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A puzzle with a million pieces: assembling viral genomes from sequencing data
Researchers from CWI’s Life Science and Health group have developed a new computational tool, SAVAGE, for reconstructing the genomes of the different virus strains that affect an infected person. SAVAGE makes it possible to reconstruct the different strains – of which there can be plenty in an infected person – even when so called reference genomes are not available
Jan Willem Kleinrouweler receives Excellence in DASH Award at MMSys 2017
Jan Willem Kleinrouweler of CWI’s Distributed and Interactive Systems group has received the Excellence in DASH Award at ACM Multimedia Systems 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Sung-Shik Jongmans wins IPA Dissertation Award 2016
Research school IPA awarded Sung-Shik Jongmans with the IPA Dissertation Award 2016. The jury wrote: “The thesis contains theoretical contributions, novel ideas, and practical implementation results. The results have been impactful and are deemed to be of high quality and significance.”
CWI researcher simulates complex financial developments, from interest rates to the possibility of bankruptcy
PhD student Alvaro Leitao Rodriguez proposes new methods to tackle complex problems in the financial sector. With these methods, Leitao Rodriguez successfully simulates the movements of the interest rates in the Foreign eXchange (FX) markets and evaluates corresponding risks.
Steven Pemberton wins 2017 Best Demo Award at XML London
On 10 June 2017 Steven Pemberton won by acclamation the Demo Award at the XML London conference for his demonstration 'XForms Game'. XForms is a web technology and W3C standard, co-designed by Pemberton, originally intended for handling forms on the web. It now has been generalized to allow the description of more general applications.
Best Doctoral Consortium Paper Award for Jan Willem Kleinrouweler at TVX 2017
On 14 June Jan Willem Kleinrouweler of CWI’s DIS group has been awarded with the Best Paper Award at the the ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for Television and Online Video (TVX 2017) . He received the award for his paper “Enhancing Over-the-Top Video Streaming Quality with DASH Assisting Network Elements”.
Harry Buhrman and Yfke Dulek give ‘Paradiso lecture’ on artificial intelligence and quantum computers
On 18 June, Harry Buhrman and Yfke Dulek will give a ‘Paradiso lecture’. These lectures, which take place in music venue and cultural centre Paradiso in Amsterdam, are intended for a broad audience. Harry Buhrman is leader of the Algorithms and Complexity group, director of QuSoft and professor at the University of Amsterdam. Yfke Dulek is a PhD student in the A&C research group. Their lecture will focus on artificial intelligence and quantum computers. Buhrman and Dulek will address the question: will computers take over in the future?
CWI researchers selected as ACM Future of Computing Academy members
CWI researchers Tim Baarslag and Wouter Koolen have been selected as members of the of the ACM Future of Computing Academy (FCA).
Researchers develop robot friend to support children
A team of researchers led by CWI will investigate the use of robots in order to emotionally support children that suffer from cancer. The robots must act as a personal, social friend for the children at times their parents cannot be around.
Nanda Piersma appointed Professor by Special Appointment in Urban Analytics
The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) has appointed Nanda Piersma as a Professor by Special Appointment in ‘Urban Analytics’. Her new research group strengthens the collaboration between both the AUAS Technology and Digital Media and Creative Industry faculties and CWI in Amsterdam, where Piersma will work part-time (50%). Urban Analytics focuses on big data analysis as a basis for new products and services that can contribute to solutions for the many challenges that Amsterdam is facing in the 21st century. Piersma will start her work at CWI on 1 September 2017.
Vidi grant for Enrico Camporeale’s space weather research
CWI researcher Enrico Camporeale received a Vidi grant from NWO for his proposal 'Real-time forecasting of killer electrons on satellite orbits' in May 2017. He received the 800,000 euro grant to develop his own innovative line of research and to set up his own research group within five years. Camporeale will develop a technology to forecast space weather events that could harm satellites, power networks and communication systems. This forecast would allow to take countermeasures.
Distinguished paper Award for CWI researchers Davy Landman and Jurgen Vinju
At the ICSE 2017 (39th International Conference on Software Engineering) in Buenos Aires CWI researchers Davy Landman and Jurgen Vinju in collaboration with Alexander Serebrenik (TUE) have been awarded with the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for their paper "Challenges for Static Analysisof Java Reflection - Literature Review and Empirical Study".
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica launches world-class 3D lab
On Thursday 18 May 2017 demissionary state secretary Sander Dekker opened a new research facility that belongs to the top of the world league at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. With the new scanner of this lab, it will be made possible for the first time to look inside objects in 3D during the scanning process and to adjust or zoom in while scanning.
Quantum Software Consortium receives 18.8 million euro in the Gravitation Programme
The Ministry for Education, Culture and Science has awarded a Gravitation grant for large-scale research on quantum software. This grant of 18.8 million euro unites researchers from QuSoft, CWI, Leiden University, QuTech, TU Delft, UvA and the VU in pursuing state of the art research programmes in this new field.
DIS at CHI 2017
The Distributed and Interactive Systems group from Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) will be present at CHI 2017 showcasing their research on social media and semantics, and smart textiles and environments. CWI contributes with a long and a WiP papers, an interactivity demo, and a workshop paper.
Monique Laurent elected as Fellow of SIAM
CWI researcher Monique Laurent is elected as a Fellow of the international Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics – SIAM. This prestigious Fellowship honours SIAM members who have made outstanding contributions to these fields. Laurent, who is a member of the management team of CWI and a professor at Tilburg University, receives the fellowship for her contributions to discrete and polynomial optimization and revealing interactions between them.
QuSoft launches new collaboration with French and Latvian partners
On April 28th, QuSoft, the Paris Centre for Quantum Computing (PCQC) and the University of Latvia will sign a memorandum of understanding, to jointly push the frontiers of quantum information theory and develop quantum software for the future quantum computer.
CWI and Databricks launch new collaboration in the presence of Minister Kamp
On April 25 2017, CWI and big data analytics and data science software company Databricks launched a new collaboration. The launch took place in the presence of Minister Kamp of Economic Affairs, at the Hannover Messe.
Stokhos and LIS GmbH sign Letter of Intent in presence of state secretary Sander Dekker
On April 24 2017 CWI spin-off Stokhos and German software company LIS Leitstellen Informations System GmbH have signed a Letter of Intent in presence of State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science Sander Dekker. This happened at the Hannover Messe, the largest annual technology trade fair.
Rubicon grants for David de Laat and Alessandro Zocca
CWI researchers David de Laat and Alessandro Zocca both received an NWO Rubicon grant. De Laat will study new techniques to compute optimal packings at MIT for one year, and Zocca will study renewables and uncertainty in future power systems at Caltech for two years. NWO granted these subsidies to 22 young, highly promising research talents to gain international research experience at foreign top institutes.
PhD student Lisanne Rens wins H. D. Landahl Mathematical Biophysics Award
CWI PhD student Lisanne Rens has been awarded the 2017 H. D. Landahl Mathematical Biophysics Award. Every two years, the Society for Mathematical Biology gives out this reward in recognition of a scientist who is making outstanding scientific contributions to the advancement of mathematical biology during their doctoral studies.
EATCS Presburger Award 2017 for Alexandra Silva
The 2017 Presburger Committee has unanimously selected Alexandra Silva, a Senior Lecturer at University College London as recipient of the prestigious 2017 EATCS Presburger Award for young scientists. She received the award for a large part of her PhD research, which she carried out in the Formal Methods research group at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam.
Better estimation of financial risks possible with maths
Due to the recent financial crisis, the requirements imposed on banks have been made stricter. Banks must model the credit risk of the counterparties now in their portfolios, for instance. A measure for this is the credit value adjustment (CVA): the difference between the value of a portfolio without credit risk and the value if a possible bankruptcy of the counterparty is included. Qian Feng modelled CVAs and designed a new algorithm that can help banks estimate the risks precisely, so they can take appropriate measures if necessary.
Cécile Pierrot wins Cercle K2 Cybersecurity Trophy 2017
Cécile Pierrot from the Cryptology research group at CWI won the first Cybersecurity Trophy granted by Cercle K2. This French think tank awards prizes in 22 topics every two years. It aims at stimulating interdisciplinarity and promoting young researchers. The Cybersecurity Trophy 2017 rewarded Pierrot’s PhD thesis, which she defended at UPMC in Paris on 25 November 2016. The jury praised her for both theoretical and practical impacts of her results.
CWI develops new algebraic filter for reconstruction of X-Ray images
CWI PhD student Linda Plantagie of the Computational Imaging research group has introduced a new algebraic filter for the use of reconstructing X-Ray images. Linda Plantagie will defend her thesis 13 April at Leiden University.
The Netherlands’ smallest supercomputer is here
A team of Dutch scientists has built a supercomputer the size of four pizza boxes. The Little Green Machine II has the computing power of 10,000 PCs and will be used by researchers in oceanography, computer science, artificial intelligence, financial modeling and astronomy. CWI researchers Joost Batenburg and Kees Oosterlee, who were part of the development team, will use the machine for computational imaging and machine learning for time series respectively. The computer is based at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and developed with help from IBM.
National Blockchain Coalition Presents Action Agenda
On 20 March, Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp received the action agenda of the National Blockchain Coalition. The agenda is a joint initiative of over 20 organizations active in the logistics, energy and financial sectors, as well as governments and research institutes - Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) being one of them. With this initiative, the Netherlands aims to be an international leader in the application of blockchain technology.
CWI researcher makes higher turnover in hotel bookings possible
With a new mathematical method, hotels can receive on average 5% more turnover in the long term when taking online reviews into account. Dirk Sierag, PhD student of CWI, analysed with historical data the behaviour of consumers booking rooms. Based on the results he designed mathematical models that can support hotels in determining optimal prices of hotel rooms. The research results can also be applied on movies, concerts, sporting events and, for example, Uber taxi rides.
ERC Advanced Grant for CWI cryptographer Ronald Cramer
CWI cryptographer Ronald Cramer has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euro for his proposal 'Algebraic Methods for Stronger Crypto'. He leads the Cryptology Research group at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam and is a full professor at the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University. The European Research Council awards these most prestigious personal grants to outstanding, well-established scientists with novel ideas towards high-risk, groundbreaking research that impacts both science and society at large.
CWI & Databricks: Big Data in Amsterdam
Amsterdam wants to play a leading international role in the development of data science research. In Big Data Amsterdam, Financieele Dagblad journalist Job Woudt interviews Amsterdam Data Science researchers on the functioning of the ecosystem where companies and knowledge institutions in Amsterdam collaborate in the area of Big Data.