Aalto University is a multidisciplinary university combining science and technology with art, design, and business. The Aalto vision for “Innovative Society” is based on world-class research excellence combined with an active effort to develop research results for innovations and IP that can be transferred to wider use for the benefit of the society and the economy. The Aalto innovation ecosystem around the main campus in Otaniemi has undergone a major transformation from an academic campus to a lively ecosystem with research institutions, companies, startups, creative industries and even two high schools operating within the same buildings in lively interaction with one another. Strong emphasis on multidisciplinarity in both research and education has facilitated and accelerated growth of activities that require such approaches: Building full-blown spacecraft as student effort and developing the concept to several startup companies is one excellent example of tackling difficult challenges and going through all it takes from mechanical engineering to space legislation.
Keynote Tuija Pulkkinen
Tuija I. Pulkkinen is Vice President for Research and Innovations and Professor of Space Science and Technology at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. Prof. Pulkkinen is a recognized space scientist working in the field of solar influence on the Earth’s space environment. Prof. Pulkkinen graduated from the University of Helsinki in Finland with a PhD in theoretical physics (space physics) in 1992. She joined the Finnish Meteorological Institute in 1988 and led the space research group there from 2003 until leaving for Aalto University in 2011. Her international experience includes two extended visits to U. Colorado in Boulder in 1996-1997 and to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2006-2007. Prof. Pulkkinen has held numerous positions in international and national scientific organizations, including presidency of the European Geosciences Union. She is a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Royal Astronomical Society, Academia Europea, and a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.
