Public sector offers students ambitious challenges to transform services used by all of us

Seven exciting public sector organisations are looking for breakthrough ideas and innovations from Aalto University students to speed up the digitalisation of the organisations. This is all about the Public Service Hackathon, #pshack100, the project which is a multidisciplinary Master’s level course that is open for all Aalto University students. Additionally, approximately 20 students from The National Defence University (NDU) will participate in the course. The project is organised in English and also international students are warmly welcomed to join the project.

In this #pshack100 project, the focus is on building fresh and implementable concepts rather than on coding complete applications. Your own unique perspective is important when co-creating in teams formed by technology, design, and business students. By completing the course you will earn 6 ECTS credits.

Register by 25 October 2016 and join one of these fascinating case organisations: Finnish Customs, Patent and Registration Office, Ministry of the Interior, Police Board, Finnish Border Guard, Apotti, or Finnish Defence Forces.

The #pshack100 challenges aim at revolutionary transformation across public sector

The Public Service Hackathon case organisations manifest our independence and continue to be landmarks in the Finnish society. Solving their ambitious Hackathon challenges have the potential to influence all Finnish citizens. At the same time, the topics are very close to the life of Aalto University students, and thus the organisations are expecting to get fresh ideas and perspectives that they could not possibly develop internally.

The preliminary #pshack100 challenges are as follows:

Finnish Patent and Registration Office:
How an ideal process for starting a new business would look like? What kind of a starter kit would support the founding of new companies?
Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) registers businesses, foundations, and associations, as well as examines and grants patents, utility models, trademarks, and design protection. As a key player in the Finnish innovation ecosystem, PRH advances technological and economic progress as well as corporate activities both in Finland and internationally. Find out more: https://www.prh.fi/en/index.html

Ministry of the Interior:
How can citizens help the Police collect real-time information, improve the safety of neighbourhoods, and support investigations? What kind of digital solutions would support the Border Guard in carrying out border surveillance, border checks, and rescue operations?
Ministry of Interior and the agencies within its mandate target Finland to be the safest country in Europe - a country built on equal treatment and equal opportunity. Ministry of Interior has joined forces with its agencies - National Police Board and Finnish Border Guard in PSHACK100. Find out more: http://www.intermin.fi/ https://www.poliisi.fi/national_police_board http://www.raja.fi/

Finnish Customs:
How could the customs serve its customers better when travelling, ordering items from abroad, or bringing items across the borders?
Finnish Customs facilitates smooth trade of goods and ensures its correctness, collects taxes on goods efficiently, offers customer-oriented services, as well as protects the society, the environment, and the Finnish citizens. Find out more: http://www.tulli.fi/en/

Finnish Defence Forces:
How would you revolutionise the experience of conscripts and reservists when dealing with or serving in the military?
Finnish Defence Forces is responsible for defending our country and its key operations are taken care by The Army, The Navy, and The Air Force. Approximately 12,000 people work for the FDF in either military or civilian positions. In addition, over 20,000 people complete their military service every year. Find out more: http://puolustusvoimat.fi/en/frontpage

Case Apotti:
How would you radically improve the lives of fellow citizens, including children, young adults, students, and senior citizens, through innovative digital solutions for healthcare and social services?
Apotti is an extensive change project of the social services and healthcare field in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The objective of the project is to build a shared system that enables developing the operations and increasing the quality of social services and healthcare. Find out more: http://www.apotti.fi/en/

Aalto University is celebrating the Finland 100 Celebration Year together with Accenture and selected public sector organisations by organising the multidisciplinary Master’s level course, #pshack100. This is a unique opportunity to learn in a real-life environment by solving the ambitious challenges set by the case organizations.

Through workshops, coaching, lectures, and presentations you will learn how to design new digital concepts. The state of the art tools and methods utilized during the project are used by the worlds’ top service designers in their everyday work. You can gain new perspectives to e.g. business concept design, process design, service design, presentation technique and pitching, change management, as well as project management.

Join one of the exciting case organisations and develop new services that can be used by all of us!

Further information about the course on the website: https://nordic-events.accenture.com/hackathon/#/

Registration for the course through Aalto University WebOodi using the course code 20E00200: https://oodi.aalto.fi/a/

Further information:
Johanna Bragge
Aalto University
Senior University Lecturer, Department of Information and Service Economy
+358 40 530 1032
[email protected]

Rita Mustonen
Accenture
Project Manager
+358 40 772 5715
[email protected]

Twitter: #pshack100