Yesterday, the Supervisory Board of AS Mainor decided to award the first Ülo Pärnits Scholarship to the Taltech student team, whose work addressed the creation of new business opportunities based on the data collected at the Ülemiste campus. 

According to Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AS Mainor, Guido Pärnits, the purpose of the annual Ülo Pärnits Scholarship is to look for solutions for making the Ülemiste campus smarter. ‘The objective of the Scholarship Fund is to support entrepreneurial education and to highlight strong student works that provide practical proposals to the developers of Ülemiste City. Awarding the first scholarship is a milestone in applying innovative solutions born from the further development of research at the campus,’ Pärnits added.  

The student team that won the 5000-euro scholarship consisted of Dagmar Teppe, Martin Kiil, Andrei Engels and Anastassia Tretjak. Their supervisors were Prof. Jarek Kurnitski and Alo Mikola. The more specific aim of the student team was to examine the cognitive indoor climate of two office buildings at the Ülemiste campus – the Öpik building and the Bernhard Schmidt building – and to analyse the obtained data.  

Member of the awarded research team, Martin Kiil, admitted that with this project, the students gained real-life experience of operating on the market. ‘Alongside theoretical studies, putting your knowledge to the test in communicating with actual customers, preparing timetables and action plans, is a valuable lesson. At that, it was an immense privilege to cooperate specifically with Ülemiste City, a demanding customer. The campus has high potential for being one of the pioneers of the Estonian construction sector,’ said Kiil. He added that they are very glad to have been part of and contributed to the development of the smart city as a result of the scholarship, and he recommended other students to participate in the Ülo Pärnits Scholarship competition as well, to receive valuable experience.  

All students across Estonia are able to apply to the 2019 scholarship competition until 28 November. More information about the scholarship can be found at taltech.ee/arengufond