Living+ presents different ways of improving our everyday life with new solutions, in Finland and globally. Below are some examples of events and projects included in the Aalto University programme. More information is available on the new website living.aalto.fi. On the website, Aalto Talk blogs discuss interesting views on design and observations about our living environment.

 The invitational seminar Designing New Realities!, organised 6 March 2012, challenges participants to think about the meaning and importance design has in society. The seminar opens up the history and current trends of responsible design through concrete examples and creates perspectives into the future. The language of the seminar is English, and the Chairman will be Alastair Fuad-Luke, Professor of Emerging Design Practices at Aalto University. The seminar day will begin with a press conference that includes the opportunity to take a closer look at the Living+ projects. We will send separate invitations to the seminar and the press conference.

The Base of the Pyramid project targets emerging markets, such as India and Peru, by promoting the creation of innovations aiming at decreasing global poverty. The objective is to find socially and ecologically sustainable products, services and business models. At the same time, the project identifies new markets for Finnish companies that are interested in innovation.

365 Wellbeing presents design as a socially active and responsible field of expertise. The objective of the project is to design functional, pleasant and better living environments and discover ways to promote healthy lifestyles. 365 Wellbeing aims at developing municipal health and welfare services and patient-centred health care solutions, employing the methods of service design and critical design. For example, experts and students will design a service concept for cultural services at the Villa Breda service home for the elderly in Kauniainen and develop the health care environments and practices of a psychiatric care unit. The work and results of the project are presented to the public in workshops, for example at the DesignWorld exhibition at the Design Museum, opening on 27 January.

The Wooden Pavilion is designed by Aalto University students. The temporary pavilion with a wooden structure will be located between the Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. The pavilion opens in May 2012 and serves as a World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 hub, meeting point and event venue until autumn 2012.

The Aalto Otaniemi Garden challenge invites students to create a new campus garden area that meets high visual standards. The campus garden located in Otaniemi will include land for cultivation and an area for outdoor events. It will also serve as a learning environment for students in the field of Environmental Art and Landscape Architecture[L1] . The project is a part of the overall development process of the Otaniemi campus and the T3 area. Sofia Tigerstedt's entry, Uomapuisto, won the competition, and will soon become a new green space on campus.

MoA (Masters of Aalto) is an international festival showcasing next generation ideas and innovations. MoA includes events, seminars, discussions and an exhibition of the work of graduates from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, the schools of technology and the School Economics. The exhibition opens on 9 May and is curated by Professor Maaretta Jaukkuri.

In the exhibition Happy End? Helsinki Art Museum and the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture join forces to consider the kinds of futures that are available to us. Will our future life be easy and beautiful or tragic and destructive? Will we succumb to the destiny decided by others or will we create an alternative future for the whole humankind? The exhibition opens on 31 August.

Wastelands is a festival for students of architecture from 42 countries organised in July in Suvilahti, Helsinki.

More information:

Producer Anna Varakas
anna.varakas@aalto.fi
tel. 050 5124657

Project Manager Kaisa Kivelä
kaisa.kivela@aalto.fi
tel. 050 564 9253

See also

Living+ site (Living.aalto.fi), our umbrella for all the Aalto projects during Helsinki's World Design Capital 2012.

Like us Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/AaltoLivingPlus
Follow us Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/AaltoLiving

Professor Helena Hyvönen acts as Dean of the school. Hyvönen was Dean of Aalto University School of Art and Design.

A special jury consisting of the management of Aalto University and the new school, experts, students and a representative of the alumni decided on a new name for the school with the help of suggestions from a name competition organised in the autumn.

"The new school is a wonderful opportunity for Aalto University to strengthen its profile and international interest," states Dean Helena Hyvönen. "Combining teaching and research related to humanistic and cultural traditions and the environment in the same school is also important for society. At the same time, it will help to strengthen the status of architecture, art, media and design in the Finnish culture and economy and society at large," outlines Helena Hyvönen, Dean of Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

The website for the new school will be updated between January and February.

The strategic importance of China made many business schools jump into the bandwagon and start offering their MBA and Executive MBA programs through alliances with Chinese universities.

Pan Asia International Education Center is a subsidiary of Pan Asia Human Resources Management Consultant group, a leading HR company in Taiwan. The Education Center provides services for advanced studies. By building strategic partnerships with international universities it makes the attainment of a foreign degree a reality for many Taiwanese who cannot afford the opportunity to study overseas.

Steve Tsai, CEO of Pan Asia International Education Center says: "With the partnership with Aalto EE, Pan Asia hopes to bring the level of EMBA education to another higher level. With the strong combination of Aalto EE, a Triple Crown accredited business school - its faculty ensemble of top local and international professors, a cutting edge curriculum and the best business minded EMBA executives in class - Aalto EMBA will set the benchmark in the Taiwanese market."

Both Aalto EE and Pan Asia look forward to a strong and fruitful relationship.

Further information:

Dr. Pekka Mattila, Group Managing Director and Associate Dean, Aalto EE
pekka.mattila@aaltoee.fi
Mob. +358 40 738 7221

Dr. Jari Talvinen, Managing Director, Aalto EE (Asia Pacific)
jaritalvinen@aaltoee.sg
Tel. +65 6339 7338

This ALD method for manufacturing fuel cells requires 60 per cent less of the costly catalyst than current methods.

− This is a significant discovery, because researchers have not been able to achieve savings of this magnitude before with materials that are commercially available, says Docent Tanja Kallio of Aalto University.

Fuel cells could replace polluting combustion engines that are presently in use. However, in a fuel cell, chemical processes must be sped up by using a catalyst. The high price of catalysts is one of the biggest hurdles to the wide adoption of fuel cells at the moment.

The most commonly used fuel cells cover anode with expensive noble metal powder which reacts well with the fuel. By using the Aalto University researchers' ALD method, this cover can be much thinner and more even than before which lowers costs and increases quality.

With this study, researchers are developing better alcohol fuel cells using methanol or ethanol as their fuel. It is easier to handle and store alcohols than commonly used hydrogen. In alcohol fuel cells, it is also possible to use palladium as a catalyst.

The most common catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells is platinum, which is twice as expensive as palladium. This means that alcohol fuel cells and palladium will bring a more economical product to the market.

Fuel cells can create electricity that produces very little or even no pollution. They are highly efficient, making more energy and requiring less fuel than other devices of equal size. They are also quiet and require low maintenance, because there are no moving parts.

In the future, when production costs can be lowered, fuel cells are expected to power electric vehicles and replace batteries, among other things. Despite their high price, fuel cells have already been used for a long time to produce energy in isolated environments, such as space crafts. These results are based on preliminary testing with fuel cell anodes using a palladium catalyst. Commercial production could start in 5-10 years.

For further information:

Docent Tanja Kallio
School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University
tanja.kallio@aalto.fi
tel. 09 470 225 83

This study was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. The research has been funded by Aalto University's MIDE research program and the Academy of Finland.

Journal reference: Atomic Layer Deposition Preparation of Pd Nanoparticles on a Porous Carbon Support for Alcohol Oxidation. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2011, 115, 23067–23073. dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp2083659

The project provides a technical and scientific environment and expertise for the opening and utilisation of public datasets in Finland. The project has a budget of approx. one million euros, and it is supported by a multi-disciplinary consortium consisting of Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation –  as well as 22 companies and public sector institutions including, e.g., three Finnish ministries.

In the new project, the focus of research and development will be in the production, publication and intelligent web services of semantic open data and metadata. New technology will be developed through several case studies, including Finnish legal data as a semantic service, content management of a media company, data journalism, semantic National Biography of Finland, enrichment of corporate data with news materials, and a semantic map of services in the metropolitan area.

The new project utilises results from previous projects

“The project will receive a flying start on the basis of the long-running National Semantic Web Ontology Project in Finland (FinnONTO), 2003–2012, which includes a developer community of dozens of organisations, the national ontology infrastructure and ONKI services, tools, information resources and experiences from many pilot applications,” says the project director, Professor Eero Hyvönen from Aalto University and the University of Helsinki.

One of the latest megatrends of the World Wide Web is Linked (Open) Data, Web of Data, where web content is combined and utilised by intelligent web services with the help of extensive, open semantic datasets. At the core of the movement are, e.g., DBPedia, a semantic version of Wikipedia, Google’s encyclopaedic Freebase, and more than 200 other datasets linked to these and to each other in the so-called Linked Open Data cloud. The semantic web is a layer of metadata of the traditional web that can help web services “understand” and combine diverse content on the web and thus provide human users with more intelligent and comprehensive services than before.

Further information:

Linked Data Finland project: http://www.seco.tkk.fi/projects/ldf/

Linked Data community: http://linkeddata.org/

Eero Hyvönen, Professor, Research Director
Aalto University, Department of Media Technology; and the University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science
Semantic Computing Research Group
eero.hyvonen@aalto.fi
tel. +358 50 384 1618

CECAM organizes a large number of events, such as thematic workshops, research training and code-development sessions, and exploratory scientific symposia in the field of computational sciences. In addition to the activities in Lausanne, CECAM organizes events in its 14 Nodes around Europe, and represents the strong community of computational physics and chemistry. Aalto University is aiming at becoming a Node in 2012, coordinated by the COMP Center of Excellence.

Prof. Risto Nieminen (Applied Physics) and Prof. Kari Laasonen (Chemistry) were appointed as members of the CECAM Council.

See also

CECAM, Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique at Moleculaire (cecam.org)

For further information, please contact:Based on a decision made on 8 November 2011, the Finnish name for the new school will be Aalto-yliopiston taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu.

In particular, the English version of the name received plenty of feedback and criticism from the Aalto community. As a result of this, the jury, which consisted of representatives of Aalto management, students, alumni and external experts, wanted to review its earlier decision.

According to the jury’s final decision, the English name of the school will be Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and its name in Swedish will be Aalto-universitetets högskola för konst, design och arkitektur. The Finnish name announced earlier will remain the same.

The English and Swedish names are illustrative and easy to understand both internationally and within Finland. These names combine the internationally recognized and renowned expertise of the school’s disciplines. The names reflect the strong traditions and identity of the competence areas of arts, design and architecture in the current entities.

- The names for Aalto University’s new school sparked a lively debate within our community. For us on the jury, it was important to listen to and react to this message. A university community that is passionate about the identity of its schools is a valuable asset to be nurtured. I am delighted that the Aalto community wants to be so concretely involved in building our future, says Helena Hyvönen, Dean of the Aalto University School of Art and Design.

From 1 January 2012, the names of Aalto University’s schools will be as follows:

School of Arts, Design and Architecture
School of Chemical Technology
School of Economics
School of Electrical Engineering
School of Engineering
School of Science

For further information, please contact:

Dean Helena Hyvönen
School of Art and Design
helena.hyvonen@aalto.fi
tel. +358 50 324 3657

Communications Director Tapio Hedman
chairman of the jury
Aalto University
tapio.hedman@aalto.fi
tel. 040 516 2396

Earlier in November a group from Aalto University, including Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes), journeyed to California to spend a week working with their partners at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) in Stanford University. Located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, STVP is a center focused on advancing entrepreneurship education, research, and outreach to students, scholars and business leaders.

 "Bridgebuilding between the two universities is meaningful for both. We got to know each other in a personal level, and exchange views on how to move forwards in research and teaching. This is crucially important for future co-operation", says Aalto University Vice-President Hannu Seristö.

Rethinking business

Finland is evolving into a startup nation. Aalto University is lucky: it is a home to amazing students, who have created startup activity in Europe. This has also been widely recognized in international level.

In current thinking on how to view business, there is a big difference between running a small business and a growth venture. The latter is designed to disrupt industries and to make the world a better place. Risk is inherent and these change makers cannot exist without funding from venture capitalists and support from experienced entrepreneurs. The Silicon Valley has a culture of paying it forward. If you have succeeded, you put your know-how and resources back into the system.

"This trip helped understand how to aid startups add value and reduce risk", says Jouni Partanen, director of the BIT research center at Aalto University.

Raise the pirate flag!

While entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs are no longer viewed as outlaw activity, startup companies do challenge the status quo. An experienced serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is currently renewing how scientists are taught entrepreneurship in the United States. During his visit to Finland earlier this year he declared, that "every university entrepreneurship center should raise a pirate flag – they are to challenge the status quo in universities".

"This practice is still developing in Finland", says Olli-Pekka Mutanen, head of BIT Software Business Lab at Aalto University.

The Aalto Way

Entrepreneurial education at Aalto University is developed to aim at reaching the widest possible audience and provide students with study experiences where they can try out their passions. Though there is no instant recipe for success, there are tools and activities that make success more likely.

When Aalto faculty met with a Chilean colleague Mike Leatherbee, he described how they are leapfrogging Stanford in some areas. This relates to bringing art and design people together with engineering and business, which is exactly what Aalto already does.

"I believe, that we are well on the way in becoming a top university in teaching entrepreneurship within the next few years in Europe", says Aalto President Tuula Teeri.

In order for AVP to succeed, collaboration is to be expanded with faculties from all Aalto schools. Entrepreneurship is not something you need to always take a separate course for, it must also be embedded into other domains. As Paavo Kinnunen and Risto Ilmoniemi, both professors at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational science, see it, "AVP is a startup we're involved with and something we'll introduce to our students".

" If we want to be the best in entrepreneurship education, we are going to walk the famous line between reality, arrogance and hallucination", says Will Cardwell, director of the Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship. "But we can certainly do it!"

For information on how to get involved, see the AVP wiki (wiki.aalto.fi)

This device enhances performance and significantly reduces power usage by serving as a middleman for mobile devices to connect to the Internet and handling the majority of the data transfer for the smart phone. Historically, the high energy requirements of mobile phones have slowed the adoption of mobile Internet services in developing countries.

"This new solution is particularly valuable in developing countries because it provides significantly more effective Internet access to a much larger number of people. At the moment, only a small percent can access the Internet from a wired connection, but 90 percent of the African population lives in areas with mobile phone network coverage"

"Mobile phone usage is increasing rapidly, however the use of mobile Internet services is hindered by users not having access to the power grid to recharge their phones", says Professor Jukka Manner.

The case study conducted at Aalto University examined Internet usage in three East African countries: Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Researchers developed energy-saving solutions for smart phones that could be easily deployed across a mobile network and in particular in areas without reliable sources of electricity. In addition to the new, optimized proxy solution, the researchers found that the power consumption of smart phones could also be significantly reduced by mobile optimized websites, HTTP compression and more efficient use of data caching.

The study is published today at the scientific conference Africomm 2011. The research began in the Future Internet research program of TIVIT and funded by Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. The work has been continued in the ECEWA project funded by Tekes, with partners from European Communications Engineering Ltd, Efore Plc, Ericsson, Aalto University and Tampere University of Technology.

More information:

Professor Jukka Manner
Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking (Comnet)
jukka.manner@aalto.fi
Mobile: +358 50 5112973

Three researchers who made the film are: Joel Hietanen from Aalto University, Joonas Rokka from Rouen Business School and Risto Roman from Helsinki University.

"This is already second time we won this most valued prize for consumer research conducted on video. 'Pushing the Scene' is a videographic research project which portrays tensions and emergence in an accelerated marketplace culture. These kind of academic documentaries show studies to wider audiences. For example one video in YouTube gets thousands of clicks, therefore the potentials are massive", says Hietanen.

Pushing the Scene tells a story about how consumer cultures have become accelerated through digitalization and the global reach of the internet. It shows how powerful cultural figures have taken over the role of traditional record companies and other intermediaries. At the same time, as consumer phenomena have become more accessible, they have also become more short-lived and fleeting.

The video presentations will live on

Hietanen has studied consumer cultures and social consume practices in Aalto University. He began doing videographic research projects with Joonas Rokka in 2008. Their first film, a story of paintball tribes, won ACR film festivals in 2009.

Hietanen doesn't think that the video presentations will die. – Children grow up with the world of motion pictures and cameras are available for everyone.

The next project tells about the Tampere philharmonic orchestra and the tensions between the orchestra members. Also researcher Mika Pantzar and professors Pekka Mattila and Janne Tienari participate in the project.

Another videography by Hietanen and Hannu Uotila, called 'Post-Materialist Work', was presented in the ACR film festival this year.

The MediaMark initiative has supported the team. In addition, the team wants to thank professor Henrikki Tikkanen for his support.

See the video Pushing the Scenes (vimeo.com)

Read more about MediaMark (aaltomediamark.org)

More information:

Researcher Joel Hietanen
Department of Marketing, Aalto University School of Economics
joel.hietanen@aalto.fi
tel. 050 3120927

The CNB-E research project demo point attracted visitors with the opportunity to build a solar cell from frozen blueberries and carbon nanobuds. Project researcher Antti Kaskela explains that blueberry functions as a dye sensitiser for the fuel cell. The colour from the berry substitutes for the chemicals normally used by the cells as dye sensitisers.

"The CNB-E project studies carbon nanobuds and carbon nanotubes and their energy applications in dye cells and fuel cells," says Kaskela. The goal is to demonstrate whether an increase in carbon nanotubes and buds improves the properties of the solar cell or fuel cell.

Several research project aimed at improving energy efficiency were on display at the Demo Day. The E-wood project demo point used an electron microscope to introduce visitors to the cell structure of wood samples that were dyed a beautiful reddish colour. The target of this project is more energy efficient wood processing.

The demonstration table for the HighLight project showed why it would be possible to achieve an efficiency of up to 100% in LEDs. Guests also had the chance to try how phosphorous affects an LED light.

"Placing a layer of phosphorous on top of an LED produces a white light. The redder the phosphorous is, the warmer the shade of the light," explains researcher Martti Paakkinen.

"Ylämummo heilahtaa" project targets the elderly

The MIDE Demo Day also brought a group of future digital technologies together under the same roof. One future challenge is the ageing of large age groups.

The student project "Ylämummo heilahtaa" presented automation aimed at helping the elderly. The technologies on display included the Ovivalpas security and alarm system for people with memory problems. In practice, Ovivalpas is a digital display that is mounted near the front door and warns people with memory problems about leaving their home at night by displaying the sentence "Don't go outside" on the screen. The system can also send a message to the relatives of a person with memory problems when this person leaves their home in spite of the warning.

The "Ylämummo heilahtaa" project was presented by Anders Rex, who said that the project has developed many easy-to-use applications over the years, including a motorised shopping cart and a medication reminder. Currently under development is a support pole to assist the physically disabled in getting out of bed. The goal is to use technology to support the independent living for elderly people.

The MIDE Demo Day was held on 15 November at the Saha Building in Otaniemi. Aalto University's Multidisciplinary Institute of Digitalisation and Energy (MIDE) research project carries out important long-term projects aimed at creating top-level expertise, strengthening teaching and increasing the competitiveness of Finnish business and industry.

More detailed information about the projects is available at:

MIDE´s webpage (mide.aalto.fi)

Text: Tea Kalska

To ensure continuity of the Internet testbed services created in the Future Internet research programme of TIVIT Oy, the most active members of its testbed working group have founded a consortium called Internet Testbed Finland. The consortium will integrate its research network services under a common operating model to increase efficiency in the provision, use, maintenance, and marketing of services for different research collaboration partners.

Internet Testbed Finland is an open consortium, in which organizations can join and offer their research network services. Hence, in addition to universities and higher education institutions, also enterprises can become members. Openness should improve and boost cooperation between companies and institutions of research and education, and help to provide the collaborating businesses with research network services that are currently unavailable from commercial operators.

Internet Testbed Finland provides the platform and ready-for-use cooperation models that facilitate building new research environments and services. The concept covers the layers and services needed for Internet research, ranging from optical fibers to integrated services, as well as technologies, practices, and agreements concerning user identification.

The research networks and the services involved in the testbed activities can be flexibly connected across organizational boundaries. The cooperation makes research more efficient, since researchers do not need to build new test environments of their own but instead, they can utilize the existing testbed platform and its services. The consortium will strengthen Internet-based research programmes, because instead of having to develop new testbeds, it is possible to use a sustainable, shared, and inter-operable testbed that allows flexible extension depending on research needs. Similarly, participants can freely integrate services that have been developed by other service providers.

The consortium members can benefit from the network services provided by their collaboration partners in their own research activities. Internet Testbed Finland will reduce the need for overlapping infrastructure and act as a collaboration forum for further development of test network activities, while also improving possibilities for national and international research collaboration.

Additional information

Harri Kuusisto, CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd
+358 50 3819 800
harri.kuusisto@csc.fi
www.csc.fi

Aleksi Suhonen, TREX Tampere Region Exchange Oy
+358 4567 02048, aleksi.suhonen@trex.fi
www.trex.fi

Jarmo Harju, Tampere University of Technology
+358 40 8433 192
jarmo.harju@tut.fi
www.tut.fi

Markus Peuhkuri, Aalto University
+358-505112675
Markus.Peuhkuri@aalto.fi
www.aalto.fi

The journey kick-starts on 16 November in Helsinki and will be an unforgettable voyage to Rio de Janeiro. Participants will stop over in Gran Canaria, Tenerife,
Recife and Salvador de Bahia. From Rio de Janeiro, we will travel by bus to São Paulo, where the programme will come to a close on 11 December.

The aim of the journey is to build bridges between Brazil and Finland, to foster mutual understanding between the two countries, to spark collaboration and – of course – make new friends. Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world with 195 million inhabitants, is a major economic power in both South America and worldwide. On the other side of the globe, in northern Europe is Finland - despite having just 5 million inhabitants, it has a strong economy and education system. Aalto on Waves recognises that the European awareness of Brazil and vice versa still needs to be increased. Aalto on Waves wants to contribute to this by connecting education, economy and people from Europe and Brazil.

Aalto on Waves is a truly multidisciplinary project, with organisers and participants from the fields of design, business and engineering.

Accomplishing an exciting project together Aalto on Waves will help to form a common identity among the students of the different disciplines and create a true "Aalto-Spirit". Aalto on Waves is the successor of the very successful project Aalto on Tracks, where students and staff from Aalto travelled by train from Helsinki to Shanghai.

During the Aalto on Waves journey, on the open waters as well as in Brazil, participants enjoy an enriching programme. More specifically, programmes will range from engineering courses such as marine technology to business and entrepreneurship to arts and design.

Cruise & Ferry Experience Center in the Marine Technology Department is journeying too as an expert and by holding courses to the participants. Further competency in design thinking comes from the International Design Business Management programme which has been rated by Business Week as one of the best design programs worldwide and will offer a course on board. A "TEDx Aalto University" event on the cruise ship.

Bon Voyage!

For more information contact AoW Communications Team
Thomas Abrell
thomas.abrell@aaltoonwaves.com
+358 44 359 3203

Aalto on Waves is also a part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 programme.

Please also visit aaltoonwaves.com for further information.

Aalto Tongji Design Factory’s aim is to grow to a "hub and engine of international innovation knowledge". It is an open innovation environment based on interdisciplinary and international university-industry cooperation. It is built on the experience and concept of the Aalto Design Factory in Otaniemi, Finland.

ATDF is both a tool for building new type of learning opportunities and educational processes and a platform of collaboration. Educational offerings include weekly lectures of top people, international workshops, courses and Double Degree programs (International Design Business Management IDBM) and mobile courses (Aalto on Tracks, Tongji on Tracks). There are discussions at the moment starting PhD education between Aalto and Tongji.

Cumulus Lab opens 2 November 2011 in Shanghai

The Cumulus Executive Board decided in September 2011 in its meeting to support the establishment of local platforms that promote affordable access to programs involving education, research and practice in collaboration with industry, business and society to a growing membership. The 1st ever Cumulus Lab was decided to be founded in Shanghai China and to be hosted by the Cumulus member, Tongji University.

This Cumulus Lab is a platform in the China Shanghai region, for building active links to the best universities, companies and organizations in the region. The Cumulus members can utilize the lab to incorporate local universities into its activities. The Cumulus Lab in Shanghai can help members of Cumulus develop their contacts with Chinese Cumulus members, and build activities with them and reciprocally.

This Cumulus Lab at Tongji is the first of a network of physical open spaces and it will encourage Cumulus members to discuss and exchange regional specificities and develop regional programs within a worldwide context. The Cumulus Lab uses the Aalto-Tongji Design Factory space and the Sino-Finnish Centre of Tongji and the Finnish Aalto University.

More information:

Director Eija Salmi, eija.salmi@aalto.fi
International Affairs
Aalto University School of Art and Design

The restaurant serves authentic and tasty food from local and regional ingredients prepared and cooked in its own kitchen. The concept was designed in cooperation with chef and restaurant consultant Markus Maulavirta.

The restaurant, operated by Antell-Catering, serves clean, healthy, tasty food with minimal processing that is sourced local or regional producers. All its operations are in-line with the principles of sustainable development, including its methods for the purchase of raw materials and cooking and preparation of food as well as its recipes, service content, interior design, cleaning detergents and waste management.

The aim of the restaurant is to produce well-being and a sense of community in daily life.

− Realising our values also in the area of restaurant services is important to us. We strive to identify new and bold solutions that are also ethically sustainable. My hope is that this high-quality restaurant would become a lively meeting place for both Aalto staff and students and our interest groups, says Tuula Teeri, President of Aalto University.

Antell-Catering Oy provides restaurant solutions that account for the values and objectives of the client.

− The Aalto University restaurant is a good example of a restaurant highlighting the aim of sustainable development, where the restaurant manager plans the lunch menu with an emphasis on organic and locally and regionally sourced food. The lunch menus in all of Antell’s 115 restaurants serving a wide variety of customers are all different, with authentic, versatile and tasty food prepared in the kitchen of the restaurant as a common denominator, stresses Tomi Lantto, Managing Director of Antell-Catering Oy.

The furnishings and the layout of the restaurant were designed by Design Studio Muotohiomo. Architectural design for the renovation of the restaurant building was done by VPL-Arkkitehdit Oy.

The restaurant provides catering services. Bread baked at the restaurant and other products can be purchased to take home.

For further information please contact:

Eeva Lehtinen, Communications Manager
Aalto University
eeva.lehtinen@aalto.fi
tel. +358 50 321 7034

Liisa Humalamäki, Communications Manager
Antell-Catering Oy
liisa.humalamaki@antell.fi
tel. +358 20 770 2318

Heli Silvennoinen, asiakkuuspäällikkö
Antell-Catering Oy
heli.silvennoinen@antell.fi
tel. +358 (0)20 770 2073

Up to date, there has been no reliable way for determining whether a person is actually hypnotized or simply faking or simulating hypnosis. Consequently, many researchers have considered the special, altered hypnotic state as a popular myth in psychology.  

An international team of researchers from University of Skövde (Sweden), University of Turku (Finland) and Aalto University School of Science has now provided strong evidence for the existence of a genuine hypnotic state. The researchers studied the ’trance stare’, a glazed look in the eyes that has often been associated with hypnosis in the popular culture but rarely studied scientifically.

The study focussed on healthy adult who is known to be highly susceptible to hypnosis, and is known to respond immediately to hypnotic suggestion. Her eye movements during hypnotic and waking state were measured with a special eye tracker. When she entered hypnosis, her eyes became glazed and her blinking date was significantly reduced. Even more importantly, hypnosis induced dramatic reduction in eye movements that are beyond volitional control in healthy adults. None of thirty tested control subjects could mimic these changes in eye movement patterns volitionally, which underlies that hypnosis does indeed involve an altered mental state which is associated with cognitive and motor changes far beyond our volitional control.  

These findings have major implications for psychology and neurosciences, as they confirm the existence of a novel mental state in humans.

The findings were published on October 24th, 2011 in scientific journal PLoS ONE.

Link to the original study (open access): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026374.

Further information:

Lauri Nummenmaa
Aalto University School of Science
tel. +358 40 586 6700
nummenmaa@neuro.hut.fi    

Sakari Kallio
University of Skövde, Sweden
tel. +358 44 5445070
sakari.kallio@his.se

Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2011 results were published on Monday September 24, 2011. Aalto Executive MBA (Aalto EMBA) Program offered by Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE) was awarded with an excellent result and claimed a position as the number one EMBA Program in the Nordic Countries. For the first time Aalto EMBA Program left clearly behind the two traditional Scandinavian business schools, Stockholm School of Economics (founded in 1909) and Copenhagen Business School (founded in 1917). In FT’s global ranking Aalto EMBA Program is now ranked 53rd which is 9 places higher than previous year.

− Aalto EE’s carefully built position as the bridge between East and West is now beginning to bear fruit. We are humbly proud of our success in this prestigious ranking with our global Aalto Executive MBA Program which is currently offered in Finland, Poland, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Next year we will launch operations in Indonesia and build foundations for entry to Malaysia, says Dr Pekka Mattila, Group Managing Director, Aalto EE and Visiting Professor, Aalto University School of Economics. In 2011 Aalto EE has also relaunched its operations in Mainland China.

− The advancement is also thanks to the new Aalto model. True multidisciplinary thinking, international presence and the mere scale of Aalto’s operations are indisputable assets for us, says Dr Mattila.

Among all the variables of the Financial Times’ ranking Aalto EMBA Program performed best in participants’ career progress and the diversity of the program contents, participants and professors. For example gender equality was emphasized in the ranking.

− The result of the ranking indicates that our EMBA programs both in Europe and Asia encourage women to enter international executive careers. We have a considerable number of female executives in our programs and the share of female professors in our programs is above the average, says Dr Minna Hiillos, Head and Associate Dean of Degree Programs, Aalto EE.

Financial Times ranks annually the best Executive MBA programs in the world. This year the list comprised the 100 best EMBA programs globally. Aalto Executive MBA Program took part in the ranking by the name Aalto Executive MBA / Aalto University School of Economics.

For further information:

Dr Pekka Mattila,
Group Managing Director and Associate Dean, Executive Education
Aalto University Executive Education
pekka.mattila@aaltoee.fi
Mobile +358 40 738 7221

www.aaltoee.fi
www.facebook.com/aaltoee
www.twitter.com/aaltoee
http://aaltoeeblogs.blogspot.com/

Live like locals -tourism product is created within the BaltMet Promo-project which is coordinated by the Aalto University School of Economics, Center for Markets in Transition (CEMAT).

- The idea of the Tourism Product is to offer tourists authentic local experiences, such as cooking with local family, musical experiences, or a tour at the local market hall, describes project manager Malla Paajanen from CEMAT.

Based on the results of the competition, three women from Tokyo were selected as the first pilot group of the youth-targeted tourism product. The prize of the competition was a travel tour in the Baltic Sea Region where the winners wrote a blog based on their experiences.

There were three travel routes: Helsinki-St Petersburg (Mayumi Takahashi), Baltic Countries (Chihiro Ishino) and Berlin-Warsaw (Kaori Yoshi). The three travelers shared their experiences with the participants of the seminar organized in Tokyo.

The seminar was organized by the consortium of nine Project partners from the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) and Japanese partner Foresight Marketing with its manager Shigeyoshi Noto. Foresight Marketing is a long term partner for the Finnish Tourist Board.

- Marketing of the Tourism Product in Japan is a very hard work, but it seems that our idea of the joint BSR- marketing and reaching the narrow target group seems to be working, says Paajanen.

- Feedback from tourism industry representatives has showed that instead of traditional country-specific tourism promotion, regional marketing is needed, Paajanen notes.

Live like locals -bloggers experiences and images can be read at:

baltmetpromo.net

Photo: City of Helsinki/ Mika Lappalainen

----

BaltMet Promo is a joint project of nine partners from the Baltic Sea Region countries, and it is part-financed by the EU’s Baltic Sea Region Programme. BaltMet Promo’s travelling event was organized simultaneously with the Finland Film Festival in Tokyo. In addition to tourism promotion, the Promo project also promotes the film industry activities. The Promo project produces the Master class "Baltic Sea Region - Japan Coproduction Forum", which is targeted to young talents from Baltic Sea Region countries and Japan. The Master class is organized in the context of the Scanorama Film Festival in Vilnius in November 2011. The Master class aims to increase the number of film coproductions through exchange of knowledge and interaction between the Baltic Sea Region countries and Japan. In the development process of the concept, two researches on international cooperation in the film industry were strongly utilized. These research projects were conducted by research teams of Eija Niskanen (in Japan) and Malla Paajanen (in Finland, CEMAT). The “Lapland Odyssey - Napapiirin Sankarit” –movie, directed by Dome Karukoski, has been selected as one of the primary films of the Scanorama Film Festival.

All sectors of climate change receive equal attention on the site: Apart from scientific background information, the site presents concrete means for mitigation and adaptation. The material on the website has been prepared by Finland’s leading climate researchers and experts, and the contents will be supplemented and developed gradually.

The website contains approximately 400 pages of reliable information about climate change, presented in an easily understandable form. The articles have been checked by an editorial board with experts in various fields.

Information about the past and future climate at regional level

In addition to information concerning the whole of Finland, Ilmasto-opas provides more specific data at regional and local levels, for instance, about temperatures and precipitation for individual municipalities. The site also includes scenarios on how climate change will affect circumstances in each region during the coming decades. Observations and models demonstrate how climate change impacts on the conditions and the environment of a selected region.

Users of the site can quickly get a general idea of the impacts of climate change throughout Finland, and they can weigh concrete measures and solutions of their choice for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Users can themselves select the region, time period and emission scenario that interest them.

Segments tailored for target groups

Ilmasto-opas also has segments tailored for specific target groups. These take into account each group’s specific needs and viewpoint. The first segment to be opened is that for municipalities and municipal residents, since municipalities play an important role in providing for and adapting to climate change. Thanks to the site, municipal decision-makers can see at a glance how climate change will affect various sectors in their municipalities, thereby enabling them to evaluate measures and solutions that would meet their local needs.

Information from research institutions

The Ilmasto-opas.fi website is produced as a three-year EU Life+ project (LIFE07 INF/FIN/000152 CCCRP) by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Environment Institute and the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies of Aalto University.

The website will be maintained and developed together by several bodies, e.g. the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Environment Institute, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The Swedish and English versions of the site will be launched towards the end of this year.

Additional information

Researcher Simo Haanpää
Centre for Urban and Regional Studies of Aalto University
tel. +358 50 512 4557
simo.haanpaa@aalto.fi

Ilmasto-opas.fi website (In Finnish, the English version of the site will be launched later this year)

His work will include overseeing the development and implementation of Aalto University’s new teaching and research premises, maintaining command of campus planning and its sub-projects as well as cultivating steady dialogue with campus project users and cooperation partners. Mr. Leinonen’s previous positions include Senior Vice President, Property Development at Renor Ltd, Senior Expert at Senate Properties and Senior Research Scientist at VTT the Technical Research Centre of Finland. Mr. Leinonen will report to Aalto Director of Finance Marianna Bom.
 
The Aalto University campus solution was finalised in June 2011, when the model of one centralised campus was approved. This model best supports the realisation of the Aalto University’s mission; to become a multidisciplinary university and a pioneer of new ideas. Centralised operations will create the conditions for a high-quality, inspiring and versatile learning environment in which students are truly afforded the possibility to make choices.The centralised campus will support boundary-breaking research and artistic activity by enabling versatile and progressive forms of interaction. The values and mission of Aalto University will steer planning and construction of the new main campus.
 
The primary objective is to create a vibrant and interactive research and study environment where work, study, hobbies and everyday life are naturally interconnected. New energy and transport solutions will be required for the campus in order to achieve goals set for sustainable development. The campus project’s other objective is to provide premises for more diverse services and cultural activities as well as hobbies.
 
 

The Aalto Garden Otaniemi competition is open to all students of Aalto University. The competition is implemented in two stages. Participants for the second stage will be selected based on proposals submitted in the first stage. The competition period is 18 October 2011 to16 January 2012. The results of the competition will be announced on 30 January 2012.

More information on the competition and the documents (aalto.fi)

The aim of the challenge is to create a campus garden area of a high visual standard that strengthens the sense of community within Aalto University and creates the right conditions for a versatile and high-quality learning environment. The task of the contestants is to compile a plan that is viable, based on a fresh approach and accounts for the principles of sustainable development and regional well-being. The proposal should also include principles for the functionality and use of the area. The campus garden will be implemented during spring and summer 2012.

Questions concerning the competition:

Inka Finell
Aalto University
School of Art and Design
Tel. +358 (0)50 550 6251
inka.finell@aalto.fi 

-----
Implemented by Aalto University, Aalto Garden Otaniemi is part of the programme for World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. Aalto Garden Otaniemi is also part of the City of Espoo’s three-phase urban agriculture project, which is situated in the T3 area (Tapiola – Otaniemi – Keilaniemi). The T3 area is not only being developed as a creative and innovative centre based on the interaction between science, art and the economy, but also as a diverse cluster of employment, study and free time and a garden-like residential area.

Established in 1920, ITB is the oldest technology-oriented university in Indonesia. It is a coeducational state research university. ITB is one of the country's centers of excellence in science, technology, and art. ITB’s School of Business and Management (SBM ITB) was ranked the best business graduate school in Indonesia in 2009.

The joint Executive MBA Program will commence in 2012 in Indonesia and it is designed for business professionals and companies based in Indonesia.

"ITB’s profile, culture and ambitions are very similar to Aalto's. We are pleased to partner with a best in class University. The signed agreement is a great opening for a deeper relationship between the schools”, says Dr. Jari Talvinen, Managing Director, Aalto EE (Asia Pacific)

“Our aim is to create Global Leaders in business and Aalto University is the best partner for this goal. Together, we will offer high level executive education program that serves the needs of today’s Global Business Leaders”, says Dr. Reza Nasution, Director of the ITB MBA program.

This EMBA agreement expands Aalto EMBA participants’ true cross-borders, cross-cultural experience and network, complementing the current collaborations in China, Finland, Poland, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The partnership will also foster a stronger relationship between the Finnish-Indonesian cooperation through the exchange of valuable management expertise and knowledge.

New programs and joint operations with carefully selected partners in Asia are a part of Aalto EE Group’s newly crystallized strategy. “We are thriving to become a bridge between East and West in the executive education market. Our aim is to be the most preferred partner for the Asian companies seeking growth in Europe and for those European and especially Nordic companies who emphasize Asia as a strategic market”, says Dr. Pekka Mattila, The Group Managing Director and Associate Dean of Aalto EE.

Last summer Aalto EE signed a new contract with the South Korean Seoul School of Integrated Sciences and Technology for extending the cooperation in Executive MBA programs. After 16 years of successful cooperation Aalto EE - together with its partner – has claimed a position as one of the most prestigious schools in the market. “We have high expectations of the future prospects in Indonesia whose economic importance is only to increase”, continues Dr. Mattila.”

Together with Aalto EE EMBA agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between ITB and Aalto University, allowing cooperation in university visits, information exchange, and joint research activities between academia and students. In addition Aalto University School of Economics and SBM ITB signed student exchange agreement for undergraduate and graduate level.

Further information:

Dr. Pekka Mattila, Group Managing Director and Associate Dean, Aalto EE
pekka.mattila@aaltoee.fi
Mob. +358 40 738 7221

Dr. Jari Talvinen, Managing Director, Aalto EE (Asia Pacific)
jaritalvinen@aaltoee.sg
Tel. +65 6339 7338

Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE) (aaltoee.fi)

If the cost-efficiency of solar power was improved, the use of solar power would become more popular.

According to researcher and docent Hele Savin from the School of Electrical Engineering Department of Micro- and Nanosciences, the high cost of solar energy is partly caused by the materials currently used in solar cells. The research group led by Savin is trying to improve the cost-efficiency of cells by using new, photoactive materials.

Purifying silicon is expensive

At present, the most common material used in solar cells is silicon, the second most abundant element found in the Earth’s crust. Due to its commonness, silicon in itself is not expensive and can be extracted from the bedrock. However, in order for it to be usable in solar cells, it must first be purified.

Savin explains that the currently used purification process is expensive. The silicon must be melted at a high temperature in order to make it crystalline and devoid of harmful impurities and thus suitable for solar cells. Savin’s group is examining the opportunity of by-passing the expensive purification process.

̶ Our idea is that the silicon purification process would be reduced to a minimum and impurities managed in a controlled way by changing their chemical state or physical location so that they would not interfere with the operations of the solar cell, Savin says. With the help of this method, manufacturing solar cells from silicon would become much more affordable than it is today.

An answer to the world’s energy demand?

Covering the world’s energy demand by using nothing but solar power is already technically possible. Savin points to a world atlas with six black dots on it. If the areas marked with dots were covered with solar cells, the sun would make the world go round. No other form of energy production would be necessary.

̶ This fact is indicative of the huge potential solar power has. It also motivates us to carry on with our research.

Researching cost-efficient solar power materials is a consortium project and the participants include Aalto University, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Åbo Akademi University, the University of Jyväskylä and Tampere University of Technology. The project is part of the Photonics and Modern Imaging Techniques programme led by the Academy of Finland.

Text: Tea Kalska
Photo: Hele Savin

The CareerWeb is free of charge for employers. Only a quick registration is required to start posting and editing your job adverts.

Job adverts can be targeted to students in a particular school or field of study. The students see primarily their own field’s adverts but also have access to others as well. Only students of Aalto University have access to the CareerWeb.

For Aalto University students CareerWeb is more than just a channel for job adverts. It is also a source of information on job hunting, working life in general and events organized by university's career services.

This new service replaces the old CareerWeb of the School of Economics, the old CareerWeb of the Schools of Technology and Taikeri of the School of Art and Design.

Aalto CareerWeb - description and the terms of service

Register as an employer

More information for students on CareerWeb at the Into student portal (requires authentication).

More information:

careerweb@aalto.fi

Reactions in traditional batteries, in which cobalt oxides are the positive electrode material, are very exothermic i.e. heat-producing. If these traditional batteries malfunction, the electrolyte may begin to vaporise, causing the battery to explode. This is why batteries have a management system that prevents overcharging and over-discharging.

Batteries contain sensitive electrotechnology, which means that different parts of a battery may break in spite of the safety systems in place. Due to the greater amount of energy involved, the consequences of malfunctions in batteries such as car batteries are more severe than those produced by a malfunction of a mobile phone or laptop battery. For this reason it is important to develop and use safer and more durable materials.

Compared to traditional lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries have the advantage of being light in weight. Lithium is one of the lightest elements, meaning that batteries using lithium can be made lighter and smaller in volume.

Lithium-ion batteries do not function at low temperatures. Researchers are now looking for a solution with which to expand the range of a lithium-ion battery’s operating temperature. This is important as especially car batteries must also be reliable in cold conditions. A battery is an expensive component and as such should last be a long-term investment. Batteries must endure as many charge/discharge cycles as possible without sustaining significant changes.

Improved performance through doping alloys

It has been established that the properties of lithium iron phosphate make it safer than traditional electrode materials. However, electrochemical reactions are slow when lithium iron phosphate is used. Researchers have had to investigate whether the factor causing the limited reaction is the electron transfer or perhaps lithium-ion’s migration in the material. The research group is looking to solve these problems by altering the properties of materials.

Researchers have syntehesized a series of materials in which the properties of lithium iron phosphate have been systematically changed by replacing iron with small amounts of other elements and studying performance of this series at low temperatures. This process is also called doping.

In addition to manganese doping, researchers intend to change the share of different materials in the nickel-cobalt-manganese series. Their objective is to study the chemistry that causes changes in performance; in other words, whether the change is a result of bond energy or bond distance.

A research project initiated by the business world

The research project was initiated some three years ago due to requests from companies for assistance with manufacturing materials for lithium-ion batteries and the printing technology for electrodes.

A research group in inorganic chemistry, headed by Academy Professor Maarit Karppinen, has placed its focus on studying and producing the materials needed for production of batteries, while a research group in physical chemistry, headed by Docent Tanja Kallio, is studying and developing the electrochemical properties of batteries.

The group of researchers has been working for some two years to reach the international level of the field. The university has acquired the equipment needed for this research, and the international connections of the women heading the research project have been put to use. Before becoming a professor at the Helsinki University of Technology, Dr.. Karppinen worked in Japan and has ties to Chinese and Japanese experts as well as American material scientists. Finnish postgraduate students have had the opportunity to travel abroad to work with and learn from these experts.

Dr. Kallio has connections within the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry in Prague. Cooperation with the Swedish university has brought new expertise to this line of research.

The research project will continue through next year. Funding for possible further research will be applied for from the European Union and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.

Further information:

Academy Professor Maarit Karppinen, maarit.karppinen@aalto.fi

Docent Tanja Kallio, tanja.kallio@aalto.fi