News

As of autumn 2017, students of the international master’s curricula of Software Engineering and Computer Science can apply for the Cybernetica scholarship programme. The scholarship is 5000 euros per year, which is so far the highest scholarship to be paid monthly to IT students in the University of Tartu. The scholarship also involves paid summer internship in Cybernetica AS. The programme gives a unique opportunity to selected students to participate during studies in research projects in one of the leading research and development companies in Estonia.

On 11 May 2017 the “Happy Pregnancy” workshop is held in Tartu for the fourth time already, bringing the world’s top scientists to Estonia to discuss significant clinical and fundamental research studies in reproductive medicine.

One of the biggest gas companies in the world, the German chemistry giant Linde AG, who is represented in the Baltic and Nordic countries by its subsidiary AGA, is building an industrial pilot plant based on the prototype created by the thin film technology specialists of the University of Tartu. Linde supplies gases for industries, medicine and environmental measurements, inert gases for research laboratories, and several specific high-precision gas mixtures.

Researchers of the University of Tartu participate in a joint project of six countries, which aims to raise the capability of organisations dealing with domestic violence in representing the interests of elderly victims of abuse in the health care system and politics.

Today, on 26 April the current and new partners of the research and entrepreneurship cooperation platform ADAPTER.ee meet in Tartu. The new partners joining ADAPTER are the Tallinn University of Applied Sciences, Tartu Observatory, Software Technologies Development Centre and National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics.

In September a new centre for arts will be opened in the Old Anatomical Theatre of the University of Tartu. The centre will draw the competence of the whole faculty into one unit and coordinate arts studies in the university.

For the first time, Estonia takes part in the world’s biggest synthetic biology competition for students iGEM this year. The University of Tartu Institute of Technology has formed a team of students-researchers, who work together over the spring/summer to create cells that are able to cooperate and produce ethylene. Teams of students-researchers work together over spring/summer to solve an important local or global problem by means of synthetic biology. If everything works out, the student contest may result in a revolutionary and life-changing application.

Students of the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies are organising a gesture in solidarity with Central European University (CEU) on Thursday at 13.45. Everyone wishing to express their support are welcome to attend.

On 24 April at 16.15 the lecture “The Era of Algorithms” will be delivered in the series of Granö lectures by the professor of computer science of the University of Helsinki Esko Ukkonen, who explores the limits and possibilities of algorithms.

Researchers of the University of Tartu Institute of Technology in cooperation with Bauroc AS start to develop novel aerated concrete, hoping to take its weight and strength ratio to a new level. A breakthrough is expected from the introduction of new binding agents. “It is not easy to find suitable binders, because the production of aerated concrete involves high pressure and temperature, as well as an alkaline environment and saturated steam in the system, which pose high demands to the binder,” explains senior researcher in materials science Tarmo Tamm.

From 19–20 April 2017 the Estonian Language Technology 2017 conference will be held in Tallinn. On 18 April, the day before the conference, several interesting workshops are organised. One of these is the machine translation hackathon, which tests how machines can contribute to the development of Wikipedia.

Authors of the twenty-year study “Me. The World. The Media” that was recently made into a book admit that Estonia is characterised by the ever deepening differentiation between population groups and the opposition between the accelerators and decelerators of social time. The findings of the comprehensive survey are more closely introduced at a conference in Tallinn on 18 April.

The new annual exhibition “Glory of the Cathedral” will be opened in the Treasury of the University of Tartu Museum on 12 April 2017. The exhibition focuses on the most magnificent cathedral in Old Livonia and its archaeological heritage.

For the last three months, the University of Tartu has tried to come to an agreement with AS YIT about the volume and quality of construction works performed in the library. On 21 March 2017, the university sent another reasoned compromise proposal to the construction company. YIT Ehitus did not respond and instead of looking for compromise, threatened to prevent the university from continuing construction works in the library by taking the matter to the court.

The European Commission and Europa Nostra have announced the winners of the most reputable heritage award in Europe – the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage and Europa Nostra Award for 2017. One of the winners is the Rode altarpiece research and conservation project, to which a considerable contribution was made by the UT cultural heritage workgroup.

In March, head of the Chair of Marketing of the University of Tartu Andres Kuusik and manager of Initiative media agency Indrek Soom made an agreement whereby they decided to join the skills of the academic world with the real marketing world. The partners’ common goal is to develop the first consumer behaviour laboratory in Estonia, which would enable to analyse consumer behaviour and the ways how it can be influenced.

The master’s thesis “Child protection workers’ interpretations of parenting in assessments”, defended in the University of Tartu this year, reveals that child protection workers have different expectations for mothers and fathers. Besides, they see a mother who leaves a violent relationship as the responsible one, and disregard the father’s role.

Polish Culture Days are held in Tartu from 7–9 April. The programme of this minifestival includes lectures, workshops and various activities both for grownups and children.

The University of Tartu researchers together with international specialists work on a vaccine candidate that has shown exceptionally good results on animals and may in future protect people against the dangerous Chikungunya virus.

Estonian Refugee Council and the University of Tartu Centre for Ethics ask people with migration experience, both Estonians living abroad and foreigners staying in Estonia, to share their personal migration stories. The stories can be submitted until 17 April. Migration stories are collected in order to compile a migration-related poster collection for teachers.