New TAMK launches autumn semester and newly renovated innovative premises

New TAMK has officially started the autumn semester. Within the opening ceremonies in 25th August, the newly renovated I-building opened its doors and welcomed the students to premises with opportunities. Within the renovated laboratories in I-building, a glimpse of TAMK's R&D project ‘OPI ENEMPI’ was presented for the first time. Finland’s Minister for education, Henna Virkkunen, and the deputy Mayor for the city of Tampere, Perttu Pesä, were the first within other guests and members from staff to see not only the newly renovated I-building, but also parts of the innovative learning environment that is enabled by OPI ENEMPI project.

In OPI ENEMPI there will be built renewable energy solutions such as geothermal and air source heat pumps, solar collector panels, two different kinds of wind turbines and comprehensive monitoring system for all the renewable energy created. Also water saving and nutrient recycling toilet solutions are built.

At the moment what could be seen and investigated were the ecological toilet solutions. At the moment there are vacuum, separating low-flush and dry toilets installed. The dry toilets gained lot of interest as they are the first public dry toilets in Finland, installed in two floors. Other equipment are to be installed in the coming months and project OPI ENEMPI will be ready by the end of year 2010.


OPI ENEMPI project is funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
For more information about OPI ENEMPI will be updated to the project's webpages and from project manager Aino-Maija Kyykoski, aino-maija.kyykoski(at)tamk.fi

Hands-On practical training in Ethiopia

We had a chance to do our practical training in a country known for its long history, great coffee and 13 months of sunshine. An NGO called Sustainable Future (Kestävä tulevaisuus ry., KeTu ) in co-operation with TAMK’s R&D gave us opportunity to visit Ethiopia.

Project partners work in co-operation with a local partner NGO, Lem Ethiopia, enabling sustainable energy solutions and improving waste & sanitation as well as self-sufficiency in the city of Bahir Dar.

Bahir Dar is a city by Lake Tana, largest lake in Ethiopia and also the source of the Blue Nile. Ethiopia is located in the African horn and is a home for over 80 million people. About 80 % of the people in Ethiopia live in the rural areas and get their living from agriculture. At the same time only about 18 %of the households have access to proper sanitation facilities and about 31 % have access to safe water.

Our mission was to teach about hygiene and sanitation in local schools in Bahir Dar. We visited five schools and did a few hour training about personal hygiene and motivated students with awakening pictures and examples. It was a great experience and we had an amazing time teaching those eager and respecting students about hygiene. There are a lot of cultural challenges to be won, but one step at a time they can maintain a better health and demand better sanitation facilities.

At the same time we implemented a study about using urine as a fertilizer when growing cabbage. The plan was to implement a demonstration field and show the benefits of using urine in order to get a bigger yield. Unfortunately the land needed was provided by the government, but still faced challenges in order to be able to start up the real work. Therefore we implemented the study in a rather small-scale and in private in our own front yard. Did not quite serve as a demonstration, but we left some evidence to our local partners that urine is worth promoting as a free, safe and natural fertilizer.

The 2-month training taught us a lot. We were happy that we could exchange knowledge with the locals. All in all this was an once-in-a-lifetime possibility which will stay with us for the rests of our lives.

Text & photos: TAMK’s environmental engineering students Suvi Pielismaa and Salla Jokela

More about the project, project manager at TAMK's R&D: aino-maija.kyykoski(AT)tamk.fi
More about Sustainable Future NGO/ Kestävä Tulevaisuus ry: www.ketury.org
More about Lem Ethiopia : www.lem.org.et

Puhu minulle suomea - Speak Finnish to me

On photo: Minna Säpyskä, Laura Lindeman and Mwilumbwa Kibbassa

Fourth-year environmental engineering student Mwilumbwa Kibbassa received a pink badge with the slogan Puhu minulle suomea (Speak Finnish With Me) on 8 April in connection with launching the Puhu minulle suomea campaign in TAMK. The campaign aims at encouraging international students to speak Finnish.

"The playful Puhu minulle suomea campaign aims at encouraging international students to speak Finnish in everyday situations and giving them the chance to do so. Finnish can be used with all wearing the badge. However, nobody is forced to speak Finnish. Speaking Finnish starts with small steps, such as using the words kiitos (thanks) and terve (hello)," told Project Manager

Minna Säpyskä from the Baltic Institute of Finland and Coordinator Laura Lindeman from the University of Tampere Career Centre.

Lacking Finnish language skills are one of the largest employment barrier among international students in the Tampere Region. Knowing even a little Finnish facilitates employment and integration to the society. The campaign badges are being distributed both to international students and to the participating institutions´ staff.

The University of Tampere, Tampere University of Technology and TAMK participate in the campaign. The campaign is set to run through April and May in the spring and continue in the autumn. A further aim is to extend the campaign to companies in the autumn.

The campaign has been organised by WorkPlace Pirkanmaa project, which aims at bringing international students and employers closer together. The roots of the campaign are in the city of Helsinki. The campaign has spread to the higher education institutions in Tampere through the Puhu minulle suomea event organised by Tampere Adult Education Centre´s immigrant education.

Mwilumbwa Kibbassa already speaks very good Finnish. "I would like to learn more Finnish if I just had enough time," Kibbassa told.

Further information:
Project Manager Minna Säpyskä, the Baltic Institute of Finland, tel. 050
587 0357, firstname.lastname@tampere.fi
Coordinator Laura Lindeman, Career Centre, University of Tampere, tel. 040
190 4064, firstname.lastname@uta.fi

Tämä toimii - This works!

Tämä toimii! (This works!) technology competition for primary school students is underway. The regional preliminaries of the national competition will be held at TAMK on Friday the 19th of March.

17 000 primary school students all around Finland combine their skills in mathematics, Finnish, art and crafts when creating almost 4300 moving toys, their advertisements and a diary documenting their group's working process. 120 students from Tampere, Nokia, Sastamala, Ylöjärvi, Ikaalinen, Jokioinen, Hämeenkyrö, Pori, Ulvila, Mänttä-Vilppula, Pirkkala and Hämeenlinna take part in the preliminaries in Tampere.

The national technology competition for grades 1-6 has once again made it possible to use innovation process as a learning method. The results are magnificent: awesome and diverse moving toys, their advertisements and diaries of the process - there is no limit to the creativitiness of the students! Innovativeness is a skill you can learn!

For more information (in Finnish:)
www.tamatoimii.fi
www.teknologiateollisuus.fi

So in TAMK, you can really earn credits by arranging Speeddates?

Well, I guess you can. At least we do.

Our project group, consisting of TAMK students, have put together two nights of mischief and mingling in which some 20 people of the opposite sex are going to have miniature dates of 3-4 minutes with all the other 20 persons. 

The first speed-date night will be held at Groove on the 17th of March and the second, a week later, on the 24th of March at Tabu. The night at Groove is targeted for people between the ages 19-27 and the Tabu night for the ages 25 to 35. Check out our website http://www.deiteille.com . From the “ilmoittaudu” section, you sign yourself in. We already have enough women, but for men there are still couple free spots.

Both of out events have stunning afterparties in same locations, so feel welcome to join the fun! Doors will open at 10 pm.

Events:
17.3. Groove Bar & Cellar, Aleksanterinkatu 22
24.3. Tabu Wine Bar & Ultra Lounge, Hämeenkatu 10

Speeddates 8 €
Afterparty 4 €, (free for our daters)

Our site is only in finnish, but in case of questions, you can reach us by email from info@deiteille.com.

Story: Tiina Heikkilä and Teemu Oikkonen

New eLearning Materials for Adult Students of the Retail Trade

Science journalist Kalle Heiska reports about the EU RetAil (Retail Management for Adults in Lifelong Learning) that now is completed. The aim of the project was to transfer and implement an existing written material for teaching retailing management into an ICT-based learning material based on modules for open learning environment targeted for adult learners.

As a part of the project, eLearning materials have been created for adults working in the retail trade. Tampere UAS (TAMK) was involved in the design of the materials as an expert in adult education and on-line education. The partners included two Icelandic and one Scottish educational institution and the work was mostly financed by the EU Leonardo da Vinci transfer of innovation programme.

Read the full report
Pictured: Senior lecturer Hanna Torp (left) and project manager Marianna Leikomaa of TAMK have developed new eLearning materials designed for adult students in the retail trade.

DETVET Blog Launched

DETVET (Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training) is a Leonardo da Vinci Programme funded partnership project which started August 2009 and will last until July 2011. Partners are from Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Italy and Finland.

The kick-off meeting in Klaipeda in October decided that the project website would be a blog - easy to update for all project partners. The first posts and much of the informative content on right hand of the blog was made already at the meeting. It was however decided to launch the blog later, when there is more for to explore.

The aim of the project is to form an international sustainable partnership in order to improve VET teachers’ competencies in education techniques.

The main role of Tampere UAS (TAMK) in this project is to contribute to the expertice of using Social Media in education and training.

DETVET Blog
Previous posts about DETVET

Welcome to the 1st meeting for TAMK's own ecological school garden -project

The day is set, the time is set, now it is time for you to set your minds for a

FIRST MEETING FOR OUR OWN ECOLOGICAL SCHOOL GARDEN,

Wednesday, 25th of November, at 17.00 in TAMK at B6-33


Absolutely everyone is welcome, you can also bring friends with you if you want, this is going to be fun!

What we are going to do is to plan a school garden where we students, especially the ENVEs but I don't see a reason why others cannot join, will have the chance to grow our very own, ecologically correct food, where we can spend some time outside, where we can try out everything we want (first ideas are rainwater harvesting system, own ecological fertilizer, permaculture, garden on the roof...), where we can relax and follow our roots and dig in the mud.

The end of the ready packed carrots and salads has come! No imported food anymore, no unknown chemicals in our meals!

This first meeting will be for gathering ideas, sharing knowledge, and setting up a first timeplan and a strategy. I am more than willing to put lots of energy into this project, but I cannot do this by myself, so I need every single one of you!

The planning period will be during the winter so that we can start in springtime to get into action.

So put your rubberboots on and get ready for next Wednesday!

I cannot wait to hear what ideas you all have!

post by Magdalena, student at TAMK, IENVE08

pictures: Aino-Maija Kyykoski
picture above from organic apple farm Hostetin, Czech
picture below from permaculture and organic farm, Taranaki Environment centre, New Zealand

Trans Atlantic Paper Science – thoughts of the students participating in the dual degree

TAMK University of Applied Sciences together with other European and US partner universities received EU-US Atlantis funding for 2008-2012 to implement a Trans Atlantic Paper Science (TAPS) dual undergraduate degree. This project gives students and faculty members a unique opportunity to study global paper science through international collaboration. Total duration of an exchange is one year. A dual Bachelor of Science degree, emphasis on Paper Science, will be awarded after completion of TAPS requirements.

This year three Finnish students left for US to attend the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point (UWSP) to study in this new dual degree. While these students left for new adventures abroad, two students from Wisconsin UWSP arrived to the chilly Finland, and began studies at TAMK. Below is a short report on what feelings this cross-cultural opportunity has raised in the students from Finland and US.

The students were asked four questions to further describe the feelings of living in a foreign country and city, but also to get an idea of how the studies at TAMK are compared to the studies at UWSP.

Katherine Mess and Stephen Chastain were interviewed at TAMK, they both seem to like Finland and enjoy the culture and customs of the Finnish people. Studies
at TAMK differed from their home studies to some extent, but all in all they both seemed to be quite happy with the education at TAMK.

How have you liked the studies here at TAMK? Have the courses for example been as you expected before hand?

Katherine Mess: “They told us before coming over to expect a lot of group work, and a lot less homework with fewer tests. I think we have found that to be true. It is quite different from what we’re used to, and it works well except when it comes to test time and a LOT of material is covered on one exam.”

Stephen Chastain: “I think I have enjoyed my studies so far. The classes were a little intimidating at first because I have only had a few classes for my major back home and the students here seemed to know so much more than me. But, I am catching up now. Having hardly any homework and only having 1 or 2 exams is strange for me. I’m not sure I like that.”

What do you think of TAMK? (in general)

Katherine Mess: “It’s nice to have all classes in the same building, so you do not have to go outside. The feeling of community within the University is very nice as well.”

Stephen Chastain: “I really enjoy TAMK. There are more student activities going on here. Of course, it may just be because I am in a new place so I am looking for things to do. Overall I really enjoy going to school here. Then there’s the overalls. Those things are awesome. Hopefully mine will arrive soon. It’ll be great.

What do you think of free-time activities or free-time in general in Tampere and TAMK?

Katherine Mess: “There’s not a lot to do, but the International club does a good job of organizing activities around the community.”

Stephen Chastain: “I think the free-time activities are great. There’s always so much to do and it’s always entertaining.

How do you feel about the Finns and Tampere? (culture etc…)

Katherine Mess: “The Finns I have talked to have all been very nice. Overall they are quite reserved, but that lifestyle fits well with my personality, so it hasn’t been very hard to adjust. One of the hardest things for me to adjust to is the different food.

Stephen Chastain: “I really enjoy the Finns. They are polite. But best of all, they are quiet. I enjoy silence every now and then, but it’s hard to find that in America. I fit in a little better here than I do back home. Pretty sure I was supposed to be born in Finland.”

The students that left TAMK to study at UWSP were also interviewed via email. They were asked the same questions as Katherine and Stephen, just turned around to get a picture of their feelings towards UWSP studies and the American culture. Here are the answers of two of them.

How have you liked the studies at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point? Have the courses for example been as you expected before hand?

Timo Vartiainen: “I must say that the structure of the studies is way different here than at TAMK. We have a lot of homework assignments compared to the amount we have in Finland. On the other hand we don’t have as much actual lessons. On a usual day we only have 3 hours of school. Still it is difficult to get everything done.

Tomi Harjula: “It has been very challenging to keep up with this rhythm here. The whole structure is more or less similar to a Finnish University, not like a University of Applied Sciences, so we have very few lessons and a lot of things to do on our own time. But it’s getting better all the time, it is just about getting used to it. Otherwise this has been amazing. All the things we can do with the paper machine are super cool, and in general, this has been great. All the teachers have been very supporting and we have not had any problems so far, although the language is another big challenge.”

What do you think of Stevens Point? (in general)

Timo Vartiainen: “Stevens Point is a relatively small town, a lot smaller than Tampere but it has all the utilities you need.”

Tomi Harjula: “Stevens Point is one of the nicest cities I have ever been to. It’s a small town, so there’s not so much to see or do, but it’s very safe, close enough to big cities and people here are super friendly. A beautiful countryside town, which has a great small brewery.”

What do you think of free-time activities or free-time in general in Wisconsin and at Stevens Point?

Timo Vartiainen: “The opportunities to do sports are really good and the facilities are in topnotch, which you can’t say about TAMK. Bigger cities like Madison and Milwaukee are only a few hours drive away so you can easily go to those cities on weekends if you feel that Stevens Point is getting too small.”

Tomi Harjula: “Free-time activities are very well organized. There’s an intramurals league for students in almost every sport you can name. Basketball, football, softball, volleyball, badminton, racquetball, bowling, pool. etc. etc. I personally have spent a lot of time on climbing wall, which is also free for students. And then there is theater, movie theater, all kinds of arts etc. etc. The list is endless, and you can really blame yourself if you get bored.”

How do you feel about the Americans and Wisconsin? (culture etc…)

Timo Vartiainen: “I think the culture is quite the same. Even the weather is alike. The only difference I’ve noticed is that people are more open and easier to approach than Finns. And it’s really difficult to find decent food around here.”

Tomi Harjula: “America seems to be a nice place. Wisconsin is in the countryside of a huge country, and people are like you expect them to be on a country side. Friendly and open, but not so open-minded. The only thing that really bothers me is that crap they called food here.“

Over all the individuals taking part in the TAPS dual undergraduate degree program seem to be pleased with it. This opportunity will give un-measurable international experience to the students and also give them a great deal of knowledge as teaching methods differ between the schools.

Photo: Katherine Mess (left) and Stephen Chastain (right).

Students from UWSP currently studying at TAMK.

Ania Ciuba Made the Soundly Sleeping Dragon Web Site

A very international project at our university has turned out fine. Ania Ciuba from Poland, a multimedia student from our partner school SDE College in Odense, Denmark, made a web site for Tan Minh Single Woman's group, Vietnam, during her exchange period in our School of Art and Media.

The Tan Minh women are farmers, but as farming land is getting smaller and smaller, they have to arrange other forms of income. They have founded a cooperation to produce their first product, Soundly Sleeping Dragon silk sleeping bag liners.

CED, Coalition for Environment and Development (Ympäristö ja Kehitys ry. in Finnish) is a voluntary organization, which helps the Tan Minh cooperative in developing their business. The sleeping bag liners have become quite popular in Finland. To extend the sales with a online service a web site was needed.

The School of Art and Media promised to help CED with the web design, and Ania needed a topic for her thesis work. So many needs met and meshed with each other, and now the project is online.

"This project has taught me a lot about design, implementation and also about development work. I am still involved and enjoying it.", says Ania Ciuba about her experience. Ania has now graduated in Odense and moved to Helsinki, where she's working for a software development company.

Soundly Sleeping Dragon

Pictured: Ania Ciuba on the roof garden at TAMK School of Art and Media

What's TAMK got to do with Russian timber duties?

Picture: Prime ministers Putin and Vanhanen and minister Pekkarinen opening the summit

Almost 400 people were present in the third Russian-Finnish forestry summit in St. Petersburg, Russia last Sunday, 25th October. The Finnish delegation consisted of 140 invited directors, managers, researchers and experts from all forestry branches. TAMK was one of the three Finnish higher education institutions present in the summit and the only Finnish university of applied sciences who participated, represented by Aura Loikkanen and Ari Vanamo.

The summit concentrated on actual problems of forestry co-operation between Finland and Russia. Both countries had put a high priority on the meeting. The prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin opened the seminar and also the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen gave his speech. Altogether five Finnish ministers were present in the summit.

The main problem between Finnish-Russian forestry co-operation has for some year now been the export duties on timber which have strongly affected forest industry in Finland but maybe even more logging operations and employment on the Russian side. According to the original plan the duties on birch pulpwood would have been at least 50 €/m3 from 1st January 2010, but Russia has now twice postponed the decision. Some of the Finnish big forest industry companies have however already reacted and withdrawn their operations from Russia almost completely.

But the timber duties are hopefully just a minor exception in the forestry co-operation between Russia and Finland. The fact remains that Russia has the world´s largest forest resources, about 40 times the amount of Finland´s. The need for the development of forestry sector is great and Finnish know-how in forestry is wanted in many areas. In the summit Finnish and Russian delegations agreed on the further development of both economic and scientific-technical co-operation. It will include for example research on forestry legislation, development and application of bioenergy technologies, creating new forest industry products e.g. by using nanotechnology, basic and further training of forestry researchers, engineers and workers.

So what did TAMK get out of the summit? The forestry degree programme of TAMK, partly together with TAOKK, has for over 5 years been involved in forestry training co-operation in Russia. The projects have been financed by EU and lately by the Finnish Foreign Ministry. These projects were actually the reason why TAMK was invited to St. Petersburg on Sunday. The summit offered the chance for TAMK to see and to be seen. New contacts were formed and old ones refreshed. We´re quite sure that also in the future there will be a need for TAMK´s services in Russian forestry sector,

Ari Vanamo

RetAiL meeting in Reykjavik

Marianna and Hanna visiting the Barnafossar waterfalls

For the past two years, TAMK has participated in project RetAiL – Retail Management for Adults in Lifelong Learning. Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and the project had its final meeting in Reykjavik in 6.-8.10.2009. The project is now almost complete and the next step is to start disseminating it and to offer the course created during the project for learners to use.

The product created during the project is a programme aimed at adults already working in the retailing sector, who need to improve their skills in retail management. The materials are meant for flexible, on-line studying and have been created especially by taking the adult learners’ learning strategies into account.

Barnafossar waterfalls

The partners in the project are Verzlunarskoli Islands (the coordinator, Iceland), Fræðslumiðstöð atvinnulífsins (Iceland) and North Highland College (Scotland).

http://leoretail.com/index.htm

Ecoday arranged by students of Environmental Engineering

With the fund received from the city of Tampere's climate campaign "ILMANKOS", TAMK's Environmental Engineering students' Association G.L.O.B.E. arranged an “Ecoday in Ritakatu”. The day and event was aimed especially at foreign students studying in TAMK and PIRAMK and living in the IOT student housing in Ritakatu, Ruotula.

The idea for the Ecoday came from the fact that some environmental students concerned about waste management and other environmental issues were especially concerned of the situation in IOT buildings in Ritakatu. Lot of information that existed on the site about waste management was in Finnish only and most foreign students, especially exchange students, are only capable of understanding English.

So us Env.Eng. students, in G.L.O.B.E., felt that we could do something. The project arranged aimed towards protecting the environment, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for a saving in the general costs of waste management for all parties involved.

Students who participated in the planning and executing the Ecoday event were altogether 11 and from all over the world, such places as Tanzania, Vietnam, China, UK, Algeria, South-Africa...


Few of the participants comments captured to describe the event better:

“We walked toward the buildings where we were going from a door to another, introducing briefly ourselves to the inhabitants, why we are here and what we were expecting from them. We distributed the material that we had such as: Brochures, Biodegradable waste bags for biowaste sorting, energy-saving lamps, and giving them an opportunity to get rid of hazardous waste if they had any and then disposed it properly to one of the waste handling sites in Tampere.”


“Indeed, separating waste is simple and important but not all the people know how to do it correctly. So I hope more similar activities will be organized in the coming future.”

"Information sharing and little help of material to get started with and students were one step more motivated to recycle more and think about their energy consumption".

Intensive Program (IP): Lobbying in Brussels

Photo by Lauri-Tapio Korhonen

From April 28 – May 10, 27 undergraduate students from Business and Management programmes offered at universities in 9 EU member states (Bielefeld/D, Rotterdam/NL, Tampere/FIN, Valenciennes/F, Vic/SP, Braga/P, Brno/CZ, Rzeszow/PL and Brussels/B) studied the theory and practice of Lobbying in the institutional environment of the European Union in Brussels.

Yancho Dimov, Ekaterina Tetchieva, and Lauri Korhonen from TAMK University of Applied Science aparticipated in the project.  Mike Garant lead the group and acted as a tutor for one of the 5 study groups and social coordinator along with other leaders.



The group visited the European Parliament, two Directorate Generals from the European Commission as well as lobby firms, NGOs, non-EU State Diplomatic Missions to the EU, and other actors who lobby EU institutions.  The students visited various people and held round-table discussions and interviews in order to gather first-hand information in order to understand the lobbying process in the EU. 

Meeting parlament members

Another key aspect of the program was the mixing and working together between the various nationalities.  One student remarked that during the two weeks, participants not only enhanced their knowledge of the subject but grew into better human beings.

Most of the project was paid for by the European Union.  All in all the project was a great success. There are so many benefits that TAMK should work actively to participate in such programs in the future.

By: Mike Garant

TAMK Partner in World Summit Youth Award

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is a contest for youth-led online projects supporting the implementation of the UN Millennium Goals.

WSYA is arranged by the World Summit Award Network which operates in 168 countries in cooperation with UNESCO, UNIDO, Internet Society and other international organisations.

Everybody under 30 can participate in this contest with five categories:

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

Deadline for submissions is February 28. Three winners in each category will be given the opportunity to showcase their platform to heads of state, business leaders and civil society at the World Summit Award (WSA) Gala and Winners Conference in June, 2009 in Monterrey, Mexico.

The organiser of WSYA activities in Finland is TAMK University of Applied Sciences.

UN Millennium Goals
World Summit Youth Award
World Summit Award

Russian specialists of forestry education in TAMK

A group of Russian headmasters from forestry schools visited TAMK this week. This visit was part of the project, in which a new curriculum standard for the forestry schools of Russia is being developed together with TAMK. The group contained 10 people from different parts of north-west Russia.

During the visit, the group visited Metsähallitus, a visit which the group had especially wished for. The visit also contained a field trip, where the group saw examples of sapling care. TAMK 4th year Forestry students also participated by showing the visitors how organising wood procurement is handled in Finland.

The project of renewing the curriculums in Russian forestry schools is a part of the Finnish-Russian Development Programme on Sustainable Forest Management and Conservation of Biological Diversity in Northwest Russia, which is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

RetAiL project partners visited Tampere

The partners from project RetAiL - Retail Management for Adults in Lifelong Learning visited TAMK between 3.11-7.11. The partners came from Verzlunarskoli Islands and Fræðslumiðstöð atvinnulífsins in Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as from The North Highland College in Thurso, Scotland.

In addition to the items on the project meeting agenda, there was time to visit both TAMK campuses as well as proAcademy, to eat at the restaurant Harald, to take a tour of the old Finlayson area and visit the Moominvalley-museum and its wonderful display of art. And of course no visit to Finland would be complete without sauna, sausages and a quick dip to the near-frozen lake!


The next meeting of the project partners will be held in Reykjavik in April.

For more information:
www.leoretail.com

Picture: The project partners enjoying a dinner in Harald

The Smartphone Laboratory of TAMK Presented at Symbian Smartphone Show

The Smartphone Laboratory of TAMK was present in yearly Symbian Smartphone Show. The laboratory is a part of Symbian Academy, which currently consists of 57 Universities worldwide. The Symbian Academy selected five Universities to present their applications and innovations on mobile devices in Symbian's yearly Smartphone Show.

TAMK presented a set of applications and ideas implemented during various projects. The Smartphone lab of TAMK is also a part of Forum Nokia Innovation network, which is a community of selected Forum Nokia Pro University members. The network was published last December in Nokia World, Amsterdam. The Smartphone lab has been active in S60 community and the laboratory presented its applications and innovations in Barcelona S60 Summit last May.

For further information, contact lecturers Jari Mikkolainen & Tony Torp (firstname.lastname@tamk.fi).
Picture: Tony Torp (left) and Jari Mikkolainen at S60 Summit, Barcelona.

RetAiL project meeting in Tampere

The project partners from project RetAiL - Retail Management for Adults in Lifelong Learning will be arriving to Tampere on the 3rd of November. The visitors will be coming from Iceland and Scotland and they will stay in Tampere until the 7th of November.

The aim of the project Retail Management for Adults in Lifelong Learning is to transfer and implement an existing written material for teaching retailing management into an ICT-based learning material based on modules for open learning environment targeted for adult learners.

The meeting in Tampere will focus on the current situation of the project as well as the future developments.

http://www.leoretail.com/

Picture: Taken by Hanna Torp at last spring's meeting in Thurso, Scotland