News — CWI Amsterdam

Energy Intranets project awarded by NWO

In the 'Energy Systems Integration & Big Data' round NWO has awarded six projects. CWI is in the lead of one programme and takes part in another.

Sterkenburg argues universal method of prediction is impossible

Is it possible to formulate a universal method of prediction? PhD candidate Tom Sterkenburg of CWI’s Machine Learning group argues in his thesis that it is not. He will defend his thesis on 18 January 2018.

Caroline Jagtenberg awarded Rubicon grant

Caroline Jagtenberg, who recently obtained her PhD at CWI, has been awarded an NWO Rubicon grant. With the grant, Jagtenberg will do research at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) for a period of two years.

Hardman new chair Amsterdam Data Science, Boncz joins Supervisory Board

As of January 2018, CWI researcher Lynda Hardman is the new chair of the management team of Amsterdam Data Science. Peter Boncz, CWI researcher and part of the CWI management team, will join the ADS Supervisory Board.

EU PROMETHEUS project started to develop quantum-safe cryptography

In January 2018 the international PROMETHEUS project has started – a new four-year European H2020 project to prepare ourselves for the threats of the post-quantum era. Dutch research partners in this international project are TNO and CWI.

Stochastics group leader Bert Zwart in 'Economentop 40' of 2017

Stochastics researcher and group leader Bert Zwart is selected to be part of the 'Economentop 40' of 2017, which lists the forty Dutch economists with the highest publication rate in peer reviewed magazines over the past five years.

Happy holidays!

CWI is closed from 23 December to 2 January. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Joint eScience and Data Science grant for CWI's Peter Bosman and AMC

Recently, a research proposal that is spearheaded by CWI was granted in the Joint eScience and Data Science programme that was organized jointly by the NWO Domain Science and Netherlands eScience Center (NLeSC). In all projects in this programme, researchers collaborate with eScience engineers of the NLeSC.

Proposal 'Inside the filter Bubble' granted

Recently, the project proposal "Inside the filter bubble" was granted in the JEDS call for cross-sectoral scientific challenges by NWO and the eScience Centre. In this project, Laura Hollink (CWI) collaborates with communication scientists at VU and UvA and Computational Linguists at VU to determine the existence and impact of filter bubbles in mobile news consumption.

Commit2Data grant for better, faster and real-time adaptable big data analysis

To improve parallel processing of big data, NWO granted the project ‘Evolutionary changes in Distributed Analysis’ (ECiDA) within their Commit2Data programme. The research partners in this project – CWI being one of them – will develop a platform to support 'evolving data-intensive application pipelines’, making big data analysis safer, better, faster and adaptable in real-time.

Caroline Jagtenberg awarded with prestigious Jo van Nunen award

Caroline Jagtenberg, former PhD student of CWI, received the prestigious Jo van Nunen award for her CWI PhD thesis “Efficiency and Fairness in Ambulance Planning” on 30 November. The prize has been awarded by VLM (Vereniging Logistiek Management).

Joost Batenburg awarded with Dutch Award for ICT research 2018

Joost Batenburg has been awarded with the Dutch Award for ICT research 2018. CWI’s group leader Computational Imaging and professor at Leiden University receives the award for his research in the area of new algorithms for tomography. An amount of 50.000 euro is attached to the award. This amount can be freely spent, in order to reinforce Batenburg’s research.

European researchers publish Quantum Software Manifesto

Researchers and industry specialists across Europe, led by Harry Buhrman (director of QuSoft, group leader at CWI, and professor at the University of Amsterdam), have launched a Quantum Software Manifesto. With the Manifesto, the group aims to increase awareness of and support for quantum software research.

Ans Hekkenberg gives TEDx talk on diversity in science

CWI Communication Manager Ans Hekkenberg gave a TEDx talk titled ‘Diversity - A Requisite for Excellent Science’. In her talk, Hekkenberg advocates for a greater diversity in science and she details why excellent science is essential for facing future challenges.

CWI merges with NWO Institutes Organisation

With effect from 1 January 2018, CWI will merge with the NWO Institutes Organisation, NWO-I. The other institutes that join the merger are ASTRON, NIOZ, NSCR and SRON. The institutes AMOLF, ARCNL, DIFFER and Nikhef are already part of NWO-I.

CWI participates in new NWO Perspectief programme

In the coming years almost a hundred researchers are going to develop innovative technologies together with industry and social organisations. That will happen in six new Perspectief programmes, which have been given the green light by NWO, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, on 21 November 2017. CWI's Machine Learning group participates in the programme Efficient Deep Learning Systems.

Tim Baarslag in ‘Universiteit van Nederland’

Tim Baarslag, who is part of CWI’s Intelligent and Autonomous Systems research group, has given a lecture for the 'Universiteit van Nederland'. The lecture can now be viewed online.

CWI and ProRail predict railway incidents

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and ProRail recently started a research collaboration in the area of the handling of incidents at the Dutch railways. It concerns a public private partnership between CWI and ProRail striking up a four year period. The research is aimed at prevention and handling of a broad spectrum of railway incidents, like disturbance of the railway infrastructure, people walking on the tracks and collisions.

In Memoriam Willem Hundsdorfer

With sadness, we let you know that our colleague Prof. Willem Hundsdorfer passed away on Friday 10 November, at the age of 63. Since 1984 Willem had been affiliated with CWI; first in the Numerical Mathematics department, where he built up an international reputation. Since 2002, he had been part of the Multiscale Dynamics research group, where he shared his expertise for developing simulations of electric discharges that by now are widely recognized.

NEWSGAC project kicked off

The NEWSGAC project, acquired by Laura Hollink and Jacco van Ossenbruggen, has kicked off last week week. Researchers of this project aim to open the 'black box' of machine learning in this joint project with the eScience Centre, the University of Groningen, the National Library of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

First CWI thesis on web archiving

Thaer Samar successfully defended his PhD thesis "Access to and Retrievability of Content in Web Archives" on 30 October 2017

Tim Baarslag Winner of the 2017 Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award

Tim Baarslag (CWI) won the 2017 ERCIM Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award. This European prize is awarded each year to a promising young researcher of outstanding quality in computer science and applied mathematics.

CWI participates in impact study North/Southline

The North/Southline is the largest operation in Amsterdam’s public transport in decades. That is why the municipality of Amsterdam will start an extensive impact study together with knowledge institutions, the transport region Amsterdam and GVB (public transport company Amsterdam). Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) will act as one of the main research partners.

Jos Baeten elected ERCIM president

Jos Baeten, General Director of CWI, is elected as president of ERCIM (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics) for a period of two years.

Lightning produces afterglow of gamma radiation

Ionizing radiation due to lightning shines for much longer than presumed before: up to 10,000 times longer. This was demonstrated for the first time by computer simulations of CWI researchers. Their work was published on 22 October in Geophysical Review Letters.

CWI will host EIT Digital's new innovation space

EIT Digital is opening a new innovation space at the offices of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam on 2 November. With this top location in the financial heart of the Netherlands, EIT Digital wants to boost the development of FinTech, together with its partners in the Netherlands and Europe.

In Memoriam Lorike Hagdorn

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Dr. Lorike Hagdorn, member of the CWI Governing Board. Lorike Hagdorn passed away on Monday 9 October 2017. With her passing, CWI has lost a driven and competent board member, and the Dutch research field of logistics has lost one of its most prominent scientists.

Alexander Schoenhuth appointed Professor Genome Data Science

Starting 1 October 2017, Alexander Schoenhuth of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam is appointed Professor ‘Genome Data Science’ at the Faculty of Science of Utrecht University. It concerns a part-time appointment for one day a week.

Large H2020 grant for optimisation research project ‘MINOA’

Recently, the EU granted the Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Optimisation Applications (MINOA) project, as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme. The project is a collaborative European Training Network, with 12 research partners, CWI being one of them.

Software Renovation by Reverse Engineering Source Code

Currently, software renovation is a hot topic, because our society is depending more and more on aging software. By renovating software we refresh aging software to better match the current technical and business environment. In his thesis CWI PhD candidate Davy Landman studied the automation of software renovation by using Reverse Engineering.