Dila Ö.

Hi, I’m Dila! I was born in the İnebolu district of Kastamonu and moved to Istanbul for high school. When I started high school, I realized that I was interested in robotics, especially electronic circuits. This interest probably stemmed from my obsession with Nikola Tesla. That’s why I’ve been interested in FRC (robotics competition) since my preparatory year. I started as an electronic team member and have been the team captain since 2021. This year, I gave a lecture on gender equality in robotics to more than 150 students.

I’m also the founder of STEM GIRLS, an organization dedicated to developing girls in STEM fields. As an organization, we organized many activities such as education and donations of books and clothes to refugee students this year. I was selected as one of the 32 high school students among thousands of applicants for the YGA GIH program and provided STEAM education to visually impaired students all over Anatolia. On Jorge, my own free audiobook website, I upload books that visually impaired students can’t find for free on the internet, aiming to increase their interest in literature.

I also organize my book club event every Saturday with my visually impaired students. With this project, I became one of the 100 students who won the Rise Challenge this year and was featured in Forbes magazine. Additionally, I received a $500,000 funding boost for my project from Erich Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, for this success. Apart from these activities, I love writing, debates, and playing tennis. I’m also a big fan of Stephen King, Agatha Christie, and Douglas Adams. Currently, I’m a first-year student at Johns Hopkins University in the computer science department and I’m interested in developing technologies for the visually impaired people.