Aydın Tiryaki (2026)
Date: 2008-2009. The world wasn’t as “smart” as it is today. The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) was in its infancy, and smartphones were just entering our lives. In those days, Google announced a competition that made a huge impact worldwide: “Project 10^100” (Ten to the hundredth).
The call was clear: “If you have an idea that will change the world and help humanity, share it, and let’s make it happen.”
With the excitement of an engineer, I sat down at my desk. I devised a system to solve the biggest problems of cities: resource management, the chaos of meter reading, and billing injustice. I designed the structure we call IAME (Integrated Automated Metering Ecosystem) today, under the conditions of that time, with pen and paper, using manual calculations. The formulas were ready, the logic was flawless.
The competition had only one condition: Upload a video explaining your idea to YouTube.
And that was the moment an engineer hit a wall. Because in those years, YouTube was banned in Turkey.
Still, I didn’t give up. Thinking “If there is a ban, there must be a solution,” I looked for alternative ways. I planned to prepare the video and send it to a friend who was in Germany at the time, so he could upload it. But this time, I faced software and tool inadequacies. Since I was at the university, my internet speed was above the Turkish average, but in those years, it was almost impossible to find advanced file-sharing applications or platforms capable of transferring such a large video file in a single piece. Because I couldn’t find a way to send the file without splitting it or compromising its integrity, I even considered physically loading it onto a USB stick and sending it via cargo.
So, I faced not only legal bans but also the limits of digital tools of that era. While pressing a single button is enough to share a video with the world today, back then, file transfer itself was a massive problem. Because of these multidimensional impossibilities, that application could not be made. That file was forced to be shelved.
Date: January 2026. Much water has flowed under the bridge in the intervening 17 years. Technology evolved, the world changed. And by a strange twist of fate, the ecosystem that kept me out of that platform 17 years ago (Google) appeared before me today as an AI assistant named Gemini.
I discussed those calculations, which had remained on paper in the past, with artificial intelligence this time. I explained, it formalized. I set the engineering constraints, it scanned the literature. The idea that got stuck in bans and file transfer problems in 2009 turned into an international standard, academic “Master Plan” in seconds with a “Pro Mode” AI in 2026.
This process taught me this: Good ideas don’t die, they just wait for their time.
Maybe I couldn’t participate in the “Project 10^100” competition that day, but today I have a project in my hands that is much more mature and comprehensive than it was back then. And ironically, I will soon publish the video of this project with a single click on YouTube, where I couldn’t upload my project 17 years ago because it was banned and I couldn’t send the file.
This article and the technical report we prepared are not just about a meter reading system; they are the victory of engineering persistence that has resisted bans, lack of tools, and time.
Belatedly: Mission accomplished.
A Note on Methods and Tools: All observations, ideas, and solution proposals in this study are the author’s own. AI was utilized as an information source for researching and compiling relevant topics strictly based on the author’s inquiries, requests, and directions; additionally, it provided writing assistance during the drafting process. (The research-based compilation and English writing process of this text were supported by AI as a specialized assistant.)
Aydın Tiryaki 