International Week for Engineering 2011 was a success

TAMK organized its first International Week for Engineering on 21 - 25 March 2011. The events of the week served academic, promotional, networking and informational purposes for the students and staff of TAMK and the participating universities.

TAMK welcomed 18 visitors from eight institutions of higher education from six European countries and the USA. The guest professors held various lectures on different topics ranging from recycling of demolition waste, and wind energy to bio refineries and phycology. Some lectures were related to the World Water Day that was celebrated also at TAMK on 22 March. After the International Week, TAMK engineering students certainly had new ideas on the issues related to their field of study, and most probably will look at these topics from a more international perspective.





Ms. Kelly Klaas and Mr. Don Guay from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA gave lectures about leadership principals in a global paper industry and bioproduction development in the US.

The visiting universities had the chance to tell about the exchange possibilities at their universities to TAMK students and staff, too; This kind of events contribute to the students’ getting interested in an exchange in one of the TAMK partner universities, and give a unique opportunity to meet professors from foreign partner schools face to face.

On top of lecturing, the visiting professors participated in various free-time events that included a guided bus tour around Tampere, a sauna evening at Hangaslahti and a dinner at Restaurant Elsa. The sauna evening offered a possibility for ice swimming, and we cherish all the brave who had the courage to take a dip in the frozen lake.

A group of German students from Hochschule Ostfalia, Wolfenbüttel joined their teachers and followed lectures during the International Week. The study trip naturally comprised a number of leisure activities in the evenings; These included nightclubbing, a sauna evening in the premises of the TAMKO student union, and the students also joined the professors for the sight-seeing ride by bus.




Mr. Thorsten Ahrens from Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences presented a fabulous gift basket full of traditional sweets and beverages from the participating universities and their home countries.

TAMK passes its heart-felt thanks to all the visitors for coming, and hopes everybody had a dashing time in Tampere. The Organising Committee feels that the event was worth the effort and welcomes the guests back at TAMK for the Second International Week for Engineering in the spring 2012. Then we can call it already a tradition!

Text: Elias Suominen

Photos: Elias Suominen