Making it "click" at Aalto University
Arts, sciences, engineering, and business brought together can hatch fresh ideas and cool innovations as Millennium Youth Campers found out at the Aalto University Design Factory on the Otaniemi Campus.
At Aalto University Millennium Youth Campers found out how creative spaces can make people and ideas click.
The Aalto Design Factory encourages academic entrepreneurship. In their own words the Design Factory is “just another red brick building on the Campus, just with much more to it on the inside.”
What is it on the inside that makes Aalto Design Factory so special? A tour by local students revealed meeting rooms with colourful Fatboy bean bags instead of office chairs, cozy corners and multipurpose tinkering spaces. It was easy to imagine random encounters on one of the comfy sofas leading to collaborations that sprout new ideas.
The Campers had also time for project work at Aalto. Photo: Jussi Nygren.
Tools, machines and materials are available for students to turn their ideas into prototypes. “Here at the Design Factory we want to focus on the hands-on and the tangible. We believe in bringing dreams to reality, in sharing and connecting ideas to potential customers”, says Kalevi Ekman, Chief of the Design Factory.
Other destinations in Otaniemi included the acoustics laboratory, the fermentation pilot plant at VTT Technical Research Centre and the cold lab. Apparently dipping marshmallows into liquid nitrogen was a tasty experiment.
Recipe: dip marshmallows into liquid nitrogen, enjoy cold. Photo: Jussi Nygren.
The afternoon was spent concentrating on the preparation of project posters. Working time was frantically stretched until the last possible minute because summarising extensive and detailed ideas into a limited space was not an easy task. The campers had to ask themselves: “What is the most important thing we want to say about our project?” Other major issues were also debated with passion: “This is going to be green.” “Oh no, don’t make it green!”
After an eventful day the MYC crowd gathered around the roaring campfire to enjoy the atmosphere of the summer evening.
This time marshmallows were eaten hot. Photo: Jussi Nygren.
The main organisers of Millennium Youth Camp are Finland’s Science Education Centre LUMA and Technology Academy Finland.
Who are the MY Campers? Read the group introductions from MY Camp profiles. Read also the Camp news, look at photos in Flickr, and watch videos in Vimeo.
Maija Pollari is a science journalist whose background is in molecular biology research. She enjoys flamenco dancing, reading, and roleplaying adventures.