Uudised

This week’s results of the waste water analysis led by the University of Tartu reveal that in waste water samples taken from most larger cities, the concentration of coronavirus is very high, and average in other locations. For the second week in a row, due to the cold weather, there have been technical issues in the sampling from Tartu, so this result is not included in the overview.

A comprehensive database of Estonian soils and a map application has been completed in cooperation with researchers of the University of Tartu and the Estonian University of Life Sciences. The database makes Estonian soil information easily accessible and can be used from local farm-scale to national-level big data statistical analysis and machine-learning models.

On 11 February, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is held in Estonia for the first time, led by the Archemy research group of the University of Tartu and the Estonian Young Academy of Sciences.

Machines, thanks to novel algorithms and advances in computer technology, can now learn complex models and even generate high-quality synthetic data such as photo-realistic images or even resumes of imaginary humans. A study recently published in the international journal PLOS Genetics uses machine learning to mine existing biobanks and generate chunks of human genomes which do not belong to real humans but have the characteristics of real genomes.

In autumn 2021, first students start their studies in the joint English-taught master’s programme “Environmental Governance and Adaptation to Climate Change” by the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the University of Tartu. The joint international curriculum focuses on tackling challenges resulting from climate change and covers a broad range of subjects from politics and legislation to information technology and science.

In the autumn 2020 call for proposals, the smart ideas fund Prototron received more than 500 ideas, which shows that the difficult year has made people invent. On 29 January, the winners of this round were announced and a record amount of €120,000 was divided between eight teams. The winners also included the idea by Indrek Must, Associate Professor of Soft Robotics at the University of Tartu, which received €20,000.

Yesterday, members of the Rector’s Office discussed the organisation of teaching and studies in February and March, and decided that in both months, teaching will be largely conducted online. However, we are trying to gradually move towards greater openness. We make decisions about teaching and studies in the spring semester for one month at a time – for each month, by the middle of the previous month. The rector’s decree with more detailed guidelines will take effect after passing the bylaw approval process.

This week, the Digital Cleanup Week takes place at the university. Its aim is to declutter one’s personal or the unit’s digital life, and move in small but effective steps towards a greener university. The Digital CleanUp Week ends on 29 January, the nationwide Digital Cleanup Day.

The first edition of the Delta X student competition initiated by the University of Tartu reaches its final on 27 January. From among nearly one hundred submitted solutions, the best will be decided in four categories. The Delta X competition aims to give secondary school and university students an opportunity to test their skills and apply their acquired knowledge in practice. There are four categories: robotics, digital solutions, business models and mathematics. More than one hundred students from all across Estonia will take part in the final.

On 20 October, the University of Tartu Institute of Mathematics and Statistics invites all to the Delta Centre to celebrate the World Statistics Day. The event will also be broadcast on UTTV.

On 15–19 June, the University of Tartu Institute of Physics will host an international online conference on teleparallel theories of gravity, where about 100 theoretical physicists and mathematicians from all continents have registered their interest to attend.

Due to the state of emergency declared by the government of Estonia, the University of Tartu cancels face-to-face classes from today to 1 May 2020. Instead, e-learning and other forms of distance learning will be used. Students who stay in residence halls are recommended to return home, if possible.

Today a student of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tartu was confirmed to have coronavirus disease COVID-19. The student took part in studies from Tuesday to Wednesday.

On Wednesday, 22 January at 16:15, Mark Fišel, Professor of Natural Language Processing at the University of Tartu’s Institute of Computer Science, will be delivering a lecture in the university assembly hall on natural language processing solutions that do not require annotated examples or linguistic knowledge encoding. Fišel, who compares his field of work to the search for a free lunch, has called his English-language lecture just that: ‘Free Lunch’.

The University of Tartu Mentoring Programme is open for applications. The programme, created for the students and alumni of the University of Tartu, was first introduced in 2017 and is now for the first time also available for international students and alumni.

Aune Valk, University of Tartu Vice Rector for Academic Affairs

Estonian company Crystalspace, partnered with Tartu Observatory of Tartu University and Krakul, has been selected by Maxar Technologies, a trusted partner and innovator in Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure, to build two cameras that will act as a stereo pair to monitor the operations of a robotic arm that will collect regolith samples from the Moon.

After having received the regulation of the government of Estonia, and discussing with the Rector’s Office the exceptional situations in which it is very difficult to apply distance learning, we now add more detailed information to the message sent on Wednesday. These guidelines will be in force until the beginning of the spring semester.

Next autumn, the first students start their studies at the University of Tartu under the international joint curriculum “Geo-information Science and Earth Observation for Environmental Modelling and Management”. The joint curriculum is supported by a three-million-euro grant from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. The Erasmus Mundus joint master degree programme is coordinated by the University of Twente (the Netherlands). From the University of Tartu, the Department of Geography is involved.

In the newly published ranking list of universities from emerging Europe and Central Asia, the University of Tartu has reached the second place, which is also the highest among Estonian universities.