These days, when artificial intelligence is still on the agenda, the TASSA conference was held in America, focusing on artificial intelligence. This year, the conference with the theme "Building Bridges in Innovation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: International Impact Between the USA and Turkey" was organized by the Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association 2026 (TASSA), the Turkish-American Scientists and Academics Association, and took place at the Sancar Turkish Culture and Society Center in North Carolina between October 2 and 4 this year, and hosted dozens of scientists and academicians. Academicians and students working in different positions in the USA and Turkey took part in the event. The main topic of the event, which also included business people and entrepreneurs, was artificial intelligence.
In addition to the transformative possibilities of artificial intelligence, its effects in fields such as science, engineering, health, education and entrepreneurship were discussed at the conference.
TASSA 2026 will be held on October 2, with participants at the University of North Carolina (UNC), including Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar and Prof. Dr. It started with Ayşenil Belger's visit to various institutes, including their laboratories.
On the first day of the conference, on October 3, early in the morning, TASSA President Prof. Dr. Ercan Alp and co-organizers of the conference, Prof. from Drexel University. Dr. Hasan Ayaz and MIT Media Lab faculty member Assoc. Dr. It started with the speeches of Canan Dağdeviren.
Then 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar gave his speech titled "Science Without Borders: Discovery, perseverance and global responsibility".
While the event continued with poster presentations, a panel titled Reverse Brain Drain, Diaspora Effect and Türkiye-US Innovation Bridge was held. While the concepts of reverse brain drain and "brain circulation" are discussed here, Turkish academician and engineer and METU rector Ahmet Yozgatlıgil, Özyeğin University Rector and Industrial Engineering and Operations Management faculty member Barış Tan, Istanbul Technical University rector Hasan Mandal, Metin Sitti, Professor in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich and Koç University Faculty of Medicine and Engineering College, physicist and scientist Meryem Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz, NASA's Glenn Senior scientist Dr., who worked at the research center for 43 years. They shared their ideas under the moderation of Süleyman Gökoğlu.
Among the speakers in the later hours of the conference were researchers and scientists such as Ali Çınar, Leyla Topçu Sarıca, Alp Sungu, Nesime Tatbul.
The panel titled "The future of artificial intelligence: From basic models to impacts in industry, science and medicine" was held. Professor, who heads the MIT Department of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science. Dr. Asuman Özdağlar, Chancellor Professor and Volgenau Chair of Engineering Innovation at UCLA. Aydoğan Özcan, Turing CTO, former Microsoft AI Frontiers laboratory director Dr. Ece Kamar and moderator Prof. Dr. The issue was discussed in the presence of Haluk Ünal.
One of the notable topics of the conference was titled "Embodied Intelligence: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in the Physical World". Here, Prof from Northeastern University. Taşkın Padır, Prof. Dr. Metin Sitti and Dr. Lecturer The moderator of the panel, which was held with member Murat Yıldırım (MIT), was Candan Tamerler, Deputy Director of the Bioengineering Program from the University of Kansas.
In the organization, scientist Canan Dağdeviren sang the folk song Kara Toprak in the commemoration section of Aşık Veysel.
The event, which continued at full speed on October 4, was opened with the speech of TASSA President Ercan Alp. Then, the speech titled "From establishment to exit: Lessons learned from the experiences of Kenan Systems, TAX and CAMX Power" took place. Kenan Şahin, a scientist and entrepreneur, is the founder, president and chief technology officer of TIAX LLC in Lexington, Massachusetts, and also serves as the founder and CEO of CAMX Power. Following Şahin's speech, a panel titled "Technology Translation: From Laboratory to Market" was held.
Later on the second day of the conference; The topics "Science, philanthropy and society: Mobilizing the Turkish-American diaspora to make an impact" and "Immigration processes for scientists and academics: Visas, permits and paths to follow in the USA and Türkiye" were discussed.
Within the scope of this event; professionals, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and community members gathered for networking, learning, collaboration and career development opportunities.
