Tampere University’s projects receive over €800,000 from Finnish Research Impact Foundation
The Finnish Research Impact Foundation is allocating €2.1 million to support joint research projects between universities and industry partners. FRIF’s fourth round of calls for the Tandem Industry Academia Postdoc funding invited applications from projects aimed at achieving both academic and commercial impact together with corporate partners. Tampere University’s projects received a total of €877,000.
Improved wireless connectivity requires more effective radio interference cancellation
All types of wireless networks suffer from radio interference, which happens when a signal from one radio improperly connects to a second radio receiver and interferes with the reception of a signal from a third radio. This happens not only in mobile phone networks but also between wireless field radios stationed in the same location in military messaging systems.
The aim of the Radio Interference Cancellation for Enhanced Wireless Connectivity and Security project is to address radio interference problems by developing signal processing methods for radio receivers. The project’s industrial partner is Bittium.
“We will produce new knowledge on methods for cancelling radio interference for both scientific and industrial use and verify the applicability of these methods in commercial products. The data from the research will provide a foundation for the development of improved wireless radio devices and pave the way for better wireless connectivity in civilian, commercial and military domains,” says principal investigator Taneli Riihonen from the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences.
Lower-emission internal combustion engine machines require a comprehensive understanding of aerosol emissions from machinery and fuels
Emissions legislation keeps getting stricter around the world and the manufacturers of machinery that use internal combustion engines are under pressure to develop lower-emission solutions for their products. The collaboration between Tampere University and AGCO Power focuses on studying the total aerosol emissions of mobile machinery, such as tractors and combines.
“The team’s aim is to understand how the engines in this machinery and their fuels affect the machines’ atmospheric emissions. This will generate completely new knowledge for future fuel and hybrid engine research as well as for the machinery and vehicle industry,” says principal investigator Topi Rönkkö from the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences.
Stem cell research may lead to new treatments for corneal blindness
Corneal blindness is a global problem that causes substantial costs to society and significantly reduces patients’ quality of life. Often, the only treatment available is corneal transplantation, but there is a persistent global shortage of transplants. In the Building a strong scientific foundation to cure blindness with stem cells project, researchers from Tampere University will be working closely with StemSight to refine a new innovative method developed at Tampere University, which can be used to produce corneal endothelial cells from highly multipotent stem cells.
“It is anticipated that in the future, these endothelial cells produced from stem cells can be transplanted to patients with dysfunctional corneal endothelial cells, which opens a treatment for corneal blindness without the need for transplants from deceased donors. At the same time, this work will provide a major boost to training and business development in Finland”, says principal investigator Heli Skottman from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology.
Aiming for cheaper and environmentally friendlier electricity
Around half of all electricity is consumed by electrical variable speed drives (VSDs). However, conventional control solutions fail to extract their maximum performance. VSDs are therefore often oversized, which drives up electricity consumption and system costs.
“Traditional control methods are unable to deal with the entire system but concentrate on one dimension at a time. That is why systems are not able to fully use their potential. In this project, we are creating a control method that can simultaneously take account of multiple objectives. This will help to lower the costs of the whole electrical system and increase service life,” says principal investigator Petros Karamanakos from the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences.
Read more about the funded projects on the Finnish Research Impact Foundation website.
More information
Lauri Oksanen
Chairman of Board
+358 50 584 2143
lauri.oksanen [at] vaikuttavuussaatio.fi
Petro Poutanen
CEO
+358 40 767 1631
petro.poutanen [at] vaikuttavuussaatio.fi
The Finnish Research Impact Foundation was created by the Finnish government in 2019. The Finnish Research Impact Foundation works to promote industry-academia cooperation from the vantage point of academic research interests and considerations.
