Department of Design

ENCORE research

Current and past research projects
Encore's Doctors
Doctors of Arts (Photo: Aalto University)
ENCORE alumni join forces with present ENCOREans through an International SDG Collaboration Program.
ENCORE alumni join forces with present ENCOREans through an International SDG Collaboration Program.

Towards a sustainable and ethical future of care workers (2024-2025)

ENCORE alumni join forces with present ENCOREans through an International SDG Collaboration Program by the University of Sydney. Yiying Wu (University of Sydney) acts as the PI and Jung-Joo Lee (National University of Singapore) as a CI, while Martina Caic and Virpi Roto from the present ENCORE join the Advisory Board. The other project partners include Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Edinburgh.

The project aims to investigate the diverse effects of emerging technologies on care workers in aged care homes, with a focus on work rights, job quality, and overall well-being. This project addresses the care crisis where there's a shortage of workers and poor working conditions. We're interested in how technologies could enhance care workers’ conditions andwellbeing. To achieve this goal, the consortium intends to engage diverse stakeholders from technology, care, and policy sectors to collaboratively examine how new technologies would impact the aged care workforce. From these co-design activities, the project then identifies key ethical and social issues andconcerns, and suggests design principles for the innovation of technologies, services, and policies, thereby paving the way for a more sustainable and ethical future for care workers.

Contact: Virpi Roto and Martina Čaić

Interremote
INTERREMOTE (2023 - 2025)

INTERREMOTE 

2023-2025

Kongsberg Maritime Finland is developing remote control centers for autonomous ships.  Encore team studies enriching interaction with the remote operation system. The main objective of INTERREMOTE is to develop new means to interact with automated systems in the case of remote operation of autonomous ships. The purpose of this work is to make the future of work with automation a more enriching user experience for the employees. The scientific objectives of INTERREMOTE include theoretical and methodological objectives. The theoretical objective is to develop a conceptual model of work enrichment via human-automation interaction. The methodological objective is to develop an enrichment assessment tool and techniques to design for remote work enrichment. Research through Design approach will orchestrate several Master's Thesis projects where the design happens.

Contact: Virpi Roto

Current and past project members: Virpi Roto, Antony William Joseph, Vivian Stolt, Iiro Törmä, Vilhelmiina Skyttä

MRI
AMRI project (Photo: Aalto University)

Accessible Magnetic Resonance Imaging AMRI

AMRI project is a three-year project funded by Technology Industries’ Future Makers instrument. The project is led by assistant professor Ilkka Laakso in Aalto ELEC, and the project focuses on studying and developing a novel MRI concept and technology. 

Contact: Severi Uusitalo and Markus Ahola

Creatures project logo
CreaTures research project

CreaTures (Creative Practices for Transformational Futures) 

2020-2023

The EU Horizon 2020 funded transdisciplinary research project highlights how creative practices can contribute to addressing climate change and associated effects. The project aims at demonstrating effective paths to achieving sustainability, social cohesion and peaceful co-existence at a time of rapid change. This will be achieved by identifying existing, often hidden transformational creative practices, by supporting new experimentation and direct audience engagement around these practices, and by evaluating their impact.

The three-year research project is coordinated by Aalto University Department of Design and the scientific coordinator of the project is professor Tuuli Mattelmäki. Key researchers from Encore team are post doc Marketa Dolejsova and post doc Namkyu Chun. Other Aalto key personnel in the project include research fellow Andrea Botero, professor of artistic practice Julia Lohmann, professor Sampsa Hyysalo, and project manager Riikka Raitio from the Aalto Research and Innovation Services. 

Contact: Tuuli Mattelmäki

For more information, visit the official project webpage https://creatures-eu.org/

Aalto University/Photo Unto Rautio
Photo: Aalto University/Unto Rautio

CBCR - Capacity building of Creative Radicals

(2021-2022)

Building an outstanding creative community for new thinking

Empowering an experimental culture by building the spaces and practices that encourage us to break boundaries and create novel perspectives

The aim of the project is to empower the whole of the Aalto community in developing a culture of radical creativity. ​

​The project supports Aalto’s strategic goal of an outstanding creative community for new thinking and the target state of a creative culture that empowers students, faculty, and staff to take risks, experiment, and celebrate diversity and debate.

Contact: Kirsi Hakio

Oodi_Helsinki
Photo: Kuvio

CAPE

2020-2023

Nils Ehrenberg from Encore and Professor Turkka Keinonen are working together with Danish and Swedish Universities and libraries to explore Civic Agency in Public E-Governance. In the CAPE project, we explore how libraries can function as Civic Innovation centres. We work together with libraries as they represent public spaces open for everyone that maintain communities, support democracy, and have a strong tradition of supporting participation.

Universities: Aalto University, Aalborg University, IT University of Copenhagen, Malmö University

Website: cape.itu.dk

The CAPE project is funded by Nordforsk via the Academy of Finland.

Contact: Nils Ehrenberg

Luotsivene
Sea4value (Photo: Finnpilot)

Sea4Value

2020-2022

Aarne Leinonen and Virpi Roto from Encore group will study new digital services for the first and last miles of the seaway in a new Sea4Value/Fairway research program. The new services should help e.g. the work of pilots. This program relates to Aarne’s Ph.D. studies on the interplay of service and experience design.

The project will run until 31.1.2022 with the following partners:

Companies: Awake.ai, Brighthouse, Ericsson, ESL Shipping, Finnpilot, Meyer Turku, Neste, Tieto

Authorities: Finnish Border Guard, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Shipowners\' Association, Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Traficom

Research units: Aalto University, Jyväskylä University, Novia, Tampere University, University of Turku

Contact: Virpi Roto

Drone delivery Otakaari 5 Image: Third Space Auto
Photo: Aalto University/Noora Stepleton

ENACT 2021-2023

Education network for automated and connected transport for sustainable cities (ENACT) is is a joint education development project between Finnish universities.

Project partners are Tampere University, University of Lapland, LUT University, University of Turku, University of Vaasa, and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Contact: Virpi Roto and Teija Vainio

dimecc
InDEx - Dimecc (Photo: Aalto University/Aino Huovio)

InDEx - Dimecc

Industrial Data Excellence (InDEx) researches the value of data as an enabler for the next industrial revolution centered around artificial intelligence in the Finnish manufacturing industry. The project is funded by Business Finland 2020-22. Partners include Danfoss, Elekmerk, Fastems, HT-Laser and KoneCranes..

For more information, visit https://www.dimecc.com/dimecc-services/index/

Contact: Virpi Roto and Aarne Leinonen

Latest publications

Feral Experiments in CreaTures Co-Laboratory

Markéta Dolejšová, Andrea Botero, Jaz Hee-jeong Choi, Michal Mitro, Agnieszka Pokrywka, Tuuli Mattelmäki 2024 Proceedings of the VIII Art of Research conference

9 Dimensions for evaluating how art and creative practice stimulate societal transformations

Joost Vervoort, Tara Smeenk, Iryna Zamuruieva, Lisa L. Reichelt, Mae van Veldhoven, Lucas Rutting, Ann Light, Lara Houston, Ruth Wolstenholme, Markéta Dolejšová, Anab Jain, Jon Ardern, Ruth Catlow, Kirsikka Vaajakallio, Zeynep Falay von Flittner, Jana Putrle Srdic, Julia Lohmann, Carien Moossdorff, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Cristina Ampatzidou, Jaz Hee-jeong Choi, Andrea Botero, Kyle A. Thompson, Jonas Torrens, Richard Lane, Astrid C. Mangnus 2024 Ecology and Society

SmartUp Project: Preliminary lessons and provocations for design, operation and policy making of smart homes

Clarice Bleil de Souza, Blanka Nyklova, Dorota Golanska, Julia Gruhlich, Nils Ehrenberg, Bartosz Hamarowski, Sandra Frydrysiak, Anna Badyina 2023 BUILD UP

Evolumination - diversity of the species at Dutch Design Week

Kane Borg, Tina Cerpnjak, Sami Markkula, Severi Uusitalo 2023

CreaTures Framework

Jaz Hee-jeong Choi, Markéta Dolejšová, Lara Houston, Ann Light, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Joost Vervoort, Richard Lane, Iryna Zamuruieva, Ruth Wolstenholme, Milja Komulainen, Konstantinos Papagiannopoulos 2023

Designesineiden digitaalista yhteisökuratointia – tapauksena pop-up-VR-museo

Lily Diaz-Kommonen, Anna-Maija Karjalainen, Leena Svinhufvud, Susanna Thiel, Gautam Vishwanath 2023 Suomen Museo

Towards panopticons of convenience: Power in the Nordic smart home assemblage

Nils Ehrenberg, J. Tuomas Harviainen, Jaakko Suominen 2023 Mindtrek ’23: Proceedings of the 26th International Academic Mindtrek Conference

Interconnected Agencies For Sustainable Futures : A Discourse on the Notion of Adaptation and Space

Prof. Dr. Pia Fricker, Friederike Landau-Donnelly, Constantinos Miltiadis, Shubhangi Singh 2023 Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education
More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.
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