Developmental Psychology Research Group at the University of Helsinki is a big group of talented individuals with a wide range of interests. In our work some researchers focus on prenatal factors affecting health and development of children, while others look into cognitive aging in older population; some focus on physical health, whereas others are interested in mental disorders. But every other week we join together for a nice breakfast and fruitful discussion.
Every season we have different themes. For example, in spring 2016 each member of the group chose an article of personal interest (not necessarily related to the research topics) and presented an overview of the paper. It was a great practice of oral presentation skills, training of analytical thinking, and a fun experiment as some papers were related to daily life experiences like coffee consumption or toys to play with kids.
In autumn 2016 we shared the newest results of our research work, newly published papers, and poster/oral presentations from the conferences we attended. This practice demonstrated yet again the wide range of topics DePsy researchers focus on. For more information check out short descriptions and links for Tuhat profiles here: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/depsy-group/personnel/
Spring 2017 is a combination of guest talks and practical skills workshops. We have already learned about new regulations and research life in the Faculty of Medicine, which we have just joined this year. We have learned new tools to improve the quality of our figures and graphs from Dr. Christian Hakulinen. We looked into benefits and cautions of using Tobit regression analyzes with Dr. Jari Lipsanen. We explored collaboration opportunities and perks of studying health impact of weather and climate with Reija Ruuhela. And we are looking forward to many more interesting topics. Below is this spring schedule.
| Date | Scheduled topic |
| 18.01 | First meeting of the year. Discussion of the program for spring 2017 and some new regulations from the Faculty of Medicine |
| 1.02 | Marius, Elina and Anna talk about experience from ISPNE conference in Miami and give presentations of the posters. Additionally, Marius will share his experience from Edinburgh. |
| 15.02 | Christian Hakulinen will give workshop on how to make nice figures |
| 1.03 | Jari Lipsanen workshop on Tobit regression, truncated models, etc. |
| 15.03 | Guest talk by Reija Ruuhela from Finnish Meteorological Institute: http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/cv-reija-ruuhela |
| 29.03 | Discussion about the group’s shared network P drive and more efficient use of it |
| 12.04 | Jari Lipsanen workshop on Mixed models |
| 26.04 | Group discussion and development of template tables and figures when writing a manuscript |
| 10.05 | Guest talk by Professor Hannes Lohi: http://research.med.helsinki.fi/neuro/lohi/research/default.html |
Last but not least, at these meetings we are free to ask any questions and raise any topics, find solutions for organizational and other issues at hand, etc. Never underestimate the power of informal conversations over good food and coffee!
Ilona Merikanto and Satu Kumpulainen arranging the breakfast table
We welcome new collaborations and topics for discussion. So if you are interested in being a speaker in our meetings, give a workshop on new methods, or raise awareness on some contemporary topics, please, do not hesitate to leave a comment on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/depsyhelsinki/ ) or send email to anna.suarez@helsinki.fi
/Anna Suarez