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Front
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Internationality is one of the focal points of the
department strategy for
2004-2006. Students who want to enter an exchange programme next
year should
act now! There will be an information meeting on exchange programmes
on 17
February at 16-18 in room A414. Please read more in the Studies
section.
The members of the new steering committee are presented
in the Group
section, and the project for improving the department's website
is described
in the Article section.
An anthropologist among
red tape
Our Office Manager, Päivi Karimäki-Suvanto
originally studied cultural anthropology at the University of Helsinki, specialising in the
Middle East.
However, for a wife and mother, the work of an anthropologist was
not very
suitable, and Päivi specialised in educating immigrants instead.
In 1995,
she was employed as a research assistant at the university at a
unit
studying working conditions. In spring 2002, she was hired at the
Department
of Computer Science as Office Manager to reorganize the administrative
services of the growing department. Päivi and the eight people
in the
administrative unit are in charge of research, personnel, general
adminstration and finances. When admininstration takes care of all
back-up
functions, teachers and researchers are free to do what they do
best. The
great challenge of this year is the new Act on administrative services.
Our Office Manager spends her spare time with her
family. Two daughters,
aged 9 and 16, and the dog Nata keep her busy. She likes reading
detective
novels, and she also tries to keep up with the latest in anthropology.
The new steering committee
for 2004-2006
The new steering committee for 2004-2006 is elected
as follows: Chairman:
department head Jukka Paakki, deputy: assistant head Matti Nykänen.
Members:
Jyrki Kivinen, (deputy Matti Nykänen),
Lea Kutvonen (Kimmo Raatikainen), Hannu Toivonen (Seppo Sippu),
Jan
Lindström (Juha Gustafsson), Pirjo Moen (Markku Kojo), Inka
Oksanen
(Mikael Jokela) and the student members Otso Kivekäs (Eeva
Nevalainen),
Panu Mäntylahti (Misa Munde) and Timo Oksala (Sampo Lehtinen).
The
department secretary Sirkka Palander acts as the committee's secretary
and
as presenting officials Professor Timo Alanko, Lecturer (Head of
Studies)
Hannu Erkiö and Office Manager Päivi Karimäki-Suvanto.
Everyone is invited to contact their representatives
in the steering committee in matters concerning the department.
International experience
- exchange studies
Any students who would like to spend some time at
a university abroad should activate themselves now. There will be
an information meeting on the subject on 17 February at 16-18 in
room A414. International co-operation is an important part of the
world of science today, and the university's goal is to have every
fourth undergraduate study abroad at least three months. It takes
some long-term planning to study abroad - usually you have to start
your preparations some 5-10 months in advance - so now is the time
to start planning for next year. The department has 15 Erasmus contracts
with other European universities, and two Nordplus contracts with
Scandinavian universities, but there are other options as well.
Please see http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/instr.engl/vaihto/ for more
information, attend the information meeting, and contact the Head
of Studies, Hannu Erkiö if you are interested.
Current events
30 January: Mikko Koivisto defended his PhD thesis,
Sum-Product Algorithms
for the Analysis of Genetic Risks".
6 February: the monthly department meeting. Head
of Studies Hannu Erkiö
presented the new two-cycle degree structure.
Faces
Ilmari Kurki, 26, vision researcher in a project
carried out by the
Department of Psychology and HIIT-BRU. The project develops methods
for
studying and modelling visual perception.Ilmari is a psychologist
who
studied mathematics and computer science, as well. His hobbies include
badminton, avant garde cooking and reading.
Antti Hulkkonen, an undergraduate soon starting to
write his Pro gradu, works with the SIP protocol in the SISSI project.
His hobbies include playing guitar, bass and keyboards as well as
going to the gym.
Reformation of
the department website
In autumn 2003 the university webpages were renewed,
with a new graphical
image, which was mirrored in the new look of the department's website.
The
following step is to improve the internal structure and contents
of the
site. A special committee has been working on the new website since
last
autumn. Its preliminary proposition will be presented at the department's
monthly meeting in March.
The problem with the present website is its unclear
structure - parts have
been gradually added during ten years with no overall planning,
making it
difficult to find the page you are looking for. In future, the site
will
consist of three parts: the public one, an intranet accessible with
the
department usercodes and an even more restricted personnel intranet.
The look of the department pages will mirror that
of the university's site,
and changing information contents will be imported dynamically from
databases, making it easier to keep the site up to date. Course
pages will
be moved from the management of individual teachers to more general
accessibility, so that when courses change teachers, it is easy
for them to
access and update the course pages. In e-mail addresses we are also
moving
from individual addresses towards service addresses. The new website
should
be implemented by autumn 2004.
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