Nature in Endla bog by Jarek Jepera

JUNE 28-29, 2013

Town Hall Square in Tallinn by Jaak Nilson

ESTONIAN RESEARCH: A STUDY TRIP TO TALLINN AND TARTU

Dear participant, Welcome to the science journalists study trip to Estonia! In this brochure you can find more information about the presenters and topics covered. The study trip to Estonia is organised by the Estonian Research Council and the Estonian Association of Science Journalists. The event is funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Contacts of organizers: Priit Ennet Science Journalist President of the Estonian Association of Science Journalists priit.ennet@err.ee Phone 00372 514 5608 www.teadusajakirjanik.ee Karin Patune Marketing Officer Estonian Research Council karin.patune@etag.ee Phone 00372 5664 0009 www.etag.ee

Estonian Association of Science Journalists

Aare Baumer R&D Executive Energy Discovery Centre aare@energiakeskus.ee tel 00372 715 2650 www.energiakeskus.ee

Programme
June 28, Tallinn 08.00-9.30 Boat from Helsinki to Tallinn Linda Line, Makasiiniterminaali, Etelsatama, Etelranta 7 10.00-10.45 Tallinn Old City 10.45-11.15 Welcome. Jri Engelbrecht, Estonian Academy of Sciences Coffee Break 11.45-13.45 Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) Powder semiconductors in flexible solar cells Enn Mellikov, Department of Materials Science, TUT The mathematics of environmentally safe sea traffic Tarmo Soomere, Institute of Cybernetics, TUT Robotic fish. Maarja Kruusmaa, Centre for Biorobotics, TUT Trash to trend: Upcycling in mass production Reet Aus, Estonian Academy of Arts 13.45-14.30 Lunch 14.45-16.30 Visit to Skype. Tiit Paananen, General Manager Skype Estonia & Renat Vafin, Senior Researcher The digital society of e-Estonia. Anna Piperal, ICT Demo Center 16.30-19.00 Bus to Tartu 20.00-22.00 Dinner at Eduard Vilde inn & cafe

June 29, Tartu 09.00-10.45 University of Tartu (UT), Estonian Genome Center Biobanks and personalized medicine Andres Metspalu, Estonian Genome Center, UT Population genetics research in Estonia Mari Jrve,Estonian Biocentre Graphene research in Estonia. Harry Alles, Institute of Physics, UT 11.15-12.15 Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU) How does plant language change climate? lo Niinemets, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, EMU

 Producing therapeutic peptides in mouse and cow milk lle Jaakma, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, EMU and Mario Plaas, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, EMU and Insitute of Technology, UT 12.30-13.30 Lunch at the University Cafe 14.00-15.15 The Old Observatory of the University of Tartu ESTCube-1: Towards Sailing on Solar Wind Mart Noorma, Institute of Physics, UT Self-Deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments Priit Kull, Institute of Technology, UT 15.30-18.00 Bus to Tallinn 19.00-20.30 Boat from Tallinn to Helsinki Arrival: Linda Line, Makasiiniterminaali, Etelsatama, Etelranta 7

View of Tallinn

Jri Engelbrecht
Vice President, Estonian Academy of Sciences Head, Department of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, Institute of Cybernetics, Tallinn University of Technology Head of the Centre for Nonlinear Studies Phone: +372 6204160 Mobile: +372 5058177 je@ioc.ee

Jri Engelbrecht has received honours from Estonia, Finland, France and Poland. He has held visiting appointments in many European universities (Cambridge, Paris 6, Turin, Aachen, etc.) and is a member of a number of academies and scientific societies, also a member of Editorial Boards of many academic journals. He has published over 200 scientific papers and several books. He is involved in designing the science policy for Estonia and has wide experience in implementing and advising on the European science policy. In all his activities he insists on the excellence and integrity of research as well as the links between science and society.

Tallinn University of Technology

www.ttu.ee Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) is the only technological university in Estonia and the flagship of Estonian engineering and technical education. This is the place where synergy between different fields (technological, natural, exact, social and health sciences) is established. TUT is a research university where discoveries are transferred into studies and the real life through knowledge. The mission of TUT is to develop the economy and industry of Estonia and the Baltic Sea region through top graduates, scientific achievements, knowledge services, innovative applications and cooperation projects.

Enn Mellikov
Director, Department of Material Science, Tallinn University of Technology Professor of Semiconductor Materials Technology, Tallinn University of Technology Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences Phone: +372 6202798 Mobile: +372 5112789 ennm@staff.ttu.ee

They say there is no sun in Estonia, says professor Enn Mellikov. But I always get the sun out when the investors arrive. Co-founder of the company Crystalsol, professor Mellikov has been working on semiconductor materials development for more than 30 years. With his help, Crystalsol is developing an entirely new type of flexible photovoltaic film with a significant cost and versatility advantage compared to all currently known photovoltaic technologies. There is no alternative to solar energy, he believes.

Powder semiconductors in flexible solar cells

The TUT Department of Material Science is one of the pioneers in developing monograin powders and solar cells in a monograin layer design, in cooperation with the spin-off company Crystalsol. The department conducts fundamental studies related to different photovoltaic materials: CuInSe2, CuInS2, CuGaSe2, Cu2ZnSnSe4, Cu2ZnSnS4, CdTe, ZnO, CdS etc. We develop thin film solar cells by vacuum evaporation, electrochemical deposition, chemical spray pyrolysis deposition and solgel deposition.

Tarmo Soomere
Head of Wave Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Cybernetics, Tallinn University of Technology Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences Phone: +372 6204176 Mobile: +372 5028921 tarmo.soomere@cs.ioc.ee

In January 2005, a rare hurricane swept over the North and Baltic Seas, raising sea levels along the western Estonian coast to heights not seen in decades, with houses in the resort town of Prnu getting drenched in the greatest flood since 1924. While the Estonian Met Office, embarrassingly, failed to predict the disaster, a mathematician at the Institute of Cybernetics at TUT, Tarmo Soomere, warned of the danger of a big flood in the Postimees newspaper just one day before it happened. The authorities did not act upon his warning, but during and after the natural disaster, professor Soomere became a bit of a celebrity. He has since then become a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and has helped to raise the profile of science in the public at every opportunity. And the Met Office has learned its lesson, too.

The mathematics of environmentally safe sea traffic

The ever-increasing anthropogenic impact on vulnerable sea areas such as the Baltic Sea calls for novel methods for mitigating beforehand the impact of such risks on vulnerable areas. The Wave Engineering Lab team has developed a prototype of the method for preventive reduction of offshore environmental risks caused by the maritime industry that are transported by surface currents to the coasts. The method relies on a systematic analysis of the damaging potential of different sea areas in terms of the potential transport to vulnerable regions if faced by an oil spill or other pollution. This way, by placing maritime activities in the safest offshore areas, the consequences of potential accidents can be minimised before they occur.

Maarja Kruusmaa
Head, Centre for Biorobotics, Tallinn University of Technology Professor of Biorobotics, Tallinn University of Technology R&D director, Fits.me Mobile: +372 5183075 maarja.kruusmaa@ttu.ee

The Centre for Biorobotics looks more like a hip design studio than a runof-the-mill research lab. Creativity and self-expression are certainly not frowned upon here. A realistic looking robotic cow that functions as a currency exchange machine was built as the centres light-hearted greeting of Estonias entry to the euro zone in 2011. A robotic fish (see below) is among the projects with more serious applications. Maarja Kruusmaa, the centres leader, also heads R&D in Fits.me, a virtual fitting room equipped with a robotic mannequin that helps customers buy clothes online that, well, fit them. She accomplished her PhD thesis Repeated Path Planning for Mobile Robots in Dynamic Environments at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2002, and is a professor at Tallinn University of Technology since 2008.

Robotic fish
All fish have a unique sense organ the lateral line which directly measures hydrodynamic flow but has no direct analogue on any man-made underwater vehicles. TUT Centre for Biorobotics has equipped a fish robot with such flow sensitive sensors and has demonstrated robot behaviour similar to that of a fish. The robot detects the direction of flow, faces upstream, adjusts its swimming speed with the flow speed and hovers in energetically favourable regions in turbulence. In the future, flow sensing will help underwater robots to understand and exploit the local flow dynamics which will in turn lead to longer autonomous missions in more complicated underwater environments.

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Art Plaza - new building for EAA, project 2011 Sea+Effect Architects, Denmark

Estonian Academy of Arts

www.artun.ee Estonian Academy of Arts is the only public university in Estonia providing higher education in fine arts, design, architecture, media, visual studies, art history and culture, and conservation. Many faculties have been operating for close to a century and also pioneer change in their field. The academy collaborates with more than a hundred universities worldwide and belongs to several international higher education networks. Doctoral School of EAA offers doctoral degrees in: Art History;Art and Design; Protection of Cultural Heritage and Conservation.

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Reet Aus
Senior Researcher, Estonian Academy of Arts Managing Director, Aus Design Mobile: +372 56456633 reet@ausdesign.ee http://reetaus.com/

Reet Aus is a fashion, film and theatre textile designer who started her own brand of upcycling, being the first industrial upcycler in the world. Her brand, Trash To Trend, has already connected multiple textile designers and artists who all feel obliged to use upcycling as a means of sustaining the environment. With her research team, Reet has concluded that upcycling has the potential to reduce up to 65% of production waste and save 80 to 90 percent on water, electricity and carbon dioxide emissions. So far, she has designed more than ten collections using her principles of upcycling.

Trash to trend: Upcycling in mass production

Trash To Trend is a brand derived by Reet Aus that aims to popularise upcycling the usage of recycled materials to create new clothes, generating less waste and emissions and using up less water and electricity.

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Tiit Paananen
Managing Director, Skype Estonia tiit.paananen@skype.net

Skype is often viewed as the flagship of the Estonian ICT success story. Skype Estonias CEO, Tiit Paananen intends to keep it that way, by constantly growing the company. This also allows him to focus on people, where, he admits, his true passion lies. We hire attitudes and teach skills, he says. Among his recent ideas is the suggestion that specialists moving to Estonia should be granted a one-year tax break.

Skype: ten years and going strong

Skype, an innovative software application that allows peer-to-peer communication by voice, video and instant messaging over the Internet, was first released in August 2003. It was written by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn, who had also originally developed the Kazaa file sharing service. Today, Skype has over 600 million users. Skype was bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Renat Vafin
Senior Researcher at Microsoft/Skype renat.vafin@skype.net

Renat Vafin joined Skype in 2005 and has since then worked on a number of audio and video processing projects, mainly focusing on coding, robustness against packet loss, and call quality analysis. He is a member of Skype Labs, an applied-research organization within Skype. He received his PhD in acoustic

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signal processing from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden in 2004.

A glimpse at Skype Labs

Skype Labs is the applied research team at Skype. The team was born five years ago, and since then it has been instrumental to Skypes success by contributing core algorithms and technology in the areas of resource management, call reliability, call quality and robustness. The teams applied research work is performed closely with the product teams and in selected collaborations with academic and research institutions. This talk will provide a glimpse at the exciting work at Skype Labs.

Prnu in the autumn by Toomas Olev

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Anna Piperal
Project Manager, Estonian ICT Demo Center Mobile: +372 5045260 anna@demoestonia.com

Anna Piperal is a marketing and communication professional, a graduate in public administration at the Tallinn University of Technology. At the ICT Demo Center she is responsible for cooperation projects under the brand of e-Estonia, communication and customer relations, marketing and social media.

The digital society of e-Estonia

The Estonian ICT Demo Center provides a quick and inspiring overview of the development of information society, e-solutions and major ICT sector players in Estonia, including the political, social and economic aspects and explaining the motivations for developing the e-State.

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Dance Festival

South of Estonia in winter by Jaak Nilson

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University of Tartu
www.ut.ee University of Tartu is the largest university in Estonia that is home to 17,500 students, including 800 international students. It ranks among the top 3% of the worlds best universities (THE World University Rankings). The university is famous for its researchbased education. On average, the university awards 100 PhD degrees and university researchers publish about 3,000 scientific articles annually. It is in the top 1% of the worlds most cited universities and scientific institutions in 10 scientific fields (ESI).

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Andres Metspalu
Director, Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu Professor, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences Mobile: +372 5063088 Phone: +372 7375066 andres.metspalu@ut.ee

Andres Metspalu graduated as a physician but soon afterwards started research in molecular biology. His research interests are genetics and complex diseases, biobanks and molecular diagnostics. He is the heart and soul of the Estonian Genome Center that collects and analyses blood samples and phenotypic information on the Estonian population. Metspalu is a strong believer in personal medicine. A gene chip for every adult Estonian (between 35 and 65 years old) who wants to get it! he recommends. He believes many people would modify their health behaviour if they learned that they have a disease risk or will not get a prescription drug with adverse reactions or which is completely ineffective.

Biobanks and personalised medicine

The Estonian Genome Center is a research venture founded by the Estonian government in 2001 and affiliated with the University of Tartu. Its aim is to create a database of health, genealogical and genome data representing 5% of the Estonian population. Currently containing the data of over 51,000 donors (about 4% of the population), the database enables researchers to look for links between genes, environmental factors and common diseases. The results of this research are likely to lead to new discoveries in genomics and epidemiology, and will be instrumental in increasing the efficiency of health care.

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Mari Jrve
Researcher, Estonian Biocentre Phone: +372 7375054 mari.jarve@ut.ee

Mari Jrve turned up at the evolutionary biology lab led by Professor Richard Villems as a first year university student and has stayed there ever since. Studying human population genetics and demographic history, her particular focus has been on the paternally inherited Y chromosome. She has characterised the mutation rate of certain Y-chromosomal markers, studied the genetic legacy of European men and examined the genetic background of populations from the ethnically and linguistically diverse region of the Caucasus. In 2012, she defended her PhD, her thesis entitled Different genetic perspectives on human history in Europe and the Caucasus: the stories told by uniparental and autosomal markers. Lately, her research involves data from whole human genome sequences, particularly whole Y chromosomes.

Population genetics research in Estonia

The history of human populations their origins, relationships and migrations can be studied taking a genetic approach in addition to the methods of history and archaeology. The human genome can be viewed as a historical document inherited from one generation to the next, in which the passage of time is marked by random mutations. For decades, demographic history has been studied using mitochondrial DNA inherited from mother to children and the Y chromosome inherited from father to son. Recently, a wealth of information derived from whole genome sequences has considerably broadened the perspectives of human population genetics research in Estonia.

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Harry Alles
Senior Researcher, Institute of Physics, University of Tartu Member of Scientific Council, Institute of Physics, University of Tartu Phone: +372 7374658 Mobile: +372 53659267 harry@fi.tartu.ee

Harry Alles belonged to the team of physicists at the Low Temperature Lab in the Helsinki University of Technology (now merged into Aalto University) that achieved the lowest temperature ever recorded in the universe, a hundred picokelvin or 0.0000000001 kelvin, in 1999. Since 2009 he has been one of the pioneers in Estonia in the study of graphene, a phenomenally versatile material made of just one layer of carbon atoms.

Graphene studies in Estonia

In Estonia graphene studies were initiated in 2008 in the Institute of Physics of University of Tartu (IPUT) and the very first task was to develop methods for atomic layer deposition of dielectrics (Al2O3, HfO2, etc.) on this one-atom-thick wonder material. Later on, the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method was implemented at IPUT in order to prepare large-area (up to several cm2) graphene samples. This kind of graphene has been used for preparation of sensitive chemical sensors and anticorrosion coatings. Currently the scientists of IPUT are participating in two international graphene projects: (1) ENTS (Entangled spin pairs in graphene, EuroGRAPHENE project) and (2) RODIN (Suspended graphene nanostructures, FP7).

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Estonian University of Life Sciences

www.emu.ee EM is the centre of research in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, rural economy, food sciences, biodiversity, environmental protection, renewable resources and environmentally friendly technologies. The university belongs to the top 1% most cited research facilities in the world in the field of plant and animal science (Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators database). www.emu.ee/en

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lo Niinemets
Professor, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences Phone: +372 7313140 Mobile: +372 53457189 ylo.niinemets@emu.ee

lo Niinemets is a plant physiology professor in the Estonian University of Life Sciences. His ambitious study on plant stress emissions granted him a place in the European Research Council. lo Niinemets is the director of the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Adaptation. His studies focus on the connections between plants and climate change. lo Niinemets specialises in studying the connections between plant stress emissions and climate change and testing the hypothesis that we have largely underestimated the role of plants in the Earths climate.

How does plant language change climate?

Although it is accepted that plant trace gas (VOC) emissions play major roles in the formation of ozone, secondary organic aerosols (SOA) and cloud condensation nuclei (CNN) with potentially profound impacts on air quality and climate, the overall impact of VOC emissions in large-scale Earth processes is poorly understood. Research has focused only on constitutive emissions from certain emitting species. However, in addition to constitutive emissions, all species can release induced VOCs under abiotic and biotic stress. As global change is resulting in higher levels of stress in the Earths ecosystems, the relevance of induced emissions is expected to gain attention.

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lle Jaakma
Professor and Senior Researcher, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences Vice Rector for Research, Estonian University of Life Sciences Phone: +372 7313012 Mobile: +372 5288468 ylle.jaakma@emu.ee

Anything new and groundbreaking in the reproduction biology of animals be it in vitro fertilisation, cloning, or sperm research lle Jaakma is interested it. She started as a plant biologist but then got fascinated with animal embryology. To study fertilisation and the beginning of the lives of new organisms is very exciting, she says. They are very small but they are alive.

Mario Plaas
Researcher, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences Head, Laboratory of Transgenic Technology, Institute of Technology, University of Tartu Phone: +372 7374861 Mobile: +372 5023056 mario.plaas@ut.ee

What animal is it? It looks like a mouse but has human genes and can catch hepatitis. It is a mouse that lives in the Transgenic Technology Core Laboratory at the University of Tartu. Here, mice are produced by DNA microinjection or by injecting embryonic stem cells. Mario Plaas heads that lab. He can manipulate cells and clone animals. Tuning and fixing genes is his bread and butter.

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Producing therapeutic peptides in mouse and cow milk

There are thousands of bovine embryos produced in the in vitro fertilisation lab of the Estonian University of Life Sciences for both research and practical purposes. How to produce human therapeutic peptides in mouse and cow milk this has been one of the most complicated research topics during the last five years. The application of transgenic cloning technology has made it possible to come very close to that big goal. Mice carrying the human insulin and growth hormone genes and secreting these peptides in their milk are already a reality. Success with mice models has encouraged the team to go further with large animals, and now some heifers are carrying transgenic fetuses with a human gene. If active in their adult life, the gene allows to produce large quantities of pharmaceutical peptide. This research involves the cooperation of the Estonian University of Life Science, the University of Tartu and the Competence Centre on Reproductive Medicine and Biology.

Song Festival by Kaarel Mikkin 24

Mart Noorma
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu Associate Professor, Institute of Physics, University of Tartu Extraordinary Senior Researcher, Tartu Observatory Phone: +372 7375811 Mobile: +372 5239159 mart.noorma@ut.ee

Mart Noorma is an Estonian physicist and rocket scientist best known for running the ESTCube student satellite project and being a judge in the educational television show Rakett69 (which was voted best educational programme by the European Broadcasting Union in 2012). In 2005, he graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology with a PhD in technical sciences. Mart Noorma is an active promoter of science and was awarded the kul prize for good partners of science journalism by the Estonian Association of Science Journalists earlier this year.

ESTCube-1: Towards Sailing on Solar Wind

ESTCube-1 is the first Estonian satellite. A cube of just 10x10x11 centimetres, it was developed as part of the Estonian Student Satellite Program. The nanosatellite was launched on 7 May 2013 aboard a Vega carrier rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Its mission is to test the electric solar wind sail, an invention that could significantly speed up space travel within the Solar System.

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Priit Kull
Project Manager, Institute of Technology, University of Tartu Mobile: +372 5242138 priit.kull@ut.ee

Priit Kull is an Estonian material scientist specialising in electroactive materials at the Intelligent Materials and Systems Lab at the Tartu University. He believes that materials science is one of the key fields that can change the world in unbelievable ways.

Self-Deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments

One of the international projects that the lab is currently involved in is called SHEE, short for Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments. The aim is to create a hitech house that could be sent to Mars inside a capsule. In its destination, it would build itself up automatically. It is envisioned to be a hybrid structure composed of inflatable, rigid and robotic components.

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About Estonia
Estonia is a country in Northern Europe which has been inhabited by the ancestors of present-day Estonians for several thousand years. Estonias population ranks amongst the smallest in the world (just 1.3 million) but geographically it is larger than Denmark or the Netherlands. Estonia is often viewed together with its southern neighbours Latvia and Lithuania as one of the Baltic States. But there are also many differences between these countries in language, culture, religion etc. The Estonian language is related to Finnish. It has 14 grammatical cases and is rich in vowels. Tallinns medieval Old Town is one of the most well-preserved in Europe. The Raeapteek is one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe, having always been in business in the exact same building since the early 15th century. The Estonian Song Festival, held every five years in July in Tallinn, is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world. The first Song Festival was held in 1869 in Tartu, the next one will be in 2014. Estonia ranks among the most wired and technologically advanced countries in the world. Freedom House, a U.S. advocacy group, ranked Estonia as the first country in the world in Internet freedom in 2012. The length of the longest day in summer is over 19 hours, while the shortest day lasts only 6 hours. We have white nights. Estonia is almost 50% forest and boasts miles of beautiful sandy beaches.

More information: estonia.eu