News — CWI Amsterdam

Sander Bohté, professor by special appointment of Cognitive Neurobiology at UvA

Sander Bohté (1974) has been named professor by special appointment of Cognitive Neurobiology, specialising in Computational Neuroscience, at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)'s Faculty of Science. The chair was designated on behalf of the Science Plus Foundation (Stichting Bèta Plus). He will be combining his professorship with his position as senior researcher at CWI's Machine Learning group.

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.

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.

CWI researchers selected as ACM Future of Computing Academy members

CWI researchers Tim Baarslag and Wouter Koolen have been selected as members of the of the ACM Future of Computing Academy (FCA).

NWO TOP grant for Peter Grünwald

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Physical Sciences TOP grant 1 for curiosity driven research to Peter Grünwald of CWI.

ERCIM News 107 on Machine Learning co-coordinated by Sander Bohte - extra Open Access section

In October 2016, ERCIM News No. 107 was published: http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en107. It features a special theme on current trends and new paradigms in Machine Learning, coordinated by the guest editors Sander Bohte (CWI ) and Hung Son Nguyen (University of Warsaw).

Bayesian statistics not as robust as commonly thought

The widely used method of Bayesian statistics is not as robust as commonly thought. Researcher Thijs van Ommen of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) discovered that for certain types of problems, Bayesian statistics finds non-existing patterns in the data. Van Ommen defends his thesis on this topic on Wednesday 10 June at Leiden University.

Researchers develop neural model for working memory

Neuroscientists of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) have developed a biologically plausible neural network model that can learn to remember past events in order to use them in the future. The researchers developed their model by combining theoretical principles from machine learning with insights from neuroscience.

CWI starts research on spiking neural networks

Sander Bohte, researcher in the life science group of the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, starts in collaboration with researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) a new project on spiking neural networks.

Brain mechanisms better understood with new model

Building a neural network with the same properties and capacity as the human brain is the holy grail in neuroinformatics. Such a network would not only explain the inner workings of the brain, but would also pave the road for brain-controlled machines such as computers operated by thought and robot limbs for the handicapped.

CWI simulates brain activity on video cards

Neuroinformaticists of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam managed to simulate complex brain activity on simple video cards. The simulated brain contains 50,000 neurons communicating with 35 million signals per second. This is comparable to the brain capacity of insects such as ants or flies.

Early genetic code very resistant to mutation

Researchers of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam show that the genetic code is remarkably resistant to DNA replication errors. This might explain the success of the common ancestor of all life, who 3,5 billion years ago developed the genetic code that resides in every organism.

CWI co-launches Dutch Machine Learning Platform website

Ten organizations, including the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, launched the Dutch Machine Learning Platform website on 8 July. The URL is: http://www.mlplatform.nl/.

Cum laude for thesis 'Combining Strategies Efficiently' from Wouter Koolen

Computer programs advise on stock market investments

CWI builds new supercomputer

CWI has started the construction of a new supercomputer cluster in the beginning of October 2003. The cluster, consisting of 48 dual and quad AMD Opteron systems, is the first quad Opteron cluster in the Benelux. The new supercomputer, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO, is expected to be operational in two months.

Sander Bohte receives NWO grants

The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO has granted a VENI subsidy to CWI researcher Sander Bohte. Bohte will use the grant, approved in March 2003, to further his research on spiking neural networks. These types of networks incorporate the latest insights in functional biological neurons. In theory they are much more powerful than traditional artificial neural networks. Bothe's work is aimed at using spiking neurons in large-scale networks that can learn to deal with symbolic structures like grammar in language or compact descriptions of objects in vision.