ENCORE Research: Current Projects
'Kasvatuskumppanuus' (working title, 'Upbringing companionship) Supporting children's learning with parent -school collaboration (2024/5-2027)
Funded by: City of Espoo and Aalto University
Tuuli Mattelm盲ki and Annukka Svanda
Description: Children's learning outcomes in primary and secondary school greatly impact their future possibilities and potential as members of society. To support social mobility, this project leverages a service design mindset to support the collaboration between schools and parents to overcome potential obstacles and pinpoint good practices. The aim is to decrease the (currently important) differences in children's learning outcomes and decrease the non-attendance in class.
HiFive - Meaningful industrial work in hybrid human-technology-AI teams (2024-2026)
Funded by: Business Finland
Project member: Martina 膶ai膰, Virpi Roto, Anna Viljakainen, and Juho Silmukari
HiFive project studies human-centered future of work at partner companies with the aims of improving the wellbeing of industrial workers and the attractiveness and inclusiveness of industrial workplaces. The project investigates the utilization of novel technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality), the emergence of physical and virtual, and demographic evolution at industrial workplaces. In order to attract a skilled workforce, it is necessary to develop meaningful jobs that involve 1) pursuing a purpose, 2) social relationships, 3) exercising skills and self-development, 4) opportunities for self-esteem through recognition, and 5) a high level of autonomy. Therefore, the HiFive Vision statement is: 鈥HiFive will design and create meaningful, enjoyable, and productive hybrid industrial workplaces for tomorrow鈥.
Research partners:
- VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.,
- University of Jyv盲skyl盲,
- Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Partner companies:
- Konecranes, Elomatic, Proverse, A-Insin枚枚rit, and Tasowheel
Project website:
Feral Gift
2022-2026
Feral Gift is a co-creative experiment in feral ways of knowing, sensing, and making sense with more-than-human worlds. Feral ways, like the creatures who roam them, thrive beyond boundaries, in the liminal places between the wild and the domesticated, the familiar and unknown, the serendipitous and intentional. Interested in following these directions, Feral Gift invites varied groups of (other-than-) human contributors to gather sensory impressions and embodied reflections of their surroundings and exchange them with each other as gifts. The collective gifting exchange is performed and repeated in Loops, around themes proposed by each group - the initial Loop #1 revolved around the theme Becoming Eco-Social change, the Loop #2 captures moments of multispecies togetherness across time, the Loop #3 focuses on everyday spectacles. The Feral Gift experiment was initiated in 2022 by and .
For more information, visit the project webpage
SMARTUP - Smart(ening Up) the Modern Home (2022-2025)
Funded by: CHANSE (Horizon 2020 via Academy of Finland)
Description: Nils Ehrenberg from Encore, Antti Pirinen, Raisa M盲kinen, and Professor Turkka Keinonen are working on a European project exploring how smartness and digitalization affect the home, in particular focusing on co-living
solutions.
Project partners: Aalto University, Czech Academy of Sciences, University of G枚ttingen, University of Lodz, Cardiff University
Project website:
Towards a sustainable and ethical future of care workers (2024-2025)
ENCORE alumni join forces with present ENCOREans through an International SDG Collaboration Program by the University of Sydney. Yiying Wu (University of Sydney) acts as the PI and Jung-Joo Lee (National University of Singapore) as a CI, while Martina Caic and Virpi Roto from the present ENCORE join the Advisory Board. The other project partners include Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Edinburgh.
The project aims to investigate the diverse effects of emerging technologies on care workers in aged care homes, with a focus on work rights, job quality, and overall well-being. This project addresses the care crisis where there's a shortage of workers and poor working conditions. We're interested in how technologies could enhance care workers鈥 conditions andwellbeing. To achieve this goal, the consortium intends to engage diverse stakeholders from technology, care, and policy sectors to collaboratively examine how new technologies would impact the aged care workforce. From these co-design activities, the project then identifies key ethical and social issues andconcerns, and suggests design principles for the innovation of technologies, services, and policies, thereby paving the way for a more sustainable and ethical future for care workers.
Contact: Virpi Roto and Martina 膶ai膰
INTERREMOTE
2023-2025
Kongsberg Maritime Finland is developing remote control centers for autonomous ships. Encore team studies enriching interaction with the remote operation system. The main objective of INTERREMOTE is to develop new means to interact with automated systems in the case of remote operation of autonomous ships. The purpose of this work is to make the future of work with automation a more enriching user experience for the employees. The scientific objectives of INTERREMOTE include theoretical and methodological objectives. The theoretical objective is to develop a conceptual model of work enrichment via human-automation interaction. The methodological objective is to develop an enrichment assessment tool and techniques to design for remote work enrichment. Research through Design approach will orchestrate several Master's Thesis projects where the design happens.
Contact: Virpi Roto
Current and past project members: Virpi Roto, Antony William Joseph, Vivian Stolt, Iiro T枚rm盲, Vilhelmiina Skytt盲