Category Archives: Aalto Experience

student experience in Aalto.

FAQs for new Aalto students Part 2 (updated in April 2020)

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Congratulations and Welcome to Aalto University!
Here are some frequently asked questions.

Please see all up to date information on admissions and the beginning of your studies on Aalto’s website (aalto.fi) or by contacting Aalto’s Admissions Services (admissions (at) aalto.fi) or your programme’s student services.

♠INFO ABOUT CORONAVIRUS 

How is the Corona virus affecting the contact teaching in Aalto University? Will the Fall semester 2020 be delayed? What if I cannot get a residence permit on time?

  • Aalto University follows instructions from the government of Finland. At the moment, there is no plan in delaying the coming academic year because of the pandemia. The University will let all accepted students know if anything changes. Here is all the up to date information about the Coronavirus and what happens in Aalo regarding it.
  • Please check Migri´s website for the most current updates and contact your program study coordinator at Aalto to make arrangements in case your residence permit is late.

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Writing Master’s thesis at Aalto University

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As you may already know, thesis is an obligatory part of your degree and every student has to do it at some point of their studies.  I felt intrigued when I got to know that the majority of students in Finland write their theses as a practical case studies for different companies. It means that a company has a problem to solve or theory to be tested and they give this job to a student. In this way, companies get solutions for their problems without need to hire a person specifically for that task and student get to apply their knowledge in real work-life case already before graduation + possibly make some money.

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A walk by the seaside in Helsinki

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A beautiful and peaceful sunset moment by the bay in eastern Helsinki.

Before I moved to Finland, I had lived in Tamsui for almost 10 years, which’s situated next to an estuary in the northern Taiwan, the most famous sightseeing spot for the sunset. One thing I knew before I left Tamsui for Hesinki was that I would miss a lot taking a walk by the water.

The sunset in Tamsui, Taiwan.

After I settled in Helsinki and soon discovered that I lives in a quiet neighborhood with only a 15-min walking distance to an estuary. Coincidently, that’s exactly the same distance from my house to the estuary in Taipei. The scenery and the sound of running water are the greatest cure to my homesickness.

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Where The Wild Things Are?

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Örö Island Workshop 2019 (Course:  DOM-E3042)

You leave behind Helsinki and the metro stations, the bus stops and highways, the train station in Salo and the harbor in Kasnäs.  You try to count the black rocks rising from sea in this maze of islets, while another grey wave mirrors another grey sky. On a Monday in October you arrive on an island called Örö at the edge of the Finnish archipelago where the Baltic Sea swallows the horizon. The equipment in your backpack outweighs your food supplies by far and you carry more films than underpants as you start the walk to your cottage with the other lens based creatures that will be your roommates for the next five days and your partners in crime for the next two years.

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Attending Barcelona Convention with a support from Aalto Design Grants

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European Blockchain Convention 2020 in Barcelona.

With the support from Department of Design Grants, I had the chance to attend the European Blockchain Convention for the first time last week. The grants are offered 4 times every year to “facilitate research, art, creative practice and learning dealing with design. Priority is given to enable participation to peer reviewed research and artistic events and forums for publishing the outcomes.” (Aalto website)

I applied for the Department of Design Grants in mid August to gain new information for my master thesis. One month after my application, I received a notification that I was granted an amount of 700 euros from Department of Design Express Grant. Two weeks later, I receive the full amount to cover the convention registration fee, accommodation, flights and other expenses. The grant eased my financial burden to attend an important convention outside of Finland. Usually, the registration fee of international seminars and conventions cost quite a lot. This one costs 238 euros, which is a big amount for students. I am really grateful to have the grant to advance my research on my master thesis.

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A challenging yet rewarding year comes to a conclusion

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They say endings are not a time to grieve, but to be glad that the stories happened. This describes the way I feel as the year and with it, the decade comes to a close. It has been an eventful year which brought many challenges when it started and now that it’s ending, there are new challenges to carry forward into the next year and decade. However, I keep my head up and look forward with renewed hope and energy. Many of the experiences I got to live through in this year resulted as being a part of the Aalto University, which fills me with gratitude for being a student in this university.

When the year started, I was struggling within a global team as part of the course, ME310 – Global Innovation Program at Aalto University, which was also my minor. The struggle was to come up with our proof-of-concept prototype for the water infrastructure optimization project that we had been working on in the course. Since the scope of our project was based in China, and half of our team members were from China, we visited China earlier in the year to validate some of our concepts with the users and gather insights to incorporate them further into our concept. The interviews and user testing we conducted in China was vital for the development of our final concept.

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Interview with ayy – Aalto Student Union

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AYY (Aalto-yliopiston ylioppilaskunta) is Aalto University’s Student Union, which represents around 14000 students. In the interview, Tapio Hautamäki (Chair of the Borad) and Rosa Väisänen (Specialist of international affairs and sustainability) introduce AYY about its services for student members, major events every year, supports for new Aalto students and so on.

AYY’s goal is to enable the best student’s life in the world for its members by promoting wellbeing and developing the teaching at Aalto University.

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Would you like to attend a student sitsit? A seated dinner with a lot of singing and drinking!

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Sitsit for 7 Polytechnic choirs from all over Finland, in Otaniemi campus

What is a student sitsit in Finland? It is a seated dinner at a long table, usually inside the campus, organized by student organizations. It is very popular in Finland, at least in Aalto University. I have already attended 3 sitsits in Aalto University so far. It is similar to the high table dinner, but in a Nordic way.

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Junction Hackathon 2019 is happening in Aalto! Check the Interview with Junction

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Patrik Holopainen, Head of Community, introduces Junction and its major events in the interview. Junction organizes hackathons in Aalto campus every year, starting from 2015. Junction Hackathon attracts around 1500 hackers with multidisciplinary backgrounds, who are from more than 100 different countries. They gather together to solve challenges in the 48-hour hackathon though a weekend.

Junction Hackathon 2019 takes place in Aalto campus.

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