News — CWI Amsterdam

CWI develops new techniques for modular programming languages

The development of domain specific languages requires highly specialized skills. CWI PhD student Pablo Inostroza Valdera proposes to develop them by composing language fragments from software libraries, which makes this activity less laborious. He defends his PhD thesis at the UvA on 29 November 2018.

Florian Speelman wins Andreas Bonn medal 2018

Florian Speelman (CWI & QuSoft) was awarded an Andreas Bonn medal 2018 from the GNGH, the Dutch Society for the Advancement of Science, Medicine and Surgery, for his thesis 'Position-based Quantum Cryptography and Catalytic Computation'. The three medals are presented once every five years for original work.

CWI celebrates 30 year of open internet in Europe

On Saturday, November 17 at 2.28 pm it is exactly thirty years ago since the Netherlands was the first country in Europe to be connected to the Internet.

Two awards for CWI SWAT / INRIA collaboration at SLE 2018

Last week Tijs van der Storm and Thomas Degueule of CWI's SWAT group were awarded with two prizes at ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE) in Boston, Massachussets.

Renowned scientists and policy advisors speak at CWI Lectures on Privacy and Security

Our privacy, a fundamental right, is threatened by surveillance and smart algorithms. Can our privacy be salvaged from 'intelligent' machines? During the CWI Lectures 2018 four renowned scientists and policy advisors discuss the state of the art in protecting privacy. Keynote speakers: Marc Rotenberg (USA), Jan Camenisch (Switzerland), Adam Smith (USA) and Ed Felten (USA), former advisor of Barack Obama.

Best Paper award for Tim Baarslag and Michael Kaisers

Tim Baarslag and Michael Kaisers of CWI's Intelligent & Autonomous Systems group have been awarded the Best Paper award at the IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids.

CWI and Stichting 113 use data analytics for suicide prevention

Foundation 113 aims at a society in which nobody dies lonely or desperate because of suicide. To achieve this goal, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and Foundation 113 Suicide Prevention have recently started a research collaboration.

Cum laude for PhD thesis on advancing theory of lower bounds for multiplying matrices faster

Jeroen Zuiddam (CWI) developed new mathematical instruments to study the problem of multiplying large matrices fast. He defends his PhD thesis ‘Algebraic complexity, asymptotic spectra and entanglement polytopes’ at the UvA on 23 October. He received a 'cum laude' predicate.

CWI and its role in the digitizing society

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica has published its Strategic Plan 2019-2024. In it, CWI presents the research themes and topics the institute will focus on in the coming years and its ambition to further expand its impact.

WISE programme: four Tenure Track positions for talented female scientists at NWO institutes

CWI participates in NWO’s WISE programme (Women In Science Excel), which provides - in 2019 - four Tenure Track positions for talented female scientists, with an opportunity to develop or expand their own research group at one of NWO's institutes.

Reinforcing the electricity grid with Evolutionary Algorithms

In our modern daily life, many activities require electricity, for example, the use of domestic appliances, manufacturing, communication, and transportation. It is therefore essential to maintain a reliable supply of electricity to ensure the operation of such activities.

CWI and Acumex join forces on the development of online negotiation technology

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), the Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science, has agreed on a long-term research collaboration with Acumex to make autonomous online negotiation of complex goods a reality.

Best paper award for paper co-authored by Francesca de Simone at EUSIPCO 2018

The paper "Rate Distortion Optimized Graph Partitioning for Omnidirectional Image Coding" authored by Mira Rizkallah (INRIA), Francesca De Simone (CWI), Thomas Maugey (INRIA), Christine Guillemot (INRIA), and Pascal Frossard (EPFL), has been awarded with the Best Student Paper Award at EUSIPCO 2018.

Francesca de Simone awarded with UK Royal Society International Exchanges 2018 grant

Francesca de Simone of CWI's DIS group has been awarded with an INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES 2018 GRANT bij the UK Royal Society together with Laura Toni (UCL).

Distributed and Interactive Systems group at IBC 2018

CWI’s Distributed and Interactive Systems group will be present at IBC 2018, from 14th to 18th of September at RAI Amsterdam, showcasing their research. The International Broadcasting Convention is the world's most influential media, entertainment and technology show.

CWI group leader Ute Ebert on Focus TV

Ute Ebert, group leader of CWI’s Multiscale Dynamics group, appeared on national TV in the NTR science television programme Focus, where she explained which physical phenomena cause the beginning of lightning.

Sophie Huiberts nominated for UU Graduate School of Natural Sciences Thesis Award 2018

Sophie Huiberts, a PhD student at CWI, was one of the three nominees for the Graduate School of Natural Sciences Thesis Award 2018 at Utrecht University.

2018 Women@McKinsey Dissertation Award for Yllka Velaj

CWI researcher and ERCIM Fellow Yllka Velaj has won the 2018 Women@McKinsey Dissertation Award for her PhD thesis, which analyzes the problem of how to maximize the dissemination of information and opinions in social networks. The award comes with a job offer by McKinsey & Company, and a sponsorship to attend the Open Data Science Conference 2018.

Monique Laurent opened World Women in Mathematics event in Rio

Monique Laurent from CWI opened the World Women in Mathematics event (WM)² in Rio de Janeiro with a keynote lecture.

Health Innovation Seed Fund III B.V. invests in Stokhos emergency mathematics

CWI spin-off company Stokhos Emergency Mathematics receives an investment of Health Innovation Seed Fund III. With this financial injection Stokhos aims to further optimize its software called Seconds, to achieve a scale-up and further international expansion.

ERC Starting grant for CWI researcher Daniel Dadush

In July, Daniel Dadush (CWI) was awarded an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euro for his proposal ‘Towards a Quantitative Theory of Integer Programming’. He aims to revolutionize the understanding of integer programming (IP), the most popular method for finding optimal solutions to optimization problems.

Veni grant for Daniël Pelt

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to CWI researcher Daniël Pelt.

Machine Learning Techniques for Space Weather book published

Recently, the book 'Machine Learning Techniques for Space Weather', edited by CWI researcher Enrico Camporeale and others, was published by Elsevier. The book provides “a thorough and accessible presentation of machine learning techniques that can be employed by space weather professionals”.

Technology grant awarded to optimize plasma-assisted combustion

Incomplete combustion in engines and central heating systems can generate toxic exhaust gases. An electric discharge or plasma can preprocess the mixture of air and fuel, which could largely improve the combustion process. Researchers from CWI and TU/e were awarded a technology grant from NWO to understand and improve this.

Jie Li awarded with Best Paper Award at ACM TVX 2018

On 27 June, Jie Li of CWI’s Distributed and Interactive Systems (DIS) group has been awarded with the Best Paper Award at ACM TVX 2018, the ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for Television and Online Video.

CWI contributes to trial new broadcasting system FA Cup Final at Wembley

H2020 EU-funded project 2-IMMERSE, of which CWI’s Distributed and Interactive Systems (DIS) group is a member, tested their prototype end-to-end live production system for object-based broadcasting at the FA- cup final at Wembley.

Mark Raasveldt wins Student Research Competition at SIGMOD 2018

Mark Raasveldt, PhD student at CWI’s Database Architecture (DA) group, won the Student Research Competition at the SIGMOD 2018 conference for his work titled "MonetDBLite: An Embedded Analytical Database".

CWI researchers make power grid more reliable with mathematics

Researchers from Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) discovered how large fluctuations in solar and wind energy, combined with the physical network dynamics of electricity, can cause failures in power grids.

Efficient models for high voltage switching

In the search for better environmentally friendly high-voltage switches, it is important to understand electrical breakdowns in various media. PhD student Ashutosh Agnihotri (CWI) developed efficient computational models to simulate these phenomena in different gas mixtures. He defends his PhD thesis at Eindhoven University of Technology on 25 June.

BEST PAPER AWARD FOR FRANCESCA DE SIMONE AT ACM MMSys 2018

On 14 June Francesca De Simone of CWI’s DIS group has been awarded with the Best Paper Award at the the ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys 2018).