In collaboration between Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) and Famagusta Municipality (GMB), two separate AI-powered projects were developed to strengthen digital transformation in municipal services. Introduced during a presentation held at Famagusta Municipality, the first project was developed as an AI-powered complaint management system designed to ensure that citizens’ complaints are directed quickly and efficiently to the appropriate departments. The second project was prepared as a mobile application that will facilitate access to up-to-date information on municipal services, events, waste collection, pharmacies on duty, health, tourism and urban life.
The projects, developed by EMU Department of Computer Engineering academic staff members Prof. Dr. Önsen Toygar, Prof. Dr. Duygu Çelik Ertuğrul and Prof. Dr. Yıltan Bitirim together with department students Akay Alptuğ, Mert Suar Muti, Kadir Can Coşkun, Mahamat Hassan and Necati Kırgız, were introduced during the meeting held with the participation of Famagusta Mayor Dr. Süleyman Uluçay, department heads and representatives.
Citizen Requests to be Quickly Directed to Relevant Units
During the meeting, details of the project designed to support Famagusta Municipality’s transition to a new AI-powered internal workflow model for managing citizen complaints were presented. The system is intended to ensure that citizen complaints and requests submitted to the municipality are automatically directed to the appropriate departments in less than one second, without requiring staff intervention.
Through the AI model, the project aims to accurately classify complaints, rapidly forward them to the relevant departments, facilitate internal communication within the municipality, and accelerate resolution processes. In addition, the system is expected to strengthen the municipality’s statistical data storage capacity and contribute to the generation of measurable data.
The new system has been designed to operate in an integrated manner across the municipality’s high-demand service areas, including sewerage, sanitation, health services, parks and gardens, municipal police, water services and public works, in addition to handling citizen requests and complaints. The system is also intended to enable the collection of location information through map-based functionality, support communication processes via messaging, and contribute to the provision of uninterrupted 24/7 municipal services.
Making Famagusta Municipality’s Services More Accessible
The second project introduced during the meeting, a mobile application, aims to make the services provided by Famagusta Municipality more accessible. Through the application, citizens will be able to easily access up-to-date information on municipal events, waste collection schedules, pharmacies on duty, health services, tourism and urban life.
Both projects are expected to make significant contributions to Famagusta Municipality’s digital transformation vision. During the meeting, department heads and unit representatives exchanged views on the feasibility of implementing the projects. It was emphasized that the initiatives have considerable potential to strengthen internal coordination, accelerate service delivery processes, and enhance citizen satisfaction.
On the other hand, the AI-based citizen complaint management project has also gained recognition in the international academic arena. The project was presented at the 2026 IEEE 50th Annual Computers, Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC 2026), held at the Technical University of Madrid in Spain, through a paper entitled “Machine Learning-Based Classification of Turkish Municipal Complaint and Request Records.”
“EMU Is an Important Asset for the Entire Country”
In his remarks following the presentation, Famagusta Mayor Dr. Süleyman Uluçay emphasized that EMU is an important asset not only for Famagusta but also for the country as a whole, thanks to its knowledge, experience, scientific output and human resources across many fields.
Drawing attention to the fact that the age of artificial intelligence is reshaping institutions, cities and service models, Dr. Uluçay stated that this transformation represents a change even more comprehensive than the Industrial Revolution. Stressing that local governments must be prepared for this process, he noted that municipalities should adopt a data-driven, fast, transparent and citizen-oriented approach to service delivery.
Dr. Uluçay also stated that Famagusta Municipality places great importance on collaboration with academic institutions and described the partnership with EMU as an important step toward advancing the municipality’s digitalization and improving the quality of its services. He concluded by thanking the students and academics who contributed to the project.