Finnish people love there summer lake houses, which invariably include a personal sauna. Here is an innovative design for one of these classic Finnish country abodes.
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My gracious host, Anders Häggman. This picture was taken at the innovative Design Factory, which is part of the new Aalto University. Anders is an expert in mechanical engineering and product design. Like most students in Helsinki, he speaks perfect English, is smart, and is extremely friendly. It’s typical for Finnish university students to have studied abroad. Anders spent a year studying at Stanford University, and he stays in close touch with his American friends from “The Farm.”
Steve Jobs, look out: Anders Häggman is The World’s Best Product Designer!
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The Helsinki School of Creative Entrepreneurship is part of the newly formed Aalto University. This program is housed within the Design Factory, where my host Anders is a Research Associate. The entire space is specially designed to facilitate creative forms of collaboration that lead to innovation. It sort of looks like what you might expect Google or Yahoo’s campuses in Mountain View, CA, to look like. There is a strictly enforced rule here that noone is allowed to have coffee makers in their offices. This ensures that the product designers regularly interact with one another and share ideas. There is also an entire room specifically designated for playing the “Guitar Hero” video game. Rock on!! (more…)
Here is an example of the innovative projects that Aalto students are working on at the design factory. The miniature sensor that these young Finns have designed recognizes when somebody is slipping and about to fall. It then activates a cushion-like apparatus that rapidly expands and cushions that person’s most fragile bone structures, thereby preventing injuries. Many elderly people in Finland are hospitalized every year because they slip and fall on the ice. Thus, this technology has the potential to be marketed to elderly individuals as well as insurance companies.
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Here I am in the mechanical engineering wing of the Design Factory at Aalto University. One of the things that makes Aalto University such an attractive place for young product designers to conduct research is that they have access to cutting edge machinery that allows them to build models of their designs. The particular contraption behind me in the picture is a machine designed for cleaning windows and making repairs to sky-scrapers.
CAPTAIN: ICEBERG DEAD AHEAD!!
Here I am with one of Aalto University’s leading naval architects. Aalto has a massive hanger designated for research and design of maritime vessels. Finnish naval architects have an excellent reputation for designing boats intended for arctic (i.e. icy) sailing conditions. In this picture I am holding a model of an innovative propellor that was specially designed to enable large vessels to navigate through ice-infested waters.
SURF’S UP…DUDE!
This picture was taken at the Aalto University Naval Engineering Center’s synthetic wave pool. This massive pool is equipped with machinery that creates various wave conditions in which the sea-worthiness of model ships can be tested. The water can also be frozen to simulate icy wave conditions. They not only use this technology to test new ship designs before they are commericalized, but also to investigate why older ship designs fail. For example, after a Nowegian vessel capsized in a violent storm, the researches at this facility reverse engineered a model of that vessel and then put it up against various wave conditions to discover why it capsized. It turns out that a combination of waves from multiple directions was what brought her down to Davey Jones’ locker…Ahar!!
MAMMI-MIA!
Mammi is something of a controversial desert. Finnish people either hate it or love it, but nearly everyone has tried it and feels strongly one way or the other. Americans will recognize Mammi’s taste as being quite simillar to the filling inside of a Fig Newton cookie. Finns eat Mammi as if it were cereal, in a bowl with milk.
MAMMI-MIA!
Here I am tasting the famous Mammi desert. Foreigners should look upon this as a badge of honor.
SUITABLE ATTIRE FOR FINNISH COLLEGE PARTIES.
All Finnish university students have colorful jumpsuits like the one pictured here that they wear to parties in the warm weather months. Finnish revlers get a new badge for each party the students attend. These parties are occaisonally sponsored by Finnish corporations, such as Fortum, Finland’s leading energy company. Talk about an effective recruiting tool!
I think this is a great tradition, and look forward to bringing it back to the states. 
In 2009 Helsinki, Finland launched Invitation to Helsinki, an innovative ongoing program focused on building lasting relationships between the national capitals of Washington, DC and Helsinki, Finland. During March and April 2009, 12 talented Washingtonians responded to an open invitation to Helsinki, traveling on separate journeys. Hosted by their Helsinki counterparts, they experienced the city on both professional and personal levels, documenting their ongoing discoveries in travel journals featured on this web site and in MyHelsinki.
During May, twelve themed days of programming hosted by the Embassy of Finland in Washington, DC spotlighted each of the participants’ fields and their flowering Helsinki relationships against the backdrop of MyHelsinki, the popular exhibition showcasing the Invitation to Helsinki program participants’ Helsinki discoveries and impressions. Finnish hosts joined their new Washington colleagues and their local networks to engage in a series of dynamic and thought-provoking seminars and meetings. The exchange fostered opportunities for expanded networking while fueling continued exchange between the two cities’ leading experts.
As these virtuoso thinkers evolve their Helsinki relationships, they open a world of transformative cross-cultural collaborations that builds upon their initial Helsinki experience, bringing benefit to the two communities and beyond.
Davey Yarborough
Director of Jazz Program, Duke Ellington School of the Arts Last entry: Jan 12. 2010 12:00 
Dale Medearis
Senior Environmental Planner, The Northern Virginia Regional Commission Last entry: Apr 14. 2009 12:00 
Eric Gilliland
Executive Director, Washington Area Bicycling Association Last entry: Apr 8. 2009 12:27 
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