As tradition has it, the year 2012 diplomas for permanent and junior teacher, senior and junior researcher, and person of the year were awarded at the department's Christmas coffee on 19 December 2012. In addition to the diplomas, they received a monetary reward.
 

Permanent teacher of the year is University Lecturer Lea Kutvonen.

She is excellent in personal guidance. Despite heavy traffic and active research work, there is always a sense of presence and focus on the needs of the student she is couselling. In her guidance the academic learning is at its best. She combines quality, good intelligibility of written text and considerations of social effects. Moreover, she has instructed exceptionally many pro gradu theses. The strategy of the University of Helsinki "Excellence for Society" is splendidly manifested in her teaching.

Junior teacher of the year is Part-time Teacher Ella Peltonen.

Many criteria of a good teacher are realised in her teaching: to achieve good teaching skills she has developed herself as a teacher in a determined way, she has organized learning sessions in open-minded ways, and shared her knowledge with colleagues. At the same time she has exemplarily taken care of the progress of her own studies. She has been an active link between the student organization and the department in teaching and learning development. In students' feedback Ella constantly receives laudatory references.

Senior researcher of the year is Postdoctoral Researcher Eve Hoggan.

Eve Hoggan completed her doctoral degree at the University in Glasgow in 2010. She has rapidly risen to a recognised position in the field of cross-modal interaction. She has published highly cited papers in the best conferences and journals of the area, and contributed invited chapters to prestigious handbooks. She is active in the scientific community, and the application of her work in mobile devices has received attention in widely-read technology blogs.

Junior researcher of the year is Master of Science in Technology Antti Hyttinen.

In his research, Antti Hyttinen studies the search for causal network structures. His thesis work has progressed swiftly, and parts of it have been published in leading journals and at top conferences in the field. Hyttinen's personal input in his research group is pivotal to its work, and he has shown both independence and the ability to adopt new ideas quickly.

Person of the year is Master of Science Mikko Pervilä.

Mikko Pervilä takes responsibility for the whole department community. His work in organising events in addition to his own performances is outstanding. In popularising his research, he is remarkably successful from the start of his scientific career. In addition, he has taken the initiative for new directions in teaching and participated in implementing them, e.g. helping the administrative team in combating plagiarism, and working with the team developing the department's information routines, in his typical no-nonsense style.