{"id":239,"date":"2026-02-04T10:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/?p=239"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:49:19","slug":"wnbiponwednesdays-idil-igde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/2026\/02\/04\/wnbiponwednesdays-idil-igde\/","title":{"rendered":"#WNBiPonWednesdays: Idil Igde"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back with #WNBiPonWednesdays! For this post, we interviewed Idil, a second year physics undergraduate who won the 2025 Imperial FoNS-MAD innovation competition, securing \u00a37,000 in funding and founding D-View. Thank you for speaking with us Idil!<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"273\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-240 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/files\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-02-at-9.21.51-pm-300x273.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">Can you talk about your experience participating in FoNS-MAD competition, and founding D-View?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body\"><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">It was a very unique experience &#8211; I would definitely recommend it! The competition team was <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">very supportive<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> from the moment that we&#8217;ve applied and there are lots of opportunities, like getting a <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">lab space, funding, and an advisor<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body\"><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">What we&#8217;re trying to have at the end is a <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">micro seismic event detector<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> that&#8217;s based on AI, so that it can be deployed in earthquake search and rescue. The motivation is from the <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">. We&#8217;re both Turkish students, so it&#8217;s a very personal idea that&#8217;s close to our hearts, and receiving such support as two Turkish students in our first year at the university meant a lot for us. And after winning, thanks to the publicity we got from different social platforms, we were contacted by <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">venture capitals and different investors<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> about our product!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">How can you see D-View evolving beyond the competition?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body\"><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">In addition to being contacted about funding from investors, we&#8217;re also considering <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">different accelerator programs<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> to take D-View to next stage. We&#8217;re actually also in contact with <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">Turkish official governments<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> to get this product on the market as soon as possible, so it can be used in an earthquake that&#8217;s definitely going to happen in a few years in Istanbul.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body\"><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">D-View actually stands for <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">Drone View<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> &#8211; so at the end, we want to have the system integrated on a drone so it can operate <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">autonomously<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">, without a technician. And we want to have a product that can be used in <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">different scenarios<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">, other than earthquake searches and rescues later on as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">What have you done to develop your interest in physics, outside of the course?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body\"><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">Towards the end of last summer, I participated in a <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">stellar evolution research group<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> to look into supermassive stars and their existence. I got in contact with a <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">PhD student from the University of Chicago<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> who\u2019s now working at Harvard, and he was looking for people to join in. We used a very old programming language and <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">computer simulations<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> to see how different generation stars behave through long periods of time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body\"><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">I also like to read about physics in my free time as well! Specifically, about how physics is <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">connected to different disciplines<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> like art or philosophy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">What do you do in your free time, apart from physics?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">Currently, I\u2019m not in any societies since D-View was taking up a lot of my time. But my way of dealing with academic stress is <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">music<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">. I like to play instruments &#8211; I play the piano whenever I have free time. I\u2019ll usually book a music room in the <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">Blyth Center for Music<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> at Imperial, and just go there learn a few new pieces. I actually started taking classes on <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">violin<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> as well, so I&#8217;m learning violin right now. I think it&#8217;s really helpful in terms of <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">emotional discharge<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">What advice would you give to your younger self?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">I think I would tell her to <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">pursue her passions <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">regardless of what other people are saying. When I was applying for physics, I had a lot of people coming up and telling me that I wouldn\u2019t be able to thrive in physics because I&#8217;m a woman. Being able to <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">put myself forward with the competition in my first year<\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"> really proved to myself that I can achieve and grow in an academic environment, as long as I <\/span><span class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\">stay confident and stay determined.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back with #WNBiPonWednesdays! For this post, we interviewed Idil, a second year physics undergraduate who won the 2025 Imperial FoNS-MAD innovation competition, securing \u00a37,000 in funding and founding D-View. Thank you for speaking with us Idil! Can you talk about your experience participating in FoNS-MAD competition, and founding D-View? It was a very unique [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1958,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1958"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ic-wip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}