Award for Achievement in Teaching 2021 recognises the student-centred and interactive teaching of Meeri Karvinen
Every year, the dean of the School of Engineering presents awards to students, academic and other personnel for exceptional work and results in studies, teaching and research. The Award for Achievements in Teaching and other recognitions for the year 2021 were presented at the Dean's Coffee event on 15 February.
2021 Award for Achievements in Teaching
Meeri Karvinen has designed and implemented student-centred and societally relevant engineering education on both the bachelor’s and the master’s level to empower students during their learning journeys. To enhance peer support among students finalising their studies, Karvinen has established and coordinated online master’s thesis writing sessions in which students working on their theses get together twice a week to discuss their thesis process, share experiences and provide and receive peer support.
In addition, Karvinen has successfully supported her peers in the transition to online teaching and provided ideas for more engaging online teaching and learning. Karvinen has years of experience of both research and practical work related to the role of sustainability in engineering education and university education.
Since 2016, Karvinen has been responsible for the development, implementation and management of the Master’s Programme in Water and Environmental Engineering personal learning portfolio, which allows students to reflect and document their learning together with their peers.
While her work has focused particularly on the Master’s Programme in Water and Environmental Engineering, her experience has also been utilised for the benefit of both the School of Engineering and Aalto University. Karvinen has been part of the Aalto-wide team that implemented the first-ever Sustainability in Teaching pedagogical training course in 2021.
'The aim of teaching is to grow the consciousness of the student – not only in relation to the matter being taught but to one's own way of thinking, learning and growing as both a human being and as a future expert in the field', said Meeri Karvinen.
'Many students were alone during the coronavirus pandemic, with uncertainties about their future casting a shadow over their studies. I wanted to come up with ways of being together and swap ideas both during courses and outside of them. I wish to thank all the wonderful students for taking part in these experiments! I also wish to thank my course assistants: many interactive and experimental hybrid sessions would have been impossible to manage without their dedicated work. Finally, I wish to thank the teaching community, in which support and genuine care for one another are a natural part of working. It makes it easy to pass that good to others,' she added.
Additionally, the nomination group for the award would like to applaud the Learning services and teachers of the School of Engineering for their agility, adaptivity, commitment and professionalism and the excellent work executed during challenging year of 2021. Without this collaboration, the excellent results in education would not have been possible.
The Award for Achievements in Teaching included a prize of 3 000 euros.
2021 Student Awards
Eleven students were recognised for their efforts in 2021:
- Freshmen captains Aleksanteri Haapanen and Akseli Paajanen, Guild of Mechanical Engineers
- Freshmen captain Inkeri Mankkinen, Guild of Surveying Engineers
- Freshmen captains Anna Laaksonen and Ramzi El-Geneidy, Guild of Civil Engineers
- Master's captain Emilia Luu, Guild of Mechanical Engineers
- Master's captain Markus Rauhanen, Guild of Surveying Engineers
- Master's captain Jaan Rönkkö, Guild of Civil Engineers
Student representatives in the new bachelor's programme major subjects' implementation steering group:
- Santeri Ritakallio, Guild of Mechanical Engineers
- Janne Kousa, Guild of Surveying Engineers
- Sampo Sainio, Guild of Civil Engineers
The award included a prize of 400 euros.
Awards for Best Doctoral Dissertations 2021
Four doctoral graduates were recognised for authoring the year's best doctoral dissertations. The dean presented awards to the following:
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Doctor of Science (Tech.) Lei Du for the dissertation Maritime Traffic Risk Analysis in the Northern Baltic Sea from AIS Data
Supervisor: Assistant Professor Osiris Valdez Banda, Department of Mechanical Engineering - Doctor of Science (Tech.) Bruno Reinaldo Goncalves for the dissertation A nonlinear modelling approach for corrugated sandwich beams
Supervisor: Professor Jani Romanoff, Department of Mechanical Engineering - Doctor of Science (Tech.) Jarkko Laine for the dissertation Ductile iron modelling and optimisation for mechanically and thermally loaded components
Supervisor: Professor Juhani Orkas, Department of Mechanical Engineering - Doctor of Science (Tech.) Pekka Koivisto for the dissertation New Aerodynamic Aspects of Aircraft De/Anti-icing fluids
Supervisor: Professor Ville Vuorinen, Department of Mechanical Engineering
The awards included a prize of 3 000 euros.
2021 Publication Awards
The 2021 Publication Awards of the School of Engineering were presented to the creators of the year's best publications:
- Doctoral Candidate Petri Forsström from Department of Built Environment for the article Multi-angular reflectance spectra of small single trees (Remote Sensing of Environment, 255, 2021).
Authors: Petri Forsström, Aarne Hovi, Giulia Ghielmetti, Michael Schaepman and Miina Rautiainen. - Doctoral Candidate Iman El Gharamti from Department of Mechanical Engineering for the article Creep and fracture of warm columnar freshwater ice (The Cryosphere, 15, 2021).
Authors: Iman E. Gharamti, John P. Dempsey, Arttu Polojärvi and Jukka Tuhkuri - Doctoral Candidate Seyedmohammadjavad Seyedan from the Department of Civil Engineering for the article From solid to disconnected state and back: Continuum modelling of granular flows using material point method (Computers and Structures, 251, 2021)
Authors: Seyedmohammadjavad Seyedan and Wojciech Sołowski
The awards included a prize of 2 000 euros.
2021 Dean’s Service Award
Laboratory Manager Dan Häggman from the Department of Built Environment received the 2021 Dean’s Service Award:
'Laboratory Manager Dan Häggman has performed a variety of duties to support the school’s personnel from year to year with the utmost dedication and kindness. He is a self-starter, service-oriented and flexible when a task calls for it. Häggman has also participated in the article writing process and helped to develop processes for anonymising sensitive data. He considers matters’ importance regardless of their size – when it comes to enjoyment and wellbeing at work, for example, the little things often matter the most,' said Dean Gary Marquis.
Independence Day Decorations 2021
Professor (Professor of Practice)Pentti Kujala, was granted Knight, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland by The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö on 6 December 2021.
Dean Gary Marquis finished the event with a look at the feedback given to the school by the Scientific Advisory Board during their 2021 visit.
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