Esko Ukkonen’s birthday coffee

The head of the department, Esko Ukkonen, celebrated his 60th birthday. The celebration was held in Exactum at the end of January. The party was attended by employees of the Department of Computer Science and invited guests. The programme included both congratulatory speeches and songs, with a quartet from Wiipurilaisen Osakunnan Laulajat (the Viipuri students’ association singers) singing a song for a former active member. Esko was inspector in Kymenlaakson Osakunta (the Kymenlaakso students’ association) for over ten years.

Esko Ukkonen’s career at the Department of Computer Science began in 1972. The first year, he worked as a part-time teacher, and the following year he was already part of the research community. He took his Master’s degree in mathematics in ‘73. The same year he transferred to computer science and became a PhD student for Martti Tienari, the founder of the Department of Computer Science. After defending his thesis it took only a couple of years before he was conferred his first assistant professorship in 1981.

During his long academic career, Esko has also worked internationally: at Berkeley in the United States and at Freidburg in Germany. Professor Ukkonen was elected head of the department for the next four-year period starting in 2010.

At his own request, the money collected for his present was given to the Red Cross. Esko wants to thank you all for contributing to a good cause!

A really welcome present was the volume in honour of him made by his former students. The volume consists of some twenty research articles written by Professor Ukkonen’s former students and collaboration partners.

Once more, congratulations to Esko!

Created date

25.02.2010 - 01:00

Top research

The research at the department combines theory with interaction with the application fields in a well-balanced whole. Both the department and Basic Research Unit in the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology were awarded the highest grade in the research review carried out in 2005. Algodan (Algorithmic Data Analysis) is a national Finnish Academy centre of excellence 2008-2013.

Innovative teaching

The Finnish Higher Education Council re-elected the department as a national centre of excellence in higher education, this time for the years 2010-2012. The status of centre of excellence is a significant achievement. It was only conferred on 10 units in Finland this time, and the department was one of two units that were selected for their second period.

The Department of Computer Science opens it's doors in the virtual world

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Starting this Friday, you can visit the Department of Computer Science virtually. An adapted facsimile of the Exactum building and the Kumpula Science Library based on their ground plans has been made for the Second Life virtual world. In Second Life, anyone can visit the premises of the Department of Computer Science.

Biomine received funding from Tekes

The Biomine project has been granted EUR 110.000 by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. The project, headed by Prof. Hannu Toivonen, is among the very first ones to receive funding for preparation of commercialization, from a new instrument just launched by Tekes.