Research through Interns­hip Acti­vi­ties in the SBTCP project – A Student’s Perspective

The ”Sustai­nable Buil­ding Tech­no­lo­gies- Commu­nity of Prac­tice” (SBTCP) project by Karelia UAS in colla­bo­ra­tion with Salz­burg UAS and Jade UAS has been playing an eminent role in brin­ging inter­na­tio­nal students from cross-border count­ries toget­her. As a signi­ficant part of this inter­na­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­tion, SBTCP project is hosting the interns­hip acti­vi­ties of an inter­na­tio­nal bache­lor student Dominik Auclair from Jade UAS, Germany, which is suppor­ting him develop his bache­lor thesis topic and research further.

The SBTCP project has three funda­men­tal pillars of research acti­vi­ties: 1) Sustai­nable buil­dings, 2) Mate­rial sciences, and 3) Buil­ding infor­ma­tion model­ling (see fig 01). The Sustai­na­bi­lity pers­pec­tive from Karelia UAS resul­ted in eight possible research topics, and was discus­sed with Dominik for further study. After conduc­ting several lite­ra­ture reviews on sustai­na­bi­lity, circu­la­rity, and compe­ti­ti­ve­ness of timber construc­tion, his bache­lor thesis titled ‘’Modular Timber Construc­tion’’ was shaped, which focused on the flexi­bi­lity and sustai­na­bi­lity aspect of modular timber construc­tion techniques.

The following write up explains how Dominik Auclair has expe­rienced this whole interns­hip process, especially from an inter­na­tio­nal student’s point of view studying in a foreign country for the first time. The write up port­rays what chal­len­ges he has expe­rienced, how working with SBTCP project has suppor­ted him, and also, which factors eased his stay in Finland.

My exchange in Joensuu, Finland

I am Dominik Auclair, 23 years old and from Germany. After my school, I did an appren­tices­hip as a carpen­ter. And afterward, I started my civil engi­nee­ring studies in the German city of Olden­burg at the Jade Univer­sity of Applied Sciences. Now I am in the seventh semes­ter and pursuing my Interns­hip for my Bachelor’s thesis here in Joensuu at the Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences.

I love the Nordic count­ries, and I love wood construc­tion, so I asked Prof. Sebas­tian Holler­man if he knows some compa­nies here in the beau­ti­ful North. He was an exchange student here in Joensuu and he is working on a project called ’Sustai­nable Buil­ding Tech­no­lo­gies- Commu­nity of Prac­tice (SBTCP)’ toget­her with the Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences in Finland, Salz­burg Univer­sity of Applied Sciences in Austria, and my Univer­sity in Olden­burg. He sugges­ted I come here in Joensuu to work on the Project with Timo Paka­ri­nen and Shammi Keya, and I decided to do so.

Leaving my comfort zone

For me, the two most impor­tant reasons to go to another country was to improve my English and to leave my comfort zone. When you go to another place where you don’t know any people, you need to be more open. This fact impro­ves my perso­na­lity extreme. In addi­tion to that, here I´m making many connec­tions with people from all over the world, and for me it is one of the most impor­tant things because it can make your life much easier. Even my English skill is impro­ving with time. I was really nervous before, because my English was quite bad. But I noticed in the first few days that there is no problem. More difficult is the research in English. The articles are written with many tech­nical terms and I need more time to unders­tand it.

Between my deci­sion and my start was only a short term and the Vaca­tion time in Finland made it more difficult, but the work from both Inter­na­tio­nal Offices was excel­lent and I had a good and easy start here in Joensuu. And this has been an inte­res­ting expe­rience because I´m the first person from my univer­sity here at the Karelia UAS without help from other people and had no one to ask for help.

After my arrival here I got every time help from the tutors and we had orien­ta­tion days for some helpful things we need to know about the Univer­sity, orga­ni­sa­tions for studies, events and the city. After that We had some events with other exchange students orga­nized by the tutors. Now we are well connec­ted and doing a lot of things toget­her and having a nice time.

Focus on timber construction

The SBTCP project is a research project, and I got a list of diffe­rent impor­tant topics of timber construc­tions. I chose the topic for compe­ti­ti­ve­ness of timber construc­tions compa­red to tradi­tio­nal construc­tions like conc­rete, steel and bricks. My second topic is the circu­la­rity of timber construc­tions. Here the goal is to increase the life-time of the construc­tion and the how it is possible to reuse the buil­ding mate­rials. In this topic I´m researc­hing diffe­rent types of construc­tions like Design for Adap­ta­bi­lity or Design for Decon­struc­tion and Reuse.

After my research I need to write an article about my results. I get help whene­ver I ask for it, and we are impro­ving my articles toget­her for a better result. We have weekly meetings with Timo Paka­ri­nen, Shammi Keya and me. There we discuss about our work and make some plans how it goes on. All in one, I have my own work and can work inde­pen­dently. This has impro­ved my self-reliance, and I have learned a lot.

I have thank­fully recei­ved the oppor­tu­nity to visit some buil­dings, construc­tion sites and compa­nies here. We visited for example, a modern company for wooden windows which was really inte­res­ting because there is a huge diffe­rent to windows in Germany. It is really inte­res­ting for me to see bigger construc­tion site in another country. I have some expe­rience on construc­tion sites but only for small buil­dings. I will also visit with some colle­ges two works­hops here in Joensuu at the Karelia Univer­sity about Buil­ding Infor­ma­tion Model­ling and about a Lifecycle analy­sis. And we will go to a confe­rence about the timber construc­tion Industry in Helsinki. I am quite happy about it, that they pay atten­tion on my inte­rest and realise the excursions.

After my Interns­hip I got the oppor­tu­nity to extend my stay here in Joensuu to start my Bache­lor thesis about Modular Timber Construc­tion from here at the Karelia UAS. The support here from my super­vi­sors are really nice and I´m happy that they give me this opportunity.

The working condi­tions are really goods and here is a nice college climate. It makes much fun here to speak with all of them. Some­ti­mes we do things out of the work­time. For example, on my first weekend I was with two colle­ges in the Koli Natio­nal Park. The landscape there is beau­ti­ful and we had a lot of fun.

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Authors:

Dominik Auclair, student, Jade Univer­sity of Applied Sciences/Karelia UAS

Shammi Keya, Project Researc­her, Karelia UAS

Timo Paka­ri­nen, Lectu­rer, Karelia UAS