News — CWI Amsterdam

In memoriam MC pioneers Blaauw, Kriens and Verhoeff

In March 2018 three former colleagues sadly passed away: Gerrit Blaauw, Koos Kriens and Koos Verhoeff. They did pioneering research at the Mathematisch Centrum (MC) in Amsterdam, currently called CWI.

CWI researchers simulate how ‘coherent structures’ affect solar wind heating

CWI researchers have further developed our understanding of how solar wind particles get accelerated and heated. In particular, they discovered how ‘coherent structures’ in the solar wind, places where the magnetic fields and electrical currents are enhanced, affect the energy transfer responsible for heating. The results were published in Physical Review Letters on 19 March 2018.

DIS at CHI 2018

The Distributed and Interactive Systems group from Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) will be present at CHI 2018 showcasing their research on a case-study of developing a multi-sensory clubbing experience during Amsterdam Dance Event 2016, designing preproduction tools for multiscreen TV viewing, and classifying news media sympathy on Twitter after crisis events.

Better simulations for lightning and high-voltage technology

Until recently, it was not clear how lightning could start. CWI PhD student Casper Rutjes modelled and simulated the origin of lightning and ionizing radiation from storm clouds and explained the physics of these phenomena. On 15 March he defended his PhD thesis. His results are important for lightning research, high-voltage technology and nuclear medicine models.

Arrival of iconic Electrologica X8 computer celebrated with symposium

On 24 March Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, UvA, CWI and TU/e organize a public symposium around the Electrologica X8 computer from the sixties. The iconic X8 computer was developed and built entirely in the Netherlands by CWI's first spin-off Electrologica.

CWI research quality, relevance to society and viability rated ‘excellent’

An international evaluation committee has rated CWI as excellent, or world leading, in terms of its research quality, its relevance to society and its viability. The evaluation covered the institute’s work in the 2011-2016 period.

Vici grants for Nikhil Bansal and Roeland Merks

CWI researchers Nikhil Bansal and Roeland Merks have been awarded Vici grants from NWO. With the 1.5 million euro grant, Bansal and Merks can develop their own research lines in the next five years.

Radio telescope LOFAR shows how lightning grows

Dutch radio telescope LOFAR can observe the creation of lightning flashes at an unprecedented one-metre resolution, which may lead to better lightning protection. The results were published by an international scientific team with RUG, ASTRON, CWI, RU and VUB on 16 February 2018 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Computational Imaging group and Rijksmuseum project awarded with NICAS funding

The Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS) has announced which proposals have been awarded in the call "An Integrated Approach to the Scientific Study and Conservation of Art", organised by NWO.

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