News — CWI Amsterdam

In Memoriam Piet Hemker

With sadness we announce that CWI Fellow and former CWI researcher Piet Hemker passed away on 27 May. Hemker had been working at CWI from 1970–2006 and since 1989 also as a professor at the UvA. He has been a CWI Fellow since 2001 and was named Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2006.

CWI researcher develops a unifying framework for quantum algorithms

A large group of quantum algorithms can now be easier understood and optimized, using a new framework developed by QuSoft researcher András Gilyén. In his PhD thesis Gilyén provides a framework that unifies quantum algorithms, while optimizing their hardware requirements. His thesis was awarded cum laude

CWI grieved by death of former director Cor Baayen

CWI's former director Cor Baayen passed away last Wednesday. Baayen served as the institute’s director from 1980 to 1994. During this period he played a key role in shaping computer science as a distinct scientific field. Under his leadership CWI transformed from a mathematical institute to a center of expertise for both mathematics and computer science.

Sander Bohté and Kees Oosterlee awarded with NWO Indo-Dutch funding

Sander Bohté (Machine Learning) and Kees Oosterlee (Scientific Computing) have been awarded with funding from NWO’s Indo-Dutch joint research programme for ICT.

CWI in Business 2019 – a compass for digital innovation

On Thursday 16 May CWI organized its matchmaking and networking event CWI in Business (CWI in Bedrijf 2019). Speakers from the business community and CWI researchers showed future opportunities in digital innovation. Keynote speakers were Jeroen Maas (Amsterdam Economic Board) and John Baekelmans (imec/Holst Centre).

ESTRO-Elekta Brachytherapy Award for Anton Bouter

Anton Bouter of CWI's Life Sciences & Health group has been awarded the ESTRO-Elekta Brachytherapy Award at the European SocieTy for Radiation & Oncology (ESTRO 38) conference in Milan, Italy.

Jie Li and Sophie Huiberts selected to participate in the 7th Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Jie Li from the DIS group and Sophie Huiberts from the N&O group have been selected to participate in the 7th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF). The annual HLF event selects a small group of 200 most qualified Young Researchers worldwide to meet pre-eminent scientists from the fields of mathematics and computer science.

CWI’s DIS group Releases Open Source Software Platform for Object-Based Broadcasting Production

H2020 EU-funded project 2-IMMERSE, of which CWI’s Distributed and Interactive Systems (DIS) group is a member had a successful final review meeting. DIS has contributed with several core platform components related to media synchronization and with a set of production tools for professionals.

DIS at CHI 2019

The Distributed and Interactive Systems group from Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) will be present at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019, presenting three full papers.

Awards for SWAT and DIS at ICT OPEN 2019

CWI's SWAT and DIS group have been awarded with a prize at NWO's ICT OPEN 2019, the event for ICT research in the Netherlands.

CWI develops price models for financial derivatives

The risks of trading complicated financial contracts can be unclear to a certain extent. In order to get a better insight in the determination of prices of such financial derivatives, CWI researcher Anton van der Stoep developed and improved financial mathematical research methods.

CWI DIS Group awarded EU Worth Project Funding

CWI's Distributed & Interactive Systems Group (DIS) has been awarded a grant for a project by the EU's WORTH Partnership Project.

Cryptographic security at the speed of light

When people who distrust each other want to securely cooperate, they can use cryptographic 'commitment schemes'. Max Fillinger (CWI) designed and analyzed relativistic commitment schemes. He defends his PhD thesis 'Bit-Commitments: Classical, Quantum and Non-Signaling' on 19 March.

CWI spin-off company Dataspex offers solutions to big data challenges in astronomy

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) has launched a new spin-off: Dataspex. The new company offers big data management solutions to astronomers.

Steven Pemberton in Nieuwsuur TV on Web@30

To celebrate 30 years since Tim Berners-Lee's proposal for the World Wide Web, an anniversary event is webcast on 12 March. In the Netherlands, CWI Web pioneer Steven Pemberton was interviewed by Nieuwsuur. It was broadcast on national TV on 8 March.

WINDTRUE project starts with kick-off meeting at CWI

On 4 March our new WINDTRUE project took to the air, aiming to develop new models that help turbine designers manage large uncertainties in wind and wave behavior, which makes well-dimensioned, cost-optimal designs possible.

Monique Laurent member of Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities

Researcher and MT member Monique Laurent (CWI and UvT) has been invited to become a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen – KHMW) in Haarlem, the oldest academic society in the Netherlands.

Evaluation committee says institutes system at Academy and NWO has significant added value

An independent committee has evaluated the portfolio of Dutch national research institutes, including CWI. The committee concludes that these institutes increase the effectiveness of Dutch scientific endeavour.

CWI and Dassault Systèmes start PPS project to improve supply chain technology

CWI and Dassault Systèmes recently started a collaboration in the field of optimization technology for businesses.

Plasma for Plants technology project granted

Recently researchers from CWI and TU/e were awarded an OTP technology grant to understand the effect of plasma on plants.

New insights from reconstructing the first ALGOL 60 system

Gauthier van den Hove (CWI) reconstructed and analyzed the first ALGOL 60 system, a computer system designed and implemented at the Mathematical Centre (MC), now CWI. On 15 February he defends his PhD thesis, which has a foreword written by the famous computer science pioneer Donald Knuth.

Demo prize for Steven Pemberton at XML Prague

Steven Pemberton (CWI) won the Demo Prize at XML Prague for his demonstration ‘A Clock in XForms’. XForms is a web technology and W3C standard, co-designed by Pemberton, originally intended for handling forms on the web. XForms reduces the time needed to design an application by a factor of ten.

Bosch and QuSoft start quantum computing collaboration

Recently, a research collaboration has begun between QuSoft and the Bosch Group. Researchers will investigate potential quantum computing use cases at Bosch, with a focus on applications in engineering and AI/machine learning fields.

CWI research leads to better understanding of AI classification errors

The future of artificial intelligence (AI) looks bright, but AI is not infallible. In her PhD thesis, CWI researcher Emma Beauxis-Aussalet provides methods to make classification errors more transparent and understandable for end-users with limited expertise in AI.

CWI develops models for prevention and reduction of traffic jams

Daphne van Leeuwen of CWI’s Stochastics group focused on the following research question during her PhD: How to design effective control mechanisms to reduce or prevent congestion road networks in the omnipresence of uncertainty?

Tim Baarslag selected for ‘FD Young Talents 2019’

Tim Baarslag of CWI’s Intelligent and Autonomous Systems group has been selected by the Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) as one of the most promising Young Talents of 2019.

CWI researcher Fredrik Jansson in Science Robotics on robot swarms

Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. This research was published in Science Robotics, with Fredrik Jansson, currently working at CWI, as one of the co-authors.

CWI joins ESCAPE project to build European Open Science Cloud

CWI will participate in the ESCAPE project, which is part of the effort to build a European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), which will allow universal access to scientific data through a single online platform.

Best Early-Researcher Paper Award for Tim Baarslag

Tim Baarslag of CWI's Intelligent and Autonomous Systems group has been awarded with the "Best Early-Researcher Paper Award" at the Agreement Technologies (AT2018) conference in Bergen, Norway.

CWI, EIT Digital, Spirit, and UPM launch Innovation Activity ''G-Moji' - an impressive smartphone application to improve lives of youth at risk

Dutch youth care organization Spirit, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), join forces in the new innovation activity of EIT Digital.