Life 1.5 – an exhibition of planet-friendly materials, fashion and food
Designs for a Cooler Planet is a five-week-long festival celebrating experiments in planet-friendly materials, fashion, and food.
News and events
News highlights
An eco-filling to replace down
A hundred years ago, cattail fluff was used as life vest filling – now a Finnish company wants the eco-friendly material for pillows and winter coats.
Five things to see at Designs for a Cooler Planet: Evolving colours, wood glitter and garments with a history
Open until 12 October 2022, Designs for a Cooler Planet is an annual exhibit showcasing bold designs that approach sustainability from avenues including fashion, food and materials.
Changes to animal feed could supply food for one billion people
Livestock and fish could be fed more agricultural by-products, freeing up food for people
New AI system predicts how to prevent wildfires
A machine learning model can evaluate the effectiveness of different management strategies
An unobtrusive bio-based acoustic coating eliminates echoes and absorbs carbon
The cellulose-based material, which provides an alternative to traditional acoustic panels, was successfully tested in a protected building owned by Aalto University.
New forecasting tool can give an early warning of solar storms – boosts preparedness and helps mitigate damage
Associate Professor Maarit Korpi-Lagg has received funding from the European Research Council to develop a forecasting tool to locate the source regions for the eruption of solar flares already a few days before they emerge on the Sun’s surface.Event highlights
Internet Forum Public lecture series: Technology, Security and Future – to All of Us
How do you feel security and what does it mean to us in the future – welcome to listen to interesting talks and discuss.
Alusta pavilion – Environmentally conscious architecture
Alusta pavilion - a place for encounters between humans and non-human animals in urban space.
Aalto Wellbeing Week 2022
Check all the events during Wellbeing Week
Visit our campus virtually
Virtual Campus Experience (external link)
Explore Aalto University’s campus from anywhere in the world! Our digital guides, an Aalto University student and an assistant professor, introduce you to our learning facilities, laboratories, workshops, service spots and outdoor spaces. The tour can be experienced on desktop, mobile or VR headset.
Ukraine war
On this page, we will gather information on how Russia's invasion of Ukraine affects Aalto University’s operations. We will update the contents regularly.
Video: The new road to silk
Did you know that scientists are able to produce spider silk using modified bacteria? Spider silk is one of the strongest materials in nature and it offers intriguing opportunities for future textile design. In the NEWSILK project researchers worked together with designers to develop new types of silk-like materials using a multidisciplinary approach and the tools of synthetic biology.
See the video below or read the article on website.
Appointments
Tomek Rygalik: ‘We need to design less but better things for longer’
Meet our new professors: Professor in Furniture Design Tomek Rygalik
Two new staff scientists at the School of Chemical Engineering
Starting on 1st October 2022, Wenwen Fang is appointed as a Staff Scientist at Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems.
Kimmo Kovanen joined Research Services as Information Specialist
Kimmo Kovanen works in the Open Science and ACRIS team.
Jukka Seppälä appointed Aalto Distinguished Professor
Seppälä specialises in polymer engineering especially in biopolymers. They are needed as alternatives for conventional plastics, and they can be new functional materials both in engineering and in medical applications.
For the media
Find recent news related to coronavirus
Covid-19 vaccines available again at the Otaniemi campus in September
The vaccination site is open on 12, 19 and 26 September to students and personnel at the Undergraduate Centre, room Y115.
Digital tracing apps should incorporate social connections to mitigate disease outbreaks
Digital tracing models could benefit from a closer look at social connections between app-users.
Viruses in the air? Researchers study how air cleaning devices, masks, and UV light reduce risk of infection
The project is aimed at finding workable and cost-effective ways to protect offices.
Recent study: The COVID-19 pandemic particularly affected the well-being of entrepreneurs under 40 years of age
A quarter of the interviewed Finnish entrepreneurs is experiencing intense exhaustion.Content highlights
Explore Aalto University through a variety of content!
Four years and lots of tears – three experts tell how they succeeded in making the change
Many entrepreneurs and researchers set their goals based on a realisation that something needs to be done differently. The change they envision might be a new product or material, or it can be a new way to do things. Implementing change isn’t always easy, however, and it demands a stomach for uncertainty, say Professor Michael Hummel and entrepreneurs Annu Nieminen and Richard Nordström.
Yki Nummi archive
The Yki Nummi archive is an extensive private archive collection held in the Aalto University Archives. Yki Nummi was one of the most influential post-war designers, whose groundbreaking work elevated Finnish design to its international reputation. Nummi is known above all else for his light fixtures, but his artistic merits also include the designing of other home utility goods, book illustrations and acting as a color and light expert.
Academic Workload (external link)
No time to manage energy and no energy to manage time.
Painting Energies Podcast (external link)
Painting Energies is a podcast about light, colour, plants, microbes, and electrical energy. Eleven conversations with invited guests explore their relations, and our relations to them, through a dialogue across science, technology, art and philosophy.
Irene Purasachit saw the floral industry’s waste problem firsthand – now she makes material for handbags from discarded blooms
Nearly half of cut flowers end up in the trash, never making their way to dinner tables or first dates
Aalto researchers awarded Physics World Breakthrough of the Year for macroscopic quantum entanglement
Aalto University Professor Mika A. Sillanpää, his team and collaborators at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia, have won the Physics World 2021 Breakthrough of the Year. The prize was awarded for establishing quantum entanglement between a pair of macroscopic drumheads – two mechanical resonators that were tiny but still much larger than the subatomic particles that are usually entangled. The award has previously been given for the first direct observation of a black hole and for the detection of gravitational waves, which also received a Nobel Prize.
Videos, podcasts, blogs and Aalto Magazine
Aalto University Magazine