Aalto University strengthens research and education in the real estate and spatial data fields

The National Land Survey and Aalto University have agreed to found two joint professorships in the real estate and spatial data fields. D.Sc. (Tech) Kirsikka Riekkinen has been appointed Assistant Professor in Real Estate Economics for the period 1 January 2018–31 December 2021. The other joint professorship in Geoinformatics will be filled later.

The agreement is part of the intensifying cooperation in a wide variety of fields between the National Land Survey and Aalto University. The parties signed a contract of cooperation in May 2017. The aim of the cooperation is to create a centre of competence in the real estate and spatial data fields creating opportunities for international top scientific research and for the education of experts in the surveying field.

"The cooperation with the National Land Survey enables extensive and varied research activities", states Dean Gary Marquis from Aalto University School of Engineering. "Kirsikka Riekkinen, who is starting her tenure as Assistant Professor in Real Estate Economics, has an extensive network of contacts and she is bringing the Finnish land management and property system into an international framework", continues Marquis.

"The National Land Survey is the first research institute with which Aalto University has signed such a contract of cooperation. In this, we will be showing the way to other research institutes as well. Cooperation is a prerequisite for us to achieve significant impact on society through our research and be a visible actor in our society", says Tiina Sarjakoski, Research Director at the National Land Survey.

Photo: Kauko Viitanen (left), Jarkko Koskinen, Gary Marquis, Ilkka Niemelä, Arvo Kokkonen ja Tiina Sarjakoski.

Kirsikka Riekkinen (born in 1984) was educated at Helsinki University of Technology. She graduated M.Sc. (Tech) in 2009 and defended her doctoral thesis in Real Estate Economics, On the property rights in Finland – the point of view of Legal Cadastral Domain Model, in 2014. She has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Built Environment since 2015. Currently she is investigating possible scenarios for a future cadastral system in the research project Katasteri 2035.

Contact information

Assistant Professor Kirsikka Riekkinen
[email protected]
phone +358 50 338 7111

Research Director Tiina Sarjakoski
[email protected]
phone +358 40 681 4200