The university elections will be held on 22 nd , 23 rd and 27 th November. Some of the administrative bodies have already been elected, as there was the same number of candidates as there were seats. This applies to the CS department's steering committee. For other seats, such as ‘staff other than professors' in the Science faculty's faculty council, a tight race is expected. Last time we were very near to vote two of our representatives into one of these seats - so this time, your vote really counts!

Please see http://www.helsinki.fi/vaalit2006/ for more information on the election and the candidates for the whole university. If you have forgotten your university password, please contact Pekka Niklander, room A230.

What do you do at the department?

I'm a Finnish Academy Research Fellow studying content-based music retrieval. I'm also the manager of the C-BRAHMS research group.

Which seat are you up for?

Membership in faculty council.

Which quota do you represent?

OPMU

What are your goals in the faculty council?

According to a poll made by the Union of University Researchers and Teachers (2004), the cause of the most stress in the academic world is the temporary nature of jobs and uncertainty about how they will continue. For most of us, working at a university means 'trekking in a jungle of temporariness.' If I'm elected to the faculty council, I will try to work towards making as few positions temporary as possible, among the positions that the council decides on.

Which seat are you up for?

Deputy for Kjell Lemström in the faculty council.

What do you do at the department?

I am a locum for a University Lectureship. More specifically, I am lecturing the course Operating systems this autumn, as well as acting as tutor for Bachelor and Master's students, coordinating the HeCSE post-graduate school and doing other administrative work.

Which quota do you represent?

The quota for teachers and researchers.

What are your goals in the faculty council?

Safeguarding the preconditions for department operations is important to me.

What do you do at the department?

Pushing papers.

Which seat are you up for?

Membership in faculty council.

Which quota do you represent?

Other staff.

What are your goals in the faculty council?

To represent the department in the faculty.

Which seat are you up for?

Department steering committee (ordinary member) and faculty council (deputy for Päivi Karimäki-Suvanto).

What do you do at the department?

I have a position as the department coordinator, from which I have been on leave of absence for many years now. Since autumn 2001, I have worked at HIIT-BRU with administrative work, and sometimes with research. At the moment, I am in charge of the administration of HIIT-BRU while Inka Kujala is on maternity leave.

Which quota do you represent?

OPMU

What are your goals in the faculty council / department steering committee?

In the faculty council, I will be Päivi Karimäki-Suvanto's deputy, so I will work for the same goals as she does, of course. However, I am a candidate for an ordinary member of the steering committee, so i will have slightly more influence there. I hope that I can affect the department administration, which is closest to my duties at the moment. Naturally, i am interested in everything else that goes on at the department, and i am very familiar with teaching from my time as coordinator, when I managed teaching arrangements at the department. Furthermore, I will try to act as a link between the department and HIIT-BRU.

Which seat are you up for?

Membership in department steering committee

What do you do at the department?

I am a University Lecturer. At the moment, I am in charge of the course Data-mining methods and instructing Master's theses. In my research, I am looking at issues on privacy and its protection when it comes to data mining and networks created by open systems. The latter is the subject of the CINCO research group at the department.

Which quota do you represent?

The quota for teachers and researchers.

What are your goals in the department steering committee?

My goal is to present the opinions of the department teachers on how we should operate at the department and how we should develop it. During the period 2006-2007, the focal and possibly hardest issues for the department will be the economic situation and how we will continue to offer quality teaching and carry out top research in future with smaller funding. In addition to the economic issues, the steering committee will probably have to ponder questions about the quality of teaching and its evaluation, as well as how we can develop teaching at the department even further. My goals in the department steering committee this period is to work towards the continued success of the department in spite of economic pressures, and especially investing into the quality of teaching at the department even more than before.

Which seat are you up for?

Deputy for Pirjo Moen in the department steering committee.

What do you do at the department?

I am in charge of the espresso syndicate on the 2 nd floor, and looking forward to the start of March, when I will defend my thesis on Finnish lake names. I also do some teaching and carry out research in data mining.

Which quota do you represent?

Teachers and researchers.

What are your goals in the department steering committee?

General concerns. ;-)

I am especially interested in different forms of academic freedom. When it comes to studies, this mainly concerns what options and possibilities there are in degree requirements, how different options are offered, and when it comes to research, it concerns how many sub-areas can be included under the department's roof. All in all, these issues have been handled well at our department so far, besides, a deputy member of the steering committee does not have that much power. These are the things I have enjoyed – sometimes maybe too much – at the university and this department.

Which seat are you up for?

Membership in department steering committee

What do you do at the department?

I am a research PhD in the FDK unit.

Which quota do you represent?

Teacher/researcher

What are your goals in the department steering committee?

I will support researchers who have temporary positions. I will try to change routines with allocating positions and filling them so that they will include, not just teaching at the department, but the focal points of research carried out here. My principle is that the most competent applicant should be chosen without looking too closely at the sub-area of the position; a researcher/teacher who is competent in one area will surely be able to specialize in another, closely related area. In addition, a transferring into a new field can open up new viewpoints, so this kind of activity should be encouraged.
Another, even larger problem is that the basic funding of the department is not sufficient for instating new posts. There is an increasing number of competent and very productive post-doc researchers at the department. There is a risk that they will be transferring elsewhere because of their future here is uncertain. I would like to raise the question, whether we could make department posts permanent on the basis of additional funding, which has been on a high level for several years now. In addition to stopping the brain drain, the psychological effect could raise productivity and especially long-term thinking, which will eventually attract even more additional funding.

Sini Ruohomaa

Which seat are you up for?

Veli Mäkinen's deputy in the steering committee.

What do you do at the department?

I attend the graduate school HeCSE in the Cinco group of Distributed systems. I have always had a wider interest in my study and work environment, so in addition to the research that I carry out as part of my graduate studies, I participate in different groups working on teaching and student councelling.

Which quota do you represent?

Teaching and research staff, as a deputy member.

What are your goals in the department steering committee?

My interest in the steering committee was raised during last year's strategy event, when I participated in the group ‘what has happened to improvement suggestions made during past strategy events?'. I would like to make sure that valuable suggestions are not lost in the sea of routine affairs, and I would like to act as a link to the groups in which I am active.

This month's diarist, Heikki Lokki, has many irons in the fire. His activities during one week include a meeting with the committee for study affairs, where a quality matrix for teaching was discussed, as well as the amount of new students to be accepted next year, and the Eino Kaila award for a good teacher; arranging AD user accounts for the HOPS instructors so they can have access to the Oodi system; coordinating ComBi issues. He also worked on a project for the bird-ringing society, and a talk due to be held in Turku on a new database system developed in a Software Engineering Project for gathering data on the nesting of white-tailed sea eagles. He also meets with a few students for their HOPS evaluation, and is pleased with their progress. Further, the week includes preparations for a meeting of the steering committee of ComBi, as well as copious e-mail correspondence and department administration issues. During the week, he manages to hurt his back by falling on the ice, yet plays a volleyball match, leaving his back very sore for a few days.