TASSA’s 2026 Chapel Hill Conference Puts AI, Research and U.S.–Türkiye Collaboration in Focus

The Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association, known as TASSA, is scheduled to hold its 2026 annual conference from October 2 through October 4 at the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The event’s stated theme is “Bridging Innovation in the Era of AI: Transnational Impact Across the U.S. and Türkiye,” placing artificial intelligence within a wider discussion of research, education, entrepreneurship and professional exchange. The official registration listing says the gathering will bring together professionals, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and community members for networking, learning, collaboration and career-development opportunities.

The Chapel Hill meeting is presented as a three-day gathering rather than a conference restricted to one academic specialty. TASSA’s listed areas of interest include artificial intelligence, science, engineering, health, education, social sciences and the humanities. That scope is important to the event’s premise: the questions raised by AI extend beyond technical development to the work of researchers, educators, health professionals, innovators and people considering how technology affects institutions and communities. A separate listing by Turkish-American community portal Ally Daily independently identifies the same organizer, dates, venue, theme and participant groups.

A Conference Framed Around Transnational Exchange

The conference’s title explicitly connects innovation with impact across the United States and Türkiye. The official event page does not set out a policy agenda or claim particular institutional outcomes. It does, however, frame the gathering around global collaboration and identifies a broad mix of professional and scholarly participants. In practical terms, that makes the conference a setting for participants with U.S.–Türkiye connections to compare research interests, professional experiences and ideas across disciplinary and geographic boundaries.

The event’s location reinforces that cross-cultural context. It will be held at the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center, 1609 E. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill. The center is operated by the Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation, which describes its mission as advancing educational and charitable initiatives that deepen understanding of Türkiye and strengthen bonds between the United States and Türkiye. The foundation says it oversees the cultural and community center, where the conference is being hosted. TASSA’s use of the site gives the meeting a venue associated with educational programming and Turkish-American community life, while the conference itself remains organized by TASSA.

From Calls for Abstracts to a Preliminary Program

Event-linked public announcements add detail beyond the foundation’s registration page. In an August call for abstracts, Hasan Ayaz wrote that faculty members, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate and graduate students, entrepreneurs and professionals were invited to submit work for poster and lightning-presentation sessions. The announcement identified a larger set of proposed subject areas than the registration page alone: AI, health, medicine, biotechnology, engineering, sustainability, social sciences, humanities, education, entrepreneurship, innovation, science diplomacy and U.S.–Türkiye collaboration. The submission deadline in that earlier call was July 31, 2026.

A later preliminary-program announcement described a program that goes beyond general networking. It said the conference would open on Saturday, October 3, with Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar scheduled to speak on science, persistence and global responsibility, followed by a fireside conversation on science and society. The announcement also listed six panel subjects: reverse brain drain and diaspora impact; the future of AI; embodied intelligence and robotics; technology translation from lab to market; science, philanthropy and society; and immigration issues for scientists and scholars. Because that publication describes the schedule as preliminary, attendees should treat it as a program outline rather than a final time-by-time agenda.

The preliminary-program announcement also listed poster sessions, lightning talks by early-career researchers, an entrepreneurship workshop, a job fair, Young Scholars Awards, a cultural tribute to Aşık Veysel, and a Saturday reception and dinner. Those details provide a clearer sense of how TASSA plans to connect formal presentations with career-oriented and community-facing activity. The job fair and entrepreneurship workshop, in particular, indicate that the event is intended to address professional development alongside academic exchange. The official registration listing’s emphasis on networking, learning, collaboration and career development is consistent with that broader program description.

AI in a Broad Research and Professional Context

Artificial intelligence is the conference’s organizing theme, but the available descriptions do not treat it as a stand-alone computing topic. The foundation’s event page places AI alongside science, engineering, health, education, social sciences and the humanities. The early abstract call likewise invited submissions spanning medicine, biotechnology, sustainability, entrepreneurship and science diplomacy. Together, those descriptions signal an interdisciplinary approach: participants may consider AI not only as a technical field, but also in relation to research practice, training, health, organizational decision-making and the movement of knowledge between universities, industry and communities.

The announced panel topics make that approach more concrete. A session on technology translation is positioned around the path from laboratory work to the marketplace, while the entrepreneurship workshop points to practical questions about developing and applying ideas. Sessions on science, philanthropy and society, as well as immigration for scientists and scholars, would bring institutional and professional conditions into the conversation. The proposed discussion of reverse brain drain, diaspora impact and the Türkiye–U.S. innovation bridge is particularly aligned with the conference’s transnational theme, focusing attention on how professional networks and scientific connections can operate across national borders.

Information for Participants and Prospective Attendees

The Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation’s registration page lists the conference as running from October 2 through October 4, 2026. It identifies TASSA as the organizer and gives conference@tassausa.org as the event contact. The venue listing gives the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center’s Chapel Hill address as 1609 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514, and lists the center’s phone number as +1 919-240-7075. The venue’s general contact email is contact@sancar.org.

Registration categories on the official page are listed at $200 for faculty, industry professionals and community participants, and $40 for students and postdoctoral researchers. At the time the page was reviewed, both categories displayed zero tickets available and were marked sold out. An earlier preliminary-program announcement had described registration as open with limited seats, which is not incompatible with the subsequently displayed sold-out status. The foundation page does not publish a complete agenda, accessibility information, speaker biographies or daily start and end times. People seeking confirmation of attendance options, waitlist possibilities or final program details should contact TASSA or the venue directly rather than relying on the earlier announcements alone.

With its mix of panels, research presentations, professional programming and community-oriented activities, TASSA 2026 is shaping up as a focused meeting for people interested in research and innovation across the United States and Türkiye. The core event information is firm: the dates, Chapel Hill venue, organizer, theme and ticket categories are all listed by the host foundation. The additional program announcements provide a fuller picture of the planned conversations, while their preliminary status underscores the value of checking directly with the organizers as the October conference approaches.