My applied period in CBU

Hello everybody. I came back with the set of blogs after the break for a little while. I would like to share with you my experience in CBU programme related to my internship period in research institution in Joensuu. As you might know already the applied period is an entire part of CBU FEE Master’s curriculum. Summer season in my case was the best time to have an applied period; I had a chance to find a working place in METLA premises. For those who are not aware of METLA, it is a Finnish Forest Research Institute with one of the main campuses located in Joensuu. I had my applied period there over the summer for 3 months period. My work in METLA was related to the project lead by Professor Timo Karjalainen and his research team. The project title “Wood harvesting and logistics in Russia – Focus on research and business opportunities”. The supervisor of my internship was Vadim Goltsev, who had participated previously is various projects lead both METLA and EFI (European Forestry Institute), and he was actual coordinator of that project. My task in the research team was part of mention above project and it had main emphasis on the examining the efficiency of forest chips transportation from Russian Karelia to Finland in order to demonstrate the basic information on cross-border transportation efficiency and on the quality characteristics of forest chips delivered from Russian Karelia. As you may already notice from the description the field I was working with was rather multi-dimensional, so I had to do some pre-studying before I started in METLA due to the fact that I did not have much research experience related to bioenergy, in particular forest supply chain, sampling and quality analysis of forest chips. Luckily I easily found the relevant material in my research field and additional material was adviced by my supervisors. During the internship a lot of help was given from the experts there, so please consider it as a potential source of information when you face the wall of difficulties and do not hesitate to ask the question from the expert around you, because it surely one of the easiest way to get the “ready answers” or at least to receive the direct link to the primary source of information. I have to say honestly that I learnt a lot during the applied period, especially it relates to the practical realization of my part of the project and its planning. Careful planning was essential in the work and I started with dividing my work into modules, so I could easy make a sum up of my activities on each step of the working process. As a result of the applied period I submitted the written report to the coordinator of CBU FEE programme and received a mark and credits after the evaluation process.

The social side of the work was also important and informal discussion in METLA during the coffee breaks has always been inspiring and fruitful. It gave me a change to get to know many experts with different backgrounds in there. After accomplishment of the internship I felt more confident in the field bioenergy and forest logistics and I am sure that the obtained knowledge, experience in METLA institution will help in my future professional career.

Below I attached couple of photos related to sampling of forest chips in Russian Karelia

1. A pile of forest chips for sampling

2. Packed forest chips in bags for lab analysis