Institute Name: University of Oulu, Department of Information Processing Science
Description: The University of Oulu was founded in 1958 and has grown quickly, establishing itself as one of the largest and leading universities in Finland. The university consists of five faculties, awarding degrees in over 30 different degree programmes. Almost 11,000 students study at the University of Oulu. Postgraduate studies may be undertaken in all subject areas, leading to the degrees of licentiate and doctorates.
The Department of Information Processing Science belongs to the Faculty of Science. It conducts high-quality, advanced scientific research into the utilization of information technology and software engineering in response to social needs and provides teaching and services related to the field of information processing(informatics).
The Department places its main research emphasis on software engineering and development as well as the use of information technology to support team network organizations. Special attempts have been made to create efficient synergic interaction between the research projects taking place in these areas. The typical approach taken in research work is that problems are examined from the viewpoints of organizations and human users.
The main research topics include:
Major advances have been made in software engineering research in recent years, particularly through projects belonging to European Union programmes, e.g. the RiskMan project within the Eureka programme, the Bootstrap, Amelia and COMIC projects in the ESPRIT programme and the Securenet project in the RACE programme.
Researchers associated with the project:
Prof. Juhani Iivari, Dr. Kari Kuutti
Brief CVs of Key Researchers:
Name: Juhani Iivari
Nationality: Finnish
Academic Qualifications & Experience: (see Univerity
of Jyvaskula)
Name: Dr. Kari Kuutti
Nationality: Finnish
Academic Qualifications & Experience: Kari Kuutti holds a MSc, Ph.Lic., and a PhD, all awarded by the Univesity of Oulu, Department of Information Processing Science, in 1983, 1990 and 1994, respectively.
Dr. Kuuti has been an assistant and associate professor in the Deartment of Information Processing Science of the University of Oulu and a principal researcher and project manager for the Finnish branch of the ESPRIT project 6225 COMIC, since 1993. Dr. Kuuti has ten years experience in consulting system design for customers like Nokia, State Administration Development Agency and City of Espoo.
Dr. Kuuti's areas of research include methods and models for analysing and understanding work processes for system design, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human-computer interaction.
Selected Publications:
Pentti Kerola.(1988): Integration of perspectives and views in the conception of office and its systems development, Proceedings of IFIP TC8 Open Conference, Singapore
Pentti Kerola & Jouni SimilŠ.(1992): A reappraisal of information science, in Software Development and Reality Construction, Springer-Verlag
Kuutti, K. (forthcoming).(1995): Activity Theory, Transformation of Work and Information Systems Design. To appear in Y. Engestršm & R.-L. PunamŠki (Eds.) Perspectives on Activity Theory. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Kuutti, K. (1995) : Work processes in HCI design - scenarios as a preliminary vocabulary. To be published in Carroll, J. (ed.) Envisioning technology - scenarios as a framework for system development life-cycle. New York: Wiley(in press)
Kuutti, K. (1995) Activity Theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research.To be published in B. Nardi (ed.): Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human Computer Interaction, Cambridge: MIT Press.
Contact Details:
Principal Investigator: Prof. Juhani Iivari
Address:Department of Information Processing Science, Oulu University, Linnanmaa, Oulu, FIN-90570, FINLAND
Telephone number: +358 81 553 1922
Telefax number: + 358 81 553 1890
EMail: iivari@rieska.oulu.fi
List of Members