Istanbul Research Visit & ICETAI 2026 Keynote — Letter of Intent Signed
We are delighted to announce a major milestone in the KTBIX bilateral research initiative: Prof. Muhammad Syafrudin's official visit to Istanbul Technical University (ITU) as an invited keynote speaker at the 3rd International Conference on Emerging Trends and Applications in Artificial Intelligence (ICETAI 2026), held May 15–16, 2026. During this visit, both institutions formally signed the Letter of Intent (LOI) committing to the KTBIX joint proposal, satisfying a critical requirement for the NRF–TÜBİTAK joint funding call.
Keynote Address: Leveraging AI for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in the Digital Era
Prof. Syafrudin delivered the opening keynote at ICETAI 2026, chaired by Prof. Muhammet Tahir Güneşer (ITU). The presentation positioned battery State-of-Health estimation as a frontline application of inclusive and sustainable AI — demonstrating how physics-informed deep learning (PI-VIB-ResNet) can democratize reliable EV diagnostics across emerging EV markets in Korea and Türkiye, directly underpinning the KTBIX project's mission.
Conference Prestige & International Recognition
ICETAI 2026 is a peer-reviewed international conference with proceedings published by Springer and indexed in Scopus, one of the world's leading citation databases. This publication venue establishes the credibility and international standing of both PI institutions and validates their capacity to lead and organize recognized research events — a key credential for NRF–TÜBİTAK reviewers evaluating bilateral proposal leadership.
Laboratory Collaboration & EIS Standards Alignment
Beyond the keynote, Prof. Syafrudin engaged in detailed discussions with ITU's Electrical Engineering laboratory team, reviewing EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy) data acquisition protocols and measurement standards. This exchange directly informed the WP1 field data collection methodology and ensured consistency across the Korean and Turkish experimental pipelines.
Letter of Intent: Formal Institutional Commitment
On May 16, 2026 (final day of the conference), both institutions co-signed the Letter of Intent for the KTBIX project, formally committing to:
- Bilateral research governance: Joint steering committee with equal representation
- Data sharing & IP protocols: Clear framework for open industrial dataset curation and publication
- Milestone accountability: Aligned WP timelines and publication targets
- Resource commitment: Dedicated lab space, personnel, and computational infrastructure at both sites
The LOI is now included in the full KTBIX proposal package submitted to the NRF and TÜBİTAK, fulfilling their joint call requirement for institutional pre-endorsement before formal funding decision.
What This Means for KTBIX
This visit and the formal LOI signing represent a turning point in KTBIX's journey: