Each year, during the Open Science Week a UEFian (person or unit) is awarded as the contributor for open science and open access. The award was now given for the seventh time and handed over to Institute of Photonics, represented by the Head of the Institute, Professor Jyrki Saarinen.
The Institute of Photonics brings together actors from several disciplines within the University of Eastern Finland and is widely networked in the scientific community. The Institute of Photonics is part of the PREIN flagship, where open science is actively implemented in many ways, as reflected by a clear increase in the number of open access publications among other things. The Institute of Photonics supports transparency of research infrastructures both within the university and between different organisations. Researchers and research groups connected to the Institute of Photonics have promoted the transparency of research data in their own projects, for example by opening up data generated for educational purposes to be exploited by anyone or by clearly licensing the opened data.
In particular, with regard to this year’s Open Science Award, it is worth highlighting the socially impacting activities of the Institute of Photonics.
The Institute of Photonics has increased the impact and open learning of science by producing Do-It-Yourself OpenAR glasses. For anyone interested, there are Augmented Reality (AR) glasses making instructions on the open site, where you can download the necessary codes and designs for 3D printing. The website also provides clearly communicated basic information about optics. The openness of science is concretised in a way, that is of interest to the wider public beyond the research community.
The Institute of Photonics has also been actively involved in the development of teaching, which can be seen anywhere in the world in the activities of SM4RTLab, which combines science and teaching. Through its activities, the Institute of Photonics supports science education in a variety of ways, from LUMA activities for children and adolescents to the sponsorship campaign of the Photonics Experimental Teaching Package “Photonics Explorer Kit” to schools.
The award was handed to Professor Jyrki Saarinen. Photo: Elli Piirainen
Previously awarded
- 2016 Digitarium
- 2017 Tuula Honkanen
- 2018 Tomi Kinnunen
- 2019 Library
- 2020 Vesa Paajanen
- 2021 House of Effectiveness
Open thesis raffle winner
Every year, UEF Library raffles off a grant worth EUR 100 among UEF students who published their master’s thesis open access during the preceding 12 months. This year 34 students signed up for the raffle and the Fortune smiled on Karla Niemi (Service Management). Congratulations! Karla Niemi’s Master thesis (in Finnish with English abstract): Management’s perceptions of readiness for change in the transportation industry
Source of news release: UEF Library Blog.
