Meet the Podcast Host!

Tomi Kauppinen is Head of Aalto Online Learning and Associate Professor (Docent) at Aalto University, Finland. His academic journey spans cognitive systems, artificial intelligence (AI), visual communication, geoinformatics, and digital education, with a global presence in over 30 countries through alliances, projects keynotes and 100+ research papers. Tomi's passion lies in the intersection of exploration, research, design, philosophy and education, all aimed at deepening understanding of the world and developing essential skills and mindsets. Tomi is a strong advocate for leveraging storytelling, hackathons, metaverse experiences including immersive augmented reality, information visualizations, and human-to-human interactions to achieve these goals. At the same time Tomi is maintaining a critical perspective on AI's and more generally tech’s role in society. In 2025 Tomi hosts the DigiEduHack podcast, and since 2019 he has hosted Cloud Reachers podcast, exploring cutting-edge technology with outstanding guests. Tomi is also a published author with works including his debut novel Human—a speculative fiction set in a future world about AI and humans—and the co-edited volume Design Education Across Disciplines, published by Palgrave Macmillan.