Professor Sasu Tarkoma is promoter of corporate collaboration of 2016

This University of Helsinki prize was awarded for the first time ever.

Sasu Tarkoma, professor of computer science, has been exemplary in promoting collaboration between the University of Helsinki and the corporate world, the university states as the reasoning behind the prize.

He has brought the university new funding through corporate collaboration, and has opened up new avenues in teaching and open data. In addition, Professor Tarkoma participates in university-based startup work, says Vice-Rector Pertti Panula, who gave away the prize.

It’s a joy to collaborate with the industries. I believe that it’s a win-win for both parties, both the university and the corporations. The secret to success is the good teamwork, and I have had the fortune to work with good teams, said Tarkoma in his thank-you speech.

Left-right: Maarit Haataja, Sasu Tarkoma, Antti Neimala, Pertti Panula

 

Tarkoma’s innovation presented at SLUSH

In 2015, Sasu Tarkoma presented his innovation at SLUSH, leading to the establishment of a startup called MoPrim, with the aid of HIS. He is now a member of its board, and MoPrim was also prominently on display at this year’s SLUSH, seeking more backing.

The startup machinery has now started up at the university, Tarkoma says.

Tarkoma’s innovation is related to technology for sensing movement, and could be useful both in public transportation and for individuals.

Corporate collaboration expanding into open oline course

From the viewpoint of the university, the external funding  gained by Tarkoma is significant. He has headed many projects with corporate funding. The value of the projects is some 1.2 million euros. In addition, he has managed several TEKES projects and gained funding from the Academy of Finland.

It is also thanks to Professor Sasu Tarkoma that the university started a MOOC (massive open online course) in information security in cooperation with F-Secure. Over 30,000 users have visited the website, and 30% of them visited from the USA.

The university research services encourage corporate collaboration

The promoter of corporate collaboration of 2016 was announced on 13 December 2016. In addition to the main prize, smaller awards were given to all the trailblazers of corporate collaboration at the university.

Vice Managing Director Antti Neimala of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, who spoke at the prize ceremony, emphasized that an increasing number of jobs are created in the SME sector.

More and more, enterprises are looking for university skills within the business sector, Neimala said.

The university services can offer encouragement and support for corporate collaboration

It’s great that the university management encourages and supports researchers interested in collaborating with corporations. The team for corporate collaboration will increase to seven in 2017. We are here for researchers and enterprises alike. Do not hesitate to contact us if you need help with corporate collaboration, says Maarit Haataja, service manager for corporate collaboration.

 

Text: Maria Linkoaho-Nordling, Minna Meriläinen-Tenhu, Joel Takala, Heidi Kinnunen

Translation: Marina Kurtén

Photo: Linda Tammisto

Created date

21.12.2016 - 17:11

Inter-university research and training centre on information security

The University of Helsinki and Aalto University have set up a joint research centre focusing on information security. The new centre, HAIC (Helsinki-Aalto Centre for Information Security), will coordinate the Master’s-level security education between the university and Aalto, with links to research and doctoral education.

The idea is to build bridges to the industries and gain their support for the education, and e.g. grants for MSc students coming from outside the EU, the head of the Department of Computer Science, Sasu Tarkoma, says.

Computer science undergraduate Petteri Timonen awarded in US science competition

Petteri Timonen, 19, came second in his category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

On Friday, 15 May, Timonen, who is studying computer science at the University of Helsinki, was awarded a grant worth 1500 USD, some 1330 euros, in the Systems Software category of the Intel ISEF science competition.
 
As his entry, Timonen submitted a software tool he developed for Finland’s Red Cross to make mobile blood runs around the country as cost-effective as possible. Timonen implemented his tool in cooperation with the Blood Service.

The tool has gained international attention, as no tool like it seems to have been developed anywhere else. Timonen has also negotiated with the American Red Cross by email.

Renewed Carat App Gives a Smart Boost to Battery

 
The Carat Project Team at the University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science, has published a new version of the popular mobile energy-awareness application.

After launch in June 2012, Carat has helped over 850,000 users, of which 41 per cent have been Android and 59 per cent iOS users, respectively. The new user interface follows modern application design guidelines and presents battery information in a more intuitive and easy to use manner.

- In addition to the new user interface, we have increased the accuracy of the energy saving recommendations of Carat, says Professor Sasu Tarkoma, the leader of this research done at the university.

The user interface features the number of energy intensive applications (Hogs), energy anomalies (Bugs) and user recommendations (Actions) at a glance on the main screen as well as global energy statistics for the device community.

Cover Song Identification Using Compression-based Distance Measures

M.Sc. Teppo E. Ahonen will defend his doctoral thesis Cover Song Identification Using Compression-based Distance Measures on Friday the 1st of April 2016 at 12 o'clock in the University of Helsinki Exactum Building, Auditorium CK112 (Gustaf Hällströminkatu 2b).  His opponent is Academy Professor Petri Toiviainen (University of Jyväskylä) and custos Professor Esko Ukkonen (University of Helsinki). The defence will be held in Finnish.

Measuring similarity in music data is a problem with various potential applications. In recent years, the task known as cover song identification has gained widespread attention. In cover song identification, the purpose is to determine whether a piece of music is a different rendition of a previous version of the composition. The task is quite trivial for a human listener, but highly challenging for a computer.