Virtual guest speaker with Bent group Stanford – other groups interested in an ALD fundamentals talk?

23.07.2020

Yesterday, I participated a Prof. Bent group meeting (Stanford), giving again the presentation we gave jointly with Prof. Ruud van Ommen at the recent ALD conference (see previous post), entitled “On the fundamentals of ALD: the importance of getting the picture right”.

It was a pleasure and honor for me to be invited as a virtual guest speaker in the Bent group. Nice, lively and useful discussion on the fundamentals of ALD followed — thank you very much for everyone who was present! Special thanks to Josiah Yarbrough who invited me in the first place.

The discussion was so useful that it came to my mind: I could do this again. Would some other group in the world wish to have a similar “virtual ALD fundamentals visit” from me (or perhaps from Ruud van Ommen)? I’d be happy to meet e.g. via Zoom.  read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
atomic layer deposition , openness , teaching - Comments Off on Virtual guest speaker with Bent group Stanford – other groups interested in an ALD fundamentals talk?

“On the fundamentals of ALD: the importance of getting the picture right” – by Puurunen and van Ommen

5.07.2020

Jointly with Prof. Ruud van Ommen, I (Prof. Riikka Puurunen) gave a presentation at the AVS 20th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD 2020) featuring the 7th International Atomic Layer Etching Workshop (ALE 2020), adapted into a Virtual Meeting, Jun 29 – Jul 1, 2020, https://ald2020.avs.org, aimed to initiate/contribute to discussion of the fundamentals in the field of atomic layer deposition (ALD).

Please find the abstract of the presentation in this blog post, below. Once the slides and video record of the talk are openly available, the purpose is to link them to this post, too.

Title: On the fundamentals of ALD: the importance of getting the picture right 
Authors: Riikka L. Puurunen and J. Ruud van Ommen
Session: Precursors and Chemistry: Simulation, Modeling, and Theory of ALD

Abstract Text:
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has become of global importance as a fundamental building block for example in semiconductor device fabrication, and also gained more visibility (e.g., the Millennium Technology Prize 2018). In recent years, the number of ALD processes has increased, new groups have entered the field, and fundamental insights have been gained. At the same time, significantly varying views exist in the field related to the description and meaningfulness of some core ALD concepts. Open, respectful but critical scientific discussion would be needed around these concepts – for example at this AVS ALD/ALE conference, the world’s largest conference on ALD. read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
atomic layer deposition - Comments Off on “On the fundamentals of ALD: the importance of getting the picture right” – by Puurunen and van Ommen

Three years as a tenure track professor at Aalto University

3.02.2020

Three years ago, I started at Aalto University as professor (associate professor, catalysis science and technology). I started in February 2017, and worked 60% of time for the first half year, being at my former employer VTT for 40%.

In this post, I look back at my three first years as a professor and try to create an overview of the most important things that have taken place. When I had been at Aalto University of one year, I wrote a similar blog post, reflecting on the status then; those who are interested, can access it here.

The past three years have been years of continuous change. After three years, change seems only to continue. I look to the future with an optimistic mindset, advocating (also with this publication) what has in essence become my motto: “more openness in science and education”. Fits nicely in Aalto University’s new strategy, too.

Espoo, Finland, 3.2.2020

Riikka Puurunen

— Puurunen’s three-year professor summary begins —

Among the most important tasks of a professor is – to acquire research funding. Without funding, one cannot hire people to work in the group, and little progress can happen. That professors acquire competed funding is not only important for the functioning one’s own group but for the whole university, as overheads of the projects help pay university-level costs. Most funding applications do not get funded – depending on the call, even less than 10% of applications may get funded.

My major funding applications of three years in a nutshell: read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
openness , Uncategorized - Comments Off on Three years as a tenure track professor at Aalto University

Season’s greetings and Happy 2020 from Aalto Catalysis group

19.12.2019

Dear colleagues, collaborators, emeriti, old and potential future colleagues and collaborators,

Year 2019 approaches its end, and it is a good time to look back on the activities of the Aalto Catalysis group in the past year.

A slogan for the undersigned and the Catalysis group this year has been “more openness in science and teaching”. The quest for more openness resulted in a nice recognition with Aalto CHEM’s award Educational action of the year 2019 for online lecture recordings. There is more on the justification (directly by students!), background and extended thanks related to the recognition in a recent blog post in Catalysis Professor’s Open: https://blogs.aalto.fi/catprofopen/2019/12/13/online-lecture-recordings-are-educational-action-of-the-year-2019-aalto-chem/.  We will continue to work for more openness in science and teaching in 2020.

Publication-wise, year 2019 has been nice for the group. read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
Uncategorized - Comments Off on Season’s greetings and Happy 2020 from Aalto Catalysis group

Online lecture recordings awarded as Educational action of the year 2019, Aalto CHEM

13.12.2019

On December 12, at Dean’s Glögg event, several recognitions were shared at Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering (Aalto CHEM). I (Riikka Puurunen) was among the happy ones to receive a recognition this year – together with Lauri Partanen – for the use of online lecture recordings in education.

The grounds for the recognition were as follows:

Teaching act of the year 2019

Grounds and reasoning for award from students:

Digitalisation is continuously discussed as bring of ever-increasing importance, and this also applies to the field of education. With complex topics, it is vital that students are able to study lecture material at their own pace as many times as needed. Additionally, the ability to miss lectures when sick or otherwise occupied helps to reduce stress related to studies and ultimately to achieve a successful course. Therefore, on behalf of students, we would like to nominate “online lecture recordings” as Teaching Action of the Year. This includes a special mention to both Riikka Puurunen and Lauri Partanen, who have respectively championed in their Master’s and Bachelor’s courses with high quality online record lecture material.

  • Prof. Puurunen uses and actively tries out new methods in her teaching. Examples about this are lecture recordings made with Panopto, which enable (re)doing the lectures afterwards. In addition to this, on her MSc Catalysis course she did a video of the derivation of Langmuir isotherm with the “digital chalkboard” lightboard. The teaching material is also openly shared via a blog and a YouTube channel.
  • Lauri Partanen has used many digital teaching methods on his course “Kemiallinen termodynamiikka”. He has added video recordings of his teaching sessions made with Panopto. He has used online quiz questions during his teaching sessions to support learning. He has also created a Telegram group, where students can ask him questions related to the course and give feedback. Getting feedback in this quick and easy way has allowed him to make changes already during the course.

Related Aalto CHEM news item: https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/teaching-achievement-of-the-year-awarded-to-lecture-recordings.

In the description, students referred to the MSc Catalysis course, a blog, and to a Youtube channel. Here, I want to tell a bit more of each item.
read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
learning , openness , teaching - Comments Off on Online lecture recordings awarded as Educational action of the year 2019, Aalto CHEM

Panopto records: November Networking – ALD at Aalto University

12.12.2019

At the “November Networking – ALD at Aalto University” event on November 29, 2019, we experimented with recording (some of the) talks with the Panopto lecture capture system available at Aalto University.

The records have now been finalized. Each author who participated in the Panopto recording was sent a link to check. Most were authors were fine with sharing. Some decided to decline, after all, and some have not answered the request (DL was December 10).

In the next table, the Panopto captures are shared for those talks, for which a permission to share has been confirmed. This recording was an experiment and done for the first time, and not all records are of fully satisfying voice quality (e.g. #3, unfortunately). Nevertheless, the records are shared, as we can learn most, also of quality issues, by having the examples available. Enjoy!

# Speaker Title Panopto link
1 Riikka Puurunen Opening https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=2d360cab-9369-4d2d-bb8c-ab1400a4b82e
2 Kristiina Kruus Welcome address, Dean https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=81408bde-377d-4659-99b7-ab1400a64007
3 Riikka Puurunen Brief introduction to ALD https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=83980191-6b32-40ea-ae2e-ab1400a7226a
4 Sami Sneck ALD at Beneq https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5166c0e2-bec6-457a-b6c1-ab1400aa4b5e
7 Antti Karttunen Crystal structure prediction and spectroscopy for thin-film materials https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=899c82a8-cbaa-4fd7-a400-ab1400b0340d
9 Miguel Caro New machine learning based computational tools for materials modeling https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=05cd508b-ee48-4236-ae6b-ab1400b3ea4d
10 Timo Sajavaara ALD and supporting research activities in Jyväskylä https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=8815b5a5-075f-4497-839d-ab1400b63175
11 Hele Savin ALD – key to efficient Si surface passivation https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=64f35ea4-6d13-4c45-8758-ab1400b7cc6b
13 Riikka Puurunen Catalysis Research Group at Aalto University https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=e4a2d74a-ed6d-4164-9b58-ab1400bb19e4
19 Mikko Utriainen PillarHall – High Aspect Ratio silicon test chips https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=00e24e4e-76ce-47a8-bdcd-ab1d01210bdb
24 Ruud van Ommen (Invited guest speaker) ALD on particles: towards ton-scale production with nano-precision https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b3e033d1-a498-4aea-adbe-ab1400d673b9
25 Pia Sundberg Precursors for ALD https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=e65b0749-a0a5-43d1-a184-ab1400de7495
28 Sakari Lepikko, on Robin Ras’s group Molecular Layer Deposition of Self-Assembled Monolayers with ALD Reactor https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d45a3b17-299e-4af3-a64e-ab1400e398c5
29 Kari Laasonen Atomistic modelling of ZnO and Al2O3 ALD processes https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=98068083-e673-42ab-9d4a-ab1400e58b5e
30 Jari Koskinen Mechanical property measurements of ALD films https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=488ad312-d98f-4b3e-9f78-ab1400e7d800
35 Riikka Puurunen Closing of the event https://aalto.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=e3697794-8d77-49c7-b401-ab1400f1e0ad

Event was supported by Aalto Materials Platform.Event webpage: https://blogs.aalto.fi/catprofopen/ald-networking-nov-2019/

— Updates after initial publication

  • #10 added in the list, as of 12.12.2019

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
atomic layer deposition , events , openness - Comments Off on Panopto records: November Networking – ALD at Aalto University

Happy 45th anniversary, ALD in Finland – Aalto ALD OpenLearning opens

29.11.2019

Exactly forty-five years ago, on November 29, 1974, the first patent on Atomic Layer Epitaxy (FIN 52359) was filed by Suntola and Antson.

Today, the Aalto ALD OpenLearning site is opened for public. You can access it via the general link https://openlearning.aalto.fi/ and the direct link https://openlearning.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=100. Above is example of the current site contents, including a new schematic illustration of the ALD process, adapted from Applied Physics Reviews 6 (2019) 021302; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5060967.

Also today, at Aalto University, we meet at: November Networking – ALD at Aalto University event. We have 63 participants registered, with group presentations, company presentations, 2-min poster pitch talks, and invited talk by Prof. Ruud van Ommen; see more at https://blogs.aalto.fi/catprofopen/ald-networking-nov-2019/.

Happy 45th anniversary, atomic layer deposition (ALD) in Finland!

Espoo, Finland,
November 29, 2019,
Riikka Puurunen

—

Other posts on the #FinALD45 topic:

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
atomic layer deposition , events , learning , openness , teaching - Comments Off on Happy 45th anniversary, ALD in Finland – Aalto ALD OpenLearning opens

Copy of email sent to participants registered so far at November networking – ALD at Aalto University

28.11.2019

Email sent to 63 registered participants.

From: Puurunen Riikka <>
Sent: torstai 28. marraskuuta 2019 13.17
To: Catalysis <>
Cc: Puurunen Riikka <>
Subject: Welcome to November Networking – ALD at Aalto University! Note: We will start at 12:00

Dear colleague,

Thank you for registering at November Networking – ALD at Aalto University, 29.11.2019! We have 63 registered participants. It will be a nice mix of past, present and future at the event, both related to the contents and the people present. Also good to know about tommorrow: it will be 45 years since the filing of the first Atomic Layer Epitaxy patent on 29.11.1974 (FIN 52359), and the (still rather rudimentary) Aalto ALD OpenLearning site will open up at https://openlearning.aalto.fi/.

The latest version of the programme of 29.11.2019 is available via the webpage https://blogs.aalto.fi/catprofopen/ald-networking-nov-2019/. The version of 27.11. is accessible here. We are looking forward to an interesting programme, consisting of:

  • Invited talk by Prof. Ruud van Ommen (abstract, biography),
  • 33 short presentations, and
  • ~21 posters (including a re-show of the FinALD40 exhibition?)

read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
events - Comments Off on Copy of email sent to participants registered so far at November networking – ALD at Aalto University

Copy of email sent to participants registered so far at November networking – ALD at Aalto University

18.11.2019

Email sent to over forty registered participants.

From: Puurunen Riikka <>
Sent: maanantai 18. marraskuuta 2019 9.33
To: Catalysis <>
Cc: Puurunen Riikka <>
Subject: FYI: 1st version of programme, November Networking – ALD at Aalto University 29.11.

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for enrolling at the event November Networking – ALD at Aalto University.

The first draft of the programme has now been made public.

read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
events - Comments Off on Copy of email sent to participants registered so far at November networking – ALD at Aalto University

Copy of email sent within Aalto CHEM related to posters at November Networking – ALD at Aalto University

7.11.2019

(sent to staff at the three departments at Aalto CHEM)

From: Puurunen Riikka <riikka.puurunen@aalto.fi>
Sent: torstai 7. marraskuuta 2019 11.05
To: <staff at the three departments>
Subject: Call for posters at November Networking – ALD at Aalto University (Fri 29.11.) / DL 13.11. or 25.11.

Dear colleagues at Aalto CHEM,

For those interested in Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD): Call is now open to register for scientific posters – optionally with a related 2-min pitch talk – for the (first-ever) November Networking – ALD at Aalto University event at Aalto University. The event is especially aimed for people at Aalto University, and at the same time open and welcome for anyone to attend. read more >>

Posted by Riikka Puurunen

Associate professor, Catalysis Science and Technology, at Aalto since February 2017
Uncategorized - Comments Off on Copy of email sent within Aalto CHEM related to posters at November Networking – ALD at Aalto University

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