Selin Alara Örnek

Selin is 14-years-old and lives in Istanbul with her parents and dog Bailey. She is currently a student in the 9th grade at Irmak High School and can speak English, Turkish and French. When she was nine-years-old she learnt to code and started building robots by the age of 10. She is learning C++ and Python through online courses and has five robots; ic4u, ic4u2, BB4All, Hashmet the Android and DO. In 2018 Selin won first prize at Coolest Projects International in Dublin with her robot ic4u. The same year she (and ic4u) was also a finalist in the European Youth Awards Open Innovation category. She has recently won the 2019 European Digital Girl of the Year Award by the Ada Awards in Brussels and Microsoft Youth Tech Star Award in the 2020 Women Leaders in Technology Awards.

One action Selin would like you to do:

“When there is something to celebrate everyone is there to be a part of that success, however when there are challenges and failures people become judgmental and distant apart from a few. I wish people would be kinder with their actions at all times.”

You can follow Selina on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and subscribe to her blog.