TAMK’s 2nd International Week in Research, Development and Innovation in Tampere 22.- 26.4.2013.

Another TAMK International Week has begun! This time the week is about Research, Development & Innovation and the theme of the week is "Future Calls for Funding - Living Labs in Horizon 2020". There are more than 20 participants for the week from 14 different countries. For more information about the RDI international week, make sure the check the website of the week at: http://iwrdi2013.tamk.fi/

R&D Director Perttu Heino (left) and Service Coordinator Ursula Helsky-Lehtola (right) welcoming the international guests

During the week there will be interesting visits like the reception at Tampere Old City Hall and a visit to Demola for example. There are meetings and workshops in the programme as well and even some special Finnish culture activities. The full programme of the week can be seen at: http://iwrdi2013.tamk.fi/programme/

Introduction event at Y-campus, TAMK.

International week for Research, Development and Innovation 2013 participants

Text: Panu Alanko
Photos: Tuula Härkönen

First International Week in Research, Development and Innovation at TAMK

The RDI International Week 2012 took place in April and the participants from all around the Europe gathered to discuss about the three main themes of the week: wellbeing, technology and culture.

Check out the TAMK R&D Blog to find out more about what happened and to see the photos:
http://tamkresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/rdi-international-week-2012/

Staffordshire sent their ambassador

On Sunday 26th of June 2011, TAMK had the great privilege to welcome Mrs Carol Southall from Staffordshire University Business School, UK.

Mrs. Southall, a lecturer in Tourism and Event Management spent four days in Tampere in order to get to know TAMK and the city of Tampere better.

After Sunday’s arrival and hopefully well slept night, Mrs. Southall was picked up from her hotel by the development manager Hanna-Greta Puurtinen on Monday morning.

At TAMK Mrs. Southall met various TAMK employees, including:
Customer Relationship Director Mr. Esa Ala-Uotila,
Development Manager Ms. Hanna-Greta Puurtinen,
Senior Lecturer in Marketing & International Coordinator Ms. Pirkko Varis,
Head of International Services Ms. Kirsi Tolvanen,
Project coordinator Ms. Katja Kivikangas,
Project coordinator Ms. Julia Sergeeva,
Project coordinator Mr. Ville Koiviola,
Project assistant Ms. Kirsi Leiniö and
Trainee Ms. Janita Nurmi.

TAMK employees briefly presented their roles and processes where as Mrs. Southall shared some light on Staffordshire University’s Degree Programme of Tourism and Event Management. The rest of the day was spent on in intensive discussions concerning the future collaborations between TAMK and Stafford University.

On Tuesday Ms Kirsi Leiniö and Ms Janita Nurmi of the R&D Services, took Mrs. Southall for a city tour around Tampere. The day began with a visit to Tampere Hall, where they were shown around and given information of the venue. Afterwards there was time for a short stroll around the adjacent park before they were picked up by their chauffeur for the day, Mr Ville Koiviola. He drove the group to the inspiring Demola of the New Factory, which is a centre for functional innovation for university students as well as companies. From there they walked to have lunch in the Laukontori market square. The menu included, of course, black sausage with lingonberry (cowberry) jam.

Behold the black sausage!

After lunch it was time for a walk along the shoreline over to the Pyynikki area. The silence and the view along the way were appreciated by all. After a quick look around Scandic Hotel Rosendahl they headed to the top of the Pyynikki observation tower to enjoy the view. The lovely, sunny day spent in Tampere naturally finished with coffee and the famous Pyynikki doughnuts.

What weather, what a view!

On Wednesday morning Mrs. Southall was taken to visit The Council of Tampere Region.
There Ms Southall accompanied by Julia Sergeeva, and Hanna-Greta Puurtinen, was able to meet Mr. Marko Mäkinen, the Manager of Regional Development Planning.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Southall’s visit in Finland was nearing its end. Time sure passes quickly when there is a lot to do and see.
With sad goodbyes, Mrs. Southall departed from Tampere Airport in the late afternoon.

We at TAMK thank you for your lovely visit and we are sure this was not the last time we will hear from you!

Text: Elias Suominen & Janita Nurmi
Photos: Kirsi Leiniö & Ville Koiviola

The last DETVET meeting in Tampere

DETVET family photo

TAMK hosted the last meeting of the DETVET project end of last week at Finlayson Campus. DETVET (Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training) is an EU funded partnership programme. TAMK's role in this project is to share its expertise in using Social Media in Education. TAMK is represented by ist Educational Technology Center and Degree Programme in Media. Other project partners come from Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden.

The project has had six meetings, all partners have hosted one meeting. After the Tampere meeting partners finish their reports. An electronic book will share the project conclusions with everybody interested.

Links:
DETVET home
Previous posts about DETVET
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Postcard from Olomouc

Left to right: Tuomo Joronen, Jarno Tolonen, Sohvi Sirkesalo, Cai Melakoski and
Ari Närhi in front of the Palacký University

Happy regards from the magnificent city of Olomouc (first mentioned 1017), Moravia, eastern part of the Czech Republic. Olomouc has some 100 000 inhabitants, 25 000 of them are students of the oldest university in Moravia, second oldest in Czech Republic, the Palacký University.

Olomouc is also the Czech Twin City  of the City of Tampere.

We spent three days in Olomouc participating in the DETVET (Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training) EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme funded partnership project meeting. Our input to the project is our expertise in implementing Social Media in education.


We will host the last DETVET project meeting in Tampere in May. The partners are from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden.


We = Jarno Tolonen from the Educational Technology Center of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) and the rest of us lecturers of TAMK Degree Programme in Media.

DETVET sightseeing in Olomouc. In the background The Holy Trinity Column,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cai Melakoski

DETVET home

Olomouc
Palacký University

Innovative technology solutions interested audience in the opening seminar of TAMK’s new learning environment

In the roof visitors got to see the wind and solar energy systems.

TAMK’s new learning environment is ready for action. Opening seminar was held on 10th December in the main campus. Environmental friendly and unique learning environment combines energy- and environmental technology targeting to create more sustainable environment and future. Learning environment includes geothermal heat system, two different kinds of wind power systems to generate electricity, two solar collectors for heat and electric production and monitoring systems for these all. There is also Finland’s first public indoor dry toilets and water saving toilets as well as grey water purification included to the learning environment.

The aim of the learning environment is to serve students from diversified technical study programs and to provide professionals of new energy- and waste water technologies for companies and municipalities. This is now the genuine moment to study right at own school premises not only in theory, but also in practice by monitoring, trying and maintaining the different energy and environmental technology systems.

'Opi enempi' project is funded by European Regional Development Fund.

After the seminar lectures, the audience was taken into the learning environment to know more about the installed energy systems and ecological toilet solutions. In the picture, group getting to know the greenhouse.

For more information see projects webpages or contact aino-maija.kyykoski[at]tamk.fi

EVA - the virtual campus of visual culture studies

Prof. Doru Pop, coordinator of the project, leading the curriculum workshop

Last weekend the EVA-project was kicked off in Cluj, the capital of Transylvania in Romania. Our aim is to build the campus of visual culture studies as a pilot of European Virtual Academy over the next two years. We will have courses, library, labs and forums in the digital world, taking advantage of social media tools and Open Source software.

We will involve the best experts of learning - the students - to create the campus. Professors, lecturers and artists are already preparing the first nine pilot courses to start next autumn. The general language of the campus will be English, but courses will also be translated or subtitled to Romanian, Italian, German, Hungarian and Finnish.

EVA will allow the students of the media and art programmes of partner universities to do exchange studies in a truly international environment without traveling.

We are Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania (coordinator), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy, Hochschule Mittweida - University of Applied Sciences, Mittweida, Germany, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transilvania, Cluj, Romania and Tampere University of Applied Sciences, TAMK.

Later we will also invite other universities to join us.

The project is funded by the European Union Lifelong Learning Programme.

The web site of European Virtual Campus will be launched in April.

Cai Melakoski
Head, TAMK international Degree Programme in Media
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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

TAMK Now in Second Life

You can now find TAMK at EduFinland island in Second Life virtual environment. TAMK's main campus was finished during the summer and is now ready to welcome all teachers and students interested in Second Life.

Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual world. To use it you need the Second Life Viewer 2 programme as well as an avatar, which you can create by registering at www.secondlife.com . Second Life users move as avatars and can interact through text-based chat and voice (a headset).

It is possible to participate in lectures and group works and familiarise oneself with TAMK's projects and student assignments in Second  Life. TAMK project SLurls can be found at TAMK's Second Life main campus. The main campus contents and facilities are open for all. Degree programmes can implement courses or parts of courses in Second Life.

The buildings, contents and functions were created in R&D projects during the summers 2009 and 2010. Diverse activities will be organised in the environment from autumn 2010. If you are interested in taking education to a new dimension, please contact the Education Technology Centre.

Register and load Second Life Viewer Second Life Viewer:
http://www.secondlife.com

TAMK at EduFinland island:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduFinland/

Further information on using Second Life in education:
http://www.edufinland.fi

Regards,

Helena Tirronen (helena.tirronen(at)tamk.fi), SL: Maija Bimbogami
R&D and Education Services

Sanna Sintonen (sanna.sintonen(at)tamk.fi), SL: Sonja Stillwater
Education Technology Centre
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TAMK's environmental engineering students exploring Azerbaijan

In the picture from right to left: WECF's Anna Samwel, EKOT NGO's director Aytan Poladova, TAMK's students Maria Moradi and Johanna Koskenranta, Bistra Mihaylova WECF, Ulla-Maija Koivula from TAMK and a local woman who wanted to join the picture with the project team.

"We have now almost completed our practical training in Azerbaijan. In the beginning of the training period we concentrated on water quality issues in the laboratory and tested for example the amount of coliforms and E-coli in waste water and surface waters. We also measured the amount of ammonium in surface waters. We participated into the process of particle size analysis from an offshore location.

On week 24 we participated at the United Nation's (UN) trainings on Strategical Environmental Assessment for representatives from different Azerbaijani ministries.

Our participation to the water safety plan-trainings started from Shemakha area where we had the first training for teachers from Ismayilli and Shemakha area combined. There WECFs representatives gave presentation about the water safety issues and all the problems in the areas were discussed about. Also the nitrates were measured from the local drinking water in order to see some indication of the waters quality. The second training took place in Sabirabad area in Azerbaijan. At the time they had problems with floods in that area which affected the amount of participators in the training.

Our task was to conduct a baseline study of two of the 6 villages involved with the whole project. Our villages to be studied were Talistan in Ismayilli region and Suqovsan in Sabirabad region. We spent a few days in both of the villages and interviewed people about issues related to water, sanitation and energy. Finally we write a report about the findings and will give the report to WECF.

We will go to Sabirabad again next week together with Anna Sanwell and her expert team from Georgia to build solar panels and fruit driers."

Above text is written by third year environmental engineering students Johanna Koskenranta and Maria Moradi who have spent 3 months in practical training in Azerbaijan in TAMK's and Kestävä tulevaisuus ry's common project for improvement of the sanitation and water problems. Local partner from Azerbaijan side in the project is Ekoloji Tarazlig (EKOT)


picture above: In countryside in Sabirabad where we spent one week to construct a fruit dryer, solar collector and water distillator with WECF.

Welcome to Engage Learning Game Design Summer School!

Demola, the venue of the summer school, behind the TAF banner

The Summer School for students and young designers is to be held in Tampere, Finland, from 30th of August till 3rd of September in 2010 at the DEMOLA Centre of Innovation. The Engage Learning Summer school will tackle issues related to game design as well as how to embed curricular topics in the game design. The summer school (3 ECTS) will accommodate between 15 – 25 international students and game designers. For further information about the logistics and the application form, click on the links at Engage Summer School home

The Summer School is organised by the Engage project and hosted by TAMK/Media Programme. Engage is coordinated by our partner FH Joanneum in Graz, Austria.

This Summer School will give designers and creative students insights and knowledge of educational game design e.g. creating educational games for the target group, embedding curricular topics and stealth learning, providing accurate information, consulting on one hand teachers and on the other hand the target group; asking the right questions and embedding these answers into the game.

Lectures will be interleaved with practical work and will be provided by academic and industry experts. Topics will include:

• Game-Based Learning
• Game genres, platforms, and industry roles
• Gender issues and target audience analysis
• Design guidelines for successful games
• Concept documents and the development cycle
• Gameflow and usability testing
• Educational games and learning outcomes
• Game engines and development tools
• Marketing, packaging, and promotion

You will also need to prototype your idea and analyze the usability. This can be done on paper, as a mock-up, or by utilizing game engines provided during the school. This will obviously depend on the platform chosen for your concept.
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See the promo video
SummerSchool EngageLearning on Facebook
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FH Joanneum
TAMK Degree Programme in Media
Demola
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Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award 2010

Deadline of submissions July 30

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 award sum for the Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award is 7 000€.

TAMK is one of the organisers of this competition.

Ubimedia Award home

The nominees of Ubimedia Award will be invited to MindTrek Awards prize ceremony at the MindTrek Conference October 6-8 2010
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Pictured winners of Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards 2009 from right to left: Third Price winner Jan Roters, Traffic Light Detector (Germany), second prize winner Katrina Bekessy, PING, the Smart Trash Bin (USA), and the winners with Donkeypedia Frank Alsema and Joost van Eeden, the Netherlands
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TAMK R&D: Well-being tourism to attract people to the Tampere Region

Helvetinkolu in Helvetinjärvi National Park. Photo: Seppo Pajari

Science journalist Kalle Heiska has published a reportabout the development project of Tampere UAS that has created major impetus for the development of the northern Tampere Region as a well-being tourism destination, even internationally.

Local enterprises offering nature and culture services, Metsähallitus (a state enterprise administering state-owned land and water areas) and experts in tourism and well-being at TAMK have arrived at a common vision to make well-being tourism a major occupation in the area.

Erkki Kelloniemi (right), project manager at Tampere UAS describes the song ritual of a pair of diver birds in Soljanen March in the Seitseminen National Park. Photo: Seppo Pajari

Read the entire story by Kalle Heiska
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EuroITV conference today at TAMK

The eight edition of the annual conference  on Interactive TV & Video EuroITV started today with the pre-conference workshop day in the premises of TAMK School of Art and Media in the Finlayson.area. The theme of the conference is “web.sharing.TV.content”, reflecting the increasing connections between TV and web services.

EuroITV is attended by academia and professionals from all over the world to discuss latest advances and research of media technology, HCI, media studies, and the content creation community. The conference is organized by the EMMi Lab., Department of Business Information Management & Logistics, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT) , Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), and the School of Science and Technology, Aalto University in cooperation with major players in the field of TV and video in Finland.

Professor Artur Lugmayr as general chair of the conference is expecting more than 170 attendees from over 30 countries worldwide:
– We have organized the largest EuroITV conference ever. We also have re-invented the conference by adding a global competition – the EuroITV Grand Challenge – with a price sum of 3000 Euro, new themes such as art & content, and a visionary club gathering leading researchers in a think tank to develop the future vision of video and television in the age of Web3.0. 

The conference will continue tomorrow and on Friday in Hotel Holiday Club Tampere.

EuroITV2010.org

Pictured: Pertti Näränen (TAMK) and Artur Lugmayr (TUT), two happy organisers and chairs of the conference

Tampere Innovation Experience @ Demola 25 May

Tampere Innovation Experience @ Demola Tuesday 25 May 2010 at 10:00-16:30 is a meeting of minds.

The event will bring together the Tampere research community to unleash resources and accelerate idea sharing in the spirit of open innovation.

The one-day program will feature short technology presentations by experts during which researchers, students and professors can engage old and new colleagues in conversation, challenge each other with ideas and come up with new ways to combine technologies. What?s more, we will have over 40 (TBD) demos on display representing cutting-edge technology in the ubiquitous digital society.

Read more about the event and register by 17 May:
http://research.nokia.com/innovation_experience_tampere

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

TAMK builds an energy efficient house into a metropolis

TAMK has taken Finnish wooden house construction knowledge into China. Last year, TAMK build a two-storey, 230 square meter single family house into the university city of Shenyang, which has 8 million inhabitants.



Finnish and Chinese students of Building Construction Engineering designed the building, which has living and meeting spaces and even a sauna, into the Shenyang university campus. The house was built as an example of energy efficiency. The house is also more durable against earthquakes than the stone or concrete buildings usually built in the area.



The wooden house project is a part of TAMK’s research and development activities. The house also provides excellent opportunities for exporting education into China. The idea is to first export more know-how, and at the same time to open up channels to export Finnish wooden house structures and fittings.


Exporting TAMK’s knowledge of wooden house construction and the Finnish wooden house products may even lead to the export of Finnish wooden house factory knowledge into China: as the country has become wealthier, a demand for wooden house regions has arisen.

TAMK and the Shenyang Jianzhu University (SJZU) which specialises in construction engineering began collaborating 15 years ago. In addition to TAMK, the Finnish participants in the wooden house construction project were Late-Rakenteet Oy, Pirkanmaan Ristikko Oy, Starkki Oy and Väärin Puutavara Ky.

Creative Cooperation with Tartu

We welcomed again visitors from the Estonian twin city of Tampere, Tartu. Külli Hansen and Raul Oreshkin, representatives of Tartu Centre for Creative Industries were guests of Creative Tampere for two days to learn about creative institutions in Tampere. Tampere UAS Finlayson campus with the School of Art and Media and the proAcademy were targets of the tour.

The contacts between different cultural institutions in Tampere and Tartu are very intense. Also TAMK School of Art and Media and Tartu Art College have close cooperation including staff and student exchange.

Last year students of our Fine Arts Programme had the MAAVARA (Ride Height) exhibition in Tartu, and the Tartu College of Fine Art Graduation Show Lend n 2009 exhibited in Tampere.


Tartu Cantre for Creative Industries
Creative Tampere

Lend n 2009
MAAVARA (Ride Height)

TAMK Designs Health Information, Visuality and Music into a Health Game

Science journalist Kalle Heiska reports about a health game project at TAMK:

TAMK University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) has designed and produced a game for teens incorporating health information, visual appeal and music. The game encourages young people to be sociable and take exercise. Progress in the game requires positive health choices and responses from the game figures manipulated in play. The Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Tampere was in charge of the development work on the health game.
Read the entire report

Photo: Roskis ( = “rubbish”) is a game figure. When the game starts he has had a poor diet for a long time. When a player makes the right decisions with his Roskis figure the diet becomes much healthier. When the game ends Roskis has obviously got rid of his excess weight.
Photo: TAMK

The needs of working life are changing faster and faster

Science Journalist Kalle Heiska has published an article about the survey by Tampere University of Applied Sciences about industry needs and work placement. University students need to learn more and more during their on-the-job training.

According to the survey there is a need for more cooperation between universities and workplaces regarding students’ on-the-job training. This way the students’ professional growth can gain strength and employers can get competent workforce for tasks which are changing faster and faster. The survey was funded by the Ministry of Education, Finland and the European Social Fund.

Read the story at New High Technology

Pictured: Jani Berkovits (left) of Sandvik Mining and Construction Oy and Samuli Kolari of Tampere University of Applied Sciences are aware of the importance of on-the-job training when students are qualifying for their professions.