News

From 26th until 30th of November, workshop titled Dignity and society - transdisciplinary perspectives is taking place. Workshop is led by the Asia Center, where Estonian and Vietnamese scientists discuss humanity and its values. This is the first cooperation between Tartu and Hue University where researchers from humanities, social sciences, medicine and natural sciences cooperate.

On Thursday, 21 November, Vice Rector for Development of the University of Tartu Erik Puura and Country Manager of Huawei Technologies Bin Chang signed a memorandum with which Huawei wants to cooperate more actively with the University of Tartu.

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Deputy Head for Academic Affairs of the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies Olga Bogdanova received the recognition for the development of the cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Tartu and for the contribution to strengthening the capability of the foreign service of Estonia. At the 101st birthday ceremony of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decorations were awarded to the entrepreneurs, experts and social figures who have helped shaped the foreign policy of Estonia.

Over 300 entrepreneurs and scientists discussed the future of food industry in Tartu The cooperation festival Kõik söögiks (Everything Is Food) of the ADAPTER cooperation network of the Estonian R&D community, which focused on topics such as food production, the environment and nutrition, was held on 14 November.

University of Tartu students who have completed traineeship abroad with the support of Erasmus+ programme share their experience in the blog and encourage other students to also participate in the programme. The Erasmus+ traineeship programme offers an opportunity for students to complete traineeship in the member states of the European Union or other countries participating in the programme. Traineeship abroad provides students with international work experience, which in turn gives them a competitive advantage in the labour market.

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu received the ERA Chair grant of 2.5 million euros from the European Union to develop a world-leading research team on e-governance, public e-services and to advance e-governance innovation in Estonia.

Scientists of the University of Tartu, visiting lecturer of IT Law at the Faculty of Law Tõnu Mets and Head of the Working Group on Information Security of the Institute of Computer Science Arnis Paršovs found a problem related to giving, validating and the effectiveness of digital signatures.

On 24 October, Startup Lab hosted a Mentor Feedback Carousel which brought together teams of the Starter Tartu programme and experienced mentors to help develop the teams’ ideas. Teams rotated between mentors to get feedback to their ideas from different experts. At the end of the event, mentors gave virtual play money cheques to the teams they liked the best.

After Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire in April, a robot called Colossus helped save much of the historic structure by braving conditions deemed too dangerous for human firefighters. The Notre Dame fire was "the first big-visibility usage of robots in firefighting,’’ says Mart Noorma, director of science and development at Tallinn-based Milrem Robotics, which is testing robotic tracked vehicles with Estonia’s firefighters.

Three large enterprises – AS SEB Bank, AS Graanul Invest and AS Swedbank – invest €145,000 in the future of Estonia, offering long-term support to promoting the opportunities of basic school and upper secondary school students through the Youth Academy of the University of Tartu.

The University of Tartu has moved up to places 201-250 in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings Table for Computer Science, which was published last week. This confirms the high quality of the university’s research, citations, academic work, internationalisation and entrepreneurship cooperation alike.

The UT Research Group of Physical Activity for Health was awarded first place in the pan-European #BeActive Awards for initiative "Schools in Motion".

On 22 October 2019, the electoral councils elected new deans for the University of Tartu’s four faculties. The new deans, who will commence work on 1 January 2020, are Raul Eamets, Margus Lember, Anti Selart and Leho Ainsaar. Faculty of Arts and Humanities

A doctoral thesis written at the University of Tartu studied a rare genetic disorder of the connective tissue, Osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone disease. It affects 1 in 20,000 people. In about 90% of cases, the main target of the disease is type I collagen, which is the base structure of bone, tendons, cartilage and other connective tissues. The results of the doctoral thesis help improve diagnosing and further studying of the disease.

Ageing cannot be prevented, but with regular exercise we can do much for our health later in life. A doctoral student at the University of Tartu, Anni Rava, studied the associations between body composition, mobility and blood inflammatory biomarkers with physical activity in 113 older women. The study confirmed the fundamental truth that physical activity helps maintain physical capability, which is important for maintaining independence in older age.

The inaugural lecture by Osamu Shimmi, Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of Tartu, is entitled “Cellular dynamics and signalling in tissue development: lessons from the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster” and will take place at 16:15 on Thursday 17 October in the University Assembly Hall. The lecture will be given in English.

In May this year, a network of procurement practitioners in the field of security was established in the course of iProcureNet project. The European Commission-funded network aims to create conditions for and facilitate cross-border joint procurement of internal security products and services. Estonia is represented in the network by the Police and Border Guard Board and the University of Tartu as the only academic partner.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common movement disorder in the world, and difficult to diagnose and treat. A doctoral student at the University of Tartu’s Faculty of Medicine, Toomas Toomsoo, conducted the first extensive brain sonography study in Estonia, which enables to see changes occurring in the midbrain. The results of the doctoral thesis confirmed the value of sonography in diagnosing PD.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to James Peebles, Michel G. E. Mayor and Didier Queloz, whose work in cosmology and stellar physics has also built the foundation for a large part of the University of Tartu Tartu Observatory’s research.