Personal information

Arto 'Artsi' Selonen

Background

I was born on September 16th, 1967 in a small town called Pieksämäki. Three years later I got a little brother (who obviously isn't so little any more). This must have been a traumatic experience since I don't have much of a recollection of what happened after that.

In 1974 I started my now very much prolonged studies at Pieksämäki elementary school. After 6 years of that I moved on to Pieksämäki Junior High School to finish my required education (grades 7-9). During these years I learned how to play volleyball and still be happy all the time.

Not knowing what to do (and basically being a lazy person that I am) I decided to continue studying at Pieksämäki Senior High School. That proved to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me (so far). I met all these crazy people who showed me how to have even more fun while still being happy all the time. Those three years made me what I am today.

The crazy years

The finnish senior high school is pretty much just the first step to the university level, so people study difficult topics with enthusiasm. As for my class, things were different: people were just having a good time not paying too much attention to teachers. It wasn't like we were the scum of the school (though teachers must have thought so), but hey, the show must go on!

During those three years we did pretty much every possible (and some almost impossible) things that can be done within school limits. No, we didn't break the law or anything like that, we just broke some barriers of deciency and respectable behaviour. Oh, what fun it was!

To the surprise (and disappointment) of our teachers we were the best class of the whole school in the national senior high exams that are held uniformly as final exams to all graduating students. We, however, knew that, since we did everything with 100% commitment.

After senior high I had to decide what to do next (what university to go to). I had seen my first computers (Apple II euro+), so I decided to learn more about programming. The only choice for me was Lappeenranta University of Technology.

Away at last

I thought Pieksämäki was a really cool town until I finally managed to get out of there. That kind of opened my eyes to realize what later was proved by a statistical study of Helsingin Sanomat: of the 102 cities in Finland Pieksämäki ranked 102nd on the happyness scale!

Before starting my studies of computer science I had to learn how to kill people. This was done serving in the army for 11 months in a mortar unit. I finished my mandatory service on the 4th of September, 1987 having been promoted to the rank of second lieutanent.

I studied at LUT for four years enjoying every little bit of it (though people weren't as crazy as the ones at senior high). Then I got a chance to see what it was like in the United States of America. So, I went to University of Delaware for a year, and enjoyed every little bit of it. I returned to Finland in 1992 to continue my studies, and receive a Master's degree in computer science.

Post-doc?

I worked for two years on my thesis involving using neural networks as part of a decision suppport system in industrial applications. My research concentrated on adding knowledge to the neural net in order to make it a more robust and general tool. However, my research stopped after I started to administer our laboratory's computer systems.

Since early 1998 I started devoting my time to Laura and Katri. On March 3rd, 1999 we got married with Laura, and on May 19th, 2000 we got a beautiful baby girl, Karita. So, for some twenty years I felt like I was living with angels.

But nothing lasts forever, and so around 2009 I moved from the excellent Laboratory of Computational Engineering (which had become known as BECS after joining forces with another laboratory) to the Computing Center of the Helsinki University of Technology. HUTCC was a power house on its own right, and I met some of my best friends while there doing storage related system admin work.

On 2012 I moved to CSC - IT Center for Science continuing to do storage related things, this time mainly archiving with a hint of object storage on the side. Hopefully, I get to work there as long as health, laws, and they allow me to!

COVID-19

Just prior to COVID-19 hitting Finland in early 2020, last of the angels left the nest so that they could all continue to grow (mentally) and find their true selves. I wish them all well in their journies. I will always love you!


URL for this page is http://www.selonen.org/arto/personal/
This page updated on March 20, 2021