Young Scientist from MY Camp
In September, the European Union Contest for Young Scientists will be held in Helsinki, Finland. The five-day event will bring together innovative youth around Europe, and all over the world. The Finnish representative for the contest is 2010 MY Camper Jarkko Etula with his research on dye-sensitized solar cells.
Jarkko Etula working on MY Camp project with Kathryn Carr last year. Photo: Veli-Matti Vesterinen.
20-year-old Jarkko Etula from Kuopio, in Eastern Finland, has just graduated from the IB program of the local Kuopion Lyseo high school.
This spring he also did well in both of the most prestigious science competitions for young people in Finland; he won the second prize in Viksu science competition, and first prize in TuKoKe science competition, the winner of which is chosen to be the national representative in the European Union Contest for Young Scientist (EUCYS).
Jarkko did his winning project on dye-sensitized solar cells. “I got interested in them in 2009, while I was looking for a subject for my IB Extended Essay,” Jarkko says.
He found out about the subject while browsing the website of the University of Michigan. Couple of weeks later he noticed that anthocyanins that were mentioned on the site as possible dye-sensitizers were also used as pigments in Finnish Moomin soft drink.
“After searching for more information on anthocyanins, I ended up comparing Finnish berries as dye-sensitizers regarding their anthocyanin composition,” Jarkko explains.
Pioneer in the field as mentor
As it happened that the inventor of dye-sensitized solar cells, Swiss Michael Grätzel, won the 2010 Millennium Technology Award, Jarkko, who was participating in the first MY Camp at the time, got a unique opportunity to get high level feedback and support to his research.
When Grätzel re-visited Finland to attend Millennium Youth Forum, and other events last autumn, Jarkko traveled with him from Mikkeli to Vantaa.
“While discussing with Michael Grätzel during the two-hour car ride, I got answers to many questions that scientific articles had not answered,” Jarkko says. After that he and Grätzel have exchanged couple of e-mails.
“Grätzel has encouraged me to continue with the research,” Jarkko says and adds that he would like to continue with the subject on an university level, but before that he will join the Finnish Navy in July.
“Because I did my high school studies in English, and believe that strong proficiency in the language is essential for the career in research, I would like to study abroad already at pre-graduate level,” Jarkko says.
Joona Pohjonen represented Finland in EUCYS 2010 with his robotic hand with machine vision. Photo: Veli-Matti Vesterinen.
EUCYS creates networks
After winning TuKoKe competition, Jarkko found out more about EUCYS from the Internet. “The projects seem extremely high level,” he says.
He expects to meet plenty of science-oriented young people and experts during the week, and learn from their projects and other activities.
“As for the competition, we’ll se how it goes,” he says.
Last year’s representative of Finland in EUCYS, Joona Pohjonen, agrees with Jarkko’s expectations on the importance of the social level of EUCYS.
He won TuKoKe competition and competed in EUCYS 2010 with his machine vision innovation. Last year, the competition was held in Lissabon, Portugal.
Joona has just finished with his second year in high school, and hopes to continue his studies in Aalto University in Helsinki or Tampere University of Technology. The fields of automatics and mecatronics interest him the most.
“All in all, it was a great experience,” Joona says about EUCYS. The competition itself is only one side of EUCYS. It as well as other activities and new friends around Europe made it an event to remember for Joona.
“The networks I got would have been very difficult to achieve without the competition,” Joona says, and encourages everyone to participate in their national science competitions, and if they are talented and innovative enough, through them to EUCYS.
“You’ll find contacts and like-minded friends, and get the possibility to make yourself recognized,” he says.
MyScience is the official news channel for young people around the world during MY Camp on 11 to 18 June and European Contest for Young Scientists on 23 to 28 September. Stay tuned!
Also visit MY Camp and EUCYS 2011 websites.
Elisa Lautala works as web editor for University of Helsinki's Faculty of Science. Elisa likes all kinds of cultural events, good books, warm weather, and aqua-jogging.