June on the Lappeenranta campus is calm and peaceful as students have headed for vacation. Some, however, are spending their summer working at the university. This summer, LUT University’s schools are employing nearly a hundred students. The Department of Electrical Engineering at the School of Energy Systems hired over 30 future talents.
”I’m glad to see so many students interested in our summer jobs. Because of our wide-ranging research and education, we had a record number of positions available. Summer employees are valuable assistants in many research projects,” says Tarja Sipiläinen, development manager at the Department of Electrical Engineering.
Factors such as average grades and progress in studies played a role in landing a summer job on campus. Positions were available for any bachelor’s students.
From chemistry to electronics
One of the students hired by the Department of Electrical Engineering is Laura Lohtander, who studies chemistry in Tampere. Originally from Lappeenranta, Lohtander came up with the idea to reach out to Professor Pertti Silventoinen at LUT. Silventoinen had just the right job to offer the bachelor’s student.
”This is my first summer job in a field related to my studies. Right now, I’m preparing a literature review on the reliability of electronics,” Lohtander says. More specifically, the topic she’s dealing with is the operational reliability of silicon carbide semiconductor components.
The area is rather new to her, but she has been able to learn more about basic electronics alongside her work.
Lohtander says the team at work has been very welcoming. She hopes her summer job will lead to other opportunities at the university for either work or a master’s thesis project.
Work with a purpose for the individual and community
Summer employees work on practical tasks, and some get to be involved in research projects.
”We don’t hire summer employees just to file papers into folders. We give them tasks with a purpose – tasks that help us assess whether they have potential for research work at our department in the future,” Silventoinen specifies.
Research assistants get to put what they learned during the academic year into practice. Veikka Kalasniemi is working in the thermal engineering laboratory, and he says his work is closely connected with what he has learned during courses.
”My job involves a lot of data processing and coding. The best thing is when one of my equations works – and that I get to do work that’s actually important in terms of a carbon-neutral future,” Kalasniemi summarizes.
Vikke Göös is working in the same lab. He explains he’s simulating a process that produces biofuels from electricity and wood fuels.
It’s fun to work on real-life projects. The work feels more meaningful and interesting when it’s directly useful to someone.
Energy technology student Silja Oksanen applied for a summer job at the university instead of a power plant. She’s performing reactor physics calculations with the Monte Carlo code, which is a numerical modelling method.
She enjoys her work and says she achieves such a flow that she tends to lose track of time.
International students staying for the summer
Master’s students Maheshika Hatha Kapuralalage, Mohammad Hasibul Hasan and Chieh-en Chou are staying on and making the most of the Finnish summer. All three are working in the solar economy research group.
Hatha Kapuralalage, originally from Sri Lanka, is grateful for her job in a project that aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from graphene production by using renewable electricity. The topic is familiar to her, because she has worked in the graphene industry in her home country.
Hasibul Hasan says that the interest shown by Nordic countries in sustainable development and LUT’s wide range of renewable energy courses inspired him to apply to Finland from Bangladesh.
His summer job involves a project that is creating a storage model for wind and solar power. The project aims to decrease the costs of renewable energy.
Chou, a Taiwan native, is preparing a literature review related to factors that affect the geopolitical risk index. The prevailing geopolitical situation has a direct effect on matters such as the price of electricity.
She is studying in a double degree programme carried out in collaboration with Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. The partnership between the two universities in the EULiST network has provided Chou the opportunity to see more of Europe.
LUT as the first choice
Summer is the perfect time to prepare for the upcoming academic year. Environmental technology students Kia Dillström and Aarne Savinainen are working together to develop and update teaching materials.
”I’m working on the Moodle platform of a course. I’m including lecture recordings, quizzes and other assignments in it,” Dillström describes.
She has worked at LUT before – first as a tutoring secretary, and last year as a summer school secretary. She says she felt right at home in her previous jobs because the atmosphere was welcoming and the working methods suited her.
It wasn’t hard to decide whether to accept the position. In fact, this was my first choice when I was applying for summer jobs.
Savinainen says that interesting job descriptions motivated him to apply for a summer job at LUT. His duties include assisting in a course on environmental permits and measurements, where he updates lecture materials and answers questions from students.
He recommends the university as a workplace for curious and motivated summer employees who want to advance on the career path they have chosen.
”The best thing so far has been that when I come across information that’s new and surprising to me, I get to develop my own skills. And I get to work with a great coworker. In fact, the entire team has been more than welcoming.”
”When I start to see signs of curiosity in our summer employees, that’s when I know we’re off to a good start,” Silventoinen sums up.
More information:
Tarja Sipiläinen
