The Faculty of Technology and Aalto University School of Engineering have signed a collaboration agreement, which aims to strengthen the cooperation in engineering education.
The collaboration makes it possible for the Faculty of Technology to utilize the expertise of Aalto University School of Engineering in engineering education and offers students of both universities new networking opportunities. Study modules from the Faculty of Technology will also be available for the students of Aalto University School of Engineering.
The collaboration agreement includes thematic minor subjects based on the universities strengths; the students of the University of Turku can for example include the Marine Technology Minor offered by the Aalto University in their degree.
- The Marine Technology Minor is a great addition to our curriculum and plays an important role in the strategic partnership between us and Meyer Turku Ltd, which aims to educate professionals to fulfil the increasing future needs in the area, says Sari Stenvall-Virtanen, Education Manager of the Faculty of Technology.
The collaboration also includes common study modules in materials engineering in the field of energy technology. The first collaborative module ”Electrical Energy Storage Systems” started in January and it has 70 students from Aalto University and 12 from the University of Turku.
The study module is conducted completely online using the flipped learning model, where students familiarize themselves with the subject matter beforehand so that during the contact teaching they are ready to deepen their learning and to apply their knowledge in practical scenarios.
- Online teaching makes it easy to utilise top expertise from outside the university and the study module also includes guest lectures from the industry, says the responsible teacher of the study module, Pekka Peljo, Associate Professor in Materials Engineering.
- Due to differences in teaching schedules, the small groups will be organized locally this time around, but next year we aim to organise the small groups so that all of them will have students from both universities. During the small group meetings students learn how to apply the theoretical knowledge in practice. The collaboration between the universities brings an added value to the study module.
- The collaboration agreement benefits our students in many ways: it widens the course selection and the group projects offer the students new possibilities to build their professional networks already during their studies.
The Faculty of Technology has signed similar agreements with the other higher education institutions in Turku to strengthen the regional cooperation in education and to fulfil the increasing future needs for technology professionals in the area.
