Monday 18.4

The anticipation of visiting Madrid and participating with others in the seminar was very gladsome, so we made sure that all the preparations were done ahead of time as we flew to Madrid on Monday 18.4.2022. Travel went quite smoothly and we found our hostel easily, since others had arrived a day or two earlier, it eased up some difficulties we might have faced. Our group was scattered around the center area, but we all had great access to public transportation, which is well organized. This was great cause the UEM was pretty far away from the center.

Tuesday 19.4

The day started with a tour of the campus, which was kinda like Aalto university but with a bigger marketing budget. Buildings and their surroundings were well kept and clean. Indoor classrooms and other facilities seemed professional and fulfill the needs of the students. They included medical, polytechnic, tv, and entertainment divisions. Talking with some of the students they seemed quite passionate and thrilled to be there, there was a sense of adventure in their eyes, an attainable dream of knowing they are at the right place. The local group who was hosting seemed to agree with this statement.

Actual activities started around 11:00 when the Swiss team arrived. Our task was to create a video game in one day. This task seemed quite ambitious, but not impossible. Unfortunately, we got a list of software needed a bit late. For some of us, this delayed their progress but in the end, we learned a lot! The day included lessons on the game engine, graphical, and musical software. I think we all had some areas in which we were in totally uncharted waters. The local Spanish team deserves a lot of respect for their work. They had a monumental task to teach us everything and they guided us through the process, all of their tasks were quite entertaining and engaging, a feast of learnings. They went beyond what was expected of them when trying to teach us. At the end of the exhausting day, I think everybody learned something and that’s the point of the seminar.

Wednesday 20.4

Wednesday was our day! We started with a lecture from Mr. Hietala. For us Finns, it wasn’t anything new but for others, I think it was fascinating. Nobody was really involved with IoT and only some knew anything from Arduino or esp32. It took a while to get everyone introduced, but I think it went really well. We were divided into groups of one Finn, one Spaniard, and one Swiss. This was great cause it made us all interact with each other. We made different demos and finally built a working machine based on the original here in Finland. The demonstrations felt like putting pieces of a puzzle together, their inquiry and anticipation were so obvious  – what’s next, what’s connected to what, how does it finally work as a system. Day ended with a treasure hunt where we used the boxes to find Mr. Hietala who had one secret machine. The day was a total success and everyone had a blast, moving around all over the place trying to get the GPS coordinates to match Hietala’s, it was so fun and engaging.

Thursday 21.4

The Swiss day was a pleasant one. They focused a lot on the ethics of an AI, hacking, and talked about cyber security. We made some polls on the subject, of how should AI work. There were different ethical questions that we pondered around choosing our group’s answer. They hosted discussions based on those answers and made the whole group interact with each other. This was a great way to get everyone involved.

The thing which got us all talking was the part around cyber security. They demonstrated how easy is to social engineer a person to give away their data. One malicious link is enough to steal someone’s personal information. For me, this was nothing new, but I think it made people think. The average person uses the same password across different websites and doesn’t really want to think about this subject. This kind of demonstration could be useful in general education.

The afternoon was the most interactive one. A couple of the swiss introduced us to steganography, which is a term used to describe messages hidden in plain sight. We used a site called “root-me.org” which had tons of different puzzles to solve. Some of the answers were hidden in the code of the website and some required outside applications. This made us feels like detectives in a CSI tv-show. This was stuck with me cause after getting home I kept on solving the problems.

Friday 22.4

This was the last official day of the seminar. After the closing ceremony, every attendee hopped onto a bus and headed to the Spanish “Nokia”. Indra is the biggest tech company in Spain according to our hosts. The visit was to one of their campuses on the outskirts of Madrid. The facility specialized in testing and building circuits.

Their main operation was building the circuits for different military projects. We were introduced to certain awareness about security and defense corporations within the EU. The crown jewel was the circuits in Eurofighter and they were really proud of their work. The presentation was interesting but felt a bit like a sales pitch. I think only the swiss students will have a wage high enough to buy a fighter jet but oh well. This visit was one of the most interesting parts of the seminar. Not a lot of the joes get to visit a facility like this.

Saturday 23.4

Early wake up and straight to the airport. The seminar was one of the best experiences of our time in Haaga-Helia. The international environment was fun and thought-provoking. We learned a lot about different working cultures and got experience working in a foreign culture. From the classroom events to the tours and experiencing the city, it felt complete and whole in itself as an experience that’s loved and cherished. This seminar is a great introduction to the international to that world and would recommend it 100%.

Thank you all for the amazing week!