The quarterly of the University
of Helsinki
Do mobiles suffer particularly?Although you would not think climatologists and mobile phone manufacturers have much in common, a recent research project shows how their collaboration can bring benefits all around.
Juha Merimaa
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to summer issue 2004
How does atmospheric pollution affect mobile phones? A trivial, even absurd question perhaps, but the world's largest mobile manufacturer in the world takes it seriously.
"The market for portable handsets keeps spreading and is entering areas that have very poor air quality. We have to make certain that our products will function even in demanding conditions," explain researchers Jukka Hannula and Timo Galkin of Nokia Research Center.
The statement is a good example of the issues that a global technology company has to tackle. If particles in polluted areas were to cause handsets to break down prematurely, it would bring bad publicity all over the world.
Nokia Research Center does not, in fact, have a dedicated unit studying air pollution, which is why it commissioned the Division of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Helsinki's Department of Physical Sciences to carry out the research for its report, completed in 2003.
Small particles in small spaces
The Division, which has concentrated on basic research, welcomed the collaboration.
"The project is much like an open-ended commission – they had a problem and they came to us looking for a solution," Professor Kaarle Hämeri describes the offer.
"Because the commission came coupled with a good opportunity to do new basic research, we welcomed the project."
The project had two rather distinct sections. The first section examined the effect of airborne particles on mobile handsets.
"The aim was to resolve what size and age of particles force their way inside mobile handsets and what do they do in the confined interior. We got interesting information on the behaviour of particles in very small spaces," says Hämeri.
The second stage of the project was also interesting. It looked at the presence of particles classified as harmful in different kinds of polluted environments. Much of the fieldwork was done in the polluted city of New Delhi in India.
One of the most polluted cities in the world, New Delhi provided the measurement team with abundant data on the dispersing of different particles and their penetration into confined spaces.
"The study conducted in India was the most rewarding part of the project for us. We combined the measurement results with those from measurements we made in other cities, which allowed us to model airborne particles more accurately than had been previously possible," Hämeri explains.
This is what is, in Hämeri's opinion, the best part of the collaboration between the University and businesses.
"While the model we got as a result was designed to fit Nokia's problem, we can exploit it more generally in research on particle concentration," he summarises.
Modelling is not a trade secret
Listening to the climatologist and the people from Nokia, their joint project begins to sound like something out of a brochure on the University's partnerships with businesses. Both parties got what they wanted, no compromises were necessary. All in all, everything went smoothly.
"When we agree to do outside projects we want to include our own research. In this particular project this condition was met to the full. Routine research commissions are not the University's business," says Hämeri.
Publicity issues that have sometimes been a sore point between the academic and the business world did not pose a problem, either.
"Modelling airborne particles is not a threat to Nokia's trade secrets and we have been free to publish the results as we please. The only secrets involved the most detailed schematic diagrams of mobile handsets. They are not very interesting to a scientist," Hämeri remarks.
The part in the contract between the University and Nokia that makes the results of the study the property of Nokia sounds rather extreme, though. But Suvi Hiltunen, Nokia's Head of University Collaboration, explains that the tough-sounding clause is only a precaution to ensure that trade secrets remain secrets.
"It's Nokia's policy that all theses and academic studies are freely publishable. Obvious trade secrets such as detailed technical specifications of handsets are the only things we want to keep out of public reports," Hiltunen explains.
So everything is OK? It does seem so. No one will utter a bad word. On a more general level, both sides admit things do not always go so smoothly between the University and businesses.
"Businesses are interested in research that is useful to them," says Hämeri.
"When both sides are interested, as was the case in this project, the results are good. There is the danger, however, that when research is increasingly funded by someone outside the University, fields without similar shared interests will suffer."
Broadly speaking collaboration with the University does trouble the researchers from Nokia, too.
"It is important to keep in mind that the University is a versatile organisation with its own research goals which are different from those of private businesses. As collaboration between the University and businesses increases, I think we need to talk about the roles and needs of the University on the one hand and businesses on the other," Galkin muses.
