Vertically Integrated Project #1 in Turkiye

VIP200 – 2024 Spring, VIP300 – 2024 Fall, VIP400 – 2025 Spring at TED University, Ankara

Team: Dr. Aras Alkış, Ecem Ertaç, Berk Kaya, Zehra Mandacıoğlu, Onur Turan, Zeynep Yumuşak

External affiliate: Barlas Hunalp

Project Description

Progress in SDGs may offer firms a competitive advantage through market differentiation and value generation. This research initiative, “The Impact of Sustainable Development Goals on Brand Value” desires to uncover insights about systematic correlations between progress in SDG impact of firms and brand value. The project will collect primary and secondary data from firms in major industrial parks (“organize sanayi bölgesi”) and technoparks (“teknokent”) to measure brand value and progress in SDG impact. This research project will span 

1 to 2 years with targeted milestones at the end of each semester. Learners who are curious by nature and have a high level of willingness to learn about the scientific method and business practices of firms have joined VIP200 in Spring 2024. This research study is aimed to offer a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience in analytical thinking, data collection, and analysis, as well as applying marketing knowledge. 

About Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP)

“The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program is a transformative approach to enhancing higher education by engaging undergraduate and graduate students in ambitious, long-term, large-scale, multidisciplinary project teams that are led by faculty. The program has been rigorously evaluated and refined over more than two decades.” (https://www.vip.gatech.edu/vip-vertically-integrated-projects-program, Retrieved on 30.03.2024)

“VIP teams function much like small start-up companies. While students develop and apply skills from their disciplines, they also develop and apply professional skills, important to team functioning and valued in the workplace. In VIP, students and faculty engage in projects that are of mutual interest, which is key to the success and scalability of VIP programs. Faculty stay actively engaged because teams help advance their scholarship and research and support the work of their graduate students. Students select projects that align with their personal interests. The single most influential factor that predicts student success on a VIP team is the student’s enthusiasm for the project.” (https://www.vip-consortium.org/content/vip-model, Retrieved on 30.03.2024)

“VIP is an award-winning educational construct developed at Georgia Tech & Purdue University and refined for over 25 years. In a Vertically Integrated Project, teams of undergraduate students collaborate with faculty and their graduate students on ambitious, long-term projects of mutual interest.

VIP programs are now active in over 40 universities with 4,500+ students participating per term around the globe. The VIP Consortium’s mission is to help educational institutions start and sustain successful VIP programs that accelerate the pace of innovation, boost graduation rates, reduce inequities in undergraduate experiential learning, and better prepare students to be members and leaders of tomorrow’s collaborative, cross functional workforce – one VIP project at a time” (https://www.vip-consortium.org, Retrieved on 30.03.2024)

Examples of VIP