INTERACT Research Unit

Center for Ubiquitous Computing and

Martti Ahtisaari Institute

arrange a seminar on

Digital fabrication for business and education

15.11.2017, 9.00-16.00

at University of Oulu, Linnanmaa Campus (see venue below)

Register to the event through this link latest 8.11.2017

contact: netta.iivari (at) oulu.fi

Digital fabrication and technology making are significant topics of today that require attention both from industry and education, being associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution that includes developments in previously disjointed fields such as artificial intelligence and machine-learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3-D printing, and genetics and biotechnology, and that will cause widespread disruption not only to business models but also to labor markets over the next five years, with enormous change predicted in the skill sets needed to thrive in the new landscape (see World Economic Forum report on future of jobs, pages 5 and 8). Hence, digital fabrication and technology making will act as key drivers of innovation in the future and have serious implications on IT industry. Children of today also need to be offered skills and competencies in digital fabrication and making – to innovate, design, make, and build new technology. Digital fabrication and making have already been integrated into the education of the young generation of today, while Finland has not been in the forefront in responding to this challenge. This seminar aims to make visible the significance of the topic for industry and educational sector in Oulu area.

Bios of the speakers

Kai Hakkarainen is a professor of Education at the Institute for Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki (see also www.helsinki.fi/science/networkedlearning). With his colleagues, Hakkarainen has, for 15 years, carried out learning research based on psychology and cognitive science at all levels, from elementary to higher education. Many investigations have included a strong theoretical component, and have addressed how learning and human intellectual resources can be expanded using collaborative technologies based on the information and communication technologies. During recent years, Hakkarainen’s research activity has expanded toward investigating personal and collective learning processes taking place in knowledge-intensive organizations, including innovative private corporations. Simultaneously, his investigations, originally oriented toward cognitive study of individual learning, have moved toward socio-cultural and activity-theoretical research and development of his own ‘trialogical approach’. Hakkarainen’s research unit has been strongly focused on international, scientific publications, gaining both national and international recognition.

Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen is Professor of Craft Studies at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences. She is also visiting professor at Aalto University, The school of Arts, Design and Architecture. She has built her research program on the development and application of cognitive theories of design and making processes, the nature of the distributed expertise and the theory of knowledge building.  The main focuses of the overall research is to analyze expertise in design, the nature of the design process and the role of the external representation, embodiment, materiality in the maker-centered learning (STEAM). She has been analysing collaboration (face-to-face and technology-mediated interaction), and embodiment in various settings, and at different level of education.  The role of scaffolding in education settings, both scaffolding in social interaction as well as that mediated by material artifacts has been focus of her research. She has carried out several research projects funded by Academy of Finland that have focused on technology-mediated learning. Recently she has been interested in maker-centered learning at Digital Age.

Martin Steinert is Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MTP) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He teaches fuzzy front-end engineering for radical new product/service/system concepts and new product design and development. The various research projects are usually multidisciplinary (ME/CS/EE/Neuro- and Cognitive Sciences) and often connected with industry. He wants to uncover, understand and leverage early stage engineering design paradigms with a special focus onto human-machine/object interactions. The overarching aim of his research and teaching is to push the boundaries for Norwegian product development teams, so that they will be able to ideate more radical new concepts faster. He has worked also in MIT and Stanford Universities.

Seminar program

Morning session: addressing education

Venue: PR 101

9.00-10.00 Opening session

10.00-10.15 Coffee break (complimentary)

10.15-11.45 Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen & Kai Hakkarainen: Design, making and digital fabrication in (comprehensive/primary) school education – Helsinki experiences

11.45-12.45 Lunch (on your own)

Afternoon session: addressing the industry

Venue: Fab Lab Oulu

12.45-16.00 Martin Steinert: Design Thinking - Prototyping Silicon Valley Style (Failure Prototyping Experimentation as a MUST in early stage product/service/system concept development)

14.15-14.30 Coffee break (complimentary)