Aalto University

Aalto University is a multidisciplinary community where science and art meet technology and business. We are committed to identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future.

Aalto University has six schools with nearly 20 000 students and 4 500 employees, over 400 of whom are professors. There is a wide variety of Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees awarded at Aalto University, and we also offer doctoral programmes in all the fields of study.

Aalto University was founded in 2010 as Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki were merged. The main campus is located in Otaniemi in Espoo, Finland. The other campuses are in Töölö and Arabia in Helsinki.

Ville Kukkonen, Amin Modabberian, Pietu-Pekka Roisko, Pyry Viita-aho and Ilmari Vikström first met in January 2017 during a university course. Their task was the further development of a teaching and research platform for autonomous vehicles. “It was a really interesting project, we were lucky to get it. This is a very exciting field, with self-driving cars and everything”, says Ilmari.

Another team had begun developing the platform prior to them, and figuring out the complex system was no easy feat. In the beginning, it was quite a challenge for the students to understand what needed to be done and how long it would take. Ilmari reflects, “I think those types of challenges are quite normal for larger projects. It really forces you to come together and get on the same page. You need to absorb a lot of information in a short time and then start steering the project towards the goal.”

The group pulled together in no time at all. Everybody was very involved, which didn’t mean there were no hiccups. Ville expands: “We weren’t afraid of crashing the vehicle and having it go up in flames, it was more this worry that we would flip the switch and it simply wouldn’t work.”

Sure enough, different elements of the code didn’t add up and by the midway point the project was headed towards disaster. To solve it, it wasn’t enough for one member to grind endlessly alone. “I think we solved the hardest problems when all five of us were together, looking at the code”, says Ilmari. “The best moments are when something that didn’t work before starts to work, when you bring the pieces together”, adds Ville.

Attending Aalto University was an easy choice for each student. Ville had played around with software since he was a child, and studies in automation and systems technology felt like a natural way forward. Ilmari didn’t have a clear idea of which faculty or major to choose. Automation and systems technology drew his attention when examining the study offering online. “It felt so interesting, I almost fell in love with it”, he laughs.

Now the students are crafting things that don’t really even exist yet. They are busy designing technology that might help our daily lives in the future, shedding a new light on the world and potentially changing history. Their own future is looking bright, too. “Our employment rate is quite high. All my friends from here are working in a field related to their studies”, says Ilmari. “I think if you come to study information technology here, you will have many different possibilities in work life”, continues Ville.

Whatever the students end up doing, they are already sure of one thing. They find it important that work itself is interesting, but the environment has to be challenging as well. “I personally value some level of autonomy in what you do and how you do things at work. That the employer lets you set your own goals”, Ville explains. “The work environment is quite important. I want to work in a place that feels like our project did, where people are driven — where we are all having fun solving problems and building something new”, Ilmari sums up.

One of Europe’s coolest music festivals in the heart of the city with a star-studded international line-up and over 75, 000 visitors. No wonder students Armi Teva, Miila Westin and Robert Lönnqvist were excited about the prospect of creating the main mural for the annual Flow Festival in Helsinki’s bustling Kallio neighbourhood.

“Our school had arranged the technical side, and there was a huge blank canvas, a 100-metre wall waiting for us”, says Armi. “None of us knew exactly how much work it would be. We just sat down and tried to make sense of it all.”

It was not easy or obvious, as the students worked between classes to try and get organized: deciding on what colours to use, who would design what and even something as basic as the concept itself.

The students eventually found themes for their murals from songs of the artists performing at the festival. The final piece would be called Jukeboksi or Jukebox, allowing each of the students to decide which tracks to use as a source of inspiration. “This way each of us could work on a section of the mural while still being part of the larger theme or idea”, describes Armi.

In upper secondary school, all three were undecided on what to study later on, but they shared a passion for art. Robert explains: “I’ve always been drawing and created graffiti as a teenager, so I wanted to find out how to keep on doing it. I knew I was drawn to it, but wasn’t sure how to take the next step. I found that Aalto had this programme that would let me continue to do this type of project-based work.”

Armi was originally studying to become a ceramic artist at Aalto’s Department of Design, but went on to pursue studies in Visual Communication Design. “We have lots of support around us to try new things. In our department, nobody says this is the path you must take.”

Since then, all three students have carried out major projects for the City of Helsinki and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. They have created illustrations for magazines, public spaces, walls and posters. “It’s important to have the freedom to try and explore different projects. To get your hands on something”, Robert says.

Although projects are varied and interesting, sometimes inspiration is hard to find. You have to find your own way. “I usually get the best ideas when I’m very sleepy. So, I wait until I’m really, really tired at 4 am or so”, Miila laughs.

According to Armi, there’s a fine line between feeling you don’t have any ideas or can’t do anything at all – and actually doing it. “In the end, you just need to give time and make room for ideas to come. Pick up a pen and try and do something – maybe hate it – and then happen to do something you like. Trust yourself.”

Support from others has proven invaluable during the course of studies and work projects. “You don’t even realize how much support you need from others until you get it! Luckily, we get it a lot. From professors, classmates and everybody”, Miila praises.

By the end of the mural project, each of the students had a newfound appreciation for each other and their own process. The wall got soaked by the rain many times, spilling the paint, which would dry on the concrete around. But in the end, the students pulled it all off, and the mural attracted plenty of praise, thousands of visitors and hundreds of selfies.