Students of Aalto – Zina from Argentina, Design Program

In this series – Students of Aalto, we share study experience and student life at Aalto.

Aalto Squad member – Zina Marpegan

Hi! Nice to meet you! I’m Zina, a second year in the English Bachelors Programme in Design and Squad member. I’m from Argentina, lived there most of my life except for the five years I spent in Missouri, USA. I’m also a French citizen but I haven’t lived in France yet.

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The most photo worthy spots at Aalto University, in Espoo and Helsinki

Do you like taking pictures? Do you want to take some amazing photographs and post them on your Instagram account? Or are you simply looking for places to visit?

If you answered any of these questions with a “Yes” this post is definitely for you! Kasia and Madina collected 8 ideas of the greatest photogenic spots nearby Aalto. Click “Read more” and hopefully, get inspired by the post.

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10 engineering project courses you should know about

Hello everyone interested in getting some hands-on-experience and especially you, freshmen! In this post, you’ll find 10 interesting engineering project courses you can include in your degree.


Product Development Project (PDP) is a year-long course in which students solve an industry challenge. It includes a lot of prototyping and even more user-centred design. Each team has a large budget and international teammates who they can meet up to a few times a year. This year (2020), you can help even Naughty Burger!

Periods: I – V
Credit points: 10 – 15

#design #engineering #business #designfactory

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Magnificent Life, a life worth living indeed

Sometimes I wonder if there would be anyone who wouldn’t want to live a magnificent life. Perhaps it’s true, we would all want to live such a life, and yet we content ourselves to living the simple life instead. Why is that the case? This was the question I pondered over during one of my electives from philosophy, a course called Magnificent Life, by no other than the philosopher, Esa Saarinen, himself.

However, before I go into my experience from that course, I would like to mention a unique aspect of Aalto University, which actually pushed me to apply and accept a place in this university. It was this degree of flexibility in choosing courses, even when one would belong to a particular degree or program. Of course, there are mandatory courses, but alongside those, there is freedom in choosing whichever courses you would like, even from diverse fields like philosophy or arts. As an example; I am a Strategy major, with minor in Global Innovation Program and electives from Philosophy, a unique combination which I couldn’t have found anywhere else in Europe.

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What is Excu?

Excu is short for “excursion” and it means a short trip that implies leisure activities. At Aalto University excu is an organized visit to some company or organization by a group of students. Usually guilts and student associations are in touch with the representatives of different companies and organize those visits. The chosen companies of course function in a certain area of business that interests the student group and could become a future workplace for those students.

A couple of weeks ago I participated in one such excus organized by the Real Estate Economics student’s Association – FUNDI. We visited one of the buildings that were developed by HGR Property Partners – Accountor Tower in Keilaniemi district in Espoo. The building is 84 meters high and it is the 9th tallest building in Finland at the moment.

Façade of the Accountor Tower (YIT 2019)

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Mökille – an authentic way to enjoy the Finnish summer

It’s quite common that Finnish summer cottages situate on islands with a dense forest. Those white dots near the shore are summer cottages.

Mökille is the must-do for Finns in the spring and summer, it means going to the summer cottage in Finnish. Finns crave Mökille all year round. Why is that? There’s a joke about the real reason – so Finns can avoid people. We all know Finns love personal space and don’t like small talk. So once a while, they need to be left alone in the middle of nowhere.

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