School as a service awarded in innovation competition
School as a Service (SaaS) operating model, developed together by Aalto University and the City of Espoo, has been awarded in the international Quality Innovation Award competition. SaaS is the award winner in the category of education sector 2016.
Good results
The SaaS experimented on the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi has been successful. In August 2016, the Haukilahti Upper Secondary School, Espoo started operating at the campus sharing resources with the University.
The Secondary School students appreciate the new learning environment and experience that it supports their own ways of learning and increases their wellbeing and joy of learning. The students have actively grasped the opportunity to participate in about 50 university courses available for their participation.
The novel school solution originates from a research and development project related to service architecture for teaching which was led by Professor Jarmo Suominen, Aalto University Department of Architecture. Espoo and Aalto University have developed tools for further development, methods to measure the impact and concept for future implementations. Next phases and projects are being planned. The SaaS operating model will also be applied in a similar project to be started in 2017 by Tongji University in Shanghai, China.
The SaaS concept won also the series of education innovations in the Finnish Quality Innovation Competition in December 2016.
Read more:
Upper secondary school and university learn together
Read more news

Adjunct Professor Stefan Werner named IEEE Fellow
He is being recognized for contributions to in-band full-duplex wireless communication systems and selective data-reuse online learning.
Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation Science Award to two doctors of development economics with long careers
Ritva Reinikka and Pertti Haaparanta share the Lifetime Achievement Award
Aalto Works energy solution awarded as Energy Genius of the Year 2022
The solution is based on connecting local production and the district heating system, as well as low heat and cold networks