Finding purpose in doctoral studies and turning challenges into learning experiences in DSII

Isavella Koukoula’s journey of doctoral education shows how collaboration, determination, and real-world impact have shaped her path as a researcher. Koukoula’s research has been in the field of electrical engineering. She has been working on the control of electrical motors. The goal has been to add additional features to a controller without making the controller more complicated to use. 

Photo: Eleftherios Kontodinas

Isavella Koukoula has done her doctoral research in collaboration with Tampere University and ABB. ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation.

Collaboration with ABB has been constant during Koukoula’s studies. She even had a chance to spend three months working at ABB Switzerland, where she got to advance her research in a more hands on environment and became familiar with the company’s decision-making process.

“I really appreciate that I got to work on something that might actually be used in a company”, Koukoula rejoices.

Koukoula feels happy with the support she has had from her supervisors and colleagues during her doctoral research. They have stayed in close collaboration all throughout the process.

Learning how to balance work and free time has been important to Koukoula. She has actively attended social events and sought out hobbies to find counterbalance for her research work. 

“Everyone should find hobbies and not get too absorbed by work”, Koukoula recommends.

During her time as a doctoral researcher, Koukoula has also learned the useful skill of essential time management. She has gone through a journey of learning how to meet deadlines and getting things done within certain timeframes.

Unexpectedly for her, Koukoula’ s greatest challenge ended up being a learning experience. She got good results from her research sooner than expected and applied for a conference with encouragement from her professor. After appliance she then had only one month to prepare her first scientific paper, while learning how to actually write one – which was rather exciting. Luckily, it all worked out well in the end, and she got accepted to the conference.

According to her, “It’s very rewarding to get results published”.

This experience has made her a better and more experienced writer and prepared her for the future too. She no longer needs a month to write an article.

“Now I can write more efficiently”, Koukoula explains.

To Koukoula, conferences have offered a way to meet people in her field and to gain experience in presenting her research. Conferences have also allowed her to experience that her hard work has led to something people appreciate and see value in, which is very rewarding of course.

“People are interested in what you are doing and want to hear more about it.” 

Photo: Jan Niclas Laumann

DSII experience

“I’m glad that my PhD has been a part of DSII. I really enjoyed it!”

Being able to meet her peers and have discussions with them has been Koukoula’s favorite aspect of DSII and has motivated her in her research journey.

She also finds DSII’s visits to companies being a great opportunity to learn about industry.

Being able to do her research in collaboration with a company has been important to Koukoula, who is planning on working in the industry after her graduation.

“The industry part of DSII was an important factor for me, as it is my goal to eventually do something for the industry.”