Aalto, VTT, Dr. Rojas and Dinner Boats

By guest bloggers Laura Johnston, Todd Moore and Reagan Howard

We started the day bright and early at 9:15, meeting in the lobby of the hotel and departing from there. It was a struggle for some of us while the early birds were wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. Dr. Byrd and Dr. Rojas’ wife helped us purchase bus tickets, and we made our way to Aalto University and VTT. This bus is the bus students take to the campus so having 25+ American travelers crowded the bus a bit.

Once we arrived, we toured their wood products laboratories; you could say this would be the equivalent of our pulp and paper laboratories. They had bleaching stations, pulping facilities, paper testing equipment, etc. It was really familiar, but very clean and looked nice and new! After viewing some of the rooms, they took us on a tour of the pilot scale equipment. We were shown the pulping and bleaching equipment, which was very different. They had the capacity for ozone generation and capsulated digesting. Next we were shown the chip sorting area; they don’t have the capacity for chipping, so they must have them brought in, but are still able to set the chip thickness.

After we had finished touring the university’s paper department, we stopped at the cafeteria for lunch. It was a miniature buffet set-up, which contained salmon, chicken, salad, potatoes, different kinds of bread, and, most notable, CARROT PANCAKES. It was absolutely delicious!! After we had eaten, we went upstairs from the cafeteria and saw one of their research lounges. There were several demos there, and the displays were quite nice. Following lunch we walked shortly up the street and met with Dr. Mari-Anna Suurmunne, the head of international relations at Aalto. She gave us two presentations: an introduction to Finland and an introduction to Aalto University. She talked about how Finland is a welfare state, which translated into free healthcare and free tuition (for in and out of country students)! Wouldn’t that be nice to have at NC State?! Finland also has both a prime minister and a president, with the former being the most powerful while the latter handles foreign affairs. Next, Dr. Suurmunne provided us with information on the university. Aalto University is the merger of three universities in Helsinki: economics/business, arts and design, and technology/engineering. The meaning behind the name was quite interesting. The university is named after Alvar Aalto, a Finnish architect. His occupation encompassed all sorts of aspects, making him very well rounded; the university felt this applied very close to them and named the university in his honor.

After we thanked her for the presentation, we made our way to VTT, which is the largest research institute in Northern Europe. We had a short introduction to the fiber studies done there, and then we split up into two groups. Our group’s first rotation was another presentation, specifically about cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and its new applications and research that was being conducted. They had found a way to make a film that was water stable, which would be unexpected of cellulosic material. We then switched to a tour of the pilot plant given by Tekla Tamellin, which was used to make CNF and this type of film. If only we could have seen the machine in action! Afterwards, we all met back up for one last group gathering to talk to the VTT faculty and see some demos they had for us. We stopped one last time at the wood labs, where we met up with an NC State (and now Aalto) professor, Dr. Rojas, who was a sight for sore eyes. He gave us a brief rundown of our itinerary for the evening and the rest of our time in Helsinki.

After a hotel break, we walked to the harbor in the rain, which was somewhat miserable. Thankfully, our boat was already there and was very warm inside. This also wasn’t just any ordinary boat; IT WAS A DINNER BOAT! We had a nice buffet dinner of various fish, veggies, and refreshments to enjoy at our leisure while the boat cruised around the nearby archipelago for the next two and a half hours. It was a very nice meal, filled with lots of interesting conversation and tons of pictures. At one point, we went outside and up top, taking lots of pictures while dealing with some significant wind; Ben and Patrick went up there, when the boat hit a giant wave, soaking Ben from head to toe. Thankfully, Dr. Rojas had a spare jacket to lend him. It was still a very nice experience for all of us. Having time like this with faculty and fellow students is irreplaceable. Once we docked, the rain had lightened up significantly. We made our way back to the hotel, splitting off for the evening. Some of us went to bed, and others went out to explore the town. It was a very eventful but tiring day!

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Until tomorrow,
Goodbye from Finland!