News

Spring term open science highlight: Aalto Open Science Award Ceremony

Published: 17.6.2025

We gathered at A Grid to celebrate the awardees of the Aalto Open Science Award 2024 and discuss open science matters with the Aalto community. The afternoon was a chance for our community to learn about the awardees, ask questions and meet colleagues over coffee and ice cream.

Five people with a diploma and flowers. — Winners from AALTOLAB: Professor Antti Karttunen, Jarno Linnera, Samuel Girmay, Kirsi Yliniemi, and Minna Nieminen.

Samuel Girmay presenting in front of a screen. — Samuel Girmay.

The event began with a screening of a short video created over the spring as the main prize for the winner, AALTOLAB.

After the screening, Samuel Girmay from AALTOLAB took the stage to explain the project in more detail. Research has found that virtual laboratory environments support laboratory education by reducing nervousness towards laboratory sessions, enhancing active learning, and supporting flexibility and multiple means to learn the content. Virtual laboratories improve interactivity, flexibility, accessibility and scalability, and support open science through open access to scientific knowledge and inclusive learning design. They enhance learning engagement, memory encoding, and visual attention.

Rupesh Vyas presenting in front of a screen. — Rupesh Vyas.

Next, we heard from runner-up, Professor Rupesh Vyas who introduced us to data visualisation tools developed in collaboration with the University of Helsinki’s FinnGen research project. The visualisations make complex data more accessible and understandable, helping researchers identify patterns and relationships in large datasets. They also encourage public engagement, allowing citizens to better understand their contributions to genetic research and the broader scientific community.

Lastly, runner-up Professor Aki Vehtari talked about the open source scientific statistical software developed by the Bayesian Workflow group. All of the software is published with free software licences and developed openly in GitHub and discussion forums.

People sitting in the audience in ambient lighting.

We'd like to once more congratulate the awardees, and thank the audience for a warm atmosphere and lively discussion!

Do you know any champions of open science at Aalto whose contributions should be recognised? Perhaps it’s you, your research group or project? The call for the Aalto Open Science Award 2025 will be published in the autumn!