Mobile machinery sector gets professor in Finland

The Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Tampere University in Finland has appointed Harri Nieminen as its first Professor of Practice in Mobile Machinery.

The five-year post – which will cover machinery used in sectors including construction and agriculture - aims to strengthen collaboration between research, education and industry in a sector that represents a significant export industry for Finland.

Nieminen, who has joined the University from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has extensive experience in automation, industrial networks and research and innovation.

Harri Nieminen, Professor of Practice in Mobile Machinery at Tampere University in Finland. (Image: Jonne Renvall, University of Tampere)

“Tomorrow’s world is built every day with mobile machinery”, said Nieminen, “The sector is important for our exports and has traditionally been strong for Finland.

“We also have a major opportunity to win market share in a transformation where customers around the world are seeking increasingly sustainable solutions, not forgetting the new business opportunities that future machinery will create around itself, for example through the data it collects.”

His role will include wheeled or tracked machines used in construction, mining, agriculture, forestry, material handling and defense. It will exclude on-road transport of people or goods.

Bridge between academia and industry

He said the post will help realise opportunities by strengthening the bridge between academic research and industrial practice.

“Achieving growth targets requires us to have the capacity for reinvention and to enable the creation of new value. We are solving systemic challenges, and that also requires a systemic approach,” said Nieminen.

He added that a focus on technology alone would not be enough; “We need industry-relevant expertise that meets future needs, as well as close multilateral and multidisciplinary collaboration. Growth is not created by one actor alone. Future success is built together.”

Juha Ala-Hiiro, senior advisor at the Association of ​Finnish Technical Traders (Teknisen Kaupan Liiton), the body that representrs Finland’s manufacturing sector, said the creation of the academic position was an important initiative.

“New power sources have strongly accelerated product development in mobile machinery. At the same time, the use, maintenance and aftermarket of machines are also changing”, he said.

“That is why growth in the sector requires close collaboration between research, education and companies,”

The creation of the professorship takes place at a time of major technological and business transformation, with the shift in power sources, low-emission solutions, automation, the use of data, sustainability and tightening regulation.