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 centre of excellence status is the result of long-term, consistent development of teaching and learning, such measures as creating learning-goal matrices for courses in connection with the new syllabus, removing some bottlenecks in degree progress, and supporting student-centred activities - both the multifaceted activities of the student union TKO-äly to support learning and the course organised by the new Lambda society - were taken during the past year.

The new sub-programme structure and degree requirements of the department were designed during the winter and spring, and came into force from the beginning of autumn 2008. There are now three sub-programmes at the department: algorithms and machine learning, distributed systems and data communications, and software systems. Now the teaching at the department is grouped more logically than before, and the new sub-programmes correlate more clearly with the focuses of research at the department. One of the principles while renewing the degree was, indeed, to further base the MSc-level teaching on the strengths in research at the department. The Department of Computer Science also has two international Master's programmes, in bioinformatics (MBI) and information and communications technology (CBU-ICT).

Here are some good details from the report(whole report can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of the page):

 

Teaching

The teaching/educational programme of the department clearly rests on a very solid pedagogical basis. -- Research and teaching are very well integrated and support each other. 

 

Curriculum and course design

The development and the design of the curriculum is well-structured. -- The staff are very committed. The bachelor’s level curriculum has a strong profile as well as the three lines of master’s programmes provided by the department. The students participate in the course design. -- Project studies facilitate exposure to real life situations. -- The balance between lectures, group work and project works is good.

 

Development of teaching

The discipline is in a state of continuous development and change, and the department has acted systematically in development work. The staff are highly committed to continuous development work.

 

Studing and students

The atmosphere of the unit is very supportive and motivating. Students and staff cooperate closely both formally and informally.-- The department seems to be highly attractive at the international level and has a high number of international graduate and postgraduate students.

 

Orientoivissa opinnoissa tehdään pelin henki selväksi

 


Laitoksen opetuksen kehittämisessä vahvasti vaikuttaneelle lehtori Heikki Lokille myönnettiin 26.3.2009 Eino Kaila –palkinto ansiokkaasta toiminnasta yliopisto-opettajana.

Year 2007 a large survey of computer science research was made. This survey also noted our department high quality students:

The Department attracts outstanding students and has excellent international network of collaborations and exchange visits.2

 

 

[1] The Finnish Higher Education Council: Centres of Excellence in Finnish University Education 2010–2012 (report 03:2009), p. 68-69.

[2] Academy of Finland: Computer Science Research in Finland 2000–2006: International Evaluation (Publication of the Academy of Finland 8/07), s. 43-44.

Created date

05.02.2010 - 11:03

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.