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Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences awarded the best theses of year 2019

Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences awarded the best theses of year 2019

 

Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences has awarded the best theses conducted in 2019. This year, the impact of the thesis was empha­sised in the award criteria.

The best Bachelor’s thesis was conducted by Bach­e­lor of Engi­neer­ing (Energy and Envi­ron­men­tal Engi­neer­ing), Ms Mira Mathwes (formerly Karvi­nen). The title of the thesis is Inten­si­fied Role of R&D in Trans­fer­ring Finnish Bioen­ergy Knowl­edge and Tech­nol­ogy to Canada: Case Sioux Lookout.

Mira Mathews conducted her thesis in a project for bioen­ergy knowl­edge and tech­nol­ogy trans­fer by Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences and its coop­er­a­tion part­ners. The Sioux Lookout in Canada was one of the target areas in the project and while conduct­ing the thesis, Mira Mathews worked as an intern at the Cana­dian Embassy and partic­i­pated in local network­ing events and inter­viewed stake­hold­ers. Mathews’ thesis promoted the oper­a­tions of Finnish export compa­nies in Canada by signif­i­cantly increas­ing the under­stand­ing of the local oper­a­tional envi­ron­ment. The analy­sis of the thesis and the results on the dynam­ics of the trans­fer process, success factors and the role of RDI activ­i­ties are valu­able for Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences, the Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland, Busi­ness Finland, and busi­ness partners.

The best Master’s thesis was conducted by Master of Engi­neer­ing, Mr Pekka Hartikainen, from the Degree Programme in Tech­nol­ogy Compe­tence Manage­ment. The title of the thesis is Utiliz­ing Robotic Process Automa­tion in Customer Support Processes of Valtori. The thesis was commis­sioned by Govern­ment ICT Centre Valtori.

In his work, Pekka Hartikainen studied the oppor­tu­ni­ties of robotic process automa­tion (RPA) and the plan­ning of the deploy­ment of RPA in the state admin­is­tra­tion. The topic is partic­u­larly current and it is also impor­tant from tech­no­log­i­cal point of view. The aim of Hartikainen’s study was to iden­tify manual work that could be auto­mated by RPA and to create a roadmap for the deploy­ment of RPA. In addi­tion, Hartikainen gath­ered an excel­lent compi­la­tion of differ­ent types of automa­tion solu­tions. The results of the thesis can be utilised not only by Valtori but other state admin­is­tra­tion organ­i­sa­tions as well. Pekka Hartikainen did not end his robot­ics studies after the compi­la­tion of the thesis, but he contin­ues his studies in the field of RPA in a new higher educa­tion diploma education.

The aim of the annual thesis compe­ti­tion is to present inno­v­a­tive theses that benefit their own field of profes­sion both now and in the near future. The awarded theses were selected by a jury includ­ing Prin­ci­pal Lecturer Ari Talkkari, Lecturer Atte Korte and Infor­ma­tion Special­ist Kaisa Varis. The jury was chaired by Prin­ci­pal Lecturer Tarja Kupiainen.

Theses conducted at Karelia UAS are avail­able on theseus.fi.

Further infor­ma­tion: Prin­ci­pal Lecturer Tarja Kupi­ainen, tel. +358 50 520 9749.