Writing a Master Thesis at CBU

Hello everybody. I would like to tell you some important matters to keep in mind when writing master thesis. Normally the thesis at CBU is a final milestone which student needs to overcome in order to graduate from the studies. I started to write my Master as part of the project work in Finnish Forest Research Institute, by the way it is also quite common practice that the material from applied period is partly used for the Thesis at university.

The main topic of my study was related to analysis of transportation efficiency of forest chip export from the Republic Karelia to Finland. The title of the thesis is “The analysis of efficiency of forest chip transportation from Russian Karelia to Finland”. Low utilization of forest chips in Russian Karelia and increased demand on biofuel provides an opportunity to export the wood in form of forest chips from Russian Karelia to Finland. In my opinion the title has to reflect the main purpose of the study in one sentence. The main aims of the study have to be defined before you start with data collection, and then you start with methodology writing.

Below I would like to give an examples of main aim and some methodology description from my thesis. The field data collection was an entire part of my thesis. The qualitative and quantitative parameters of cross-border transportation were estimated during the study from different scientific sources, various companies working on cross-border transportation of forest chips. The estimation of run parameters on studied transportation route the calculation of proportion of transportation costs in overall supply costs and payloads of forest chip trucks. Besides that the analysis of quality characteristics of exported forest chips from Russian Karelia to Finland was done in Värtsilä and Lahdenpohja terminals. In addition the interviewing of drivers both in Republic of Karelia and Finland was done, only those drivers who are involved in cross-border transportation of forest chips. Obtaining of field data requires use of own car, so be prepared to use your own car or ask your friend in advance.

Writing a Master thesis in my opinion is a multidimensional study, in my case the most difficult part was to convince the truck drivers the about the importance of studies topic and relevance of their respondents. My own experience of interviewing showed that direct conversation is the best way to retrieve the most relevant information. Another difficult part of the work and probably the most important is thesis compiling, when I have collected a lot of material the next question was: what should I do with all these information? I recommend using one method and get away from laptop, somebody would call it “stone age”, however it worked for me very well: pencil and blank list of A4 paper. Then I started to draw a mind map with attempts to recall all the steps and most important of the work I have done. Of course nowadays you will find a lot of software to prepare mind maps and I am sure some of you prefer that, however I was convinced to use paper version of that.

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

CBU is discovering the opportunities

This summer I was lucky enough to explore a bit of India as a CBU student there. The course was held by Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources (CEENR) of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, India in collaboration with the Nordic Centre - Sweden in India (NCI). The course is equivalent to 7.5 ECTS and open for graduate students from the Nordic countries. This multi-disciplinary course introduces students to recent theories and methods in the study of contemporary environmental issues in India. The group of 10 students were representing 5 different countries by origin: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Poland, however by place of studies student were representing 3 Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden and Denmark. My personal expectations before the course were mainly regarding gaining practical knowledge about current environmental issues in India (including forestry) and its relation to social aspects, in terms of public's reflection towards the problems they are facing.

We were warmly welcomed by the director of the institute, coordinators and honoured professors.

The schedule of the course was divided into blocks on week basis. First week of the course was aimed on overview of the ecological history of India, and the Indian environment from different perspectives and sectors such as environment policy, forests, land and water resources, urbanization, culture, religion and environment etcThe second week of the course was emphasized on introduction participants to theories, methods and applications in environmental/ecological economics. Case studies with Indian examples of biodiversity, wetlands, watersheds, farm forestry, groundwater, common property resources, urban solid waste management, health etc.

The third week of the course was aimed to present a few more case studies on the Indian environment as well introduce the participants to political ecology, environmental politics and environmental management as well present case studies on participatory forest and irrigation/water management with Indian case studies.

Fourth and final week of the course was devoted to field trip report, article review, seminar presentations and written final report by the course participants on assigned or selected topics in the broad area of Indian environment.

Besides that according to the programme we had three field visits.

1) Visit to E-Parisaraa Pvt. Ltd. This company is working on the market of electronic waste management.

2) Visit to Biome company. On the picture is roof of so called "green building" aimed for harvesting of rain water with supplementary installed solar panels.

3) Tree planting event in rural forestry school

I really enjoyed the Indian course and thanks CBU for partial financial support.

My study curriculum

Hey there. I just had a look in WebOodi before starting the blog, so it seems that I can relax with the courses and concentrate on Applied period report and Master Thesis writing. Even though this semester was full of interesting courses I had to skip most of the them due to various reasons. Currently I have 75 credits which I basically have accumulated enough credit within one studying year. The successful accomplishment of applied period report and Master Thesis seminar and Thesis will add 55 more ECTS and it allows me to claim the Master d. For clarification for those who does not know in Forestry Science you have to obtain 120 ECTS in order to get the Master level. However it was not that easy at the beginning, and it is always hard to start from level zero. I felt myself very disappointing when obtaining first course grade in the list of completed courses. On another hand if the chosen field of studies is interesting and enjoyable the time goes pretty fast. Likely on Forestry faculty the courses I would say "on every taste and choice" covering various topics within forestry and environmental sciences. Besides that if you are individual and you would like to concentrate on chosen narrow topic it is also possible to do it, and at the end of your individual work you could be awarded with sufficient number of credits. Basically the School of Forestry in University of Eastern Finland is covering following expertise: climate change, forest ecology and biodiversity, forest planning, wood science, wood procurement, forest resource inventory and GIS, forest economics and forest energy and procurement. All the available courses are published on the Faculty webpage and could be found there. Besides that Forestry Faculty in University of Eastern Finland has rich network with other Universities in different countries and the courses possibly could be taken even there. And don't forget about CBU specially organized courses which carried out throughout the year.

Accomodation in Joensuu

Last week at Faculty of Science and Forestry we had promotion event related to international studies, and CBU presented its studying opportunities as well. I have kept the spark in my mind which and I thought would be interesting to reveal for those student who will be interesting to apply for CBU studies in coming year(s) and this practical aspect is related not only to potential forestry CBU students, but for all the students who would be interesting to apply for our Study Programmes.
Accommodation, especially in Joensuu is a hot topic due to the fact that potential applicant have to think about their "own corner" in advance and each year number of student is increasing. Previous experience showed that the rule of "the first bird gets the worm" is working in this case very well. Recently I have decided to change the accommodation myself in Joensuu and then I realized that it not even the matter of 1 month time. Basically in Joensuu there is only one company which offers the flats to students - Joensuun Elli. However the observation of the whole "real estate" sector in Joensuu will show you couple of private companies and municipal company, but the price and queuing is even worse than in Joensuun Elli. So at first, I would advise you to apply in Joensuun Elli.
If you are potential applicant for CBU, please take care of accommodation yourself or contact your home university for assistance. Basically Joensuun Elli provides 3 optional accommodation types: shared flat, single flat and family flat. The cheapest option is to rent shared flat, the prising varies from 150-300 €/month depending on flat area and location. Normally most of the students choosing to rent the shared flat at least in the beginning. Student arriving with wife/husband and/or children can apply for family flat. Students, who would like to have more privacy can apply for single flat. Be prepared also to pay 200 € deposit for shared flat, and 300€ for single and family flat. Besides that in most Elli flat it is also possible to have an internet connection (prise about 20€/month), however depending on the location you would need to connect via cable or via WIFI network. So, ask Elli on internet connection in advance in order to avoid any inconvenience, e.g. if your laptop does not have WIFI function.
In case you are arriving to Joensuu for rather short period of time (e.g. conference, birthday etc.), there is a possibility to rent a guest room. If you are interested in more details about this topics, please write a your" question or comment and will try to answer.

CBU organized courses I attended previously - Part 2

The second CBU organized course I attended was held in Russia. That was a great experience for all of us, especially for foreign students which have heard and they were told a lot about Russia, but unfortunately had a lucky chance to visit the neighboring country, but that was the exciting opportunity we could not missed. St-Petersburg Forestry Technical Academy was hosting the CBU intensive course "Forestry and forest industry in Russia". Besides diverse study programme we had spare time to hang out in the center even though the weather was cold enough (about -15C), but the city center was already nicely decorated for New Year and Christmas celebrations. We had saved some spare time to visit pubs along Nevsky Prospect and to taste delicious beer brewed in Saint Petersburg.

But lets come back to studies ))) We had a well planned combination of outdoor and indoor sessions. The rage of lecture themes have varied a lot and include: biodiversity conversation, road construction and forestry planning, forest inventory in Russia and forestry law. Besides that we had students' presentations part and I did not stayed aside, I did present the results on a study "Heterobasidion spp. infections allocation and its causes in Russian Karelia".

Apart from lecture and presentation we had an opportunity to visit entomological and hunting museum of Academy as well as incredible botanical garden with huge collection of flora from different climatic zones. Additionally we had excursion to the production unit of non-wood forestry product enterprise specializing on berry processing and packaging, however due to bad climatic conditions the travel there and back was twice longer than it was planned, but otherwise the hosting institution providing good meal and interesting excursion there.

The housing was organized for us in dormitory, however in some respect I could feel the Soviet echo in there (common showers and toilets in the main corridor) and for the foreigners who are not aware of past Russian history were slightly shocked.

Nevertheless we had great experience in Saint Petersburg and I'm looking forward to visit this wonderful city and Forestry Academy again.

Leisure time activities in Joensuu

This week I decided to shift the focus away from studies towards leisure time activities in Joensuu. The weather outside as you have noticed is rather depressing and my mission is to bring you back to life and to show a light in the end of the tunnel. There is something to do in Joensuu!!! Among the sport activities I did myself for most of my life sport orienteering mainly (both ski and running), however at the moment conditions neither for running nor ski orienteering are good enough. So I would advise you to shift mainly to indoor activities, moreover the possibilities to do that available in every district of Joensuu. Among the active sports I would underline several items just to give you a direction to choose your own track. Thus, if you interested to play football, volleyball, basketball, salibandy (Finns call it sähly) are available in Areena or in case of basketball and volleyball also in Joensuun urheilutalo, ice hockey and skating (hockey matches of Finnish league have started already in Jäähalli (next to Areena), good ice also will be available during winter around Areena building as well as in every district in Joensuu), besides that skating on the lakes is very popular in Finland, but unfortunately available only in winter months. For those who do swimming at least there are couple of swimming halls are available (Vesikko next to University campuses or Rantakylän uimahalli, perfect location for those who live in Rantakylä). In case of climbing I think Areena once again the place where you could do it. The gym and fitness clubs should not be difficult to find, available in every district of Joensuu.

If you decided to roll around Joensuu with your friends they are possibilities to play bowling or billiards and you don’t need to keep umbrella above your head, besides that within walking distance from Market square you will find plenty of pubs, bars and night clubs.

In case if you are interested to use spare time to study Finnish language and local culture I would advise to check ongoing courses as well as other activities in Kansalaisopisto (Adult Educational Centre) and Red Cross. Additionally library facilities in Joensuu have a lot of language study material for self-education. In case if you are not up to studies anymore in the evenings and you don’t have TV in your room library can be also a solution, because plenty of DVD movies are available to borrow.

If the mentioned names in the text are confusing for you, just copy it to Google and the situation will be more or less clear.

If some of the tips on leisure time activities are useful I will continue quite soon with winter sports possibilities around Joensuu, just before I will get the information that snow is coming to Joensuu!!!