About us

Our purpose

Interaction between humans and technology continues to grow. The relationship between humans and technology is multifaceted and in continues to transform as technology and culture change. Information technology can be approached, for example, through psychological, sociological, technical, or societal research questions. From a technology development point of view, it is not sufficient to be able to construct devices and applications, one must also be able to make them fit for human use. The field of user-centered information technology is highly multidisciplinary, and a broad understanding of the related areas is necessary. UCIT aims at providing the multidisciplinary doctoral education that is necessary for research and development user-centered information technology.

Many Master's programs in Finland, and abroad, provide a good basis for doctoral studies in the fields covered by UCIT. UCIT is a cooperation of several Finnish universities that teach and study humans and information technology.

Forms of operation

The main activities of UCIT are:

• Graduate and post-graduate courses offered by the participating units. The regular curriculum of UCIT is composed of these courses.
• Joint seminars for all students of UCIT, organized once or twice per semester. In the seminars the students will present their ongoing work and get feedback from advisors coming from various disciplines.
• Summer schools and other intensive courses on special themes.
• International co-operation in graduate education and the participation of UCIT students in international courses and conferences.

Participating units

UCIT is a joint project of several universities in Tampere and the Helsinki metropolitan area. The participating departments, institutes, and research groups are listed below.

	School of Information Sciences Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI) Department of Sociology and Social Psychology Tampere School of Public Health
	Institute of Electronics Personal Electronics Group Institute of Human-Centered Technology Center for Safety Management and Engineering
Helsinki School of Economics	Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research (CKIR)
Helsinki University of Technology	Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) Laboratory of Media Technology Software Business and Engineering Institute (SoberIT) Telecommunications Software and Multimedia Laboratory (TML)
	School of Design
	Department of Psychology Psychology Cognitive Science
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
	Department of Computer Sciences

History

The graduate school officially began operation on January 1st, 2002. Funding was granted by the Ministry of Education for 10 graduate student positions for the period 2002-2005 and 2 graduate student positions for the period 2003-2006. Funding for 10 positions was continued for 2006-2009. For 2007-2009, funding for 5 additional positions was granted as well as funding for a coordinator for the period 2007-2011. In 2009 funding for 15 positions was continued until the end of 2013.