domestic and foreign markets. Automotive engineers will find a large variety of job opportunities in both private and government companies.