Research at the Department of Computing
Research in the Department of Computing is both theorethical and applied — we study new algorithms and methods to understand data, user experience, artificial intelligence, and collaborate widely accross many fields to apply our findings. Our research is motivated by the desire to improve our digitalised society, help to solve today's major societal and environmental challenges, and explore new possiblities of computing.
Research groups
The research of the ACI (Algorithmics and Computational Intelligence) laboratory centers around techniques and methods for algorithm design and computational intelligence. We develop both theory and applications.
Professor Jukka Heikkonen
Professor Timo Knuutila
Professor Tapio Pahikkala
The group's research combines theory and methods of algorithmic data analysis, with a particular focus on probabilistic machine learning, complex systems, high-throughput data analysis and statistical programming. The main application areas are in computational humanities and molecular life sciences.
Associate Professor Leo Lahti
The TurkuNLP group studies various aspects of natural language processing, human language technology and digital linguistics, with a distinct focus on machine learning methods. The group's research includes all aspects of machine learning, from corpus creation and data annotation to machine learning method development. In digital linguistics, the focus is on applying the methods to model language use in digital datasets. The group targets a wide variety of domains and languages, with a special but not exclusive focus on developing methods and resources for Finnish. TurkuNLP also has a long tradition in biomedical and clinical language processing in several languages. Some of the tools and resources developed by TurkuNLP have gained broad adoption in research as well as data science industry. TurkuNLP is cross-disciplinary, involving professors and researchers from several departments and schools of the University of Turku.
Professor Filip Ginter
Professor Veronika Laippala
University Research Fellow Sampo Pyysalo
Professor Tapio Salakoski
The Software Engineering group researches technologies and engineering practices for constructing high-quality software for the increasingly complex systems of the digitalising society and industry. The research topics range from technical to conceptual: from software security techniques, programming languages, and user interface programming to software architectures, development methodologies, software business and ecosystem models, and software security and privacy by-design.
Professor Ville Leppänen
Assistant professor Tuomas Mäkilä
Professor Jaakko Järvi
The Mixed Reality Group researches augmented and virtual reality. The group collaborates with industry and institutions in developing mixed reality applications and gamified services.
Senior Researcher Teijo Lehtonen
Project Manager Kaapo Seppälä
The Interaction Design group aims at improving software applications by bridging the gap between the developers and users. The group focuses especially on game design, digital art and interactive storytelling.
University Lecturer Jouni Smed
Cyber Security Engineering group conducts research and develops technologies of societal digitalization and a secure information society. The core domains where the group develops and applies communication and cyber security technologies are autonomous vehicles and traffic, smart city and cyber society, and health and well-being.
Professor Seppo Virtanen
Professor Jouni Isoaho
The Robotics and Autonomous Systems unit carries out research in intelligent robotics, autonomous systems and edge computing. The unit develops robust and resilient heterogeneous multi-robot systems and cognitive computing solutions that can be deployed into practice in different application domains from search and rescue to industrial solutions. In particular, our research revolves around swarm robotics and distributed (robotic) systems from embedded intelligence (edge AI), energy efficiency and dependability perspectives.
Professor Juha Plosila
Professor Tomi Westerlund
Subgroups: Turku Intelligent Embedded & Robotic Systems Lab and Autonomous Systems Lab.
Digital Health Technology group focuses on developing data-analytics based solutions to support health and well-being. Central to the group's research are machine learning based analysis methods, the use of wearable IoT devices for data collection, biosignal analytics, and connecting the results to the practical needs of consumers and clinical caregivers. The group leverages its research for developing AI based applications that allow implementing a more personalized and preventive approach to healthcare. As a practical example, the group has developed methods for detecting atrial fibrillation at home, where the biosignal is measured and analysed using a mobile phone.
Professor Pasi Liljeberg
Assistant professor Antti Airola
University Research Fellow Matti Kaisti
Project Manager Tero Koivisto
The Future Technology Lab sources inspiration for its research from the challenges of the Global South. The engineering approach to apply and develop relevant interactive solutions is constructive and based on co-design with stakeholders in real-life contexts. The research, together with international academic and business partners and local emerging startups, aims at sustainable and inventive transformation in areas from context-aware learning to smart rural to next-generation tourism to digital theology.
Professor Erkki Sutinen
The research themes in Phonetics and LAB-lab include language acquisition and learning, speech perception and production, ans bi- and multilingualism. In LAB-lab, speech production and articulation can be measured with acoustic measures and ultrasound. Speech perception can be investigated with both behavioural methods and preattentive EEG-measurements.