News
Scientific Computing group news
CWI researchers involved in two NWO-Groot grants
In the NWO Open Competition ENW-GROOT programme, four CWI researchers received in total two grants to study machine learning and neural networks: Nikhil Bansal, Monique Laurent, Benjamin Sanderse and Leen Stougie.
New mathematical models for wind turbine load calculations
New mathematical models developed by PhD student Laurent van den Bos can help to determine the best possible way to establish new wind farms. His thesis received the predicate Cum Laude.
Weather forecast techniques help find the perfect oil drill
A new way of processing data from rock measurements could lead to a much more efficient oil extraction. During her PhD research, Sangeetika Ruchi developed a method to infer the most probable rock properties, based on only a few indirect measurements.
Reality check for financial risk assessment tool concludes CWI-led project
One of the most promising tools for assessing financial risks proves to hold up after a thorough mathematical gauging. CWI researcher Ki Wai Chau developed a numerical analysis of complex algorithms that are developed to support financial risk management. His method provides a reality check for those algorithms, paving the way for future applications.
Smart mobility start-up Skialabs launched by CWI researchers
Traffic flows in cities could be managed much more efficiently thanks to cutting-edge technology pioneered by the new start-up Skialabs. By using huge dataflows collected in cities, the Skialabs platform provides a real-time view on the mobility flows in the city. This allows creating cost-effective and sustainable mobility services that react instantly to the demands of the end-users.
Extreme events better investigated with new math method
Fortunately, incidents like extreme weather, earthquakes or massive power grid blackouts are a rare occurrence. Analysing properly how likely such rare incidents are to happen can be very valuable, but also very challenging. In his PhD thesis, Krzysztof Bisewski developed mathematical methods that greatly speed up simulations for estimating the probability of rare events.
New data framework illuminates uncertainties in offshore wind farm conditions
Wind speeds and wave heights can have a major effect on offshore wind farms. But because they are correlated, their combined significance for wind farm designs couldn’t be factored in until now. CWI researcher Anne Eggels developed methods which take the effect of such correlations or dependencies into account. Today, she will publicly defend her thesis at the University of Amsterdam.
Scientists develop detailed representation of clouds in weather and climate models
A team of climate researchers and computational experts has developed an innovative method to study cloud dynamics in unprecedented detail in weather and climate models.
Two CWI scientists receive JCF Young Researcher Award
CWI scientists Dr. Anastasia Borovykh and Dr. Beatriz Salvador have received the JCF Young Researcher Award, granted by the Journal of Computational Finance. Both researchers were awarded for their outstanding work, which they presented during the International Conference on Computational Finance.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 awarded Industrial Doctorates program on Financial Risk Management
Recently, Kees Oosterlee from CWI's Scientific Computing group has been awarded a project from the H2020 European Industrial Doctorates (EID) Program.
Debarati Bhaumik developed models that can help make the energy grid ‘renewables-proof’
On 30 May 2018, CWI PhD student Debarati Bhaumik will publicly defend her thesis at the University of Amsterdam. Her work focuses on computational techniques for assessing the reliability of power grids that are integrated with renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
Tackling messy blood vessels to fight cancer
With a Vici grant of 1.5 million euro, Roeland Merks (CWI and UL) looks for ways to fix messy and leaky blood vessels in tumours. To do so, he combines mathematical simulations and lab experiments in a unique way.
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.
Instable blood supply may help healthy cells compete with tumor cells
Researchers of CWI’s Scientific Computing group have found that instabilities in the blood supply in cancerous tissue can, surprisingly, lead to a less favorable environment for tumor cells. Their findings shed light on the potential negative side effects of current treatments that aim to actually normalize the blood supply in cancerous tissues.
CWI researcher simulates complex financial developments, from interest rates to the possibility of bankruptcy
PhD student Alvaro Leitao Rodriguez proposes new methods to tackle complex problems in the financial sector. With these methods, Leitao Rodriguez successfully simulates the movements of the interest rates in the Foreign eXchange (FX) markets and evaluates corresponding risks.
Better estimation of financial risks possible with maths
Due to the recent financial crisis, the requirements imposed on banks have been made stricter. Banks must model the credit risk of the counterparties now in their portfolios, for instance. A measure for this is the credit value adjustment (CVA): the difference between the value of a portfolio without credit risk and the value if a possible bankruptcy of the counterparty is included. Qian Feng modelled CVAs and designed a new algorithm that can help banks estimate the risks precisely, so they can take appropriate measures if necessary.
The Netherlands’ smallest supercomputer is here
A team of Dutch scientists has built a supercomputer the size of four pizza boxes. The Little Green Machine II has the computing power of 10,000 PCs and will be used by researchers in oceanography, computer science, artificial intelligence, financial modeling and astronomy. CWI researchers Joost Batenburg and Kees Oosterlee, who were part of the development team, will use the machine for computational imaging and machine learning for time series respectively. The computer is based at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and developed with help from IBM.
CWI develops new calculation methods in collaboration with ING bank and UvA
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have developed new calculation methods for the estimation of financial risks.
Dealing with uncertainties in simulations
Understanding uncertainties is crucial when designing computer simulations. Incorporating such uncertainties in simulations and mapping the bandwith of possbile values is the central topic of the inaugural lecture of Daan Crommelin at the University of Amsterdam on Thursday 21 April 2016.
Netherlands eScience Center grants two projects at CWI
CWI reduces perturbations in tomography
Researcher Folkert Bleichrodt of CWI has developed new methods to improve the applicability of tomography. These methods reduce unwanted perturbations. This allows for applying tomography on a very small scale or based on a small number of measurements.
More accurate climate predictions
Predicting the future climate is a grand mathematical challenge. Our climate is a chaotic dynamical system in which minor disturbances can have a major impact in the longterm. Researcher Keith Myerscough of CWI has developed new simulation methods to improve the accuracy of such long term predictions.
Rare events in sustainable energy grids simulated
The transition to renewable energy sources poses new challenges to the reliability of power grids. As renewable energy is very variable, rare combinations of factors might lead to instabilities and even black-outs. Wander Wadman of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) developed new simulation methods that can determine the probability of such rare events.
Simulations for nuclear fusion
The plasma inside a nuclear fusion reactor is prone to instabilities due to the extreme temperatures and high magnetic fields necessary for nuclear fusion. The future of nuclear fusion as an energy source depends on a large extent on methods to control these instabilities.
European consortium starts research on financial risk models
A European consortium of partners in academia and industry from the Netherlands, Italy and Spain has been granted 1,5 million euro for the Horizon 2020 research project WAKEUPCALL. The project, which is coordinated by the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, combines academic expertise in financial mathematics with experience from partners in the finance and insurance industries.