Not just the local hero

For the Department of Computer Science, the well-being of international staff has a long history. Everyday communication in English is an essential part of this.

“It makes no sense to be just the local hero. If we want to develop further, we’ll need to follow international research standards” emphasises Juergen Muench. The German Professor has been leading the Software Systems Engineering research group at Helsinki University’s Department of Computer Science since 2011.

Recruiting visiting researchers is one necessity in the internationalisation process, another one is the use of English in group and research meetings. Muench is impressed that Finnish researchers usually speak fluent English: “This is different from several other countries where you easily encounter language-based problems.”

Language constraints

It helps that English is the global research language in Computer Science communities. However, there are situations that demand more careful articulation, as research organisation leader Professor Petri Myllymäki admits: “Suddenly you feel you had better express this in your mother tongue”.

Muench has been experiencing this also in his unit: “I am aware that some critical administrative or strategic decisions are made by Finnish-only speaking circles, and this is challenging. My strategy is to monitor decision-making processes closely”.

A strategic decision

It was more than ten years ago that English was systematically introduced at the Department of Computer Science. “That was the time when we started to employ more and more international PhD students and postdocs, and the well-being of our international staff became more important”, says Professor of Computer Science Hannu Toivonen, head of the department 2007–2009.

A strategic decision was then made that any Finnish email sent to the staff email list had to contain at least one explanatory English sentence. Also, a professional translator was employed that started transferring all relevant contents to English.

“Among these were many items of Finnish information released by the central administration that had so far remained hidden from non-Finnish speakers”, adds Toivonen.

In order to empower the international staff, an international well-being group was called into being. Soon an international department blog and webpages for newcomers were launched, and English slowly made its way into staff meetings and events.

Challenges beyond language

Whereas the English language has become an absolutely natural and integral part of communication at the Department of Computer Science, the professors point out other soft spots: “Perhaps the challenge is not so much the language, but rather the cultural differences”, ponders Muench. “This concerns, for instance, ways of working, views on quality, levels of loyalty and ways of motivating people”.

For Myllymäki, it is the different understanding of self-regulation and personal engagement that proves challenging: “As a Finn, I expect the researchers to be proactive and develop their own project ideas. However, it often turns out that employees from non-European cultures are waiting for my order. In Asia, for example, it may be undesirable to initiate something unless being ordered to do so”.

In the photo: Juergen Muench

Source: Flamma, the intranet of the University of Helsinki
Text: Claudia Gorr
Photo: Ari Aalto
Original article in Flamma: https://flamma.helsinki.fi/en/HY277798

 

 

Created date

23.11.2012 - 14:24

Brain poetry

In the latest research result of the month section, we interview PhD student Jukka Toivanen about his recent work on brain poetry in the Discovery group led by professor Hannu Toivonen. How can humans and machines be creative together?

Kjell Lemström to be new Head of Studies

Since Jaakko Kurhila left the department to head the Open University, we had to find a new university lecturer to act as head of studies in short order. We received a total of 28 applications. Out of these, and after a preliminary qualification round, evaluations, interviews, and a department council hearing, Kjell Lemström (KL) was elected for the post. He started working as the department's Head of Studies on 2 March 2015, so the Head of the department (JP) conducted the following induction interview that very week.

This is by no means the first time Kjell has been employed by the department. He defended his thesis on ‘String Matching Techniques for Music Retrieval’ in 2000, and has held numerous teaching and research positions both before and after that, until he transferred to the Laurea University of Applied Sciences in 2011 (luckily, that was only temporary).

Head of Studies Jaakko Kurhila to head Open University

The Head of Studies at the department, University Lecturer Jaakko Kurhila, has been elected to the post of director of the Open University at the University of Helsinki. It was a tough race: all in all, 39 applicants sought the post, some of them through the Mercuri Urval headhunting process. After a consultant evaluation, interviews, and aptitude assessments, the preparatory committee for the post, the steering committee for the Open University, and the rector of the university came to a unanimous decision to select Jaakko, and the contract is already being drawn up.

Being selected from this prestigious group of applicants, and after such a thorough process, is indisputable proof of the qualifications of Jaakko and the high esteem the academic community has for him. The department extends its warmest congratulations to Jaakko for this career development and is proud of the success of its protégé.

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Standardization

In the fourth research result of the month, we report a joint work between the UH NODES group and the Cambridge NetOS group, lead by Prof. Sasu Tarkoma and Prof. Jon Crowcroft, respectively. Their work recently received the best paper award "Best of CCR" from ACM SIGCOMM.