TKK was known for its active student community and technology students (
teekkaris) are highly noticeable, as they wear a distinctive hat and often brightly colored overalls to many of their public events. The community has also organised important charity events (
tempaus in local language). TKK students are also famous for, and Finland's leading practitioners of, student
pranks (
jäynä), similar in principle to
MIT hacks. Their most widely publicised stunt took place in 1961, when a team of students smuggled a statue of
Paavo Nurmi onto the 300-year-old wreck of
Regalskeppet Vasa just days before its lifting from the bottom of the sea.
Student Union The
Student Union of Helsinki University of Technology (
TKY, , ) was the interest group for the students of the university. In 2006 it had 11,187 members, which included all the students of the university, as is stipulated by Finnish law. It was founded in 1872.
Student Nation TKK was also one of the two universities in Finland to host one or more
nations, a Finnish type of
student corporation. The only nation at TKK was
Teknologföreningen (TF) and its goal was to unite Swedish-speaking students at TKK. Teknologföreningen was founded in 1872, prior to the student union. Teknologföreningen also has its own building opposite to Dipoli called
Urdsgjallar, completed in 1966. The Finnish-speaking student nation
Tekniikan Ylioppilaat was disbanded in 1972 and its functions given to the university student union, since a separate Finnish-speaking nation in a university with an overwhelming Finnish-speaking majority was considered unnecessary. The regional Finnish-speaking nations at the
University of Helsinki also accepted TKK students as members.
Student housing The housing area of Otaniemi campus, known as Teekkarikylä (technology student village), was owned mostly by the student union and partly by HOAS (Helsinki Student Housing Fund). The housing was characterised by the presence of foreign students of many nationalities. As of 2005, the village offered housing for approximately 2,600 students. Construction of the Otaniemi campus was started in 1950, in order for the first buildings to host the athletes of the
1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Some of the building material originally used for the campus was acquired from the former Soviet Union embassy, which had been destroyed during
World War II, as a result of bombings by
Soviet Union itself. Later the student housing has been used for housing athletes again in a number of athletics events, sometimes to the dismay of the students that have to move out during the events. The quality of the Otaniemi student housing holds a high standard in international comparison. The campus contains the former student union building and convention centre
Dipoli, named as the second
Poli, the second building of the polytechnic students. The original first building being located formerly in the Helsinki centre. Dipoli was designed by
Reima and
Raili Pietilä and was completed in 1966. However, in 1993 the building was transformed into a training centre of the university. The ownership of the property was later transferred from the student union to the university itself, due to high maintenance costs. It is regularly used for conventions, congresses and student parties.
Associations In addition to the student union TKK students have formed numerous associations for studies, cultural activity and sports. In 2007, there were some 150 associations maintained by university students. In 2006, two-thirds of the student union members were members of "the guilds", which are student associations uniting students inside their department, e.g. the Guild of Electrical Engineers.
List of student associations of Helsinki University of Technology Currently this list includes only the associations known to have English Wikipedia articles. •
The Polytech Choir •
Polyteknikkojen Ilmailukerho (Flying club) == Notable people and alumni ==