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February 17, 2026- GTU Office of Press and Public Relations Under the coordination of Gebze Technical University’s Marmara Application and Research Center for Disaster-Resilient Structures (MARTEST), and conducted by the General Directorate of Construction Affairs of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, with the valuable financial and technical support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Gebze Technical University (GTU) participates in a comprehensive technical visit and training program held in Tokyo and its surrounding areas between February 6–15, 2026. The visit is organized within the scope of the “Planning Support Project for the Establishment of a Seismic Isolation Test Laboratory.”
The delegation included Prof. Bülent Akbaş, Prof. Selçuk Toprak, Assoc. Prof. Ahmet A. Dindar, and Asst. Prof. Ceren Özer-Sözdinler from the MARTEST team; Assoc. Prof. İbrahim Türkeri from the GTU Faculty of Architecture; and Bahadır Şadan, PhD, from the Turkish Association for Seismic Isolation and MEF University. The program was further strengthened in terms of public–university–international collaboration through the participation of Deputy Director General of Construction Affairs Dursun Uyar and other officials from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.
Throughout the program, the GTU delegation had the opportunity to examine Japan’s advanced engineering practices in seismic isolation, damping systems, and disaster-resilient structural design on site. Within this framework, technical meetings, site visits, training sessions, and workshops were held at various institutions, including JICA Tokyo, Institute of Science Tokyo, Hokkaido University, E-Defense (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience), Building Research Institute Japan, and E-Isolation (Japan Seismic Isolation Laboratory).
The delegation was accompanied by Prof. Akira Wada, widely recognized as one of the founding figures in the fields of seismic isolation and performance-based structural design in Japan, and Prof. Toru Takeuchi, a former doctoral student of Prof. Wada who is currently a prominent scholar in structural dynamics and seismic isolation systems.
As part of the program, technical presentations were delivered by Prof. Shoichi Kishiki from the Institute of Science Tokyo; Deputy Director Kentaro Tabata of E-Defense; Masaru Kikuchi from Hokkaido University; Namihiko Inoue from the Building Research Institute Japan; officials from the Housing Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Dr. Noburo Murota from Bridgestone; and Dr. Mineo Takayama from Fukuoka University. The presentations addressed seismic isolation technologies, damping systems, large-scale testing infrastructures, certification processes, and field applications.
During the visit, the technical and scientific roadmap for the Seismic Isolation Test Laboratory planned to be established in Türkiye was evaluated together with Japanese experts. The project is expected to make significant contributions to the widespread adoption of seismic isolation technologies in Türkiye, the enhancement of engineering capacity, and the strengthening of the scientific infrastructure aimed at reducing disaster risks.
Through these efforts carried out under the coordination of MARTEST and in cooperation with the Ministry, Gebze Technical University aims to contribute to the development of national capacity in disaster-resilient construction and to strengthen and sustain international scientific collaborations. |
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