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Jyväskylä International Summer School has been active for thirty years already, and this year it is exceptionally organised entirely by remote connections. The Summer School offers special courses to young researchers, postgraduates, and master’s students. All lectures will be streamed and recorded in order to make course participation easy for everyone. The programme is supplemented with a first-ever poster session and social online activities.

“We seek to provide as much online activities as possible, so that students will have opportunities for networking and establishing new contacts and cooperation settings. For example, we intend to create a hang-around space where students can attend anytime irrespective of time zones,” says Chair of the Summer School, Associate Professor Jussi Toppari.

Hybrid threats and DNA nanotechnology

The summer school provides more than twenty courses in biology and environmental science, physics, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, nanoscience and information and communication technology. One of the courses focuses on hybrid threats and their prevention. This course is carried out in collaboration with the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. The lecturers include, among others, Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen (University of Helsinki), Pasi Eronen (Security Committee), several international specialists as well as experts from the Ģ��ֱ��.

“The course Hybrid threats and changing Security introduces various hybrid threats created by governmental and non-governmental players and how the European Union and Finland seek to prevent these threats,” says the course coordinator, University Teacher Martti J. Kari from the Faculty of Information Technology.

The rapidly expanding and developing field of DNA nanotechnology is addressed by one of the best-known researchers of this field, Professor Tim Liedl from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. He will teach the Summer School course titled Self-assembly Principles and DNA Nanoconstruction. There is also another course dealing with DNA biotechnology. It is provided in cooperation with the Bar-Ilan University, Israel, which is a close international collaborator of the JYU Nanoscience Center.

Lectures given by a leading researcher of main group chemistry and a developer of ChemAdder program

The chemistry course offering at the Summer School varies from organometallic chemistry to main group chemistry and to computer-assisted NMR analytics. The course CH2 Modern Main Group Chemistry is held by Professor Simon Aldridge (University of Oxford, UK), who is undeniably one of today’s leading researchers in main group chemistry.

“The course concentrates on the synthetics, reactivity and use of main group compounds in catalytic processes, which are important processes in view of decreasing energy consumption in chemical reactions,” says the course coordinator, Academy Research Fellow Jani Moilanen from the Department of Chemistry.

Another chemistry course deals mainly with the use of the ChemAdder program, which is largely applicable in NMR spectroscopy and related analysis.

“These analytic methods can be applied both in research and in quality control. The lecturer of this course is M.Sc. Pekka Laatikainen, one of the developers of the ChemAdder program,” says Moilanen.

More than 30 years behind

Jyväskylä International Summer School started in 1991 and celebrates this year its 30th anniversary, because last year the Summer School had to be skipped. Originally, the Summer School was established in order to increase the international visibility of the Ģ��ֱ��. Over the years, the Summer School has indeed grown into one of the biggest and oldest multidisciplinary summer schools in Finland, serving as a significant international meeting place for young scientists and information technology experts. Even though the Summer School is organised this year entirely online, it is time to have a small celebration for its decades-long history.

The founders of the Summer School Matti Manninen, Jouko Korppi-Tommola and Pekka Neittaanmäki are joining the opening event of this year’s Summer School on site to reminisce the past years. In addition, in the opening event we will have a one-man band named Yhden Joukon Yhtye, which performed also in the first Summer Schools and has later gained fame in Talent Finland.

“In the opening event, there will be only a small group of dignitaries on site, but the event will be streamed so that everybody can attend and enjoy. Let’s see if we can arrange a bigger party next year and celebrate the three-decade journey on site,” Toppari says laughingly.

In addition to the opening celebration, the programme includes a farewell party through remote connections as well as a public lecture. In this public lecture given in Finnish, Professor Mikko Möttönen from Aalto University tells about quantum computers that are expected to solve in the future mathematical problems that are still too complex for today’s computers. It will be important, because it would enable, for instance, enhanced processing of big data and optimising of artificial intelligence. Everybody interested in the topic are warmly welcome to attend and listen to this popularised lecture.

Summer School partly online in the future

The Summer School organised through remote connections is facing a whole new era. We are now collecting experiences in view of the future of the Summer School, since future Summer Schools may be arranged as a hybrid of on-site and online events, so that part of lectures are provided online. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the Summer School would take place fully through remote connections after this year, as the Summer School is essentially a place for physical presence, networking and establishing social contacts. Moreover, it normally includes laboratory work and practical activities and exercises, which cannot be replaced through remote connections.

“A hybrid model might serve students better, as it would allow more flexible and easier participation for students with difficult travel connections from abroad to Finland. It might also be easier to gather more famous lecturers if they could opt for distance teaching,” says Summer School Coordinator Sanna Patja.

The Summer School is organised by the Faculty of Mathematics and Science and the Faculty of Information Technology, Ģ��ֱ��.

Further information:
Chair of the Summer School Jussi Toppari, j.jussi.toppari@jyu.fi. +358 40 805 4123
Summer School Coordinator Sanna Patja, jss@jyu.fi, +358 40 805 5184
The programme of Summer School 2021 is available at