doctoral thesis aalto university

Thesis collection: Aalto Thesis Database

Aalto thesis database.

• For students: Publicity of a thesis and publishing your thesis
• Theses from other universities

Aalto Thesis Database is a remote desktop connection to Aaltodoc publication archive. Via Aalto Thesis Database you can read documents with restricted access:

• master’s theses
• licentiate theses
• doctoral theses

Please note, that you cannot open locked bachelor’s theses files via Aalto Thesis Database. You can access the locked bachelor’s theses files on the public workstations at the Aalto University Harlad Herlin Learning Centre. Aalto University staff can access the bachelor’s theses by logging in to Aaltodoc with Aalto credentials.

Where can I find the Aalto Thesis Database?

All visitors at the harald herlin learning centre.

• Public Windows workstations.
• Aalto University students, faculty and staff members log in to the workstations by using Aalto credentials.
• Other customers log in using a shared username and password.
• Open the Aalto Thesis Database from the workstation’s Start menu.
• See the Learning Centre’s contact details and opening hours from our web page. I Harald Herlin Learning Centre

Aalto students

• IT Windows classrooms on campus and
• via the virtual desktop connection (VDI) by connecting to a Windows workstation at a classroom. I How to use Aalto Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (Instructions: IT Services)

Aalto faculty and staff

• Download the application from the Aalto Windows Workstation Selfservice Portal. I Software SelfServicePortal
• After download is completed you can find the Aalto Thesis Database from the workstation’s Start menu.

Restrictions

• The copyrights of the thesis belongs to the author.
• You are not allowed to download or send the file from the service.
• You are not allowed to copy the content.
• You are not allowed to modify the content.

How to open the theses files?

• Access to the Aaltodoc archive from the Aalto Thesis Database main page.
• Find the thesis information from Aaltodoc.
• Click on the Access to electronic archive copy link to get to the loading page of the thesis file.
• Open the thesis by clicking the thesis file name.
• You can read the thesis on the screen or print it to paper.

The Aalto University students, faculty and staff members may print the theses on paper for personal study and research:

• Select SecurePrint from the printer list.
• Find PrintingPoint devices on campus to print the file on paper.
• If the size of the file is big it it preferable to print the thesis in two or more parts.

Request the thesis file from the Learning Centre

You can also make a request for the thesis file by email from the Learning Centre:

• Only private customers can make requests.
• Our email address is oppimiskeskus [at] aalto.fi.
• Please mention the author’s name, title of the thesis and the year of publication in your request.
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• Last Updated: Feb 8, 2024 10:32 AM
• URL: https://libguides.aalto.fi/theses

• ACRIS instructions

WAT Thesis: Doctoral Thesis Process Summaries from Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group, 2002–2022

• Water and Environmental Engineering
• Department of Built Environment

Research output : Book/Report › Commissioned report

Publication series

• envieonmental engineering
• water engineering

Access to Document

• http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-1104-0

OpenUrl availability

Fingerprint.

• Theses Social Sciences 100%
• Research Social Sciences 100%
• Groups Social Sciences 100%
• Process Social Sciences 100%
• Environmental Engineering Social Sciences 100%
• Hydraulic Engineering Social Sciences 100%
• Doctoral thesis Arts and Humanities 100%
• Engineering Arts and Humanities 100%

T1 - WAT Thesis: Doctoral Thesis Process Summaries from Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group, 2002–2022

AU - Keskinen, Marko

AU - Taka, Maija

AU - Salo, Heidi

N2 - Introduction: The varied ways of getting there This book both celebrates and makes visible the diverse processes that lead to a Doctoral Thesis. We did this by inviting the authors to write so-called “Process Summaries” i.e. short descriptions of the process that ultimately led to their Doctoral Thesis. While writing those summaries, we advised the authors to reflect the most rewarding and challenging parts of the process and to consider what kind of twists and turns the journey entailed. We also asked the authors to think what kind of advice they would like to give now to themselves when they were just starting their thesis work. The result is this collection of Process Summaries and related official Thesis Abstracts. Together, the summaries indicate that completing a Doctoral Thesis is not just one process, but several processes brought together — often along a long and winding road with unforeseen uphills and downhills. Despite this, the Thesis itself describes mainly its scientific contribution, and the related learning and collaborative processes are usually referred to only in a concise and declaratory manner. While this is understandable, it also partly misses the point: as the Process Summaries remind us, the Doctoral Thesis is very much about the diverse ways of “getting there”. By making visible these diverse journeys we feel that this book makes three important contributions. First, the Process Summaries remind us about the importance of collaboration, collegial support, and peer learning — a recurring theme throughout this book. Second, the summaries show very clearly that there is no one “correct” way of carrying out doctoral research, but each path is unique. Thirdly, we hope that the stories documented in this book provide insights and even inspiration for those currently planning or being on the journey of getting there. In that journey, the authors’ encourage us to be active, curious, and brave, to explore and enjoy and, ultimately, to trust in the process and trust in yourself. This book includes a selection of Doctoral Theses that have been completed in the field of water and environmental engineering at Aalto University and its predecessor Helsinki University of Technology from year 2002 until 2022. This, way, the book also celebrates the 20th Anniversary of our Water Building, located at Tietotie 1E in Otaniemi. Thank you to all the contributors! Marko, Maija and Heidi

AB - Introduction: The varied ways of getting there This book both celebrates and makes visible the diverse processes that lead to a Doctoral Thesis. We did this by inviting the authors to write so-called “Process Summaries” i.e. short descriptions of the process that ultimately led to their Doctoral Thesis. While writing those summaries, we advised the authors to reflect the most rewarding and challenging parts of the process and to consider what kind of twists and turns the journey entailed. We also asked the authors to think what kind of advice they would like to give now to themselves when they were just starting their thesis work. The result is this collection of Process Summaries and related official Thesis Abstracts. Together, the summaries indicate that completing a Doctoral Thesis is not just one process, but several processes brought together — often along a long and winding road with unforeseen uphills and downhills. Despite this, the Thesis itself describes mainly its scientific contribution, and the related learning and collaborative processes are usually referred to only in a concise and declaratory manner. While this is understandable, it also partly misses the point: as the Process Summaries remind us, the Doctoral Thesis is very much about the diverse ways of “getting there”. By making visible these diverse journeys we feel that this book makes three important contributions. First, the Process Summaries remind us about the importance of collaboration, collegial support, and peer learning — a recurring theme throughout this book. Second, the summaries show very clearly that there is no one “correct” way of carrying out doctoral research, but each path is unique. Thirdly, we hope that the stories documented in this book provide insights and even inspiration for those currently planning or being on the journey of getting there. In that journey, the authors’ encourage us to be active, curious, and brave, to explore and enjoy and, ultimately, to trust in the process and trust in yourself. This book includes a selection of Doctoral Theses that have been completed in the field of water and environmental engineering at Aalto University and its predecessor Helsinki University of Technology from year 2002 until 2022. This, way, the book also celebrates the 20th Anniversary of our Water Building, located at Tietotie 1E in Otaniemi. Thank you to all the contributors! Marko, Maija and Heidi

KW - envieonmental engineering

KW - water engineering

KW - research

M3 - Commissioned report

SN - 978-952-64-1103-3

T3 - Aalto University publication series SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY

BT - WAT Thesis: Doctoral Thesis Process Summaries from Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group, 2002–2022

PB - Aalto-yliopisto

Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

‘ Privacy. That's Apple,’ the slogan proclaims. New research from Aalto University begs to differ.

Study after study has shown how voluntary third-party apps erode people's privacy. Now, for the first time, researchers at Aalto University have investigated the privacy settings of Apple’s default apps; the ones that are pretty much unavoidable on a new device, be it a computer, tablet or mobile phone. The researchers will present their findings in mid-May at the prestigious CHI conference, and the peer-reviewed research paper is already available  online .

‘We focused on apps that are an integral part of the platform and ecosystem. These apps are glued to the platform, and getting rid of them is virtually impossible,’ says Associate Professor  Janne Lindqvist , head of the computer science department at Aalto.

The researchers studied eight apps: Safari, Siri, Family Sharing, iMessage, FaceTime, Location Services, Find My and Touch ID. They collected all publicly available privacy-related information on these apps, from technical documentation to privacy policies and user manuals.

The fragility of the privacy protections surprised even the researchers.

‘Due to the way the user interface is designed, users don’t know what is going on. For example, the user is given the option to enable or not enable Siri, Apple's virtual assistant. But enabling only refers to whether you use Siri's voice control. Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choice, unless you understand how to go into the settings and specifically change that,’ says Lindqvist.

Participants weren’t able to stop data sharing in any of the apps

In practice, protecting privacy on an Apple device requires persistent and expert clicking on each app individually. Apple's help falls short.

‘The online instructions for restricting data access are very complex and confusing, and the steps required are scattered in different places. There’s no clear direction on whether to go to the app settings, the central settings – or even both,’ says  Amel Bourdoucen , a doctoral researcher at Aalto.

In addition, the instructions didn’t list all the necessary steps or explain how collected data is processed.

The researchers also demonstrated these problems experimentally. They interviewed users and asked them to try changing the settings. 

‘It turned out that the participants weren’t able to prevent any of the apps from sharing their data with other applications or the service provider,’ Bourdoucen says. 

Finding and adjusting privacy settings also took a lot of time. ‘When making adjustments, users don't get feedback on whether they’ve succeeded. They then get lost along the way, go backwards in the process and scroll randomly, not knowing if they've done enough,’ Bourdoucen says.

In the end, Bourdoucen explains, the participants were able to take one or two steps in the right direction, but none succeeded in following the whole procedure to protect their privacy.

Running out of options

If preventing data sharing is difficult, what does Apple do with all that data? 

It’s not possible to be sure based on public documents, but Lindqvist says it’s possible to conclude that the data will be used to train the artificial intelligence system behind Siri and to provide personalised user experiences, among other things. 

Many users are used to seamless multi-device interaction, which makes it difficult to move back to a time of more limited data sharing. However, Apple could inform users much more clearly than it does today, says Lindqvist. The study lists a number of detailed suggestions to clarify privacy settings and improve guidelines.

For individual apps, Lindqvist says that the problem can be solved to some extent by opting for a third-party service. For example, some participants in the study had switched from Safari to Firefox.

Lindqvist can’t comment directly on how Google's Android works in similar respects, as no one has yet done a similar mapping of its apps. But past research on third-party apps does not suggest that Google is any more privacy-conscious than Apple.

So what can be learned from all this – are users ultimately facing an almost impossible task?

‘Unfortunately, that's one lesson,’ says Lindqvist.

Janne Lindqvist

Amel bourdoucen.

• Published: 3.4.2024
• Updated: 3.4.2024

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Doctoral Candidate Presents Dissertation Findings at National Conference

Karmen Yu’s research addresses the question: How do undergraduate Calculus I students experience and navigate their learning of calculus in the parallel spaces of coursework and inquiry-oriented complementary instruction?

Posted in: Research Presentations

Doctoral candidate Karmen Yu recently presented findings from her dissertation study at the annual Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education conference in Omaha, NE. Karmen’s talk, entitled Case Studies of Undergraduate Students’ Agentive Participation in the Parallel Spaces of Calculus I Coursework and Peer-Led, Inquiry-Oriented, Complementary Instruction.  She shared findings from one case study that included characterizations of the different forms of agentive participation afforded to students in each of the two spaces, as well as their complementary nature relative to learning calculus with understanding. It was a fantastic presentation. Karmen’s advisor, Dr. Steven Greenstein, was a contributor to the presentation and was there to support her. Great work, Karmen!

Anthropology

Anthropology doctoral student ebenezer adeyemi was awarded a t. anne cleary international dissertation research fellowship from the ui graduate college.

Anthropology doctoral student Ebenezer Adeyemi was awarded a T. Anne Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the UI Graduate College. Ebenezer’s research interests center around medical anthropology, infrastructure, the intersection of urban landscape and public health, African studies, and survival strategies in marginalized urban communities. For his ongoing doctoral research, Ebenezer is exploring strategies that residents of Makoko, a large informal settlement in Lagos State, Nigeria, use to access healthcare to treat malaria, the most prominent health issue in their community.   

NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity working to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.