Human Factors in Telecommunications
Research Group

RESEARCH

Our group's research topics have ranged from the introduction of mobile phones in home help services to quality issues in videoconferencing, from user interface designing to distance education and from the prerequisites of teleworking to senior telephone services. A common factor for the various topics is applying multidisciplinary knowledge on humans and integrating design for all aspects into the project. Projects are usually launched co-operatively with companies and other research institutes.

Ongoing projects

WOMEQUAL

WomEqual aims at developing operation models for women to support their career development in business and research institutes specially in the field of technology, and at promoting women´s innovation activities and entrepreneurship.

A network of professional women with higher educational backround, working in the field of technology, will be created and introduced to support the above mentioned aims. This network will provide positive role models for female students in the field of technology as well as for high school girls making their future career choices. The network activities will combine not only the traditional male and female strengths but also female's interests in co-operation and social networks with the support of the technology based solutions.

WomEqual project will also produce materials and operation models to strengthen the business know-how in the study programmes at universities focused on technology. www.weme.fi

Past projects

MIRROR
In 5/2002 - 5/2005 Human Factors in Telecommunications group is participating a national MIRROR -project. The goal of the project is to encourage and motivate girls to start studying technology. We aim to reach the goal by offering students opportunities to experience how technological studies can be combined with subjects (e.g. psychology, sociology, education) which are often more popular than technology among girls and women. And also by showing the girls that a degree in technology can offer many interesting career opportunities for both men and women. The project is primarily focusing on girls but we believe that the best way to approach the girls is to offer equal opportunities to both girls and boys.
The project has two different target groups i.e. university students and students in high school. During the project the multidisciplinary course in 'User-centred design' in Helsinki University of Technology is further developed and 'User centred design' course modules that can be integrated to other subjects (e.g. society studies, physics, computer studies) in high school are created.

VIRIKE
The VIRIKE -project (planned end date May 30, 2003) aims to develop Web services for the elderly people that are inspiring and stimulating as well as provide entertainment. The researchers will specifically consider the needs of the elderly and the usability of the technical solutions. In addition to our group, also researchers from VTT Information technology are involved in the research.


EURESCOM 1146: 'Getting Online Communities to Develop'
The Study aims to further our knowledge of how communities develop, by examining communication patterns - using qualitative methods (e.g. focus groups) and others, to examine existing communication patterns and discover requirements, and to log tool use. The main deliverable will report recommendations concerning community tool use. The main questions to be answered are: What makes an online business community successful? How is success measured and what are the determinants of that success? And finally, is there a predictable pattern in communication tool use, and is that pattern related to either the types of relationship that exist online, or the types of information exchange that take place within and between online communities?

EURESCOM P1003 Exploiting the "Always On" concept

EURESCOM P902: Sustainability and the impact of ICT on schools, homes and community
The goal of the research project is to create a new learning environment that employs computer and communication techonology. The environment is aimed to support teaching and learning at schools, as well as distance education at home. Simultaneously the project wishes to dvelop new means of using this technology in home-school cooperation. The starting point to the research are the factors of learning and studying in the student's environment. Pedagogic and teachnological thinking are combined to skill and usability expertise in the implementation of the project. This is a cooperative project between Elisa Communications and the Helsinki University of Technology Communications Laboratory. The school around which the research is done in Finland is Sepän koulu, a junior high school in Kirkkonummi.

Jupiter and Jupiter 2
Project aim was to study the usability, Quality of Service, and technical implementation of multimedia network services, such as video conferencing and 3D environments.
Final report (Jupiter 2)

EURESCOM P806 EQoS: A common Framework for QoS/Network Performance in a multi-Provider Environment
Pulmapuhelin - yhdestä numerosta ympäri vuorokauden - loppuraportti, a report on a telephone help service.
Etätyö kunnan tehtävissä, telecommuting in municipal offices.
Liikkuvan hoivatyön televiestintävälineet- loppuraportti, report on telecommunication devices of mobile nursing

See also the publication list of the group.

Last update 29.8.2005 MHy