Category Archives: Aalto Experience

student experience in Aalto.

My experience in the Pattern Lab ’18 minor

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Craft

As part of my master’s studies, I participated in PatternLab ‘18, the annual textile and surface design project in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. This year, our group of designers sold over ten percent of our collection. We had abundant sales with our loyal customers in the domestic market as well as strong sales at the largest international trade fair for home and contract textiles, the Heimtextil fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

“The work that has been done over the years has now really begun to bear fruit. Especially the decision to strengthen the PatternLab brand among consumers a couple of years ago has been a really good solution. Sales were great last year, but this year we have sold over 50 items in a very short time. It is a great achievement for this freelance designers’ collection”, rejoices Adjunct Professor Maarit Salolainen from Aalto University.

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Spreading the word about Aalto University in Costa Rica

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During my visit to my home country, I had the pleasure to introduce Aalto University’s master’s programmes to several students from Veritas University in San Jose, Costa Rica. My aim was to raise interest about Aalto’s study opportunities and build a stronger collaboration between the two countries as a student ambassador of the MA programme in Creative Sustainability.

National Theatre, San Jose, Costa Rica

National Theatre, San Jose, Costa Rica

Costa Rica and Finland are two very different countries. Yes, I’m sure you might be thinking about one having warmer temperatures than the other, but the truth is that they both share something in common: nature. By building on this similarity, I then introduced Finland and the master’s programmes of Aalto University to all the students. I wanted from the very start to literally “break the ice” and the fear of experiencing a cold country. As I once heard in Finland, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing”.

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Freedom in selection of study subjects helps students to cope with the future challenges

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China’s tycoon, Jack Ma, recently said that we need to reform our educational system in a way that will help our next generations to cope up with the age of machines. Although the gist of the conversation was that automation and robotics are going to replace human beings in future and unemployment will be a severe problem if not tackled with adopting new educational system.

Finland is truly a world leader in education when it comes to adopting and setting new standards of education. Freedom of selection of subjects is one of the greatest benefits of studying at Finland and Aalto University takes it to higher level with its world class research labs and faculty. Whether a student is from business technology or from school of design, he/she can always join any course offered from School of Engineering or School of Science. Even if someone is interested in joining a particular subject.

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A glimpse of last autumn’s orientation week

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My study semester at Aalto University started with orientation week. During my bachelor’s studies, I had the experience of orientation ‘day’ back in my home university in Pakistan. A typical orientation day included enrolment tasks, talks about university value and code of conduct and a brief tour of the campus. So orientation ‘week’ made me wonder what to expect and it included all the right things to start the semester, starting from enrollment to a lot of parties.

Orientation week at Aalto has two kinds of activities.

Photo by Roee Cohen

Photo by Roee Cohen

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Excellent Kick-Off of Creative Sustainability Program

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I was anxious before arriving to Helsinki in the beginning of September, because I couldn’t join the orientation and was afraid of being left behind. Once I arrived, the study coordinator from the school of ARTS, Naoko Nakagawa of Creative Sustainability (CS), provided great assistance to help me start my study in Aalto. Ms. Nakagawa scheduled a special session to explain the study structure of the CS program and helped me decide what courses to take the first period.

Creative Sustainability Program is an international joint master’s degree program of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, the School of Business and the School of Engineering. It is a very unique program for students from various backgrounds to receive multidisciplinary trainings and get inspired from each other in the field of sustainability. In the second week, CS program organized a kick-off day to introduce the courses and projects from the different schools. All the courses and projects were so good, and the professors were devoted and charismatic. I felt very excited about my future study and wished to take all the courses! I was so grateful to have the chance to know more about the courses, projects and professors in the beginning of the program, this was something I never had in the schools of my home country Taiwan. A kick-off day was a brilliant idea to show students what to expect for the CS program in next two years and helping us put together our own personal study plan.

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