Service

Academic service beyond my own university: examining doctoral theses at other universities, committee work at Aalto, and volunteer work against academic bullying.

Doctoral thesis pre-examination

Pre-examiner (preliminary examiner) of doctoral dissertation manuscripts, appointed by the awarding faculty:

  • 2026 · M. Tuononen, “Towards Interpretable Machine Learning Models for the Physical Layer of 6G,” School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland (FI).
  • 2026 · S. Sheikhi, “Trustworthy Distributed Intelligence for Security and Resilience in the Edge-Cloud Continuum,” Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Oulu (FI).
  • 2025 · A. Klemetti, “Practical Approaches to Cost-Efficient Deep Learning: Taxonomy, Experiments, and Industry Insights,” Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki (FI).
  • 2024 · R. Savvides, “Statistical Methods for Testing Visual Patterns, Selecting Models, and Bounding Model Errors,” Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki (FI).

Opponent, examiner, and grading committee

Public defences and doctoral examinations at other universities:

  • 2026-09-30 · Member of the grading committee (betygsnämnd) for R. Brännvall, “Privacy Preserving and Scalable Machine Learning at the Edge,” Luleå University of Technology (SE).
  • 2026-02-13 · Opponent for A. Klemetti, “Practical Approaches to Cost-Efficient Deep Learning: Taxonomy, Experiments, and Industry Insights,” University of Helsinki (FI).
  • 2026-01-26 · Faculty opponent (fakultetsopponent) for C.-H. Hu, “Wireless Federated Learning: Efficient Communication and Resource Management,” Linköping University (SE).
  • 2025-10-22 · Jury member and examiner for A. Zhaikhan, “Reinforcement Learning by Networked Agents,” EPFL, Lausanne (CH).
  • 2025-02-10 · Opponent for A. Mahmoudi Benhangi, “Toward Efficient Federated Learning over Wireless Networks: Novel Frontiers in Resource Optimization,” KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (SE).
  • 2024-05-24 · Faculty opponent (fakultetsopponent) for N. Fouladgar, “Affect Detection with Explainable AI for Time Series,” Department of Computing Science, Umeå University (SE).
  • 2019-09-16 · Member of the grading committee for P. del Aguila Pla, “Inverse Problems in Signal Processing: Functional Optimization, Parameter Estimation, and Machine Learning,” KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (SE).
  • 2018-01-26 · Examiner (rapporteur) on the thesis jury for L. J. Martin, “Robust and Efficient Data Clustering with Signal Processing on Graphs,” EPFL, Lausanne (CH).

University committees

  • Member of the Teaching Evaluation Committee (SCITEC) of the Aalto University School of Science since 2023, also referred to as the school’s Teaching Competence Assessment Committee. SCITEC assesses the teaching competence of candidates in tenure-track recruitment and in the later evaluations leading to tenured and promoted positions. It has an independent role: it issues its own statement on each candidate’s teaching competence, along with recommendations such as pedagogical training or trying out different teaching methods. Members are drawn from across the school’s departments and include an educational developer and students trained to evaluate teaching. I use the role to keep student well-being on the agenda alongside the usual metrics.

Activism

I build and maintain Fight the Academic Bullies, a free interactive world map of independent bodies that people facing bullying or mobbing at a university or research institute can turn to when the case is being covered up internally.

The map currently covers 67 countries, sorting contacts into research-integrity bodies, unions, grassroots networks, whistleblower protection services, anti-mobbing and legal aid organisations, and private legal help. It is a personal project, independent of any employer or listed organisation, and it is not legal advice.

People pushed out of academia are usually told to use the proper channels, meaning internal HR and the university’s own ombudsperson, which sit inside the very hierarchy the bully belongs to. When those channels bury a case, most people do not know who outside the institution they can still reach. The map is that missing list.