HYDRO was established in the TOBB ETU campus with the financial support of the Ministry of Development of 10 million TL and the contributions of TOBB's human resources and laboratory building. It is an independent research center where mechanical and hydraulic designs of water turbines, model tests in accordance with international standards with manufacturing and quality control steps, and different field services such as reverse engineering, measurement and commissioning can be performed under one roof. In September 2011; During the project process, which started under the leadership of project coordinator Prof. Dr. Selin Aradağ, project coordinator Assoc. Prof. Kutay Çelebioğlu and consultant responsible for control, manufacturing and measurement Assoc. Prof. Yiğit Taşcıoğlu, the Computer Aided Design Laboratory, one of the three main units of the center, was made ready and opened for use in 2013. With the introduction of the Model Turbine Test Assembly in 2016, HYDRO started to work at full capacity.

Between February 2015 and March 2021, HYDRO took part in the Rehabilitation of Hydroelectric Power Plant Components with Domestic Facilities (MILHES) Project with the support of TUBITAK KAMAG as a partner responsible for turbine design, model testing and manufacturing. In the project carried out at the Kepez-1 Hydroelectric Power Plant, the efficiency of the power plant was increased at the same time the cost of new dams to be built in the future was reduced. Within the scope of the project, the vertical type francis turbine designed from the beginning and the generator, speed regulator, warning system, mechanical components and all auxiliary components formed the basis of the national hydroelectric power plant. In 2019, the unit was successfully completed and commissioned and still continues to produce energy.

Our team; It consists of 16 people and works together with faculty members in different specialties, researchers at master's and PhD levels, and undergraduate students within the scope of TOBB ETU joint education program in line with the same goal and uses theoretical knowledge in practice by supporting it with the technological infrastructure and experimental facilities of the center. Hydro aims to share these achievements, within the university with the public institutions and private sector companies it cooperates with, and to guide them in the projects carried out and to develop know-how, which is inadequate in the design of water turbines in Turkey, within the framework of the university-industry cooperation that TOBB ETU has adopted as a mission.