Outi Kivekäs appointed as the manager of FCAI: “unique chance to build this type of research community”

Photo Matti Ahlgren / Aalto University

Outi Kivekäs, Doctor of Science, has been appointed as the manager of FCAI. She started in her new role at the beginning of May.

 “People speak about artificial intelligence everywhere,” says Kivekäs. “It is clear that the best AI researchers of Finland work for FCAI. In some areas, our researchers are already among the best ones in the whole world. This is a unique chance to be part of building this type of a research community.”

Kivekäs has her background in electrical engineering. Before starting in her new role, she worked several years at Aalto University Research and Innovation Services. She was leading the pre-award team that helped researchers to apply research funding.

Through her earlier experience, Kivekäs is very familiar with one of the organizations behind FCAI, Aalto University, and research conducted at it. Now she is excited about learning more about the two other organizations that initiated FCAI, University of Helsinki and  VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Kivekäs has broad understanding of how universities work and what types of projects they run. She brings structure and experience about project management to FCAI. “Launching a large project is always slow in the beginning. In the coming months, we will organize the initiatives we have already started into a whole and encourage new people interested in applications of AI to join FCAI.”