Päivölä Student Innovation Lab Ltd – a working environment for talented students interested in STEM-subjects

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An IT start-up working environment is a part of the education in Päivölä School of Mathematics. Päivölä combines accelerated basic secondary school education with specialization in mathematics, information technology and science. There are approximately 25 16-18 years old students in Päivölä. The two-year boarding school has close cooperation between a normal Finnish Valkeakoski Upper Secondary School.
The Päivölä Student Innovation Lab Ltd (PSIL ltd) was founded 2015 to create a special work-life oriented environment for talented students. It replaced cooperation with the IT giant Nokia.
In Päivölä School of Mathematics, academic acceleration is one cornerstone. Instead of the normal 3-year upper secondary school, only two years are used. Enrichment is available in STEM subjects, mostly mathematics and computing sciences, where curriculum is much deeper than in a normal upper secondary school. There is also training available for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO).
The students develop their academic skills in their chosen fields of STEM, their learning skills and other skills required in their university studies, their skills for working environment in information technology, get a useful network and graduate from upper secondary school.
The students are selected based on week-end-long tests where the student’s abilities, creative thinking and ability to learn mathematics are tested. In the beginning, there is a 30 working-day summer term with 220 lessons in mathematics and 75 in computing science. On a normal summer day, the lessons start at 9 am and end 9 pm.
In the Päivölä Student Innovation Lab Ltd (PSIL), the students work 12 hours a week in a start-up environment. There are both customer projects and own products, for example a mobile game “Vizuality” and the live chess hardware and application “Chess Camera”. The work includes mathematical/physical modelling, testing customer ideas, programming, and product development. Students work either in groups assigned to specific products or as consultants in client companies, as part of the customer´s team.
The working in PSIL starts after the summer term. The second year students have knowledge of the ongoing projects and their contribution in transferring the way of working is essential. They take part in educating and managing the younger students.
Students learn project and time management, communication, to give product presentations, and deepen their understanding of STEM subjects with real-life applications/products.
As a result, since 2016 Päivölä Students have been selected into Finnish IMO team 6 times, to International Science Fair ISEF four times and twice to European Union Contest for Young Scientists EUCYS. The national Mathematics competition has been won three times.
Some students get employed straight after graduation from Päivölä and work in IT branch during their university studies. The working experience from PSIL ltd seems to improve the students' ability to work in the IT sector and in their academic studies.