School of Science and Technology News 2005-2010

The School of Science and Technology divides into four new schools of Aalto University

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:16:21 +0000

Aalto University School of Science and Technology divides into four new schools starting from 1st of January 2011.

The new schools are formed of the current university faculties and their names and deans are:

School of Engineering
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu
Högskolan för ingenjörsvetenskaper
Dean: Petri Varsta

School of Chemical Technology
Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu
Högskolan för kemiteknik
Dean: Outi Krause

School of Science
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu
Högskolan för teknikvetenskaper
Dean: Ilkka Niemelä

School of Electrical Engineering
Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu
Högskolan för elektroteknik
Dean: Tuija Pulkkinen

The names of the Aalto University School of Economics and the Aalto University School of Art and Design will remain unchanged.

The new school division streamlines the internal structure of Aalto University. All six schools are now of about the same size. The change also supports Aalto University's strategy. The new schools will have greater responsibilities than before in their own field, they can profile themselves more clearly in their areas of strength and will be able to develop their own expertise much deeper. Common research and education programmes will strengthen their cross-scientific and multidisciplinary nature.

The technological and scientific field of education will remain integrated regardless of the change. Also in future the students will find their way to Aalto University's degree programmes in technology, which the upcoming schools of technology will produce together in cooperation.

More information:

Vice Dean Mauri Airila
mauri.airila@aalto.fi
tel. 050 568 0035

Logging into Aalto Wiki with the old school-specific usernames to be stopped

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:22:00 +0000

The old school-specific usernames for the Wiki service will be removed from use in January 2011. The exact timing will be given at the beginning of January.

The usernames for the School of Economics, the School of Science and Technology and the School of Art and Design will no longer be usable when logging into the wiki.aalto.fi service. After the change, it will only be possible to log into Wiki using Aalto usernames. Activate your Aalto account now, if you have not done that yet!

User rights, favourites and history will automatically be copied into the new user account

The user rights, favourite work spaces and user history for the old school-specific usernames will migrate to become part of the same user's Aalto user account, with the exception of the personal space connected to the old username.

Personal space

After migration of the usernames, the contents of the personal space of the old user account must be transferred manually to the new user account, if the user wishes to do so. This can be done either by copying or transferring the pages in the work space to the other work space, i.e. to the personal space of the new user account. Instructions about how to transfer pages, will be updated into the Wiki soon.

More information:

* How to adopt the new Aalto account? (Inside)

* Aalto accounts for students

* List of services where you can log in with the Aalto account (Inside)

Apply for Aalto-courses

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:01:00 +0000

Aalto courses are courses that are open to all Aalto students. During the spring the following courses are organized: Key Thinkers at the Intersections of Art, Science, Culture and Technology, Method Madness and Knowledge Communication and Visualization.

Aaltoliike project will last for the entire year.

More information about the courses can be found from here: http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies/mobility/aalto_courses/.

Aalto University blogging service announced

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:51:09 +0000

Aalto University has opened a blogging service for Aalto students and staff. Blogging is an excellent choice when you want increased visibility and openness to yourself, your course or your project.

How can I utilize Aalto-blogs?

A blog can be used for example as a tool for group work, learning diary, course information channel or your personal portfolio. First and foremost blogs support collaborative learning. One can share thoughts about a lecture in the course’s blog. The ability to comment blog posts add to the interactive possibilities.

The blogging service enables you to create a blog for other purposes than just a personal blog. E.g. supporting your education, giving information about your hobbygroup/guild, sending updates about your research group’s accomplishments.

Start your blog at https://blogs.aalto.fi/

Contact blog administration: blogs@aalto.fi

Wishing you good times blogging,
The ICT in education -team

Energy-efficient server centres for Finland under development at Aalto University

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:39:59 +0000

Press release 2.12.2010

In a short time, national and international server centres, which consume significant amounts of electricity and produce heat, have appeared around Finland. Cooling down a server centre is comparable to a situation where one attempts to keep a room full of heated sauna stoves cool. The objective of Aalto University's Data Centers to Finland (DC2F) research project is to create, in the server centres, the conditions and know-how that will enable future production of digital services energy-efficiently and without putting a strain on the environment.

- The aim in the different sub-areas of the DC2F research project is to analyze the energy consumption of the ICT equipment and cooling solutions at the service centres to find the best future solutions for the optimization of the electricity consumption by various systems and for the utilization of the heat thus created, explains the Manager in Charge, Jukka Manner, from Aalto University.

A special priority area of the project deals with the development of electricity supply, based on direct current (400 Volts), for both servers and data communication equipment. The purpose is to analyze the server centres already in operation and, based on that, develop solutions for both cooling of the areas and utilization of the heat created. In addition, the project will pay attention to data communication equipment, the power consumption of which will dramatically grow along with the increasing use of the Internet and electronic services.

- A server centre's energy consumption is easier to conceptualize when one realizes that an average sized, 100 kW server centre is roughly comparable to approximately fifteen continuously heated electric stoves cooled by air. The area temperature must be kept around twenty degrees Celsius or the equipment will fail, Professor Manner explains.

The participants of the research project are the Department of Communications and Networking, the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Structural Engineering and Building Technology at Aalto University.

- Each department has its own particular role in the project. The objective is to provide comprehensive know-how for the building of the service centres and for choosing their ICT equipment. The project is a good example of cross-scientific research at Aalto University, Professor Manner says.

- With the help of broadly based research, Finland's research and industry in the field can rise into a more prominent role around the world, and with it we can also facilitate domestic server centre projects in Finland. Typically, the latest ICT technology is more efficient, but at the same time the equipment uses more energy than the equipment of the previous generation. In fact, the biggest threat is that there won't be enough electricity for all server centres.

The project is funded by Tekes and the Ministry of Finance. The industrial partners in the project are Cisco Systems Finland Oy, CSC – IT Centre for Science Ltd, Efore Oyj and Oy International Business Machines AB.

Further information:
Manager in Charge of the Project, Professor Jukka Manner, jukka.manner@tkk.fi, +358 (0)50 511 2973 Jose Costa-Requena, jose@netlab.tkk.fi, +358 (0)50 577 0142

Academy Professor Riitta Hari new Academician of Science

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:14:25 +0000

Academy Professor Riitta Hari will become Academician of Science. The President of the Republic Tarja Halonen granted her the honorary title of Academician at the presidential session on 26 November. The letter of appointment will be presented to the new Academician by the President of the Republic in Helsinki on 29 November 2010.

Riitta Hari is an internationally recognised and respected neuroscientist. She has developed methods and applications of human brain imaging and thereby contributed decisively to the progress of this branch of science.

Hari’s current focus is on the brain basis of social interaction – and once again she is blazing the trail. Director of the Brain Research Unit of the Low Temperature Laboratory at Aalto University School of Science and Technology (former Helsinki University of Technology, TKK), Riitta Hari and her team are widely known for their long-standing work in developing magnetoencephalography (MEG) and its applications. MEG picks up the weak magnetic fields of the brain, providing information about brain processing with millisecond resolution. The results have multiple applications in basic research, but also in the diagnostics and follow-up of brain diseases.

Hari started to work at the Low Temperature Laboratory back in 1982, at the invitation of Professor Olli V. Lounasmaa, then director of the Laboratory. Lounasmaa was awarded the title of Academician in 1997. Hari graduated as Doctor of Medical Science from the University of Helsinki in 1980. At the time that she was finalising her doctoral thesis, she got into contact with the cardiomagnetism team of Associate Professor Toivo Katila at Helsinki University of Technology, and started to use their single-channel magnetometer for brain research.

Lounasmaa and Hari had extremely productive collaboration: Hari concentrated on her brain research and Lounasmaa supervised the development of new-generation neuromagnetometers. “Initially our research focused very much on MEG, because all we had was this one method,” Hari says. “We therefore broadened the scope of our investigations so that over time we were able to build up a coherent view of brain function.”

“With the phenomenal advances in measurement techniques and analysis tools, brain imaging laboratories have become meeting places for scientists interested in human brain and mind,” Hari explains. She has led us towards a deeper understanding of the human mind through the use of increasingly real-life-like experimental settings. Her ultimate ambition is “two-person neuroscience”, i.e. the simultaneous examination of two individuals’ brains: this would shed crucial light on the brain basis of social interaction.

“As our brains are very strongly shaped by other people, I’m convinced that this is the direction we should pursue to gain a better understanding of the human mind. The dyad of two people is a more meaningful unit of analysis for the study of the human mind than an isolated individual.”

She describes her work as a challenging, high-risk endeavour with a shaky foundation: it is an ongoing process of simultaneously developing new experimental settings, equipment, concepts and signal analysis. “To make sure we always have some grounding to fall back on, we usually pursue multiple lines of research at the same time: some of our products comprise more traditional research of sensory and motor functions.”

Active publishing

Hari’s scientific publishing is extensive and internationally highly acknowledged, including a total of 285 scientific articles. She has also been active in supervising a wide range of doctoral dissertations covering disciplines such as clinical neurophysiology, neurology, psychology, psychiatry, neuropaediatrics, audiology, physics, medical physics, neurosurgery and radiology.

Hari has recently started her third five-year term as Academy Professor (2010–2014). She also directs the Finnish Centre of Excellence on Systems Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Research at Aalto University. The Academy of Finland has granted the Centre some EUR 2.7 million for 2006–2011. Hari is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences since 2004.

Hari has been granted several prestigious awards and recognitions both abroad and in Finland, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Lisbon in 2003, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in Switzerland in 2003, the Justine and Yves Sergent Prize for Cognitive Neuroscience in Canada in 2002 and the Award for the Advancement of European Science in Germany in 1987, and the Finnish Science Award in 2009, an honorary doctorate from the University of Kuopio in 2005 and the Matti Äyräpää Award in 2001.

Twelve Academicians

The President of the Republic may confer the honorary title of Academician of Science to highly distinguished Finnish or foreign scientists or scholars. The title of Academician can be held by no more than twelve Finnish scientists or scholars at a time.

Riitta Hari joins an esteemed group of Academicians comprising Olli Lehto (mathematics, year of appointment 1975), Olavi Granö (geography, 1980), Pekka Jauho (physics, 1987), Erik Allardt (sociology, 1995), Jorma K. Miettinen (radiochemistry, 1995), Albert de la Chapelle (medicine, 1997), Teuvo Kohonen (physics, 2000), Arto Salomaa (mathematics, 2001), Pirjo Mäkelä (medicine, 2003), Päiviö Tommila (history, 2004) and Anna-Leena Siikala (folkloristics, 2009).

More information:

Academician Riitta Hari, tel. +358 400 536 440
Academy of Finland President Markku Mattila, tel. +358 9 7748 8210 and +358 400 736 603

(Press Release from Academy of Finland)

A brain mechanism found to predict good long-term memory for words

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:03:48 +0000

Why do things at times stay on our mind easily while at others they do not despite a determined attempt to learn? A recently published study presents a brain mechanism that can partly clarify this question. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), the study measured the brain activity of persons who had learned the names of unknown ancient farming tools. The naming-related brain responses of the learners were followed immediately after learning as well as 1 week, 4 weeks, 2 months, and 10 months later.

One week after learning, all participants were close to perfect in naming the objects. However, concomitant naming-related brain responses by MEG revealed individual differences that predicted how well each participant would remember the object names 10 months later. Good long-term memory for names was accompanied by enhanced brain signals in two regions of the left cerebral cortex, namely the temporal lobe and the lower part of the frontal lobe. Both of these areas are known to be engaged in language. The results suggest that each retrieval of newly learned information can either strengthen or weaken the memory trace. The secret for good verbal memory may thus lie in enhanced brain activity at the moment of recalling the information.

This study was conducted at the Aalto University Low Temperature laboratory (Finland) in collaboration with researchers from the Åbo Akademi University (Finland). The article Modulation of brain activity after learning predicts long-term memory for words has just been published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The Bit Bang doctoral course tackles future visions across disciplines and cultures

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:23:56 +0000

Answers to these and many other future-oriented questions are sought in Aalto University's Bit Bang post-graduate course. The course is now being held for the third academic year and is funded by the Aalto University School of Science and Technology Multidisciplinary Institute of Digitalisation and Energy (MIDE) research programme. The course's doctoral candidates represent various fields of science, from jurisprudence and materials science to film production, and this year 11 different nationalities will be participating.

"Rich, multidisciplinary and multinational interaction as well as the energy that students have put into this extremely demanding course demonstrate that Aalto University really does bring added value to doctoral studies," says MIDE Leader Yrjö Neuvo, summing up the course benefits.

Forming future visions with existing practices

The course themes vary from year to year. The first Bit Bang course focused on the future of digitalisation, the second dealt with innovations and energy issues. This academic year, the Bit Bang 3 course will delve into entrepreneurship and the service business. In addition to this, each year the course has included a strictly scheduled study trip to a destination that shows the course themes in practice. The first Bit Bang group visited Silicon Valley, California to see cutting edge developments in digitalisation. Last year, the course headed for China, where students were able to see first-hand the industrial rise of the Shanghai region.

Each year, the course themes have been further enhanced by the practical examples and ideas of prestigious guest lecturers, such as Anssi Vanjoki, Jaakko Rauramo and Jorma Eloranta. Together with the guest lecturers students have been able to study the creation of Nokia's first Communicator and potential applications for robots to aid in daily routines, for example, at hospitals.

From understanding to co-operation

The aim of the entire Bit Bang year is to jointly produce an English-language publication, to which students in groups of 5 to 6 will contribute their own articles. The cross-disciplinary and multicultural lessons learned were also praised in course feedback.

"I think one of the biggest pros here is how the course offers an outstanding opportunity to learn about other fields and to network within Aalto University," explains Daniel Graff, a researcher for the International Business Unit at the Aalto School of Economics."At the beginning of the course, all the course participants should also teach their own area of research to others , so that everyone will 'speak the same language' as the course progresses. Due to the variety of educational backgrounds involved, this is absolutely necessary to ensure that the article will be uniform and consistent. It's challenging, but also very instructive."

During the application period, it is emphasised that the subjects studied do not examine technology in depth, but rather that the purpose of the course is to study each theme across disciplines and from a variety of perspectives. Indeed, Graff considers that the benefit of diverse teams is that they are capable of coming up with fresh ideas, even for well-worn subjects, due to the various backgrounds of the people involved.

The books from previous Bit Bang courses can be read at the following addresses:

Bit Bang - Rays to the Future (2008-2009) http://lib.tkk.fi/Reports/2009/isbn9789522480781.pdf
Bit Bang – Energising Innovation, Innovating Energy (2009 -2010),
http://lib.tkk.fi/Reports/2010/isbn9789526034140.pdf

http://mide.tkk.fi

New deans appointed for the Schools of Engineering Sciences and Chemical Technology

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:47:48 +0000

The Board has earlier appointed Professor Tuija Pulkkinen as Dean of the Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering and Professor Ilkka Niemelä as the Dean of School of Science on for a five-year term beginning on 1 January 2011 and Professor Jyrki Wallenius as the Dean of the Aalto University School of Economics for a fixed term for the year 2011. Professor Helena Hyvönen will continue as Dean of the Aalto University School of Art and Design.

Professor Outi Krause (b. 1948) is currently Vice Executive Dean of Aalto University School of Science and Technology where she is in charge of developing research and doctoral education and particularly the strategic focus area of energy research and teaching. In 2005, Krause became the first woman to be appointed as the Vice-Rector of Helsinki University of Technology. She was in charge of the development of research, doctoral training, international affairs and societal impact. She was appointed Professor of Chemical Technology in 1993, prior to which Krause worked for Neste Oy for more than a decade.

Professor Petri Varsta (b. 1947) is currently Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. He has been Professor of Naval Architecture since 1983. His research area is shipbuilding technology, particularly the safety of ship structures. Before his position at TKK, Petri Varsta has worked, for instance, at VTT and held managerial and researcher positions in the ship building industry.

For additional information, please contact

Heikki Mannila
Vice President
heikki.mannila@aalto.fi
Tel. +358 50 511 2913

Students at Aalto University are building Finland’s first satellite

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:43:05 +0000

The satellite is based on the widely used CubeSat nanosatellite format, which has been developed by universities. The device, slightly larger than a milk carton, will weigh only three kilos. The most important payload carried by the satellite will be a spectrometer developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The spectrometer will be used for environmental remote sensing.

The satellite will also serve as a test bed for an electrostatic plasma brake, developed by Pekka Janhunen and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It allows the satellite to be deorbited after it has completed its mission.

“Space debris will be a big problem as small satellites become more and more common,” says Jaan Praks, researcher at Aalto University Department of Radio Science and Engineering, who is coordinating the project. According to Praks, the plasma brake allows the satellite to be deorbited, which will cause its destruction as it enters the atmosphere.

In addition to the spectrometer and the plasma brake, the satellite will also carry a radiation detector developed by the Universities of Turku and Helsinki. The purpose of the instrument is to demonstrate that a combination of low power consumption and consumer electronics can bring success in space.

“Aalto-1 is more ambitious than ordinary student satellites. After all, most CubeSat satellites built by students are simple and carry only one instrument. Moreover, our satellite also has ambitious scientific and technological goals,” explains Praks.

The Aalto-1 project is part of the Multidisciplinary Institute of Digitalisation and Energy (MIDE) of the Aalto University School of Science and Technology. Martti Hallikainen, Professor at Aalto University Department of Radio Science and Engineering, is in charge of the project, while Jaan Praks acts as the project coordinator.

More information:
Professor Martti Hallikainen
Aalto University Department of Radio Science and Engineering*
martti.hallikainen@tkk.fi
Tel. +358 40 500 7010

Rsearcher Jaan Praks
Aalto University Department of Radio Science and Engineering
jaan.praks@tkk.fi
Tel. +358 50 574 7975

Project´s webpages https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/SuomiSAT/Etusivu

Professor Katherine Richardson presents a scientist's view on climate change in Aalto Physics ...

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:02:14 +0000

Did you get most of of your knowledge about climate change via journalists? Where you bothered by the fact that this information contained a lot of noise, for example related to political questions or even scandals. Would you like to hear first-hand information from a scientist who really knows the field and has herself contributed to the research evidence about climate change?

Now it is your chance: You are welcome to the next Aalto Physics Colloquium, taking place in hall M (Mellin hall) of the Aalto Otaniemi main building on Friday, the 12th November at 15:

Katherine Richardson (University of Copenhagen):

Redefining the Human-Earth Relationship: A Scientist’s view on climate change

Professor Richardson is a marine biologist, who is one of the best-informed scientists about the climate change: She was for example the chairman of the steering committee for the Copenhagen Climate Congress organized in 2009, and acted as the chairman of the European Research Council panel on starting grants related to climate studies.

More information:

Coordinator Tero Heikkilä, forename.surename@tkk.fi, p. 09 470 22396.

http://ltl.tkk.fi/wiki/Aalto_physics_colloquium

http://www.science.ku.dk/fakultetet/organisation/ledelse/kr_cv/

Easy fabrication of non-reflecting and self-cleaning surfaces out of silicon and plastics

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:10:57 +0000

The Microfabrication group at Aalto University, specialising in microfabrication and microfludics, has developed a new and rapid method for the fabrication of non-reflecting and self-cleaning surfaces. Surface properties are based on the nanostructured surface. The research results were just published in Advanced Materials, which is one of the most appreciated journals in the field of materials science.

The most laborious part the fabrication process was excluded when Aalto University's Microfabrication group developed a novel maskless method for the fabrication of pyramid-shaped nanostructures on a silicon surface using deep reactive ion etching. The nanostructured silicon wafer can be further used as a template to create an ealstomeric stamp, which can be used to replicate the original non-reflective and self-cleaning nanostructure into the different polymers.

Smooth silicon surfaces are mirror-like and they reflect more than 50 percent of incoming light, while nanostructured silicon and polymeric surfaces are almost completely non-reflecting. The reflectance is reduced at broad wavelength range due to smooth refractive index transition from air to substrate due to nanostructures, says Lauri Sainiemi from the Microfabrication group.

Non-reflecting surfaces and their fabrication methods are hot research topics because they are needed for the realization of more efficient solar cells. Similar nanostructured silicon and polymeric surfaces can also be utilized in chemical analysis, because low reflectance is needed in analysis procedures. The second beneficial property of the surfaces is self-cleaning, which is based on nanostructures, which are coated with a thin low surface energy film.

The applications of the developed nanofabrication methods for silicon and polymers ranges from sensors to solar cells. The biggest strength of the fabrication methods are their scalability and the possibility for large scale industrial manufacturing. I believe that there is interest because our fabrication methods enable simple and low-cost manufacturing of nanostructures on large areas and the methods are compatible with single-crystalline, poly-crystalline and amorphous silicon as well as a wide variety of different polymers, concludes Sainiemi.

The group has already develop surfaces for chemical analysis of drugs in collaboration with other research groups and that research will continue in the future. An interesting novel field is the development of more effective self-cleaning and dirt-repellant surfaces, that would especially benefit solar cell research. The fabrication of water-repellent surfaces is fairly straightforward, but liquids with low surface tension can still contaminate the surface. At the moment we are developing novel surfaces that also repel oily liquids.

The article was published on Oct. 27, 2010 in Advanced Materials on-line.

Non-Reflecting Silicon and Polymer Surfaces by Plasma Etching and Replication

Lauri Sainiemi, Ville Jokinen, Ali Shah, Maksim Shpak, Susanna Aura, Pia Suvanto, Sami Franssila. (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201001810)

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201001810/abstract

Contact information:

Researcher Lauri Sainiemi, D.Sc. (Tech.)
Aalto University
Microfluidics Group
lauri.sainiemi@tkk.fi
Tel. +358 9 470 26071

Aalto University School of Science and Technology to be divided into four new schools

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:33:59 +0000

In its meeting on 22nd October 2010, the board of Aalto University decided to approve an amendment to its bylaws and divide the Aalto University School of Science and Technology into four new schools of technology starting from 1st of January 2011.

The new schools are formed of the current university faculties and their names in English and Finnish are:

School of Engineering
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu
(former Faculty of Engineering and Architecture)

School of Chemical Technology
Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu
(former Faculty of Chemistry and Materials Sciences )

School of Science
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu
(former Faculty of Information and Natural Sciences)

School of Electrical Engineering
Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu
(former Faculty of Electronics, Communications and Automation)

The names of the Aalto University School of Economics and the Aalto University School of Art and Design will remain unchanged. The abbreviations for the names of the schools and their names in Swedish will be decided later on during this autumn.

The new school division streamlines the internal structure of Aalto University. All six schools are now of about the same size. Services that were produced earlier in a centralized manner can now be moved closer to users, to the schools and faculties. The change also speeds up the formation of an integrated university at the aftermath of a large structural reform.

The change also supports Aalto University's strategy. The new schools will have greater responsibilities than before in their own field, they can profile themselves more clearly in their areas of strength and will be able to develop their own expertise much deeper. Common research and education programs will strengthen their cross-scientific and multidisciplinary nature.

The technological and scientific field of education will remain integrated regardless of the change. Also in future the students will find their way to Aalto University's degree programs in technology, which the upcoming schools of technology will produce together in cooperation.

At the same meeting, the board of Aalto University also discussed the intention to merge the Architecture department and the School of Art and Design into a new Aalto University School of Architecture, Art and Design. The board will reconsider the matter in June 2011 on the basis of the work on strategy currently under way. The strategy and objectives of the planned new school will be clarified during the debate, making use of the preparatory work already accomplished. For the time being, the Architecture department will remain as a part of the Aalto University School of Engineering.

Further information

Heikki Mannila
Vice President
heikki.mannila@aalto.fi
Tel. +358 (0)50 511 2913

The Board Appointed Three New Deans

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:32:27 +0000

At its meeting on the 22nd October 2010, the Foundation Board of Aalto University appointed three new Deans. Professor Tuija Pulkkinen was appointed as Dean of the Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering and Professor Ilkka Niemelä was appointed as Dean of the Aalto University School of Science for five years from 1.1.2011. Professor Jyrki Wallenius was appointed Dean of the Aalto University School of Economics for the year 2011.

Ph.D. Tuija Pulkkinen (born in 1962) took her doctorate at the University of Helsinki in 1992 and works as a research professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute heading the Earth Observations research program. Her specialist fields are research of the near-Earth space environment, space plasma physics and the Northern Lights.

The research group led by Tuija Pulkkinen develops new remote sensing methods, space technology and numerical models for research of the earth’s surface, the atmosphere and space environment. Space research concentrates on the atmospheres and space environments of the Earth and Earthlike planets. Satellite measurements are used to examine long-term changes in ozone holes in the polar regions, climate change, and air pollution. Since 2008, Professor Pulkkinen has been the president of the EGU, the European Geosciences Union. The research done within the EGU forms the scientific basis for many of the burning questions of the day such as energy solutions or climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

D.Sc. (Tech.) Ilkka Niemelä (born in 1961) has been Professor of Computer Science at the University of Science and Technology since 2000. He received his doctorate in computer science from Helsinki University of Technology in 1993. He was appointed as the Head of the Laboratory for Theoretical Computer Science in 2000 and since 2008 he has been the Chair of the Degree Program of Computer Science and Engineering.

The research group led by Ilkka Niemelä develops new methods for automated reasoning and constraint satisfaction for solving challenging computational problems in engineering and science. The objective is to develop general purpose tools for solving search and optimization problems that occur in areas such as computer-aided design or bioinformatics.

Currently, the main focus of the work is in applications related to system design such as verification, automated testing, and product configuration, as well as in solution techniques that can exploit the massive distributed computing capacity offered by grid technology for solving extremely challenging problems.

D.Sc. (Econ.) Jyrki Wallenius (born in 1949) has been professor of management science in the Department of Business Technology at the Helsinki School of Economics since 2005. Since 2008 he has served as the department head. During 1998–2005 Professor Wallenius was the Director of the International Centre and during 1999–2004 he was Vice Rector of the Helsinki School of Economics. Wallenius was originally appointed Professor at the Helsinki School of Economics in 1990.Professor Wallenius’ areas of interest are decision making, particularly decision support, as well as modelling of negotiations. Professor Wallenius is one of the leading researchers in his field. He is currently President of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making.

Professor Helena Hyvönen will continue as Dean of the Aalto University School of Art and Design. The additional information will be provided later regarding the appointments of the Deans for the remaining two Schools.

Further information:

Heikki Mannila
Vice Rector
heikki.mannila@aalto.fi
Tel.+358 50 511 2913

Annual Elwood S. Buffa Dissertation Award to D.Sc. Antti Tenhiälä

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:36:43 +0000

Decision Sciences Institute, an international society of decision-making research, awards a prize to the dissertation of D.Sc. Antti Tenhiälä. The institute´s annual Elwood S. Buffa awards are given to the best dissertations in decision-making theory and practice. The awards committee placed Tenhiälä's work Contingency Theories of Order Management, Capacity Planning, and Exception Processing in Complex Manufacturing Environments on the shared second position, making it the first time in the institute's 41 years of history that a Finnish dissertation has reached a top-three position.

Tenhiälä's research is focused on manufacturing firms and describes how the effectiveness of the planning methods and communication practices of middle managers is influenced by different characteristics of task environmental uncertainty. The dissertation belongs to the field of industrial management and it was written under the supervision of Mikko Ketokivi and Kari Tanskanen.

Currently Tenhiälä works as an assistant professor at IE Business School in Madrid. Awards ceremony will take place in November at the annual meeting of Decision Sciences Institute in San Diego, CA.

Further information:

http://www.decisionsciences.org/annualmeeting/meetinginfo/dissertation.asp

Dissertation [.pdf]

The Audi Award for Design and Innovation competition

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:41:09 +0000

The Audi Award for Design and Innovation is a 14-month competition organized by Audi Finland together with the Aalto University. Student teams have the objective to create future concepts for and around the new Audi A1 car, taking into account sustainable design, technology, urban mobility and user value. Through an open call, participants are requested to submit Big Ideas for the competition. Out of all acceptable submissions, the jury will choose the 10 best initial proposals for further development.

At the end of the competition the winning team will receive a grand prize of 5000 Euros; also the team selected as second place will receive a price of 2000 Euro, and the third place will receive a price of 1000 Euro. All students from The Aalto University or any other university Finnish or foreign can take part with no age restriction.

See more: http://www.audiaward.fi/

Concept for solving transport problem wins ”Intelligent Society” Innovation Cup 2010

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:52:32 +0000

The American Ambassador of Finland Bruce Oreck handed over the prize for the winning team of the ‘’Intelligent Society’’ Innovation Cup winners held jointly with Aalto University and VTT. The winner of the competition receives TULI-financing and support for the commercialization process as well as an excursion to Silicon Valley.

MetropolDRT is an Urban Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) concept. It is a new pioneering approach to solve the urban transport problem. State-of-the-art technology is utilized to provide a real-time transport service that dynamically balances the quality of service and efficient use of vehicle fleet capacity. This system will operate truly fully automated so that scalability to the high demand conditions of urban areas is enabled. DRT system offers as well a trip specific quality of service and pricing to the end-users in real-time fashion.

There are 500 global metropol areas in the World. Annually over 600 Billion trips are commuted in those areas. The inventors of the winning team include Professor Reijo Sulonen, Teemu Sihvola, Esa Hyytiä, Aleksi Penttinen, Jani-Pekka Jokinen and Timo Halko from Aalto University School of Science and Technology.

First runner up for the cup was Cohousing Finland from Aalto University School of Science and Technology. Their mission is to assemble people with specific housing needs by forming groups of committed future dwellers and “sell” these committed people to project developers. The team members of Cohousing Finland are Johanna Kerovuori, Lennart Lang, Niilo Luotonen, Markku Hakala, Reijo Pesonen and Saara Paavola.

The candidate research groups were from Aalto University and VTT. The judges were Will Cardwell, Head of Aalto Centre for Entrepreneurship and Tapio Koivu, EVP of VTT’s IP Business.

The theme of the Innovation Cup 2010 was intelligent society. The goal of the Innovation Cup was to activate researchers into inventing new ideas around intelligent society on B2C level. That included e.g. innovations aimed to steer and develop infrastructures and real estate. The bests of this year’s applicants joined Aalto Venture Garage’s Bootcamp.

Additional information:

Aalto University
Teemu Seppälä, Development Manager
p. +358 50 3011192
teemu.seppala@tkk.fi
http://oiic.tkk.fi/

VTT
Irene Hernberg
Chief Communications Officer
IP Businesstel:
Tel. +358 20 722 4321, +358 40 5555 818
irene.hernberg@vtt.fi
www.vtt.fi

Apply now for Aalto University internal mobility courses!

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:15:00 +0000

Are you interested in taking courses at another Aalto University School? This might be possible by applying for Aalto University internal mobility courses.

Application period for Aalto University internal mobility courses has begun! The application period ends 31 October. During the application period you can apply for courses held during the spring term 2011.

You’ll find the courses and more information from http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies/mobility/.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Luis Almagro from Uruguay visits Helsinki

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 11:40:30 +0000

Uruguayan Official and Business Delegation headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Luis Almagro visits the University of Helsinki on 7.10.2010. During the visit the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and Aalto University School of Science and Technology showcase their co-operation with Uruguay in the area of forestry and wood-related teaching and research.

The first steps of the cooperation between Aalto University School of Science and Technology and Uruguayan Universidad de la República were taken in 2006. The principal objective of the cooperation is to create high quality scientific capacity in pulp and paper making in Uruguay. A project for creating a Master's Program in Pulp and Paper Technology was started in 2007. During the first stage of the Project, nearly 20 students attended the whole Master's Program; dozens of other students from industrial companies or universities and other public institutions attended individual courses of the Project. The Project's second phase started in April 2010, and there are currently 15 students attending the whole Master's Program.

“The Master’s Program Project has been funded by Finnish and Uruguayan public sources and several Finnish-based industrial companies, such as Metsä-Botnia, Andritz, Kemira, Pöyry Forest Industries, Stora-Enso and UPM-Kymmene. In addition to funding, the companies have offered lecturers for the courses throughout the cooperation Program. During the cooperation, five Uruguayan students have carried out their master's thesis works at our department ,” says Teaching Researcher Kyösti Ruuttunen from Aalto University School of Science and Technology.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry (University of Helsinki) participates in the Global Industrial Forestry Network (GIFN). The network consists of five members: University of Helsinki and the Swedish Agricultural University SLU from the Northern hemisphere as well as in the south, the Universidad de la República from Uruguay, Universidad do São Paulo from Brazil and University of Stellenbosch from South Africa.

The GIFN initiative started as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue to promote multidisciplinary approaches on sustainable use of managed forests. The members aim at developing the highest standards in academic education, research, and expert capacity in the field of managed forests to respond to the demands of highly qualified professional foresters in a globalising forestry sector.

The network promotes open dialogue and active exchange of information among forest stakeholders, and thus is fully committed to support social sustainability, social responsibility, and social acceptability of managed forests worldwide.

Additional information:

- Gabriela Albarracin Gabriela.Albarracin@helsinki.fi, +358 9 191 57967 (Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and the visit of the delegation in general)

- Kyösti Ruuttunen kyosti.ruuttunen@tkk.fi, +358 9 470 24228 (Aalto University School of Science and Technology)

Source: University of Helsinki

Executive Dean Pursula: Aalto University safeguards optimal conditions for teaching and ...

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:21:24 +0000

Press release, 1 October 2010

The first ceremonial conferment of doctoral degrees from Aalto University took place in Otaniemi today, on 1 October. These were the first doctors to graduate from Aalto University, although it was the twenty-first conferment from the School of Science and Technology. In the ceremony, 365 Doctors of Technology and Philosophy received their degrees, of whom 27% were women and 14% were international students. In addition, nine honorary doctorates were awarded.

In his opening speech, Executive Dean Matti Pursula called attention to the division of the Aalto University School of Science and Technology into four schools of technology from 2011. He also emphasised the strong status of science and technology within the recently established Aalto University.

- Next year, Aalto University will consist of six schools, of which four will operate in the field of science and technology and one in economics, while the make-up of the sixth is still under consideration.

- If the merger of the Department of Architecture into the School of Art and Design takes place, the resulting new school of Design and Architecture will have two fields of education: art and design, and science and technology. This would make technology present in five of Aalto’s six schools.

The division of the School of Science and Technology into four schools of technology will, according to Pursula, simplify the administrative structure and give the new schools greater freedom of operation. At the same time, they will bear greater responsibility for their own development.

Pursula says that Aalto University must take care of its cutting-edge research and teaching in technology even after the School of Science and Technology in its current form closes its doors at the end of the year.

- Aalto University must continue to shoulder its responsibility for education and research in the field of technology. This must not be at the expense of the status of economics and art and design, however. Aalto University must continue to be a world-class institution in each of its three fields of operation, within teaching and research alike.

Pursula considers Aalto University’s new choices to provide even better conditions for technology education in the future.

- Aalto University has a unique opportunity to safeguard the future of teaching and research in technology, and to provide teachers, researchers and students with ever-better working and studying conditions despite the increasingly tough competition.

- Aalto University is reaching for the global vanguard in its fields, with its visionary new operating models. It is our responsibility to make the best possible use of this opportunity, for the sake of Aalto and of Finland, the Executive Dean underscored in his opening speech.

http://promootio2010.tkk.fi/en/

More information:

Executive Dean Matti Pursula, tel. +358 9 470 22000