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

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

MSc dissertation Vivas and Poster Conference at Tampere University of Applied Science at 18th. May 2010

The first joint programme Sustainable Business Risk Management Master of Science students had their dissertation Vivas last Tuesday 18th - and after that there was Poster Conference organized at Foyer.

Marja Sutela, Vice Headmaster for Tampere University of Applied Science addressed welcome the Vivas and Poster Conference and assigned certificates of Specialisation Studies in Sustainable Business Risk Management.

Now after one and a half years of hard studies, approved dissertation, viva and Poster presentation student will be awarded Master of Science (SBRM) by University of Glamorgan.

Pose of students and teachers at Foyer.
From right: Steve Lloyd (UoG) Jiali Koski, Inga Vinciunaite, Dawn Story (UoG), Riitta Välimäki, Petri Tiihonen, Peter Evans (UoG), Esa Packalén (TAMK) and Kati Hinkkanen. Participants also included Marjukka Dyer (who took the picture)

Riitta (left) and Inga with well-earned certificates in their hands standing besides one of the posters.


Best Regards
Esa Packalén

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.

UNIPOLI Aasia trip to Bangalore India

Experimental field in Doddaballapur near Bangalore

TAMK representatives, Director of education Ms. Riitta Hanhijärvi and Senior Lecturer Eeva-Liisa Viskari, spent one week in Bangalore India on a UNIPOLI Asia –network trip in late February 2010. The network is formed by the universities of Tampere under the theme “Enhancing well-being through biotechnology and environmental technology - cooperation with higher education institutions in Tampere, China, India and Korea”. The network is financed by CIMO Finland.

During the trip we visited two universities. First target was University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore and especially the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, and Department of Biotechnology, which were of special interest of the project. We were introduced the research of the departments. In the department of Agricultural Sciences the research is focused on the use of anthropogenic waste as a fertilizer as well as maintaining the soil fertility, which is also one focus in TAMK R&D activities at present. The field studies were quite impressive. At the campus there is quite a wide land area reserved for experiments using cow and human urine, among other organic substances, as fertilizers and studying the crop and soil quality. The annual open-day for introducing this research to local farmers, accumulated about 100 000 interested farmers to visit the experimental sites of the UAS Bangalore. This kind of activity is in fact an excellent way of university serving the community.

We also visited Doddaballapur, about 40 km from Bangalore, to see an experimental site, where one farmer is cultivating his crops, in this case millet, with anthropogenic fertilizers. This kind of implementation is also a good way to take the scientific research into practice in a very demonstrative way. In addition to these agricultural research activities the university has also Departments of Forestry and Department of Biotechnology which both might be interesting as cooperation partners also from TAMK point of view.

The second institution in our programme was a private university in Bangalore, Dayananda Sagar Institutions (DSI). All Finnish universities of applied sciences have undersigned a MOU with DSI, thus allowing also us a good start in the bilateral cooperation between TAMK and DSI. DSI is a multidisciplinary university. The fields of education include for example: Technology and architecture (civil, mechanical, electrical, computer and chemical engineering, IT, dental sciences, pharmacy, nursing, biotechnology, business, education, natural sciences and arts. Thus there are many similarities between DSI and TAMK. There are about 12 thousand students at DSI. During our visit at DSI we had very fruitful discussion with the Senior Executive Vice President, Mr. Janardhan. We also met the representatives of the Department of Biotechnology.

We invited representatives from both universities to visit TAMK. Hopefully after these visit we can get into action of student and teacher’s exchange between our institutions and you would hear more about this cooperation with Indian universities a lot more in the future.

For more information please see:
http://www.dayanandasagar.edu/
http://www.uasbangalore.edu.in/

Text and photo: Senior lecturer Eeva-Liisa Viskari, Environmental Engineering

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

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".

Environmental Engineering students’ Association receives funding from Tampere city

The climate campaign ILMANKOS hosted by the City of Tampere has distributed a small amount of funding to associations in Tampere to encourage climate friendly actions within, and by, these societies. Some good examples of cases are "action to prevent climate change" planned by, or within, even the smallest of societies and associations were taken into special consideration when deciding who to award funding to.

TAMK’s Environmental Engineering students’ Association, G.L.O.B.E., was considered to be very sufficient and thus received funding to fulfil their plans to create an action day aimed towards foreign and exchange students studying in Tampere and in TAMK. "Ecoday by G.L.O.B.E." is being arranged now and will include Environmental Engineering students going from door to door in a local student apartment block and distributing information and leaflets about sorting out household waste and energy saving. Students will also give to tenants energy saving lamps, change them and share biobags and teaching how to "build your own biobag from newspapers!" They will also be arranging to collect, and dispose of correctly, any unwanted electrical or otherwise hazardous waste!

ILMANKOS campaign arranges workshop open for all on Thursday 16.4.2009 at 3.30 pm in vanha kirjastotalo, 1st floor at keskustori in Tampere where one of the speakers is the chairman of G.L.O.B.E., presenting the project plan.

Transition towns and peak oil to Enve students

The Environmental Engineering student Association G.L.O.B.E. arranged an event for students to hear more about PEAK OIL and TRANSITION TOWNS. The speaker we had an opportunity to hear was Jupiter Cormier, the founder of Transition Network branch in Finland.

What was all this about then? Well, to quote the transition towns’ webpage:

“It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?”

Jupiter, a graduate with a masters degree in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London explains to us: “we will never run out of oil, but the time of cheap and plentiful oil is over”. “Oil is everywhere, usually we do not even understand in how many things in our lives it plays such a big role” he continues.


According to Jupiter there is a need for huge socio-economic restructuring. Today’s global economic system is not working for the majority of people in world, including most people in developed countries as can be seen in the current collapse of the global financial markets. This combined with climate change and soon to rise energy prices creates a necessity to decentralize and localize. Jupiter also said that we can talk about nuclear and hydrogen as resources and alternatives to oil, but in reality, we can measure and estimate that they are not even close in meeting the current demands of energy and cannot help us to carry on the lifestyle we are living at the moment in western countries.

“We have to realize that we are consuming more than the Earth has to offer and at the moment 2/3 of natural resources are depleted already” Jupiter explains. The triple challenge of climate change, peak oil and an economic recession, according to him, offers the possibility for change. It is therefore a challenge that can be turned into an opportunity. As we might have learned from research results, the happiness in many western countries has not increased since the 1980’s which means that more consumerism and economic growth does not necessarily bring more happiness. Jupiter’s solution to create sustainability, resilience and happiness is to use the transition town model with the idea of local production, permaculture and sustainable living to transcend our oil dependent society into a more sane and fulfilling way of living.

Jupiter will continue to open up minds in Finland and to speak about peak oil and the transition that is needed now. He offers practical steps to people and has started his transition town in his hometown Hämeenkyrö already. Jupiter offered the students also a possibility to join and the interested audience seemed to grab the opportunity and joined first of all to the mailing list in Finland.

To learn more about transition towns visit at the website: www.transitiontowns.org or contact Jupiter: Jupiter.cormier AT gmail.com.