What's the best thing?

After studying so much I would of course love to do something to use those things for the best of the world. But it starts to look like the most needed innovations don't come out of bioengineering. I wrote my bachelor thesis about microbial fuel cells, which was the most meaningful bioengineering research topic I could find in my university. Microbial fuel cell can basically make electricity out of anything, e.g. sewage. But putting end to sewage as we know it is what should be done rather than using expensive chemicals and infrastructure to take a little bit energy out of it before landfill.

I heard that a lot of this same discussion happened when putting together Finland's national waste plan until 2016. Burning everything would sound so good because it would solve landfill and energy problems at the same time. But if we want to use resources sustainably, in 2016 there should be no more non-recyclable waste to supply for the power plants so why invest on them? I guess this is best to see in a way that there are just endless possibilities to do something good. Even designing technology to take energy out of waste does something, though it would not be the best thing.

What's on top of the hill and behind snowflakes?

I didn't expect I could learn so much about life by cycling:

This week I started to lift my head up when cycling up the hill. I pick some object like a lamppost or tree that is up there and look at it instead of looking at the inclining ground. When focusing on where I want to get instead of the challenges on the way, I'm faster and enjoy the ride more.

Yesterday I did somehting similar when it started to snow quite heavily. I hated the snowflakes hitting my face in the wind and I wanted to change the situation so that I could enjoy it more. So I started to look at everything I could see between the snowflakes instead of the snowflakes themselves.

That's it! I'm gaining more faith that I'll never have to leave my fascination with snow. I used to be afraid that when I pass some certain age, a winter comes when I don't like snow anymore. Luckily year after year is showing that it doesn't have to be so. I challenge you, too, to enjoy to the fullest every single snowy day this winter!

Teamwork thoughts from ACCESS 2009

I just had the best team experience of my life in ACCESS 2009 facilitator team. We were 15 people from 7 nationalities, not just supporting and helping each other but 100% committed to making the conference great. And plus that, we had a perfectly diverse skill and habit compilation so that there was always somebody to provide ideas, somebody to make them better, somebody to keep the time, somebody to encourage, somebody to make us laugh, somebody to give hugs etc. We had also a very honest and respectful way of communicating and giving feedback.

Although some of us just met each other first time two days before the conference, the team got so well built that during the weekend a lot of things just worked out. Even though there were a lot of sudden changes, the new solution usually just was there right away.

The best thing was to learn that it's not so difficult to build a team. All it takes is to select the right people (commitment and diverse skills sets being the most important factors), allocate responsibilities (based on what people want to do and what needs to be done), set team principles (based on expectations towards the team), work together and stop sometimes to do some team-building exercise and give each other feedback. Meaning: not talking that these six things should be done but doing them. It's not that hard and doesn't take that much time.

Actually, I have a feeling that the whole term with the 10-member national team (MC+NST+NTT) of AIESEC in Finland might turn out even better than this. The setting is the same: 100% committed, uniquely talented individuals and a (mostly) effective way to work. The extra factor is that it's going on for a whole year, which means that there's time to get further in the team process. Now I'm already loving it and from now on I also want them to hear from me more about it.


Picture by Ivana Janikova (that's why she's missing from the picture, too..)