TAMK's Anna-Liisa Karjalainen and Sari Mettiäinen awarded for their research on E-education in conference in Japan

TAMK's IT designer, Anna-Liisa Karjalainen and Head of Degree Programme, Sari Mettiäinen, were awarded for their research during the e-Case & e-Tech 2013 conference organized in Kitakyushu, Japan. The conference was about the role of technology in different aspects of life and the topic of the award-winning research was "Teachers as Users of New Technology - Experiences of Using Electronic Assessment and Feedback System in Supervision of Clinical Training".

You can read their travel report below:

e-Case & e-Tech 2013 Kitakyushu Japan

We participated in an international conference on 3- 5 April 2013 in Kitakyushu, Japan. The event had more than 400 participants from 20 countries. The conference focused on the role of technology in different fields of life. We participated in e-Education sessions and our presentation was also part of those sessions.

We networked with several participants. We discussed with e.g. Tom Galea, who is the principal of Rosebank College in Australia. We found that Finland and Australia are at approximately the same level in using ICT. Based on a discussion with Japanese Dr Chien-Kuo Li, we found that Facebook is still very popular in Japan and it is also studied from the viewpoint of education. Professor Michael Stoica from Washburn University in Kansas told that use of ICT in education varies a lot in different parts of the United States.

In particular, the studies on game-based learning made us thoughtful as did the presentation on how use of tablets intensifies learning (Yu-Feng Lan and Yu-Feng Jheng, National Formosa University).  Several presentations we heard focused on students’ online discussions. The discussions had been studied from different viewpoints. The presentations did not contain anything outstandingly new education technology pedagogy, and thus according to our conception the same methods are used and studied abroad as in Finland.

 

From left: Anna-Liisa Karjalainen, Sari Mettiäinen, Tom Galea and three other conference visitors from Taiwan

The title of our presentation was “Teachers as Users of New Technology – Experiences of Using Electronic Assessment and Feedback System in Supervision of Clinical Training”. Our research report was rewarded as the best in the e-Education category. The award criteria included e.g. the scientific quality and practical exploitability.

The award was valued, which we noticed immediately when we registered at the conference. People came to congratulate us and wanted to take photos. When our own presentation started, a group of cameramen arrived and we were congratulated once more.

Anna-Liisa Karjalainen (left) and Sari Mettiäinen (middle) receiving the award on April 4th, 2013.

Japanese people seemed very friendly and helpful. Technology is advanced there and we saw in many everyday situations how automation and engineering competence were utilised. There were many skyscrapers in the city but we also managed to see some idyllic peace and old culture of the countryside. We learned to eat with sticks but it was partly thanks to the friendly Japanese as they came to help us hands-on. We came to the conclusion that they do not often see blond people in Kitakyushu as they paid much attention to us. People stopped us in the street and asked where we were from and why we were in Japan. Their first image of Finland was often the cold climate, some immediately remembered Nokia, Angry Birds were not as familiar in Kitakyushu as we assumed. Marimekko and the Moomin characters were well-known in Japan and the products were available in some shops.

On the terrace of a traditional wooden Japanese house. Kokura Castle and a Japanese garden in the background.

We both think the trip was successful. Our presentation was enriched by a Youtube video we had made in advance. In the video, Senior Lecturer Eija-Riitta Alho told about her experiences of using e-Taitava in supervision of clinical training. In our opinion, our presentation went well, and the listeners were so interested in use of mobile technology in supervision of clinical training that they even made us questions and asked the contact information for the software supplier. We received several contacts and had the chance to tell about Finland and TAMK to our colleagues from many different parts of the world.

Text and photos: Anna-Liisa Karjalainen and Sari Mettiäinen

Lucky Media students experience GDC Europe and GamesCom

This years Game Developer Conference Europe and GamesCom guest lists included three students from our very own Degree programme in Media.  By winning the, Nokia sponsored, Demola organised mobile concept competition (read story ) we were able to choose any conference in Europe to visit!  Our choice was GDC Europe 2011 and the affiliated GamesCom trade event that were held during the same week in Cologne, Germany.  It was easy to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and take part in both kinds of event on the same trip. With us travelled Bernard Garvey from Demola who seemed to enjoy our company.  For GamesCom Nokia were unable to finance our visit because of it officially being a separate event so TAMK very generously sponsored the extra nights needed to visit the trade fair.

There were the most people in the booth area during the pauses in GDC

GDC Europe is known and respected world wide as a large event in the gaming industry.  This year it included many lectures, parties and of course networking.  There were lectures from Monday to Wednesday on subjects ranging from business and marketing to game design, programming, visual arts and production.  We were of course able to choose which lectures we went to and most of the time plumped for those that seemed the most interesting.  Parties took place every night too.  From which you had to choose the best as well.  Networking was easier at parties because the feeling was relaxed and you were able to talk about more than just work.  At the end of the day my handbag was always full of business cards!

The humoristic lecturer told us about game design

It was fun to see that despite being at such a large event we were also able to meet other students.  We came in contact with, among others, German and Swedish students.  It was also brilliant to get to know people from outside Finland that are actually studying in the same area.  By sharing experiences and ideas you no doubt learn best.  On the other hand we also got to know some Finns from the games industry, which is handy when we come to think about internships.  GamesCom also had representatives from various Universities and that increased the possibilities for exchange studies.

Nintendo was pretty popular because their new 3DS console

We also succeeded in mingling with one of the biggest forces in the industry:ArenaNet!  The firm was presenting a demo of their new game, Guild Wars 2.  We were even able to test the game on Wednesday before the event even began as trade visitors and press had their own preview of GamesCom.  At the end of the week the gigantic halls we full to the brim with enthusiastic gamers.  Having been invited to the NCSoft party we got the opportunity to meet the actual producers from ArenaNet.  We got to know, among others, famous concept artists Kekai Kotaki and Daniel Dociu - a real once in a life time opportunity.  One of our group member's dreams came true when these legends came up with a surprising and unusual idea.  The next day at gamescom, on stage, Kekai was to draw a Guild Wars 2 tattoo onto none other than Anna's shoulder.  Of course you didn't need to ask Anna twice and she snapped up the opportunity what with being such a huge fan of the game.

Anna was very happy with her new tattoo

The journey was no doubt one that none of the group will forget! We are more than pleased with what we have learnt and found the whole experience really inspiring.  In the future we will no doubt be looking for even more promising opportunities, like this, to explore.

Story: Emma Kiiski
Translation Douglas Symon
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The three awarded students, Emma Kiiski, Douglas Symon and Anna Narinen are students of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories from/about IMPs, the Media students
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WSYA extended deadline July 31

 www.youthaward.org
Let's put UN Millennium Development Goals into action!
The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is an annual award and a network for young people using the internet, mobile phones or other digital media to put the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into action. Winners of the Award use websites to fight diseases, innovative radio technology to battle hunger, or social media to raise critical questions and connect those who do good.

WSYA was initialized at the UN World Summits 2003 and 2005, this is the fifth edition, The award is organised by the World Summit Award (WSA) network, which is represented in Finland by Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

All UN member state citizens under 30 (January 1st 2011) are welcome to participate. The competition has 6 categories:

Fight Poverty, Hunger & Disease
Education 4 All
Power 2 Women
Create your Culture
Go Green
Pursue Truth

Registration by July 31 at:

More information:
World Summit Youth Award
UN Development goals

Previous stories about WSYA

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Let's put UN Millennium Development Goals into action!

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is an annual award and a network for young people using the internet, mobile phones or other digital media to put the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into action. Winners of the Award use websites to fight diseases, innovative radio technology to battle hunger, or social media to raise critical questions and connect those who do good.

WSYA was initialized at the UN World Summits 2003 and 2005, this is the fifth edition, The award is organised by the World Summit Award (WSA) network, which is represented in Finland by Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

All UN member state citizens under 30 (January 1st 2011) are welcome to participate.  The competition has 6 categories:

1. Fight Poverty, Hunger & Disease
2. Education 4 All
3. Power 2 Women
4. Create your Culture
5. Go Green
6. Pursue Truth

Registration by July 15 on: www.youthaward.org

More information:
World Summit Youth Award
UN Development goals

Previous stories about WSYA

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Winners are invited to the Awards Gala.
Last year the gala was in New Yourk

Ubimedia Award: Submit your project by June 15 2011

One of TAMK's coolest annual international projects is again kicked off!

Call to participate in the 5th Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards Competition 28th – 30th September 2011 Tampere, Finland

Competition deadline: June 15th 2011

The Ubimedia competition seeks to broaden our understanding of where and how ubiquitous media will influence our future life. We are looking for disruptive artistic visions as well as clever near-to-market solutions off the beaten tracks! This includes any range of innovative ubimedia, pervasive, or ambient products and services. The Ubimedia Award is a highly interdisciplinary competition and we invite Designers, Computer Scientists, Artists, Economists and Engineers to take a stand on the following questions with their entries:

• What is the particular aesthetic experience opened up by the rise of ubiquitous and ambient media?
• What constitutes the specific intelligence that drives future media environments?
• How will location- and context-aware media services change our social life?
• How will our future lives look like in the era of ubiquitous computation, and how can society benefit from these advanced technologies?

The total award sum for the Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award is 6 000€.

The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award is a category of the 2011 MindTrek competition. The category is organized collaboratively by MindTrek, Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing, New Ambient Multimedia Group (NAMU)/Tampere University of Technology, the Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Nokia, and the Ambient Media Association (AMEA). The award is funded by Nokia and the Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing.
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Ubimedia Competition home
MindTrek
Read all posts about the Ubimedia Award
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TAMK photo contest: The early bird catches the worm

Last autumn TAMK photo contest was looking for the best picture of TAMK feeling. Now we are looking for pictures of your morning.

How was your morning? Capture your feelings or thoughts about morning and share them with us. The best capture of morning will be rewarded with Giganti's 50 euros voucher. The second and third places will be rewarded with Finnkino movie tickets.

Upload your best morning on the competition event page on Facebook. You can upload photos until March 14th 2011. And if you don't have a Facebook account, no problem, send your pic(s) to Siru.Maatta(atsign)tamk.fi.

Voting is simple; just click “Like” on the picture of your choice. You can vote until March 21st 2011. The winner will be selected in collaboration of Facebook voting and TAMK's own jury.

If you want to, you can participate with several photos. So grab your camera and snap the winner shot of those early birds, late risers or of anything the morning represents you!

Photo contest event page
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Languages Through Lenses 2010: Experiences

The Prix Europa -festival opening gala, Berlin

Third year film students Outi Hartikainen and Hannu Koivuranta took part in a shortfilm competition Languages Through Lenses last year organized by the EU and European League of the Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). The mission was to produce a 60-90 second shortfilm promoting the importance of foreign cultures and languages.

15 scripts were selected to the competition and all received a 5000 EUR production grant. Three works from Finland were selected: “Connection Lost” from TAMK, “The Forest of Babel” from Aalto university and “Pancakes” from Turku Arts Academy.

Getting selected to the competition turned out to be a bigger thing than expected. In addition to the production grant the main applicant student were sent to Amsterdam to a two-day scriptwriting workshop held by BBC screenwriting veterans Guy Meredith and Roger Gregory. During those two days students presented their projects' scripts while Guy and Roger helped to develop them even further. In the meantime Amsterdam presented a great opportunity to meet fellow filmmakers and art students.

The featured projects were very diverse. The competition had selected more art students than film students and it was clearly reflected in the projects. Several art projects found it difficult to be developed in a more traditional scriptwriting way.

"Connection Lost" team members at the Prix Europa festival. From left
director Outi Hartikainen, cinematographer/script writer Hannu Koivuranta,
sound designer Arttu Hokkanen and producer Niilo Gustafsson

After Amsterdam each project went on to develop independently. “Connection Lost” was shot in July and it employed approximately 25 people. One month was spent in post-production. During the production ELIA was kept up to date about the project and the use of the production grant. Screenwriting lecturer Arto Koskinen served as a tutor for the project.

When the collective deadline was due the final projects were supplied to Berlin on DVDs where they would take part in Europe's largest TV- and radio festival Prix Europa. Four students from Tampere went on to represent Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Art & Media: Outi Hartikainen, Hannu Koivuranta, producer Niilo Gustafsson and sound designer Arttu Hokkanen. They were accompanied by Senior Lecturer Arto Koskinen.

All the 15 selected projects competed in their own category (Languages Through Lenses). During the three days in Berlin the students had the opportunity to take part in workshops, cocktail parties and film screenings at e.g. The French Embassy.

The students and ELIA representatives rated each project in order to shortlist top three projects. Among them was “Connection Lost”, “The Forest of Babel” and “Langbeat” from MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design*) ,Hungary. The stay of these students was then extended until the end of the festival and the closing gala where the festival would present the winning productions. These three days were quickly spent watching documentaries and films, getting to know Berlin and meeting new people.

The main prize of Languages Through Lenses -category went to “The Forest of Babel” (dir. Elina & Mike Pohjola) while the other two projects received special commendations.

It is important to understand how magnificent the six month journey with Languages Through Lenses was and how much it taught about handling a project with this size budget and resources. In the end the final productions were meant for use by the European Union and ELIA. Having enriched our lives with some new experiences we definitely want to encourage our students to take part in competitions – not necessarily because of the winning but because of the experience. We hope to see you in this years Languages Through Lenses!

“Connection Lost” is will be shown next time at Tampere Film Festival's Kino TAMK -screening.

Languages Through Lenses 2011 competition is now active and the deadline for scripts is 25th of March. For more information check out the link below:
http://www.languages-lenses.eu

Hannu Koivuranta

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Read the previous stories about the competition (TAMK Art&Media Blog)
Watch "Connection Lost"
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Prix Europa
ELIA
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* happy comment by the blog editor: MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) and TAMK are about to sign an agreement about staff and student exchange. Zsófia Ruttkay from MOME will give a workshop during TAMK Art&Media International Week April 11-14.

TAMK's Principal Lecturer Marjukka Dyer received Honorary Fellowship from the University of Glamorgan

TAMK's Principal Lecturer Marjukka Dyer received Honorary Fellowship from the University of Glamorgan.

The invitation letter telling about the honour was given to Marjukka Dyer by Doctors Peter Evans and Dawn Story from the University of Glamorgan. Marjukka Dyer received the invitation letter at the graduation ceremony of TAMK's and the University of Glamorgan's MsC Sustainable Business Risk Management students at TAMK on 28 January. The official ceremony related to the honour will be held at the University of Glamorgan in July.

As a long-term Head of Degree Programme in Environmental Engineering, Marjukka Dyer has already cooperated with the University of Glamorgan for 15 years. Marjukka's other international achievements also affected conferment of the honour.

The honour was a well-kept secret, and came as a delightful surprise to Marjukka Dyer.

Picture: Peter Evans, Marjukka Dyer and Dawn Story.

Postcard from Mittweida

This week I visited Mittweida University of Applied Sciences in Sachsen, Germany. Mittweida has been a partner of Media Programme since 2003 and we have cooperation in many fields: staff and student exchange, joint activities in EUROPRIX network, the European Virtual Academy project and the Swan Lake Award organised by Mittweida media students.

The Swan Lake: Moving Image & Music Award (SL:MIMA) invites since 2004 young talented filmmakers to participate with a movie in one of the three categories: ’Computer-Animation’, ‘Digital Film’ and ‘Interactive Movie’. Modern piano music by international artists serves as the basis for the competition. TAMK is a SL:MIMA partner.


It was time for the Swan Lake Festival again, with the highlight, the Award ceremony on Wednesday.

No TAMK students were awarded this time, but Greta Stanciauskaite, student of Vilnius College of Technologies and Design, who was awarded in the animations competition was exchange student at our Media Programme last autumn and designed her winning animation here. So we feel like a winner. Congratulations Greta! It was a pleasure to have you here!

Mittweida UAS is also partner of TAMK degree programmes in Business Administration, International Business, Film and Television and Engineering.

The Media Department has first class resources for audio-visual production.
They have two studios, this is the new one.

Mittweida is a wonderful old town, the facilities of the Media Programme top class, students and staff friendly and competent, so I look forward to strengthen the cooperation with Mittweida UAS.

Cai Melakoski
Head of Degree Programme in Media
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Swan Lake: Moving Image & Music Award
SL:MIMA on the Artmedia blog

Mittweida UAS
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Connection Lost among top 3 in Prix Europa

Outi Hartikainen directs Raimo Grönberg while cameraman Hannu
Koivuranta checks the composition (Photo: Eero Alava)

Languages Through Lenses 2010 -competition is over.

Languages Through Lenses is one of Prix Europa's film competitions. Last spring the international jury chose 15 best scripts among 100 competitors from over 18 EU countries. The chosen fifteen got a 5,000€ grant each to produce a short film from the script. The underlying theme of the competition scripts was to motivate people to learn languages and get people interested in learning more about other cultures.

"Connection Lost", a script by TAMK's very own Hannu Koivuranta and Outi Hartikainen, was among the chosen and was filmed last summer.

After all the 15 films were finished, three of them were chosen as finalists. In addition to "Connection Lost", the top three consisted of "The Forest of Babel" by Aalto university and "Langbeat" by Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.

The 1st place went to The "Forest of Babel". Getting to final three from among 100 film schools is still a huge achievement, so the blog would like to join in congratulations for the production team.

Watch "Connection Lost"
Read blog posts about the earlier phases of the competition
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Prix Europa
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Great opportunity for great talents - The Swan Lake Award

The Swan Lake: Moving Image & Music Awards, short SL:MIMA, is an international short film competition which is exclusively organized by students on behalf of the University of Applied Science Mittweida (Germany).

No later than November 21st 2010 everyone can hand in their film in the categories "digital film", "animated film" and "interactive film". The choice of topics is free, but every film will be created on the basis of a modern piece of music, which will be chosen out of a pool of contemporary piano music.

The best entries will be adjudicate by a top class international panel. Oscar-winner Jan A. P. Kaczmarek is the patron of the competition, whose submissions award a prize to international stars of the creative branch. A public award will be granted in co-operation with the online platform “startnext.de”.

This prize includes the start-up financing of the following project of the winner and will help support future talents by developing their skills. The event will take place from January 10th to January 12th 2011. Besides the presentation of the awards there will be workshops, open space events and certainly an after-show party full of visual experiments.

For participation a registration for free at www.swan-lake-award.org/slmima.php and the assortment of a modern piece of piano music out of a pool of the partner portal www.newagepiano.net is necessary.

More information for the project you'll find at www.swan-lake-award.org.

Story: Stella Volmer
Stella, student at FH Mittweida, is doing her international exchange period at TAMK


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TAMK is a member of the SL:MIMA international network.
TAMK students have been successful in SL:MIMA. Read previous story
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TAMK’s team won the load bearing capacity calculations in Span 2010 bridge design competition

TAMK’s team won the load bearing capacity calculations series of the Span 2010 bridge design competition. The finals of the competition were organised at the FinnBuild 2010 fair in October.

The aim of the Span 2010 bridge design competition is to increase the students’ interest towards construction design. The students of construction technology and construction engineering competed in three different categories.

TAMK’s team took the gold in the load bearing capacity calculations. They exceeded their own capacity calculations by only 7 kg ending up with 209 kg. The winning team won 1000 Euros. The most robust bridge –category was a tie between the teams from Turku University of Applied Sciences and University of Oulu. The most aesthetically pleasing bridge –category went to the team from Tampere University of Technology.

In the competition, the students designed and built a miniature bridge out of wood, after which the bridges were tested. In the qualifying rounds, the teams drew plans of their bridges, consisting of calculations, CAD drawings and 3D presentations. The teams which were selected to appear in the finals built and tested their bridges on the 6.-9.10 at the FinnBuild fair. Four teams were awarded in the finals.

TAMK’s participants were future engineers of construction technology: Arttu Lehtonen, Jarkko Koli, Petri Timo and Iiro Villman.

For more information: Heikki Saarenpää, senior lecturer of construction engineering, firstname.lastname@tamk.fi

Picture taken by Jorma Kylliäinen

Students did well in the hotel and restaurant competition in Lisbon

The 23rd annual conference and hotel and restaurant competition organised by AEHT (The European Association of Hotel and Tourism Schools) took place in Lisbon, Portugal on 5.-10.10. The competition, which was aimed for students, was organized by the Lisbon Hotel and Tourism School. There were over 700 participants from 31 countries and 150 schools.

TAMK Hotel and Restaurant Management student Johanna Miettinen and her German partner Angela Inglisa performed fantastically by coming in second. The winning team consisted of students from Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences and Slovenia, and the third place went to Denmark and Holland.

The Management competition was for the first time divided into two categories: university students took part in Hospitality Management and upper secondary level students in Management. The task was the same in both categories, but there were differences in evaluation criteria.

The participants had to renew the business of a bankrupt, 80-room Lisbon hotel. The judges evaluated the SWOT analysis, the innovations in the business idea and management. They also evaluated team work, English language and presentation. In addition to the judges, the student groups also gave and received peer feedback.

Smooth collaboration was rewarded by second place

Even though Johanna and Angela had never met each other before the first day of the competition, their collaboration was even and natural: they supported each other during the presentation instead of having a clear division of presentation roles.

The central ideas in Johanna’s and Angela’s business renewal were the visibility of environmental factors in the hotel’s structure and products, offering healthy and low-fat restaurant food for the customers, lowering the hierarchy in the organisation and minimising marketing costs through the use of social media. They also planned to outsource spa and exercise services as well as day-trips in order to concentrate better on hotel, restaurant and conference business.

The aim of AEHT is to increase international collaboration and skills and to offer the participants interesting experiences in travel. The next competition will take place in Haag, Holland.
For more information, see:
http://www.aehtlisboa2010.eu/

Text: Riitta Brännare

Martta Tuomaala and Essi Laurila received the RUHR.2010 Young Europe Award

The Fine Arts students Martta Tuomaala and Essi Laurila were awarded at the SEE YOU festival in Dortmund 16-19 September for their project "Speech Bubbles@city". The project was awarded the international RUHR.2010 Young Europe Award. The SEE YOU festival, which showcases children's and youth culture, is part of the 2010 European culture capital events around the Ruhr area, and it gathered hundreds of projects from all over Europe, all of which were aimed at youth.

"Speech Bubbles@city" was developed in the Fine Arts programme for over a year, and the first version was on display in the "Promoting Changes" exhibition in Werstas, Tampere. The project called for young people to realize cartoons about subjects that the young couldn't or didn't dare to do. The cartoons were presented on the brick wall in the Plevna area in May-June 2010.

In their review, the SEE YOU festival jury paid particular attention to the public presentation of the project and how the implementation happened on terms of the young. At the invitation of the festival, Martta Tuomaala also organized a cartoon workshop where young Czech music and theatre students participated.

"Speech Bubbles@city" was one of the rare projects at the festival, in which the young were approached on their own ground. Czech youth focused in their comics to tell about their happy future, whereas the youth from Tampere had done their comics about the need for freedom of speech and the problems in the community and society.

Photo: Pictured the Czech youth who participated n the Speech Bubbles@city workshop. From left to right  Zdena Horackova, Petra Novakova, Daniela Drozenova, Monika Nemeckova, Edita Valaskova, Jan Holinsky and Martin Kriz.

Picture: Martta Tuomaala

Cai Melakoski is the staff person of the year 2009 – 2010

The Students' Union of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Tamko) has chosen Cai Melakoski, the Head of Degree Programme in Media, as the staff person of the academic year 2009 - 2010.

“This is the biggest honor you can get at TAMK”, said Cai Melakoski after he found out he was chosen the staff person of the year. Melakoski started working as the Head of the Degree Programme in Media in autumn 2009, but he has worked at TAMK Art and Media for nearly 20 yeras. His work has included teaching, R&D and marketing. The latest “thing” for Cai has been TAMK’s blogs. He has helped to create not only the Art and Media blog, but also other TAMK blogs - including the one you’re reading right how!

“Blogs let you into the everyday life of students, which is often absent in TAMK’s official publications. The blogs show a more open TAMK which looks like its students.”

Students appreciate Melakoski's efforts to collect feedback from students and put the feedback in use. During the first year of students’ studies, the Head of the Degree programme has organised regular meetings and personal discussions with each student.

In addition to listening to his students, another important reason for selecting Melakoski as the staff person of the year is his hard work in the international field. He has used his extensive international network in e.g. organising the international week in connection with the Tampere Art Factory Event.

Cai Melakoski is the TAMK staff person of the year because he...

• has made sure that there were teachers, students and members from the field of media designing the Degree Programme in Media.
• has systematically collected feedback from the students since the launching of the degree programme.
• posts actively to TAMK Art and Media blogs (- and the international blog, too!)
• is involved in organising the international week and Tampere Art Factory at the Finlayson campus.
• has developed the co-operation between TAMK and Demola.
• is helpful and interested in the students’ projects.
• uses his international network to benefit TAMK and his students.
• has actively improved the collaboration and discussions between the students and the teachers.

The Students’ Union has been nominating the person of the year in TAMK since academic year 2004-2005. The recognition is given to a person who has remarkably developed education, study environment and TAMK community. With the recognition Tamko wants to encourage good practices and motivate the staff of TAMK to continue their good work.



The previous recognitions have been granted to:

• senior lecturer Peter Heath (2004 - 2005)
• principal lecturer Matti Lähteenmäki (2005 - 2006)
• senior lecturer Kirsti Kallio (2006 - 2007)
• co-ordinating study advisor Anne Mustonen (2007 - 2008)
• special skilled worker Timo Niemi (2008 - 2009)

German Language Experts from TAMK!

May was certainly an exciting time for those seven students of German for Business Life at TAMK, who also wanted to take the international language test at the end of the course. This goal was very demanding, since an accepted Prüfung Wirtschaftsdeutsch International (PWD) proves that the person is able to cover demanding professional and business topics in both spoken and written German. The test is globally esteemed in the business life and industry.

Our students laboured through the first part of the language test on Saturday the 8th of May. The exam consisted of four different reading comprehensions, two listening comprehensions and writing a report and a business letter. The participants only had four hours to complete the tasks, which required quick reacting and a good ability to understand and produce German.

Deutsch-Finnische Handelskammer and Goethe-Institut in Helsinki evaluated the test results, and we waited for them, and the acceptance to the spoken part of the test until last Thursday. On Friday the 21st the atmosphere in the University main building just got more excited, as one participant after another started their 20-minute preparations for the spoken test, and then their 20 minutes of actual testing. The censor of the contents in the exam was Mika Pöpken (Rechtsanwalt, attorney) and the evaluation for language was done by Ulrike Eichstädt (German teacher, Goethe-Institut).

Now all participants have been invited to receive their business German diplomas in the German embassy in Helsinki on Friday the 4th of June. Congratulations to you all - herzlichen Glückwunsch!

TAMK media cooperative MusicActive gets a university entrepreneurship prize

MusicActive was evaluated as the best entrepreneurship concept in the national Entrepreneurship Forum for Universities of applied sciences. MusicActive operates in Virrat, and offers valuable work possibilities for students of digital sound and commercial music.

”MusicActive focuses on producing music in all its fields”, tells the current head of the cooperative, Teemu Kinnunen, who has already graduated as a Bachelor of Culture and Arts from Virrat.

The Head of the Degree programme in Media, Timo Kivikangas, and the teacher instructor of the cooperative, Harri Karvinen, state that an especially important factor in the operations of the cooperative is to enable the students to complete real productions and to lower the threshold of becoming entrepreneurs. The concept was developed in collaboration with the vocational and business schools of the field, other student collaboratives at Virrat and the local companies. The number of students being employed and new companies founded are great.

At the Entrepreneurship Forum for Universities of applied sciences, Teemu Kinnunen from MusicActive and Head of the Degree Programme Timo Kivikangas highlighted the actions of MusicActive: events, concerts, tour arrangements for non-Finnish artists as well as several companies founded by the students. The jury appreciated MusicActive’s direct connection to business life, the impressive goals of the participants and the professional aspect of working. Music was also seen as a field of the future, and culture could be even more extensively exported.

11 universities of applied sciences participated in the Entrepreneurship action of 2010. The winner was announced in Seinäjoki. Program Manager Sinikka Seppänen was also present accepting the award. She also welcomed the universities to take part in the competition next year, when the current winning organisation, TAMK, is in charge of organising the competition.

World Summit Youth Award launched: Register by June 27

TAMK is WSYA partner since 2008. WSYA 2010 was launched this week, here is the press release:

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) invites once again young designers, e-content creators, writers and bloggers from around the world to enter their online-projects in an international multimedia competition: using internet and mobiles to put the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into Action!

GET ACTION ON MDGs!
The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content and technological creativity, demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle illhealth, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.

An application form is available from April 19 – June 27, 2010 online at www.youthaward.org

Online projects by youth under the age of 30 may be submitted in the following six categories:

1. Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease !
2. Education for all !
3. Power 2 Women !
4. Create your Culture !
5. Go Green !
6. Pursue Truth !

An international jury of 12 ICT experts will evaluate the projects in two rounds of online judging, where the three winners and two runners-up for each category will be selected.

WSYA GOES BIG APPLE!
Winners will be invited to showcase their platform to heads of state, business leaders and civil society at the 4-days WSYA Winners Events, where the most committed and creative young people from around the world will be brought together with the UN Millennium Review Summit Leader in New York in September 2010. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered.

MORE BENEFITS
Next to the presentation of the winner’s projects all winners of the contest 2010 are invited to
participate in workshops at the WSYA Winners Events. All nominated projects will be presented online at
www.youthaward.org and extensive promoted through the WSYA network, which offers all contest
participants co-operation possibilities with ICT experts, business leaders, multimedia producers and
youth to youth organizations.

CONTEST DATES 2010!
ONLINE REGISTRATION April 19 – June 27, 2010 at www.youthaward.org
ONLINE JURY June 30 – July 7, 2010: elimination round of judging July 19 – July 25, 2010: nomination round of judging and winners selection
WINNERS EVENTS September 18 – September 22, 2010 at the UN MDG Review Summit in New York City, USA

WSYA home 
Previous posts about WSYA (Artmedia blog)
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Three TAMK students awarded in the Thesis competition

The national Thesis final thesis competition awarded the best Bachelor’s theses of 2009. Three TAMK students were also awarded.

The category Technology and Transportation awarded Kristiina Anttila (Bachelor of Engineering) for her thesis “Lämpösiirtotulostuksen tulostusjälje laatu ja siihen vaikuttavat tekijät” (“Quality of Thermal Transfer Printing and Affecting Factors”). The supervisor for the thesis was Päivi Viitaharju.

In the category Social Sciences, Business and Administration as well as Natural Sciences, Satu Hakkarainen (Bachelor of Business Administration) was awarded for her thesis “Sissimarkkinointi osaksi yrityksen markkinointia. Case ROAD-musikaalin sissimarkkinointi tempaus” (“Guerrilla marketing as a part of a company’s marketing – a Case Study of guerrilla marketing event for the dance musical “ROAD”). The supervisor was Elina Merviö.

Anu Sinisalo (Bachelor of Health Care) was awarded in the category Social services, Health and sport as well as Humanities and Education for her thesis “Klassisen baletin tekniikka ja rasitusvammat jalan ja nilkan alueella” (“Classical Ballet Technique and Overuse Injuries of the Foot and the Ankle”). Her supervisors were Pirjo Lehto and Marja-Leena Lähteenmäki.

181 Bachelor’s thesis took part in the national Thesis competition. 23 theses were awarded with 1000 € grants. The awards will be given in May-June 2010, and the prizes were sponsored by Kesko Oyj.

The aim of the annual Thesis competition is to make the UAS degrees more well-known, and to highlight the special qualities of the degrees, for example working life connections. Another aim is to develop the quality of the theses and to improve the theses culture in the universities of applied sciences. Over 20 000 UAS degrees are completed every year, and they all include a thesis work.

For more information, see www.oamk.fi/thesis

Invitation to young talents: The 13th annual EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards

The Moogo.com team (Finland) was last year awarded with The Best Business Potential Award, from left to right Antti Ala-Ilkka, Mikko Nurminen, Kimmo Pekari

Honouring Europe's most innovative and creative multimedia projects and the young designers behind them.

Call for Entries is now open!
This year, in addition to honouring Europe's best young talents in 9 categories, the EUROPRIX presents 3 Special Awards!

Feel the credit crunch? Get your "Crisis Discount"!
EUROPRIX is offering a "crisis discount": No registration fee for first time participants!

ENTER YOUR WORK NOW!

The Categories

• Online / Web Projects
• Offline Projects / Interactive DVD
•  Mobile Contents & Applications
• Games
• Computer Graphics & Design
• Interactive Installations
• Online & Digital Video / TV
• Content Tools & Interface Design
• Animations

EUROPRIX Special Awards for:

• Innovative multimedia concept
• Project with the best business potential
• Most creative design

Benefits: Nominees will receive a host of benefits, including:

• An all-expenses-paid trip to the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival in Graz, Austria (November 11-13, 2010)
• Presentation of their project in the EUROPRIX publications, distributed all over Europe
• Great networking and unique promotion opportunities throughout Europe
• Become part of the powerful EUROPRIX community
• Cutting-edge software packages

Registration start: April 2010
Submission deadline: July 1, 2010
Submit your project online and learn more: www.europrix.org
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TAMK and EUROPRIX have been partners since 1999.
You can learn more about EUROPRIX at our School of Art and Media International Week May 3-7 and Tampere Art Factory May 7-9
Read previous EUROPRIX stories on the Artmedia blog
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