Topias Katajamäki

"Once you have completed this degree program, I'm sure that you are welcome to work in any organization in this area."

My interest in the electrical and energy industry started already in vocational school when I was studying electrical and automation technology. Even then I discovered that I was really interested in automation and I was always excited when I could program programmable logic, for example. Towards the end of vocational school, I decided that I wanted to deepen my electrical engineering skills at the University of Applied Sciences.

I got in to Vaasa University of Applied Sciences to study electrical engineering in 2013, and I noticed that Vaasa was a nice place to live, and I was sure from the start that I would be here longer or possibly for the rest of my life. I became more interested in electrical and automation technology at the University of Applied Sciences and started my job as a graduate engineer at the Vaasan Sähköverkko Oy in 2017 and I am still working there.

While working for the Vaasan Sähköverkko Oy, I was particularly interested in digitalization and the opportunities that digitalization brings. My hobby has been to implement various projects related to smart home and I am particularly interested in data analytics and artificial intelligence.

In 2018, I noticed that the University of Vaasa is about to launch a new degree program called Smart Energy. This name already alerted me immediately to get more information about it, and when I saw the structure of the program, I was confused when it seemed that someone would have assembled the degree program directly for my needs. However, my decision was overshadowed by the fact that the degree is in English and I did not have such a strong foundation in English. However, I came to the conclusion that I have enough competence to take the courses and at the same time this is a huge opportunity to learn more English.

Now that I have started studies in the degree program, I can say that I am really excited about learning new knowledge and I have already received useful new tools that I can use for the benefit of my own work. This degree program provides both technical and business studies, so once you have completed this degree program, I'm sure that you are welcome to work in any organization in this area. By the way if you did not know yet there are several of these kind of organizations in Vaasa.