Venue

The summer school will be held in the Informatics Institute (Graduate School of Informatics) within the METU Campus in Ankara, Turkey.

Turkey is centrally located and is well-connected to other European countries, as well as North America, Middle East, and Asia where this summer school will also seek students from. Ankara is the capital city of Turkey, and is well-connected both internationally (via the Esenboga International Airport by major airlines and cheap flights to/from European destinations) and nationally (railway and intercity bus links). Middle East Technical University (METU) campus is located in the western part of the city within easy reach from the city center. METU is at the center of University District which also hosts six other university campuses (Bilkent, Hacettepe, Baskent, TOBB-ETU, Cankaya, and Atilim) all with Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Computer Science/Engineering departments. Informatics Institute is situated opposite METU Technopolis, the university research park hosting R&D branches of many companies with vested interest in audio signal processing and more specifically in game technology. METU Technopolis itself is host to 13 game technology companies that can be listed as examples.

The building which houses Informatics Institute is a purpose-built structure with a large auditorium (~100 seats), one conference room (~50 seats), five smaller classrooms, one interactive classroom, four meeting rooms, and a computer lab. These are equipped with state-of-the-art AV display systems. Informatics Institute is also designated as the only NVIDIA CUDA Research Center in Turkey. METU II carries out Turkey's first Game Technology M.Sc. program (current enrollment is 36 students) and also holds the Ankara stage of the annual Global Game Jam in collaboration with METU Technopolis and METUTECH-ATOM. In addition, MODSIMMER building next to the Informatics Institute has a dedicated game technology lab with all state-of-the-art game consoles and accompanying development tools. This lab will be used for some of the hands-on sessions.

METU campus also provides many opportunities for the participants of the proposed summer school. The campus has many restaurants and the university pub. Two sports centers, and swimming pools can be used for recreational activities after the lectures.