New professorship established by a donation - Marko Höyhtyä to be Assistant Professor of Technology Adaptation
“I start in my position full of enthusiasm. Even if I already have long experience of projects in the domain of defence, in the Defence Forces I will certainly get an opportunity to advance things in more depth”, Höyhtyä says.
The National Defence University’s first ever Assistant Professor of Technology Adaptation Marko Höyhtyä started in his position at the beginning of June. Höyhtyä is a Doctor of Science (Technology). Before transferring to the National Defence University, he worked almost 20 years at the Technical Research Centre of Finland in various positions, most recently as a research professor.
The Professorship of Technology Adaptation was created in 2023 when Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration Tapio Peltomäki from Turku donated a sum of 600 000 euros to research in the field of military sciences. The donor considered that the technological change seen in the battlefields merited more in-depth research and understanding.
The war in Ukraine has shown that new technology is introduced into the battlefield very fast indeed. This is one of the reasons why the Finnish Defence Forces, too, should create new capabilities.
Rector of the National Defence University, Major General Mika Kalliomaa considers the donation very important indeed: “At the moment, we are preparing the National Defence University Strategy for the next five-year period. In the Strategy, focus will be placed on ensuring resources for research.
The professorship will help ensure that the officers graduating from the National Defence University will possess the kind of know-how that will be required for national defence in the future. “The research conducted at the National Defence University must help to understand what direction military national defence is taking and, on the other hand, what this change will entail for Finnish art of war”, Kalliomaa sums it up.
Officers learning about the newest technology
In his own research activities, Höyhtyä has delved into satellite technology and public authority communications, among other things. His focus is on disruptive technologies, that is, technologies that change established ways of operating.
“Disruptive technologies are clearly a domain the importance of which keeps on growing, and I for mine, I strive to improve cooperation between organizations and develop teaching in the field for future officers, Höyhtyä describes. From the military perspective, central disruptive domains include, among other things, space technology, 6G networks and quantum technology.
According to Höyhtyä, Finnish research organizations already possess very high-quality disruptive technology know-how. Know-how in the field of technological foresight has also evolved, and a number of doctoral theses have already been published in the domain.
Artificial intelligence, AI has likewise been a topic widely discussed in the past year.
Armed forces are more prudent than commercial actors when it comes to taking artificial intelligence into use, but Höyhtyä considers that AI technology applications will increasingly be introduced into defence systems as well.
“This is visible, for example, in the evolution of automatic systems when operating on the ground, at sea and in the air, and as better detection and identification capabilities. There is also the possibility of using AI methods for the rapid interception of attacks at own systems by means of automatic identification of deviations”, Höyhtyä envisions.
