Blogs
Scanning volcanic rocks in our FleX-Ray lab
The FleX-ray CT-scanner located at the CWI, is a flexible system that can scan a large range of different objects. Even volcanic rocks!
Saving lives with Mathematics
CWI's Rob van der Mei (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica/VU) and his research colleague VU professor of Business Analytics and Applied Mathematics Sandjai Bhulai have won the Huibregtsen Prize 2021 with their research project 'Mathematics for a safer and healthier Netherlands'.
Pablo Cesar: The Outlook for Virtual Meetups
When Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica celebrated its 75th anniversary online due to a lockdown earlier this year, two colleagues immersed in a virtual world, did cut a virtual birthday cake together. Fortunately, CWI has an in-house specialist who made this possible using virtual reality (VR) togeher with his team: Pablo Cesar.
Coming Out Day 2021 - Pleading for pronouns
At the celebration of the Coming Out Day 2021 on 11 October LGBTI+ coordinator Léon Ouwerkerk (CWI) wrote a personal column, pleading for mentioning pronouns when you introduce yourself.
Hoera! Een nieuwe nationale supercomputer: Snellius
Op donderdag 16 september verrichtte Koningin Máxima de officiële opening van de nieuwe nationale supercomputer Snellius. CWI-onderzoekers rekenen al sinds 1984 op de nationale supercomputer: van het testen van beveiligingssleutels tot het simuleren van gas- en vloeistofstromingen en elektrische ontladingen.
Hoe CWI-onderzoekers hebben geholpen de coronacrisis te bestrijden
In de loop van ruim anderhalf jaar coronacrisis werkten CWI-onderzoekers onder andere aan epidemiologische modellen, apps voor contactonderzoek, statistische methoden voor medicijnentrials en vaccinatiestrategie.
How CWI-researchers helped fight the corona crisis
During more than a year and a half of the coronacrisis, CWI researchers worked on epidemiological models, apps for contact tracing, statistical methods for drug trials and vaccination strategy.
QuSoft
QuSoft is the Dutch research center for the development of software and technology for future quantum computers. It is a collaboration between CWI and the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
Laat de computer voor je onderhandelen
Bij complexe onderhandelingen – van de verkoop van een huis tot het formeren van een kabinet – is het voor mensen vaak onmogelijk om alle aspecten te overzien. CWI onderzoeker en VIDI laureaat Tim Baarslag ontwikkelt algoritmen die daar wel toe in staat zijn en mensen kunnen helpen tot een beter onderhandelingsresultaat te komen.
Have a computer negotiate for you
In complex negotiations – from the sale of a house to the formation of a coalition – it is often impossible for people to oversee all aspects. CWI’s senior researcher Tim Baarslag is developing algorithms that can do this and can help people achieve better negotiation results. Baarslag recently received a NWO-Vidi grant of 800,000 euro.
"Samen met universiteiten pakken we grote maatschappelijke uitdagingen aan"
Het CWI vindt het belangrijk om eigen wetenschappelijk onderzoek te koppelen aan onderwijs en opleiding aan universiteiten. Momenteel hebben meer dan dertig CWI-onderzoekers een deeltijdaanstelling aan negen Nederlandse universiteiten.
"Together with universities we tackle major societal challenges"
CWI considers it important to link its own scientific research to education and training at universities. Currently, more than thirty CWI researchers hold part-time appointments at nine Dutch universities.
Europe needs strong software research
“Software is eating the world.” Like oxygen is an essential element for all life forms, software is the invisible yet crucial fabric of our society. Researchers from Finland, France and the Netherlands have written a call-to-arms document an published an online petition for an increase of funding for fundamental software research.
Aad van Wijngaarden's role in Informatics
On 18 November 2021 CWI presents the Van Wijngaarden Awards 2021. The prize is named after Aad van Wijngaarden, founding father of Dutch computer science and former director of the Mathematisch Centrum (nowadays CWI).
Breakthrough in energy efficient artificial intelligence
Thanks to a mathematical breakthrough, AI applications can become a hundred to a thousand times more energy efficient. This will make it possible to put much more elaborate AI in chips, enabling applications to run on a smartphone or smartwatch where before this was done in the cloud.
Better Statistics Leads to Better Research
“The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone’s backyard.” This quote from the eminent mathematician, John Tukey, sums up Judith ter Schure’s love of statistics. “Statistics is a way to be involved in very diverse fields of science,” she says. Researchers, regardless of their field of work, need statisticians to help them unlock the meaning of their data.
IMPACT4ART: the interplay between scientists, art historians, conservators and the general public
The wooden sculpture shown in the green oval is surrounded by mystery: How old is this wooden sculpture? Where and by whom was it made? Mathematics and computer science can help to answer such questions.
Plan achterland transporten beter en sneller met algoritmes
Een oplossing voor het realiseren van de 'modal shift' in de transportsector, is het toepassen van slimme algoritmes, maar daar zitten wel tal van uitdagingen aan vast, stelt Bernard Zweers van het Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in een artikel voor logistiek.nl.
Dutch Secure Autonomous Cloud: Nederlands initiatief voor veilige cloud
In een interview met AG Connect schetst Marten van Dijk (CWI) samen met Herbert Bos (VU) en Cees de Laat (UvA) plannen voor zijn initiatief om een Dutch Secure Autonomous Cloud (DUSAC) op te zetten. "Wij willen een eigen vertical stack bouwen, specifiek gericht op het veilig gebruiken en verwerken van data. En dat levert Nederland meer op dan alleen maar een veilige cloud".
CWI: 75 years of pioneering research
This year, CWI is celebrating! 75 years ago, the institute opened its doors. Its aim was to promote the use of pure and applied mathematics in the reconstruction after the Second World War,
Keeping it local: interview with AI researcher Sander Bohte
Bennie Mols interviewed Sander Bohte for ACM Communications about his breakthrough in energy efficient AI.
Sung-Shik Jonkmans: Programmeren voor multicore kan makkelijker
Het ontwikkelen van multicore software is complex en ook werken veel ontwikkelaars nog met oude programmeertechnieken. Sung-Shik Jongmans betoogt in AG Connect dat typesystemen die zijn toegespitst op data én interacties een goede oplossing kunnen bieden.
Noisy numbers
Although we heavily rely on computations executed by computers, many computations produce inaccurate results. What if computers are wrong?
AI Calculates Best Treatment Plan
A computer that calculates an entire series of optimized treatment plans for prostate cancer in 30 seconds – that took some getting used to for medical specialists. Using artificial intelligence, the computer presented better plans and more insight than the doctors thought possible. The first patients are due to be treated accordingly already this year.
Making The Invisible Visible
CT machines are becoming the standard tool for looking inside objects of all kinds in research and industry. The FleX-ray Lab at CWI is making this type of imaging more accessible to math and computer science researchers. It's also drawing interest from the art, history, and the social sciences community.
Bringing Quantum Computers Closer to Reality
The concept of quantum computing was first proposed back in the 1980s and since then the race has been on to develop the first reliable, scalable quantum computer. Done right, this revolutionary technology could rapidly accelerate developments in fields like machine learning, drug development, finance, and cryptology.
Snowflake’s co-founder Marcin Żukowski reflects on his time at CWI
“I knew it had amazing potential”, says Snowflake co-founder Marcin Żukowski, looking back on his time as a PhD researcher at CWI. In his PhD thesis, published in 2009, Żukowski described the blueprint of what would become two key technologies currently used by data storage and analytics provider Snowflake.
COMPUTER SCIENCE CLOSE TO REAL WORLD
Pablo Cesar, group leader of the Distributive and Interactive Systems group at CWI and Professor at TU Delft, is the recipient of the 2020 Netherlands Prize for ICT Research. In an interview with I/O Magazine he tells about his work which is about modelling and controlling complex collections of media objects. ‘We need human-centred computing, as otherwise, we may get the wrong type of intelligent machines’.
Cycling & Mathematics: why Wilco Kelderman lost a minute or more to the early starters of the Giro 2020 prologue
Cycling pro Wilco Kelderman is a good individual time trialist and he said in his post-race interview that he felt he rode a great prologue at the Giro 2020. Knowing this, we ask ourselves: Why did he lose over a minute to the early starters? And more importantly: could we have predicted this loss?
Quest for the Hugo de Groot book chest
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam was pursuing an interesting question: in which book chest did Hugo de Groot escape from castle Loevestein in 1621? The Rijksmuseum and University of Amsterdam turned to CWI for help in solving this mystery.