Uni­versity of Hel­sinki elec­ted Nokia Bell Labs part­ner

 
The collaboration between Nokia and the university is tightening in the field of data science; the research into data networks, artificial intelligence, and enhanced reality is receiving more attention.

The University of Helsinki is strongly investing in data science. For both the university and Nokia, data science is a field of research in which they want to build more collaboration in the future.

− The University of Helsinki being elected Distinguished Academic Partner with Nokia Bell Labs will bring the university and Nokia into a tighter collaboration in a field that is central to both organisations, says Professor Sasu Tarkoma, head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki.

The university is establishing eight professorships in the field of data science, four of which have already been declared vacant.

− In addition, Professor Pan Hui from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has been elected to the endowed professorship Nokia Chair in Data Science. He started in the post at the beginning of September and brought with him a small team that is being grown into a research group, says Tarkoma.

Stu­dents tak­ing part in the Dis­tin­guished Aca­demic Part­ner col­lab­or­a­tion

− Along with its new collaboration programme, Nokia Bell Labs wants to develop close strategic relations with the world’s top universities. Together, we can offer the most gifted scientists the best platform for innovative work, says Julie Byrne, who is in charge of the Distinguished Academic Partner programme at Nokia.

− It includes universities, with which we have had good results already, and with which we want to work even closer both on a strategic and project level. In addition, we are in constant dialogue with universities and comparing visions of the future, says research director Lauri Oksanen from Nokia Bell Labs.

Besides interesting results, the collaboration between Nokia and the university is expected to heighten the visibility of both Bell Labs and Nokia itself to university students.

− Collaboration with students, MSc thesis writers, summer workers, and trainees is an important form of collaboration. Annually, Bell Labs employs 250 trainees globally, and this year it employed 12 in Espoo. We want to continue investing in this, as well, and thus ensure we get the best students, he continues.

Col­lab­or­a­tion from net­works

The programmatic cooperation in the field of computer science started last year, when Nokia, the University of Helsinki, and Aalto University started a research collaboration unit. This Nokia Center for Advanced Research (NCAR) has been working closely with Nokia Bell Labs.

The goal in NCAR is to identify research problems that are significant for the industry and carry out both basic and applied research to solve these problems. Its initial projects are related to network technologies supporting the Internet of Things, future 5G network architectures, efficient communications protocols, and enhancing the intelligence of networks.

A big en­vir­on­mental meas­ure­ment sys­tem for the 5G net­work is next

In spring 2017, a collaboration on 5G networks between the University of Helsinki and Nokia Bell Labs Peking was initialised. The goal is to create an extensive measurement system for the environment, based on the 5G network, to monitor air quality and environmental conditions.

 

For more details, please see:

Nokia Bell Labs

Nokia Bell Labs is a world-famous research organisation. During its over 90 years in operation, Bell Labs has invented many technologies that have set the foundation for information and communications networks and all digital equipment and systems. Its research has led to eight Nobel prizes and several other international prizes for innovations in technology. Nokia Bell Labs continues its ground-breaking research to solve the challenges of a new digital era, where everything is networked, as described in the book The Future X Network: A Bell Labs Perspective. www.bell-labs.com

 

Nokia

We create technology to connect the whole world. Boosted by the research and innovative work of Nokia Bell Labs, we offer the most extensive selection of products, services, and licensing opportunities in our field to communication-service providers, governments, big businesses, and private consumers.

We create momentous future technology for the changing needs of the consumers by building the infrastructure for 5G technology and the Internet of Things, as well as developing new kinds of applications for virtual reality and digital health. www.nokia.com

Nokia Center for Advanced Research

The university extends its collaboration with Chinese universities

Contact details:

Sasu Tarkoma, 040 506 2163, sasu.tarkoma@helsinki. fi

Nokia press services, 010 448 4900, press.services@nokia. com

Minna Meriläinen-Tenhu, @MinnaMeriTenhu, 050 415 0316, minna. merilainen@helsinki.fi; #HelsinkiData

Created date

18.10.2017 - 12:50

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.