EntryPoint Mentoring Program for international students

EntryPoint Mentoring Program is organized by the Helsinki Chamber of Commerce once every year. This is a great program for international students or graduates who’d like to stay in Finland to build a career. This program matches mentees and mentors in the same or similar fields.

I joined the program from Jan till late May 2020.  It’s a 5-month journey full of inspiration. I highly recommend international students and new graduates to participate in this program. The new application is open now till Aug 31, 2020. Apply for it quickly.

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A challenging yet rewarding year comes to a conclusion

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

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

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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Aalto Talent Expo is coming up for the first time on 31 Oct 2019

Students have the chance to talk directly with potential employers. On 31st 2019, more than 130 employers are attending! Photographer: Rasmus Karppinen

Aalto has organized Career Fairs in different fields for years. This year, it will be different!  Aalto Career Services is organizing Aalto Talent Expo for the first time on 31 Oct in Otahalli, Otaniemi from 11-17. The event is created for matchmaking between employers and talents at Aalto University. There will be employers of arts, business and technology, which corresponds to the three multidisciplinary fields in Aalto community. Aalto students will be benefited from a series of activities in Talent Expo, including speed mentoring, inspirational speeches, student exhibitions, encounters, tips for work applications, CV clinic, portfolio review, CV-photographing and more. 

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Nordic Startup Summer Program organized by Aalto Ventures Program

Nordic Startup Summer Program is organized by Aalto Ventures Program from July 15-19 in 2019.  

30 Chinese students from 5 top universities in China participated, including Xidian University, Fudan University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shantou University and South China University of Technology. The main purpose of this program is to explore Aalto University’s innovation and student-led startup ecosystem, top Finnish innovation companies, Nordic culture, mindset of public speaking and design thinking. 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHMyMu7ocgA[/embedyt]

The student from Fudan university shared his experience in the summer program.

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Civil engineering Day Speech

(This article mainly reviews the studies in Aalto and work after graduation)

Civil engineering day is annual alumni gathering to know what is happening in the program. An opportunity to discuss master’s programmes in Building Technology and in Geoengineering, their present and future, and to meet the students and colleagues. The target group of the event is partners of the Department of Civil Engineering and the Bachelor’s students at the School of Engineering.

I know today’s program should be in Finnish, but I can only give this speech in English, I still haven’t given up on Finnish language, but it seems that Finnish language almost gave up on me.

First of all, thanks to the invitation from Prof Puttonen and Prof Hostikka, I am really humble, honored and happy today to share my story, my thoughts and my journey in the program.

In the beginning of this speech, allow me to shortly introduce myself. I am Yiwei, graduated from the building technology program last year. During my years in the industry, my main focus is the structural calculation and structural analysis. I have the luck to be involved in the structural design of very well-known Finnish projects like Keskustakirjasto Oodi, Tripla as well as many large international projects.

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Winter Arts – Lux Helsinki

This year Lux Architecture series highlights the Finlandia Hall. The video and music created an enormous flowing water scene in the winter night to address the significant issue that water resources are exhaustible. The art work is created by Ramboll Valostudio.

Every January, the most exciting winter arts activity, Lux Helsinki lights up different corners across the city. Each year, City of Helsinki chose different district to be the main focus for the annual light arts festival. It is brilliant to bring citizens and tourists to learn the dynamics in different areas of Helsinki.

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Happy New Year

New Year fireworks in Senate Square.

Last night I went to see the New Year Eve’s show in the Senate Square. When I arrived around 11pm, it’s easy to walk around the crowd and reach a nice position in front of the stage. Comparing to my past experience in Sydney and Taipei, to be able to get a great view, one needed to be there hours before the fireworks started. Only until the fireworks was done, everyone was leaving the square, I experienced the most crowded moment in Helsinki. For the first time, I was pushed around by the crowd in Finland.

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Fight climate change in Aalto – Climate-Kic summer journey

Aalto organized team-building activities in Nuuksio National Park. Journey 10 participants and coaches enjoyed a nice vegetarian dinner and the beautiful view.

This summer was filled with joys, excitements and inspirations because of the five-week summer journey organized by EIT Climate-Kic. I met students and experts who share the same passion to mitigate climate change, the biggest challenge we face nowadays. 

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