::: UPDATE :::
The Aalto Administration’s response to our letter is below, dated October 17th, 2011.
The text from our original letter can be found at the bottom of the page.
From: Martti Raevaara, Vice President, Aalto University
CC: Tuula Teeri, Hannu Seristö, Ekman Kalevi
Date: Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Hi,
I got your statement of Mechanical Engineering (ME310) course, you are worried about the future of ME310. I’m pleased that you are active and made us aware of the situation, about the background and key factors. Evidently the course has been successful and includes inspiring learning elements, which are valuable to reflect and apply more widely, and which makes it reasonable to rethink different possibilities for the future of ME310.
The key principle of Aalto is that education and research take place at schools and departments. So ME310 course should be arranged by one or more schools and departments of Aalto. This will then link the course to a degree programme and give the course an official status (with Oodi course code).
The key issues is that a school (ENG?) should be committed to arrange the course and is willing to allocate resources to it, as well to find an appropriate and committed teacher. This will ensure continuity and sustainable implementation. The needed resource for ME 310 can be collected from different partners, and the university can support to restart the course.
We will continue to investigate possibilities and find the way to a positive solution.
All the best,
Martti
Martti Raevaara
Vice President, Aalto University
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Below is our original letter to the Aalto Administration:
We are students from a course called Mechanical Engineering 310: Global Design Innovation, or simply ME310 for short. A 25 ECTS course that runs for an entire academic year, we have all participated in this course and several of us have even stayed on as Teaching Assistants for later terms as well. ME310 has found its home in the vibrant environment of the Aalto Design Factory in Otaniemi, and the course has been running from fall 2004 up until this past spring — which is why we are writing to you today.
We are initiating a call to action to save ME310.
We recently heard the unfortunate news that this incredible course would no longer be offered at Aalto, starting in the fall of 2011. Along with meeting Aalto Vice President Hannu Seristö this past August, we would also like to make our case for reintroducing the course in 2012-2013 to the other leaders of Aalto University as well. For this reason we have drafted this letter with recommendations for the course, as well as built the website SaveME310.com to tell some of our stories and show some of our projects from years past. We hope that this letter stands not only as a fervent demonstration of support on behalf of all ME310 students, but also as evidence of the tremendous value that ME310 brings to us, to the University and to the surrounding community.
For a little background, ME310 is a comprehensive and intensive product development course coordinated by the prestigious Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA. While the course is rooted in mechanical engineering, we are also taught about design thinking, need finding, user testing, innovation design, prototyping, etc. as we work to create full proof-to-concept systems and products that realize our design concepts. We partner with some of the best technological universities in the world, and we work to solve complex design issues for well-known, global brands which have included Activision (USA), Amplitude Technologies (FRA), Autodesk (USA), Corning (USA), Suez Environnement (FRA) and UPM-Kymmene (FIN), YLE (FIN), to name only few. Each year’s class pulls students from each of Aalto’s three schools, and we think that it is a perfect embodiment of the multidisciplinary spirit upon which Aalto was founded.
Nevertheless there are always things to improve in the overall organization of the course, for example:
- Organization: Properly establish ME310 within the Aalto system. Secure permanent and consistent Director and Assistant roles for the course; integrate ME310 into study modules such as Product Development or Innovation; improve the course’s visibility in Oodi.
- Research: Further emphasize the ME310 course as an academic research facility. Increase participation in research efforts in context of projects and course experiences to help raise Aalto’s international recognition and rankings.
- Exposure: Increase publicity around ME310. Champion innovative projects, Stanford collaboration and successful alumni stories; communicate close collaboration between academia, private industry and innovation-driven learning.
- Events: Open ME310’s doors to the public through events featuring speakers, project stories, workshops, etc.; expand ME310 community outside of just students directly involved with the course.
- Entrepreneurship: Underscore the startup potential of projects and better equip course participants with entrepreneurial skills; build partnership with Aaltoes, Summer of Startups, etc.
We have also built a website SaveME310.com which serves as virtual support for ME310 and explains the aforementioned recommendations in further detail.
What we would like from you is to:
- Learn: Explore the attached materials and those on SaveME310.com to see all of the amazing things we have done at ME310 for yourself.
- Consider: Review our recommendations for how to make ME310 even better next year. We are prepared to make them happen as best we can.
- Advocate: We need you to believe in ME310, how important this course is to growing the relationship between Aalto, the Design Factory and Stanford, and in the power of design.
- Act: As discussions continue about future course planning for 2012-2013, return ME310 to Aalto’s impressive portfolio of multidisciplinary course offerings.
As ME310 has been at Aalto now for seven years there is truly a strong 310 community here in Helsinki. Our teaching staff is without equal, and we get tremendous support at the Design Factory. Plus, teams with Aalto students have consistently delivered strong projects and have thus garnered a strong reputation at our partner universities, and at Stanford in particular. Considering all of this we were quite shocked and saddened to hear that ME310 has been discontinued at Aalto. We all had hoped to see Aalto’s relationship with Stanford continue to grow and to see the mutual appreciation of design strengthen between us — a hope that has not yet been exhausted. With the help of the Administration, as ME310 alumni we are ready, willing and able to help bring ME310 back to stand on its own feet again as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
ME310 Alumni
