Turkish student receives orders for self-made drone

Nuran Çakmakçı – ISTANBUL

Metehan Emlik, a Turkish university student, has received 10,000 orders from New Zealand and 5,000 in Turkey for a drone he developed himself for educational purposes. 

He has also been promised financial help for the purchase of the drone equipment from Özyeğin University in Istanbul, where he attends school. The university’s chairman Hüsnü Özyeğin will provide capital for Emlik’s potential start-up business and to form a partnership with his company. 

Currently, a third year student in the electrical and electronic engineering department, Emlik works in an area privately allocated for him to develop drones on the university’s campus. 

“I have worked to develop a drone for educational use. This drone will be very helpful for kids, because if kids learn about programming one early on, they can do bigger things in the future,” Emlik told daily Hürriyet. 

“A lab in New Zealand wants to use my products for STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math], a robotic education platform. They have made an order for 10,000 units. I am about to give them an offer. An institution that wants to educate children on programming in [the Turkish western province of] Sakarya has placed an order for 5,000 drones,” he said. 

“I needed money to go into mass production. Özyeğin, who has heard about my success, will support me as an angel investor. He will be my investor and partner. I want to work on anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems. I aim to develop products for our national defense,” said Emlik. 

According to him, his parents had not studied further than elementary school and initially had not supported his scientific endeavours. “Do not get involved with idle things. Study instead,” they reportedly told him. 

Over the summers in his childhood years, Emlik used to work in construction, working for 10 Turkish Liras (around $2.6) a day and saving up money to buy supplies to make drones.