International students coming to Otaniemi to tackle climate change challenges

Solutions will be sought to challenges regarding climate change when 75 foreign students arrive at Aalto University for the final week of the Journey Summer School from 30 July to 5 August. Journey is the world's largest summer school concentrating on climate change innovations, and this is the first time that part of it is taking place in Finland.

During the final week spent in Otaniemi, climate change and challenges connected with it will be approached through entrepreneurship. Participants include students of numerous fields from different European universities. Aalto University is a partner of Climate-KIC, a European innovation community focused on climate change, which organizes the summer school.

At the Aalto University campus, students work in teams on business ideas which either have a positive impact on the climate, or which concentrate on challenges posed by climate change.

‘The students have started the summer school four weeks before arriving in Finland, travelling through Europe through the summer’, says Journey Manager Sini Olkanen. ‘Two groups are arriving in Finland, one of which began the journey in The Netherlands and the other in Italy.’

For the first two weeks, the groups have focused on climate change themes and visited local companies and, for example, the European Parliament in Brussels.  Then the participants spent a couple of weeks exploring entrepreneurship themes, and during the final week the summer school culminates in an innovation competition at Aalto University.

The students’ ideas concerning climate change innovations will be presented at an all-day competition held at Aalto Design Factory in Otaniemi on Thursday, 3 August. The ideas will be evaluated by a panel of judges representing both local experts and Journey's European management.

Further information:

Sini Olkanen
Journey Manager, Finland
+358 50 340 5320
[email protected]

https://journey.climate-kic.org/