School of Electrical Engineering celebrated excellence and achievements of 2022

On Wednesday, March 1, the staff of the School of Electrical Engineering gathered together to celebrate the most significant achievements and recognitions of 2022, and the best dissertations. Dean Jyri Hämäläinen and Professor Vesa Välimäki, the Chair of the Doctoral Programme Committee hosted the event, and Professor Ari Sihvola gave the keynote speech. The Dominante quartet (Saara-Kaisla Kangas, Annaliina Pahkala, Joonas Lehti and Roope Lehikoinen) also performed at the event. 

Warm congratulations to all the winners!

Honours

Professor Marko Hinkkanen, Professor Olav Tirkkonen and Adjunct Professor Stefan Werner were appointed Fellow members of IEEE. IEEE is the world’s largest association for technical professionals. The IEEE Fellowship is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments.

Aalto ELEC Awards

This year, five ELEC Awards were presented. The dean and vice deans decided the winners based on nominations submitted by staff.

Impact Award was given to University Lecturer Seppo Sierla. Seppo Sierla has organised several large international conferences during the last couple of years. Seppo’s research group is active in creating invention disclosures, and Seppo has also managed to secure a significant amount of research funding both from Business Finland and Academy of Finland.

Enablers Award was awarded to Planning Officer Eeva Halonen. She was praised to be very competent in her work and appreciated by students, colleagues and the academic staff. She got recognition for being  solution-oriented and diplomatic, and keeping her cool even in difficult situations. New team members appreciate her help and support.

Solutions for Sustainability Award was given to Professor Tapio Lokki and his research group. Professor Lokki and his research team have developed a cellulose-based material, which provides an alternative to traditional acoustic panels. A new unobtrusive, spray-on material can dramatically improve the acoustics of a room without changing its appearance. The final product is carbon negative – more carbon dioxide is captured in the material than is released throughout the entire production process

Radical Creativity Award was awarded to Professor of Practice Sebastian Schlecht. During his time at ELEC, Schlecht has carried out several innovative and creative projects. One of them is Inside the Quartet. With room acoustics and 3D design, the VR headsets, allow the listener to experience music from the point of view of a string quartet player of their choice

Supervisor Award was given to Professor Marko Hinkkanen. Professor Hinkkanen has supervised over 60 master's theses and 10 doctoral theses. Two of his doctoral students have even won the TEK dissertation award. As a supervisor, Marko was praised to be engaging and caring. 

Dissertation Awards

The Doctoral Programme Committee awarded four recent doctorates for particularly excellent dissertations. The awards were presented by Professor Vesa Välimäki.

Juha Heinonen
High-sensitivity photodiodes using black silicon and induced junction
Supervised by Professor Hele Savin
Advised by Dr. Mikko Juntunen, ElFys Oy Finland

Jens Lundell
Towards Robust 6-DoF Multi-Finger Grasping in Clutter with Explicit Scene Understanding
Supervised by Professor Ville Kyrki

Grigorii Ptitcyn 
On Electromagnetics of Time-Modulated Structures
Supervised by Professor Sergei Tretiakov
Advised by Dr. Mohammad Sajjad Mirmoosa

Elias Raninen
Contributions to the Theory and Estimation of High-dimensional Covariance Matrices
Supervised by Professor Esa Ollila

Decorations awarded by the President of the Republic of Finland

On Finland's Independence Day, President Sauli Niinistö awarded medals to five staff members of the School of Electrical Engineering: 

Emeritus Professor Heikki Hämmäinen, Knight, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland 
Principal University Lecturer Kai Zenger, Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland