Highlights from the past decades – PwC commission

The customized student business projects at Aalto University School of Business celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, we bring to focus projects from the past and discuss the ripple effects they have had.

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The project was commissioned by PwC and examined the mechanical analysis of data before anyone had even heard of ChatGPT. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning provide an opportunity to mechanically analyse large amounts of data very quickly and cost-effectively. During the project, students mapped current players and future solutions in the field of NLP and prepared a preliminary business case for PwC. The student project was part of a larger NLP project for PwC’s tax and legal services.

Shortly after the project had ended, Jari Kärkkäinen, Partner, Tax & Legal Technology, PwC Finland, described the results of the project as follows:

‘The project team did an excellent job in achieving the objectives set for the project. The project gave us fresh information on the new trends of natural language processing and on the Finnish start-up companies established in the field. We have continued discussing opportunities for collaboration with these companies.’

We have now come back to see how things have developed at PwC since the project ended. 

‘The students did an excellent job in mapping the start-up genre in the field, and we have continued to work with one of the experts we found during the project. Networking was definitely one of the most important benefits of the project,’ Kärkkäinen says.

‘As we speak, PwC is developing new applications that are linked to the student project. The project was an important step towards seizing these opportunities at an early stage. With the expertise of Tom Bäckström, the professor who supervised the project, and the outstanding competence of the students, we got a head start compared to other players in the field. Job opportunities were also discussed.’

Tommi Nykänen was one of the students who participated in the project. He remembers the project as a rewarding experience:

‘We got to investigate and draw conclusions independently. I was a finance student from the School of Business, and my project partner Sanna Hyvönen was studying big data and machine learning at the School of Electrical Engineering. Our cross-disciplinary collaboration was very smooth.

My tip to current students is that you should focus on the things that feel right for you during your studies — just like in life in general. For me, participating in a student project tailored for a business was one of the decisions that I haven't regretted. During the project, I got to carry out genuine investigation tasks independently and to make use of my personal vision,’ Nykänen says. He currently works as an analyst at Access Partners.

The project was supervised by Associate Professor Tom Bäckström from the Department of Information and Communications Engineering. According to him, the project was visionary.

‘In retrospect, this project was excitingly a couple of years ahead of its time. Today, it's taken for granted that large language models such as ChatGPT should be part of the palette of all large and even small businesses. That’s why I’m impressed with PwC’s apt timing as the project was launched on their initiative. It was interesting to see how problems were approached in an actual business case.’