FWLab Turku: Modern Problems Cannot Be Solved within One Discipline
The Falling Walls Lab, which was organised in Finland for the first time, presented young researchers’ solutions to the challenges of our time.
‒ We live among different kinds of uncertainties. The walls between different disciplines have to be knocked over as many of these problems will not be solved within one field of science. Events like these can help in that, said Professor of Cultural History Hannu Salmi from the University of Turku at the beginning of the Falling Walls Lab Turku competition, who is a member of the organisational committee of the competition.
In their opening speeches, both Salmi and Ruth Illman, who is the Director of the Donner Institute of the Åbo Akademi University and also one of the organisers of the event, highlighted the significance of cooperation between universities in the novel, multidisciplinary event.
Falling Walls Labs are qualifying competitions organised all over the world. The best hundred presenters will get to participate in the final organised in Berlin on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and to be part of the international Falling Walls conference. The purpose of the concept is to promote multidisciplinary discussion and bring together experts in different fields of science, art, politics and economy.
The Winning Presentations Addressed Family Trees, Video Games and Serious Diseases
Thirteen young researchers under the age of 36 from Finland, Sweden and Russia participated in the Turku qualification. In the Lab, the judges evaluated three different factors: the topic’s breakthrough, impact and the performance.
The winners of the Turku competition were Eric Malmi from Aalto University (Breaking the Wall of Family Trees), Veli-Matti Karhulahti from the University of Turku (Breaking the Wall of Videogames as Games) and Vilja Siitonen from the University of Turku (Breaking the Wall Between the Serious Diseases and Us). All three researchers get to participate in the international final in Berlin in November.
The Falling Walls Lab Turku is collaboration between the Falling Walls Foundation, the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. In 2014, Aboagora’s theme is Chaos and Cosmos.
The keynote speakers of the three-day (12–14 August) Aboagora symposium, agorists, are Artist and Author Hannu Väisänen, Film Director Peter Greenaway and Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics Bengt Gustafsson (Uppsala University). The agorists’ lectures are open to the public and are organised in the Sibelius Museum. More information: www.aboagora.fi
Text and photos: TS
Translation: MR