Winter/Summer Schools
The CBU ICT program organizes summer and winter schools annually. The intensive courses, lasting one-two weeks, take place in the partner universities in Finland and in the Russian Federation. In 2007, CBU summer school was held in Kuopio. In 2008, the summer school was held jointly with the IPCV'08 summer school at the University of Joensuu. The CBU Winter School has been held in St. Petersburg in 2008, 2009 and 2011.
In 2012, the interdisciplinary summer school was co-organized with the Barents CBU consortium, and took place in Rovaniemi.
The CBU Summer School on Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing was held in Helsinki in August 2009, and CBU Summer School 2010 at Lappeenranta University of Technology.
The winter and summer schools offer the students a possibility to meet students from the other CBU universities as well as to study various topics in the field of ICT.
Winter School group 2011 in St. Petersburg. See the course website.
Winter School participants in Petrozavodsk, February 2010
Students Testimonials - Winter School 2008
The experience we had in St Petersburg was not only enjoyable but also enlightening. Pre-held notions of Russia and its people were either confirmed or rebuked during our 11 day stay there. As the main purpose of our trip was studies, we attended all the three courses stipulated in the CBU summer program. The courses were spread over the day starting from 9am to 5pm with coffee and lunch breaks provided, allowing us to stretch our legs. The classroom experience was relaxed;we sat in a computer room, each of us having a computer to work on. The lectures were excellent and well experienced. As most of us were new to the concepts being taught, the lecturers were sensitive to this and taught at a speed that allowed us to follow the courses.
Furthermore, the group that welcomed us was well organized, picking us up from the train station, taking us to our rooms, picking us up the next day to take us to school and making sure that our passports were registered. They also went through the effort of providing us with treats for the breaks and throwing us a farewell party with our other Russian classmates and lectures.
Although we did not get a lot of time to visit the town, we managed to visit the Museum, Church, use the crowded subway, walk along the main street and of course do some shopping. We were lucky that one of the students we went with was Russian as most of the announcements and signs are in Russian, which is expected in such a big country.
Myriam Munezero (Namibia)IMPIT Student
The CBU winter school was a very good experience for me. I had the opportunity to study with students from different Universities and also learn about St Petersburg University. It is always pleasing to be with different people and learn in a different environment because there you have the opportunity of expanding the knowledge premises from a single boundary to a multiple nation. We were participants from different nationalities: Nepal, Pakistan, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Russia among other nationalities. The lectures, study materials and lecturers were very good. The CBU winter school at St Petersburg was an unforgettable experience for me. In addition, the trip to the museum and the different heritage places of St Petersburg, revitalises the best moments in my life.
IMPIT Student
At the beginning of February, my classmates and I went to St Petersburg State University to participate in the winter school. The study period lasted almost two weeks of studying three intensive courses. I had studied in St Petersburg for five years before joining university of Joensuu for my master studies, and therefore, i was not as much excited as my classmates. On arrival at the train station, in Russia, we were welcomed warmly by the organizing group of the CBU winter school. They took us to our hotels and made sure that we were comfortable.
The courses scheduled for the winter school were very interesting, intensive and different. We had four lectures in a day and studies started very early in the morning and they ended late in the evening. We had Tea breaks in between the lectures. The lectures were not only theory oriented, but they also included alot of practical classes in Maple, Java and SQL. We were taught in English and the lecturers paid attention to us by making the subject they were teaching as clear as possible and by answering the questions that we asked.
The CBU participants comprised of an international group with people from Namibia, Pakistan, Kenya, Nepal, Zambia and Russia. Since we did not have a lot of opportunities to go sight-seeing in St Petersburg city, we took one day especially for this purpose. We visited Hemitage and Colonnade of Isaakii's Cathedral. My Classmates were very impressed by the city and the people too. They mentioned that the people were very open and hospitable. My sincere gratitude to the organizers of the CBU winter school. It was a pleasure to be there, study and meet new people.
Anna Gimbitskaya (Russia)IMPIT Student
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