Teknillinen korkeakoulu Tekniska högskolan | |
 Logo of Helsinki University of Technology | |
| Motto | Labor et scientia (Latin) |
|---|---|
Motto in English | Work and science |
| Type | University |
| Active | 1849–2011 |
| Location | , |
| Campus | Otaniemi |
| Website | www |
 | |
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK;Finnish:Teknillinen korkeakoulu;Swedish:Tekniska högskolan,HUT in international usage) was a technicaluniversity inFinland. It was located inOtaniemi,Espoo in theHelsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern dayAalto University was founded. The university was founded in 1849 by Grand Duke of Finland,Emperor Nicholas I and received university status in 1908. It moved from Helsinki to Otaniemi campus area in 1966. The merger of HUT with two other schools created theAalto University in 2010, and HUT briefly held the nameAalto University School of Science and Technology before being split into four schools in 2011.
Much of the university'sOtaniemi campus was designed byAlvar Aalto.
In 1849, TKK was established inHelsinki by the decree of theRussian EmperorNicholas I,Grand Duke of Finland as a "manufacture and handicraft school", with the nameHelsingin teknillinen reaalikoulu/Helsingfors tekniska realskola, along with two other similar schools, situated inVaasa andTurku. The school started its function in theDomus Litonii ("Litonius house") building located at Aleksanterinkatu 50, which had been designed byGustaf Paulus Leander and completed in 1847, and remains in use and in ownership by the Litonius family to this day.
In 1872, the school's name was changed toPolyteknillinen koulu/Polytekniska skolan ("Polytechnical School") and in 1878, toPolyteknillinen opisto/Polytekniska institutet ("Polytechnical Institute"), while the two other manufacture and handiwork schools were demoted to institutions of lower level. In 1877 the school moved to larger premises to a new building near theHietalahdentori market square.[1][2] As the proportion ofmatriculation diploma holders in the student intake gradually increased, the school gained more social respectability. In 1908, TKK was given university status along with its present name, thus becoming the second university to be founded in Finland. In 1955, building of the new campus area started with the housing village. In 1966, TKK moved from Helsinki to the new campus in Otaniemi, Espoo.
In the past, the university was also known by the abbreviationsHUT andTH, from its English- and Swedish-language names, but in 2005 a decision was made officially to use the abbreviationTKK exclusively, forbranding reasons.
In 2010, TKK was merged withHelsinki School of Economics andUniversity of Art and Design Helsinki intoAalto University. After brief existence in the new university as own institution,Aalto University School of Science and Technology, it was split into four schools, corresponding to four old faculties,School of Engineering,School of Science,School of Electrical Engineering, andAalto University School of Chemical Technology. In 2012, the Department of Architecture of the School of Engineering, formerly of Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, was merged withAalto University School of Art and Design intoAalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.
All engineering programmes offered by TKK led to the degree ofdiplomi-insinööri ("engineer with university diploma"), a five-year master's degree. The only exceptions to this were the architecture programmes that lead to the master's degrees of architecture and landscape architecture. From 2005, according to theBologna process, all students might also complete an intermediate degree (tekniikan kandidaatti,TkK) before the DI or architect's degree. This degree is considered a bachelor's degree and enables enrollment in foreign universities where a bachelor's degree is required. TKK did not offer programs terminating in a bachelor's degree; a student might only be accepted to study for the Master's level degree. TKK required a bachelor's degree from foreign students studying in English, because only Master's studies were offered completely in English.
Apart from numerous programs in Finnish, various international Masters programs were offered exclusively for studies in English.
The university was organized in four faculties, each consisting of departments and separate laboratories, and separate units not operating under any faculty.
Additionally, TKK participated in various joint units with other Finnish universities and theVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland:
TKK participated in 12 Centres of Excellence (huippuyksikkö), selected by theAcademy of Finland to represent the top research in the country and receiving separate, fixed-period funding from the Academy.
Researchers at TKK have achieved notability in, among other things,low temperature physics (holding the current world record for thelowest temperature achieved), the development of devices and methods formagnetoencephalography, mobile communications,wood processing, and neural networks, with professorTeuvo Kohonen initiating research inself-organizing maps. Additionally, the first commercialisedtotal synthesis, the synthesis ofcamphor, was invented byGustaf Komppa, the first professor of chemistry at TKK[39] and theNobel laureate (chemistry, 1945)Artturi Virtanen held a professorship in biochemistry at TKK. More recently, the university has notably invested in the research of nanotechnology, operating the largestcleanroom facility in Northern Europe[40] and of the largest microscopy clusters in Europe.[41]
TheNokia Research Center has operated a "lablet" on university premises since 2008, in order to establish joint research programs and daily interaction between Nokia and university researchers, who would share the same facilities.
TKK was located inOtaniemi, Espoo. Several high-tech companies, the Finnish forest industry's joint experimental laboratory KCL, andbusiness incubators Innopoli and Technopolis are also situated there. It is also directly adjacent toKeilaniemi, with Life Science Center and the headquarters of several notable Finnish companies, such asNokia andFortum. The area is connected by a 15-minute bus ride to the center of Helsinki.
TKK was known for its active student community and technology students (teekkaris) are highly noticeable, as they wear a distinctive hat and often brightly colored overalls to many of their public events. The community has also organised important charity events (tempaus in local language). TKK students are also famous for, and Finland's leading practitioners of, studentpranks (jäynä), similar in principle toMIT hacks. Their most widely publicised stunt took place in 1961, when a team of students smuggled a statue ofPaavo Nurmi onto the 300-year-old wreck ofRegalskeppetVasa just days before its lifting from the bottom of the sea.[42]
TheStudent Union of Helsinki University of Technology (TKY,Finnish:Teknillisen korkeakoulun ylioppilaskunta,Swedish:Tekniska högskolans studentkår) was the interest group for the students of the university. In 2006 it had 11,187 members,[43] which included all the students of the university, as is stipulated by Finnish law.[44] It was founded in 1872.
TKK was also one of the two universities in Finland to host one or morenations, a Finnish type ofstudent corporation. The only nation at TKK wasTeknologföreningen (TF) and its goal was to unite Swedish-speaking students at TKK. Teknologföreningen was founded in 1872, prior to the student union. Teknologföreningen also has its own building opposite to Dipoli calledUrdsgjallar, completed in 1966. The Finnish-speaking student nationTekniikan Ylioppilaat was disbanded in 1972 and its functions given to the university student union, since a separate Finnish-speaking nation in a university with an overwhelming Finnish-speaking majority was considered unnecessary. The regional Finnish-speaking nations at theUniversity of Helsinki also accepted TKK students as members.[45][46]
The housing area of Otaniemi campus, known as Teekkarikylä (technology student village), was owned mostly by the student union and partly by HOAS (Helsinki Student Housing Fund). The housing was characterised by the presence of foreign students of many nationalities. As of 2005, the village offered housing for approximately 2,600 students.[47]
Construction of the Otaniemi campus was started in 1950, in order for the first buildings to host the athletes of the1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Some of the building material originally used for the campus was acquired from the former Soviet Union embassy, which had been destroyed duringWorld War II,[48] as a result of bombings bySoviet Union itself. Later the student housing has been used for housing athletes again in a number of athletics events, sometimes to the dismay of the students that have to move out during the events. The quality of the Otaniemi student housing holds a high standard in international comparison.
The campus contains the former student union building and convention centreDipoli, named as the secondPoli, the second building of the polytechnic students. The original first building being located formerly in the Helsinki centre. Dipoli was designed byReima andRaili Pietilä and was completed in 1966. However, in 1993 the building was transformed into a training centre of the university. The ownership of the property was later transferred from the student union to the university itself, due to high maintenance costs. It is regularly used for conventions, congresses and student parties.
In addition to the student union TKK students have formed numerous associations for studies, cultural activity and sports. In 2007, there were some 150 associations maintained by university students. In 2006, two-thirds of the student union members were members of "the guilds",[43] which are student associations uniting students inside their department, e.g. the Guild of Electrical Engineers.
Currently this list includes only the associations known to have English Wikipedia articles.
60°11′9″N024°49′40″E / 60.18583°N 24.82778°E /60.18583; 24.82778
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