• → European Space Agency

      • Space for Europe
      • Space News
      • Space in Images
      • Space in Videos
    • About Us

      • Welcome to ESA
      • DG's News and Views
      • For Member State Delegations
      • Business with ESA
      • ESA Exhibitions
      • ESA Publications
      • Careers at ESA
    • Our Activities

      • Space News
      • Observing the Earth
      • Human Spaceflight
      • Launchers
      • Navigation
      • Space Science
      • Space Engineering
      • Operations
      • Technology
      • Telecommunications & Integrated Applications
    • For Public

    • For Media

      • Media
      • ESA TV
      • Videos for professionals
      • Photos
    • For Educators

    • For Kids

    • ESA

    • Education

    • Teachers' Corner

    • ESA Kids

    • About ESA Education
    • Education programme
    • International collaboration
    • Projects for Teachers
    • European Space Education Resource Office
    • CanSats
    • Hands-on Projects
    • CubeSats
    • Drop Your Thesis!
    • European Student Earth Orbiter
    • European Student Moon Orbiter
    • Fly Your Thesis!
    • Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations
    • Spin Your Thesis!
    • Previous projects
    • Hands-on Collaboration
    • REXUS/BEXUS rocket & balloon experiments
    • GENSO Experimental Orbital Initial Demonstration
    • Previous projects
    • Opportunities
    • Conferences
    • Courses
    • Gaining experience
    • Affiliation programme
    • Subscribe for news

    ESA > Education

    Machiko Louhisuo
    - Research engineer

    "It doesn't matter where you live, you can work anywhere"

    Machiko was born in Japan, educated in Japan and the US, worked in Tokyo and California, married a Finn and now lives in Espoo. She speaks and works in Japanese, English and Finnish. She dreamed of space travel when young and oriented her education accordingly, spending 6 months at the Kennnedy Space Center on an exchange programme.

    With her B.Sc. in Aerospace engineering she worked in the Japanese space industry, but changed direction for a while towards the blooming mobile phone market. She learned the value of working in a user driven market, where technical advances have to be aligned to customer needs. She took that attitude with her when she moved into remote sensing: “Science is important to make our lives better. But it has to go in a direction that matches our needs. There is no value in science if it is not used for the right purpose.”.

    Machiko is part of a joint research project between VTT Information Technology in Finland and NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Observation Disaster Prevention of Japan). She is developing disaster-monitoring systems based on SAR satellite images, focussing on the detection of landslides caused by rain. Machiko produces digital elevation maps before and after landslides to identify damaged areas. Investigations using satellite images can detect very small movements in the terrain to give early warning. Such systems may be used for volcano monitoring, the detection of earthquakes and ground subsidence.

    Name Machiko Louhisuo
    Nationality Japanese
    Age 32
    Profession Research engineer
    Place of work VTT Information Technology
    Education Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering

    Rate this

    Views

    Share

    • Currently 0 out of 5 Stars.
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Thank you for rating!

    You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!

    Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!

    101
    Tweet
    • Portraits
    • Overview
    • Jussi Ahola
    • Michèle Babini
    • Jolyon Chesworth
    • Eric Doyle
    • Anna Johnell
    • Machiko Louhisuo
    • André Müller
    • Gwendoline Paul
    • Josep Closa Soteras
    • Danielle Vlemmiks
    • More information
    • Careers in Earth Observation
    • Related links
    • ESA Earth Observation

    Connect with us

    • RSS
    • Youtube
    • Twitter
    • Flickr
    • G+
    • Facebook
    • Livestream
    • Subscribe
    • App Store
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • · Rare merger reveals secrets of gal…
    • · Watching for hazards: ESA opens as…
    • · ESA astronaut Timothy Peake set fo…
    • · Space drives e-mobility
    • · Proba-V opens its eyes
    • FAQ

    • Jobs at ESA

    • Site Map

    • Contacts

    • Terms and conditions