News

M.Sc. Päivi Saarinen joined HIIT as the new planning officer of HIIT ARU. Her precedessor M.Sc. Mervi Rantanen moved to another position at TKK.

The centre for new media culture m-cult moved to share the HTC 5th floor space with HIIT. A small seminar was arranged. On the same date, HIIT and m-cult signed a memorandum of understanding aiming at linking new media culture and ICT research to facilitate new social innovations for advancing information society. To achieve this, m-cult and HIIT will share their multi-disciplinary networks and align their research agendas.

Professor Shoshana Zuboff from Harvard Business School visited HIIT that arranged an informal seminar focusing on societal computing research.

The Board of HIIT nominated professor Esko Ukkonen as the Research Director of HIIT BRU for the period of 1.9.2004-31.12.2005. The former Director, professor Heikki Mannila had become Adademy Professor from 1.8.2005.

The contract for the FP6/IST integrated project Mobilife was signed by the representatives of the European Commission. The key objective of Mobilife is to bring advances in mobile applications and services based on the evolving capabilities of 3G systems and beyond. Coordinated by Nokia, the project will be carried out by a consortium of 22 organisations from 9 EU countries, with total EU funding of up to 9.7 million €. Both units of HIIT participate in the project, focusing on user research and context sensitivity. The project will commence on 1.9.2004.

The National Technology Agency (TEKES) awarded funding for the project RISE: Rich Semantic Media for Personal and Professional Users. The project is coordinated by VTT Information Technology; HIIT's Digital Content Communities Group participates in the project led by Dr. Marko Turpeinen. Industrial partners of the project are SanomaWSOY, Alma Media and Yleisradio.

The National Technology Agency TEKES awarded first-year funding for the project E!3187 CELTIC Db - Wireless Woodstock Services in Finland. Professor Martti Mäntylä will lead the project which forms a part of the international Wireless Festival Eureka/CELTIC project led by Ericsson Research, Sweden. TeliaSonera Finland also participates in the project that focuses on user-centric, economic, and technical issues related to providing digital services tailored for large-scale events.

The President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, visited HIIT. A seminar covering a selection of HIIT's research topics with special societal relevance was arranged. [picture]

The National Technology Agency (TEKES) decided to fund the project Dynamos: Dynamic Composition and Sharing of Context-aware Mobile Services coordinated by VTT Information Technology. HIIT's Mobile Computing Group participates in the project. The industrial partners include ICT Turku, Suunto and TeliaSonera Finland. Professor Kimmo Raatikainen leads HIIT's part of the work.

The National Technology Agency TEKES awarded first-year funding for the project Muppet: Managing Privacy and Trust in P2P Communication. Professor Martti Mäntylä will lead the project. Its industrial partners are Nokia, Ericsson, Finnish Broadcasting Corporation and Leiki Oy. The project will focus in trust and reputation management especially in mobile P2P systems.