Winners 2011

Winners in the national category

1^st prize: Miro Metsämuuronen (19) from Lappeenrannan Lyseon lukio upper secondary school. Miro investigated the morphology of verbal ablaut in contemporary standard Swedish.

2^nd prize: Hanna Walsh (17) from Oulun Lyseon lukio upper secondary school. Hanna studied the resistance to turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) in Chinese cabbage.

3^rd prize: Sofia Oesch (18) from Lahden yhteiskoulu upper secondary school. Sofia looked at the position of women and their employment opportunities at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries by investigating the life of Hanna Asp, the 16^th Finnish woman to take the matriculation exam.

4^th prize: Ossi Hirvola (17) and Henri Kumpulainen (17) from Valkeakosken Tietotien lukio/Päivölän matematiikkalinja. Ossi and Henri developed an algorithm for synthetic game music and used it to programme a game music generator.

5^th prize: Niko Ilomäki (18) from Helsingin matematiikkalukio upper secondary school. Niko studied changes in the political party landscape through mathematical models.

6^th prize: Meri Vainio (17) from Valkeakosken Tietotien lukio/Päivölän matematiikkalinja. Meri analysed the effects of using symbolic/CAS calculators in the matriculation exam mathematics test based on the advanced course.

7^th prize: Julia Hämäläinen (18) from Kuopion klassillinen lukio upper secondary school. Julia studied the use and utilisation of social media in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Winners in the international category

1^st prize: Laura Lamberg (18) from Tikkurilan lukio upper secondary school. Laura investigated the argumentation and rhetorics concerning animal rights and justifications for meat-eating.

2^nd prize: Tetta Hämäläinen (19) from Jyväskylän Lyseon lukio upper secondary school. Tetta studied the reliability and validity of the Rorschach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test in the assessment of psychopathy.

3^rd prize: Ville Syrjänen (18) from Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu upper secondary school. Ville took on the dynamic shortest path problem and developed a new algorithm to solve it.

4^th prize: Anne Lehtimäki (18) from Ressun lukio upper secondary school. Anne looked at the impact of biological factors on musicality.

5^th prize: David Henderson (19) from Turun normaalikoulu upper secondary school. David explored the incidence of taxation for Valio vanilla ice cream among students in Turku.

6^th prize: Wanmeng Zhang (17) from Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu upper secondary school. Wanmeng analysed which printed electronic application would be the best focus for a new printed battery producer.

7^th prize: Tuula Ritakari (19) from Etelä-Tapiolan lukio upper secondary school. Tuula examined whether the description of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as “a petulant child playing with a loaded gun” is a correct assessment, or if Khrushchev had sound strategic reasons for provoking the US over Cuba in 1962.

Chemistry 2011 prize

The 2011 Viksu competition also included a special prize (1,000 euros) for the best entry in the field of chemistry. The Chemistry 2011 prize went to Laura Telenius (18) from Tampereen lyseon lukio upper secondary school. Laura studied the quality of the water in the Tahmela spring in Tampere.

Schools and teachers get prizes too

Prizes were also awarded to active and successful schools: Etelä-Tapiolan lukio, Kuopion klassillinen lukio, Lappeenrannan Lyseon lukio and Tampereen lyseon lukio. The schools were awarded 1,000 euros each. Helsingin uusi yhteiskoulu in Helsinki and Lyseonpuiston lukio in Rovaniemi received 750 euros each for active participation. Viksu also awards prizes to active teachers. This time, the 1,000 euros went to Maarit Berg, who teaches Finnish and literature at Tikkurilan lukio upper secondary school.