3/2/2016
Graduate School on Networks for Information Society
Introduction
End of the 21st century was the rise of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) industry in Finland. The origins of this new industry were in paper industry, but
in the 80’s ICT started to develop on its own. In fact, in the 90’s ICT became the
largest industry in Finland, surpassing paper industry. At the same time, Finland
became one of the leading countries in ICT technology.
In the turn of the century, we saw the overheating of the global economy and
especially the ICT area. Now, we are witnessing a hangover, which is slowly passing
away. ICT is still the biggest industry in Finland and the industry investments are
slowly increasing.
The technical universities had an active role in the development of ICT industry. Most
of the ICT Research and Development (R&D) activities are close to the university
campus areas. For example, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) campus
together with the surrounding industry parks is one of the largest R&D centers in
Northern Europe.
We believe that universities will have a strong role also in the rebirth of the ICT
industry. Universities should be the centers of new excellence and know-how. Now is
the time to emphasize quality instead of quantity. We need deeper understanding on
the basic technologies of ICT and their impact on society. Thus, we propose starting a
new Graduate School on Networks for Information Society.
The idea of the graduate school is to integrate telecommunications, information
technology, and information society research. Thus, it is a thematic rather than
science field based graduate school. The participants include both Electrical and
Telecommunications Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering
departments of HUT. In addition, Tampere University of Technology (TUT) and
National Defence College will join the graduate school later.
The new graduate school will work in close co-operation with the industry. The idea
is to arrange courses and supervision so that post-graduate student in industry can also
participate in the activities of the graduate school. In addition, industry professional
will also be asked to teach and supervise in the school. Finally, possibilities for
industry students to take sabbatical leave in the universities to accelerate their studies
will be investigated.
This memorandum describes the operation of the planned school. First, we will
describe the themes of the school. Then, will describe the organization of the school
and give a preliminary list of supervisors. After that, we will describe requirements
for students. Then, we will describe the activities of the school. After that, we will
give a preliminary estimate for the budget of the school. Finally, we will give
conclusions.
Themes of the School
The Graduate School on Networks and Systems for Information Society will cover
topics from network engineering, information systems, and information society. The
topics of the school form a set of layers. The bottom layer consists of the mobile and
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fixed network technologies. The next layer contains information systems based on
Internet and web technologies, while the third layer covers information society
research. The different layers work together and thus the students of the school will
have a unified view on network technologies, information systems build on top of
them, and impacts of the different technologies on the society in whole.
The following themes of the school cover the above mentioned layers:

Mobile and fixed network technologies

Networked services of information society

Internet and web technologies

Networks, services, and individual

Networked organizations

Electronic commerce and rules of information society and information
economy

Threats of information society
The basic mobile and fixed network technologies form the basis of the school. Based
on them different kinds of information society services can be developed. The
services will be based on Internet and web technologies. Usability and accessibility
issues should be taken in consideration when developing these services.
The networked services will allow the development of distributed organizations,
which can conduct electronic commerce over the different networks. This
development will also require changes both in ethics and regulations of the society.
Even threats of the information society, such as digital divide should be taken in
consideration.
Organization
One of the professors, who is participating the school, will act as the head of the
school. To ensure enough resources the school will pay part of his salary. In addition,
each site will have a responsible contact person. The professors, who belong to the
school, will act as the supervisors of the students.
The professors of the school will select 6-8 board members in an annual meeting,
which is held during the first quarter of the year. The annual meeting approves the
school’s rules of operation. It will also review the activities and expenses of the
previous academic year. In addition, the annual meeting will approve the current
year’s budget.
The board of the school meets at least four times in a year. It supervises the operation
of the school, approves the courses organized by the school, prepares student
enrollment, and grants the scholarships.
The school will have one manager to take care of the day-to-day activities of the
school. He/she will take care of the accounts of the school. The accounts of the school
will be managed by the university, where the head of the school belongs to. In
addition, the manager prepares the official meetings, arranges the student enrollment,
administrates the web pages, takes care of correspondence with the international
partners, and helps with the organization of the courses of the school.
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Supervisors
Each student of the school will have an individual professor or equivalent person as a
supervisor. The following persons have been asked to join the faculty of the school:
HUT, Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering

Prof. Sven-Gustav Häggman

Prof. Heikki Hämmäinen

Prof. Jorma Jormakka

Prof. Raimo Kantola

Prof. Timo Korhonen

Prof. Jorma Virtamo

Prof. Patric Östergård
HUT, Computer Science and Engineering

Prof. Hannu Kari

Prof. Martti Mäntylä

Prof. Marko Nieminen

Prof. Riitta Smeds

Prof. Tapio Takala

Prof. Teemupekka Virtanen

Prof. Petri Vuorimaa

Prof. Antti Ylä-Jääski
TUT

Prof. Jarmo Takala

Prof. Timo D. Hämäläinen

Prof. Jarmo Harju

Prof. Tarja Systä

Prof. Jarl-Thure Eriksson

Prof. Tuija Kuusisto
Other persons can also be asked to act as supervisors, when appropriate.
Students
The school accepts students once a year. The first round of enrollment will happen in
2004. The candidates are required to submit their former student records, plans of
studies and research, and recommendation letters together with the application form.
Best applicants will be selected for interview. The call for applications will be open to
all students interested in the topics of the school.
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The school will especially encourage students already working in ICT industry to
apply to the school. Currently, the potential supervisors, listed in previous section,
have already several students working in the industry. We hope that the new school
will provide a better environment for them to study efficiently.
The school will also provide scholarships for the most talented students. The stipends
will be granted for a period of two or four years based on the current status of student.
Experience has shown that an opportunity to concentrate on the studies and related
research work accelerates the studies.
Activities
The school will assign a supervisor for each student. The student and supervisor will
meet regularly. In addition, the supervisor and his/her student(s) must have a meeting
together with the head of the school once a year. Before the meeting the students must
submit a status report of their studies.
The school also arranges post-graduate courses for the students. All the courses
arranged by the professors of the school will be advertised to the students on the web
pages of the school. In addition, the school will organize annual summer/winter
schools. One of the goals of the school is to also invite international lecturers to give
special short courses on the topics of the school.
Finally, the school will work in close co-operation with international research groups
working on the area of the school to organize a student exchange program. This will
give an opportunity for the students of the school to study a period between a couple
months up to a year abroad. Existing networks of excellence (e.g., E-Next and
EuroNGI) can be used as basis for international co-operation.
Budget
The preliminary budget of the school is shown in the following table.
Item
Postgraduate positions
Salary of the head of the school
Salary of the manager
Office rent
Office equipment
Consumables
Travel
Courses
Misc
Total
Cost
360 000 €
16 250 €
45 000 €
2 000 €
3 000 €
12 000 €
17 000 €
15 000 €
10 000 €
480 250 €
Most of the expenses and caused by the scholarships granted by the school. In this
budget, we have assumed that the school can grant stipends up to fifteen students per
year.
The second item covers 25% of salary of head of the school. The manager salary
corresponds to salary of person with academic degree preferably with post-doc status.
The office rent covers the office space required for the manager of the school, while
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the office equipment covers his/her PC computer, etc. Consumables cover phone,
mobile phone, and fax calls, copying expenses, office supplies, etc.
The travel costs include the costs related to international co-operation. We have
estimated that there are four trips made either by exchange students, school personnel,
or foreign lecturers in the beginning of the operation. Also, we have estimated that
there are four courses per year organized solely by the school. The course costs cover
the lecturer fees, material, and space rents. Finally, we have reserved 10 000 € for
miscellaneous costs.
Conclusions
In this memorandum, we have described the operation of a new Graduate School on
Networks and Systems for Information Society. The school should start its operation
in 2004. The funding is first applied from the participating universities. At the same
time, we will start to prepare the applications for Academy of Finland / Ministry of
Education funding. We hope that the ICT industry can also participate in the operation
of the school..
The faculty of the school comes from well established research units. The members
have extensive connections to the ICT industry. Also, the different themes of the
school are well represented by the participating professor. The faculty is already
supervising several post-graduate students and we believe that some of them are good
candidates as the first students of the school.
There is a clear need for establishing the new school. Finland needs more ICT
professionals, who have better understanding of the impact of ICT on the society. To
continue the Finnish success story in ICT industry we must learn how to apply
technology in information society.
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