With 3 Co-Op Terms Abroad, Major Student of Mathematics and Double Major Student of Computer Engineering Bahadır Çolak Shares Cooperative Education Experiences

I enrolled in the Department of Mathematics at TOBB University of Economics and Technology in 2013. The main reasons why I chose TOBB were the cooperative education opportunities in prominent companies and institutions both in Turkey and abroad as well as the double major privilege it offered.

I started a double major program at the Department of Computer Engineering in 2015.

  TUR&BO (Turkish Research and Business Organizations), Brussels, Belgium

I went to Brussels, capital of Belgium, in 2016 to spend my first cooperative education term. In this city where I went as part of Erasmus+ Mobility for Traineeship, I had the chance to work at TUR&BO’da (Turkish Research & Business Organizations) for 90 days. This co-op term enabled me to see the working conditions abroad while also improving my English skills.  Although it was only my sophomore year, I was able to speed up the works at the company through the codes I wrote.  I was highly involved in research and development during this period.

 Technical University of Berlin German Turkish Advanced Research Center for ICT, Berlin, Germany

Right after returning from Brussels, I immediately started the procedures for a second Erasmus traineeship with the support of my professors at Computer Engineering, and I had the opportunity to have my second co-op term at the cyber security unit of GT-ARC (German Turkish Advanced Research Center for ICT), a company within Technische Universität Berlin (Technical University of Berlin). Here I participated in studies on monitoring and detecting cyber attacks on computers on a network. Thus I found the chance to put my classroom learning into practice.

Whalebone, Brno, Czech Republic

After returning from Berlin, I decided to have my last co-op term abroad as well. I was accepted by many companies I had applied for. I decided on a company called Whalebone located in Brno, the second largest city in Czech Republic, for my last cooperative education. I am still continuing my cooperative education in Brno, working on Big Data and Network Security.

Co-op terms I have had under Erasmus+ Mobility for Traineeship, highly contributed to my personal development. I have improved my English level, met new people and cultures, made new friends and discovered new countries and flavors. Thanks to these co-op terms, I have had the opportunity to see 17 countries in Europe and I have learned a lot about work life. I am thankful to my school and its cooperative education program for providing me these opportunities.