Linus Torvalds made honorary alumnus in Kumpula

The Faculty of Science invited Linus Torvalds to be its honorary alumnus in Kumpula. During its alumni event, the faculty also named one of its lecture halls after Linus Torvalds. On the event held on Thursday 17 March, young researchers were the main speakers, and the 350 guests on the science campus gave them their full attention.

Linus Torvalds is the most renowned Finn working in the field of computer science. He is the first honorary alumnus of the faculty, and also Doctor Honoris Causa of the university’s Faculty of Philosophy. During the faculty’s alumni event, auditorium B123 in Exactum was named after him.

Version 1.0 of the Linux operating system, developed by Torvalds, was published at the Helsinki University Department of Computer Science in March 1994. Torvalds, who took his MSc degree in 1997 and later settled in the USA, could not attend the alumni party in person, but he conducted a video conference with computer science professor Jukka Paakki.

‘I was also interested in mathematics and physics, so the University of Helsinki was a very natural choice for me as a Helsinkian,’ Torvalds said.

 The 350 visitors to the science campus were also treated to some very topical presentations as the young researchers described their work. Nina Huittinen, Jani Kotakoski, Rami Ratvio, Teemu Roos and Mikko Salo presented themes on nuclear waste, graphenes, the metropolis, algorithms, and reverse mathematics.

After the joint programme, the five departments at Kumpula presented their own events.

The Department of Computer Science had a book launch for Jukka Paakki’s "Rupisia bittejä, karmeita kaavioita, unelmia ja toimistohommia" (‘scabby bits, grisly formulas, dreams and office work’) In this history over the department, which was established in 1967, we meet both present and former employees at the department, as well as its students. The future is also included as the writer describes happenings at the department in 2017.

The photograph shows (l-r) the head of the department, Esko Ukkonen, Dean Keijo Hämäläinen, and Nils Torvalds, Linus Torvalds’ father.

Photograph: Juha Taina

 

Text: Minna Meriläinen

 

Translation: Marina Kurtén

 

 

Created date

21.03.2011 - 12:58

Mobile cloud computing makes data centres obsolete

Researcher Eemil Lagerspetz intends to move computing from computers to pocket devices and from data centres to homes.

Implementing cloud computing with mobile devices is being studied at the University of Helsinki. Mobile cloud computing refers to computing with smartphones or other mobile or Internet of Things devices in the environment, such as smart TVs or smart fridges. Without mobile devices, cloud computing means carrying out large tasks on computers linked together by network connections. In traditional computing, the tasks are carried out with computers that are physically located in the same space.

 

Workshop on Mobile Services and Edge Computing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 3rd Helsinki-HKUST-Tsinghua workshop was chaired by Professor Sasu Tarkoma from University of Helsinki and Dr. Aaron Yi Ding from Technical University of Munich. The workshop was held at the University of Helsinki from July 27th to 29th, 2016.

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Professor Esko Ukkonen invited to the Estonian Academy of Sciences

Professor Esko Ukkonen has been invited to the Estonian Academy of Sciences as a foreign member.

Esko Ukkonen has had contacts to the computer science community in Estonia from the beginning of the 1990s, and he has supervised the work of several Estonian postgraduates. The Estonian Academy of Sciences has 78 ordinary and 21 foreign members.

The First Europe-China Workshop on Big Data Management

Some attenders of this workshopThe first Europe-China workshop on big data management was successfully held on the 16th of May, 2016 at the Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki. 

This one-day workshop organized by Prof. Jiaheng Lu (University of Helsinki), Prof. Xiaoyong Du (Renmin University of China), and Prof. Christian S. Jensen (Aalborg University, Denmark). The aims of this workshop were to gather experts in big data management to exchange views on cutting-edge data management problems and create opportunities for establishing new collaborations between EU and China computer scientists.