Idea Com­pe­ti­tion brings uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents’ solu­tions to boost work­ing life con­nec­tions

The Idea Com­pe­ti­tion cul­mi­nat­ed in the com­pe­ti­tion final in late April. 12 par­tic­i­pants from var­i­ous coun­tries pitched their solu­tions to fos­ter stu­den­t’s work­ing life con­nec­tions in Oulu.

With pre­sen­ta­tions in Eng­lish and Finnish, stu­dents and recent grad­u­ates pre­sent­ed their ideas, both indi­vid­u­al­ly and in a team, to the jury and audi­ence at Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma. The event was host­ed by Busi­ness Oulu, UNIC City Labs and Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Now, it is time to present the win­ners!

Valeri­ia – Win­ner

Valeri­ia Pokid­i­na was the win­ner of Idea Com­pe­ti­tion. Her dream is to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty for the cre­ative area in the city.

“I believe Oulu is a cre­ative city. It is the 2026 Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture and I want to make a hub here.”

Her idea “Media Arts Lab” aims at fos­ter­ing Oulu’s cre­ative class and pro­mot­ing the city as a flour­ish­ing cre­ative hub in North­ern Fin­land. She´s pur­su­ing a PhD at Oulu Busi­ness School and the project is a uni­ver­si­ty-based col­lab­o­ra­tion with com­pa­nies designed to con­nect pro­fes­sion­als from cre­ative agen­cies with uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents.

Media Arts Lab is a sim­u­la­tion of a real-life cre­ative agency that wants to unbox youth­ful cre­ativ­i­ty by fos­ter­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to be prospec­tive employ­ees or poten­tial busi­ness part­ners.

Check out all the prizes Valeri­ia will get for her win­ning solu­tion:

• 2000 euros to imple­ment her idea
• Men­tor­ship from key pro­fes­sion­als of Oulu region.
• Present her solu­tion at UNIC City­Labs Fes­ti­val.
• Pro­fes­sion­al pic­ture from Business­Oulu

Tara – 1st run­ner-up

The 1st run­ner-up of Idea Com­pe­ti­tion was Tara Good­win with her solu­tion OULUxL – Oulu Expe­ri­en­tial Learn­ing. She holds a bachelor´s in Mecha­tron­ic Sys­tems in Engi­neer­ing and is doing a master´s in Lan­guage, Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Tara believes that the work com­mu­ni­ty should be part of the class­room envi­ron­ment to make uni­ver­si­ty stud­ies more mean­ing­ful for future job careers.

“One thing while in Fin­land I learned it takes a com­mu­ni­ty to make edu­ca­tion impact­ful.”

Her solu­tion to strength­en stu­dent work life is to devel­op project-based cours­es inside the uni­ver­si­ty where com­pa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions can pro­pose prob­lem-solv­ing cas­es to stu­dents. After devel­op­ing their solu­tions, stu­dents would present them to the com­pa­nies as the final deliv­er­able. Com­pa­nies would also have an active role by pro­vid­ing men­tor­ship through­out the devel­op­ment of the idea.

Tara´s prizes for being a final­ist:

• Men­tor­ship from key pro­fes­sion­als from Oulu region.
• Present her solu­tion at UNIC City­Labs Fes­ti­val.
• Pro­fes­sion­al pic­ture from Business­Oulu

Daria – 2nd run­ner-up

Daria Zaiko­viska­ia, 2nd run­ner-up of Idea Com­pe­ti­tion, grad­u­at­ed in Lin­guis­tics, worked as ESL teacher in Rus­sia and Chi­na and is doing her master´s in Lan­guage, Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Daria had a burn­ing ques­tion: “What kind of skills do I need for the oppor­tu­ni­ties in the job mar­ket?”

That´s how she came up with her solu­tion “Learn­ing by doing” to fos­ter stu­dents work­ing life con­nec­tions dur­ing their stud­ies. Her idea pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents to observe pro­fes­sion­als in action and see the real work envi­ron­ment, pro­mot­ing immer­sive knowl­edge trans­fers between both sides.

Daria will ben­e­fit from:

• Men­tor­ship from key pro­fes­sion­als from Oulu region.
• Present her solu­tion at UNIC City­Labs Fes­ti­val.
• Pro­fes­sion­al pic­ture from Business­Oulu

Idea Com­pe­ti­tion par­tic­i­pants com­pet­ed and pitched their solu­tions for an expe­ri­enced jury from Oulu:

Jury mem­bers:

• Mikko Pol­so, Busi­ness Area Direc­tor, Osu­uskaup­pa Ari­na
• Han­na Mat­ti­la, Liai­son Man­ag­er Oulu Joint Mar­ket­ing / Business­Oulu Enter­prise
• Mikko Ahokas, CEO, Macon Oy
• Lau­ra Piila, Vice Pres­i­dent, Optomed Oyj
• Pauli Väisä­nen, Doc­tor­al Researcher, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Board Mem­ber, Tieteen­tek­i­jöi­den liit­to

The three final­ists will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ben­e­fit from men­tor­ing ses­sions on how to imple­ment their ideas. Meet the board of men­tors select­ed to share insight­ful advice:

Men­tors:

• Jari Kar­jalainen, Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, Osu­uskaup­pa Ari­na
• Juha Ala-Mur­su­la, Direc­tor, Business­Oulu
• Mikko Ahokas, CEO, Macon Oy
• Jen­na Anti­n­maa, Sales & Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er, Choco­Som­nia Oy
• Anu-Maar­it Moila­nen, CEO, Oulu City The­atre
• Lau­ra Piila, Vice Pres­i­dent, Optomed Oyj

We are look­ing for­ward to see­ing the inspir­ing ideas take form and help stu­dents thrive on their work­ing life jour­ney!