Han La Poutré (CWI) has been elected President of ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. His term started this month.
“ERCIM is very relevant today, as we contribute to European technological autonomy,” La Poutré says.
More info: edu.nl/9vc99
CWI PhD student Marten Folkertsma with the committee after the defence on 19 January 2026. Picture: Alborz Sahebdivani
This month, Marten Folkertsma (CWI, QuSoft) defended his thesis Empowering Quantum Computation with: Measurements, Catalysts, and Guiding States at UvA. His work shows even early-stage quantum computers can achieve more than previously expected. Info: edu.nl/44bru 🎉
Group picture after the PhD defence of Jordi Weggemans (CWI, QuSoft) on 13 November 2025 at UvA in Amsterdam, with from left to right: Peter van Emde Boas, Kareljan Schoutens, supervisor Harry Buhrman, Tom van der Meer, Jordi Weggemans, Ronald de Wolf, Lynn Engelberts, Sevag Gharibian, Christian Schaffner and co-supervisor Florian Speelman. Picture: Johan Weggemans.
Jordi Weggemans (CWI, QuSoft) defended his thesis Quantum vs Classical Resources in Computational Complexity on 13 November at UvA. His PhD research explored how quantum and classical computational resources compare.
Congrats, Jordi! 🎉
More info: edu.nl/xkkyv
Cover of ERCIM News 142 on 'Inclusive Digital Futures - Intersectionality, Accessibility, and Responsible Innovation', showing colourful balloons in a blue sky.
The latest ERCIM News explores ‘Inclusive Digital Futures’. From CWI, Mae Sosto and Laura Hollink, together with Delfina Sol Martinez Pandiani (UvA), show how large language models can reproduce biased associations for, e.g., queer and nonbinary identities.
Read more 🌈: edu.nl/ehbcw
Freek Witteveen (CWI, QuSoft) giving a keynote lecture at the 14th QSC General Assembly in Leiden.
This week, at the 14th General Assembly of the Quantum Software Consortium (QSC) in Leiden – opened by our colleague Ronald de Wolf – Freek Witteveen (CWI, QuSoft) presented work on Randomized truncation of quantum states, improving accuracy without using extra memory. Great!
See edu.nl/kqeh9
Researchers wrapped up Satellite Workshop 2 in Amsterdam last week, the final event of the Learning-Enhanced Optimization Research Semester Programme, co-organized by CWI. Highlights included maths for fair housing, precision medicine and ALS & Alzheimer's research. Thanks to all!
See edu.nl/nrvct
Lively discussions at the poster presentations at the WSC Woudschoten Conference 2024.
Next week: the 49th Woudschoten Conference (24–26 Sept)! CWI has long supported this key meeting of the Dutch & Flemish numerical mathematics community. Thanks to the organizing team! 🌟 edu.nl/j9ax9
Photo of Peter Boncz (in the middle) and his co-authors at the 2025 VLDB Test of Time Award ceremony, celebrating his influential 2015 paper on cardinality estimation and the Join Order Benchmark (JOB), co-authored with Viktor Leis, Andrey Gubichev, Atanas Mirchev, Alfons Kemper, and Thomas Neumann.
Last week, CWI’s Peter Boncz and co-authors received the 2025 VLDB Test of Time Award for their influential paper 'How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?’ Congrats! 🎉
More info: edu.nl/93h4e
This documentary - 'Beyond Turing' - investigates a Danish scientist's proposed experiment to test whether the universe can provide computational help from the future, in the context of advanced computing such as error-corrected quantum computers and super-intelligent classical machines.
Recording of Ronald de Wolf (CWI, QuSoft, UvA) at CWI for the documentary 'Beyond Turing'.
🎬 This week, our colleague Ronald de Wolf (CWI, UvA, QuSoft) was interviewed at CWI by Michael Masters for a documentary on how to deal with exponential-time computations.
Looking forward to the release!
Screenshot from 'Python: The Documentary' (film by CULT.REPO), showing Guido van Rossum at CWI.
Programming language Python - from Guido van Rossum’s CWI side project in the 80s to code running even on Mars! This week, 'Python: The Documentary' premiered at PyCon Greece 2025. 🎥 Watch it online now: edu.nl/qwy8w
Marten van Dijk. Picture: Ivar Pel.
#ThrowbackThursday 🔒
In 2013, Marten van Dijk and colleagues introduced Path ORAM, an algorithm that hides how data is accessed in memory.
The technique has since become part of Signal, protecting the privacy of millions worldwide. More: edu.nl/vw94w
#privacy #computersecurity #researchimpact
SCIERA network diagram, shown at CWI’s first public demo of SCION – a safer Internet that lets users guide traffic and avoid certain regions.
What if you could guide your internet traffic by region? First public #SCION demo in the Netherlands presented by CWI and #NLnet, live at CWI’s library. 🔗 edu.nl/n9yqg
Operasinger on stage in front of a huge statue of a cat
Opera, tech & community — the EU-funded TRACTION project showed how co-creation can spark cultural democracy. A unique experiment across art, tech & inclusion, featured as one of 40 landmark EU research projects. Full story here👉https://edu.nl/npbcb
🎭👥💻 #EUfunded #CulturalDemocracy #DigitalInclusion
Congrats to Ute Ebert (CWI, @tue.nl) on winning the Von Engel & Franklin Prize for her groundbreaking work on sparks, streamers and lightning.
Her research sheds light on how fast, branching discharges form and what effects they trigger.
Awarded at ICPIG 2025, Aix-en-Provence, France. edu.nl/whyq4
How are advanced computational methods reshaping science, industry and policy? Find out during the Computational Science Lecture Series this October in Utrecht. Daan Crommelin and Benjamin Sanderse are talking about Uncertainty Quantification and Scientific Machine Learning. More info: edu.nl/66u9r
At our recent CWI in Bedrijf event, we presented the successful results of DOLCE VITA, a model to reduce waiting times in elderly care. Watch the video on our website for an impression. Now moving into practice in the Amsterdam region with care providers and a Community of Practice. 👉 edu.nl/u33xe
Portrait of Stacey Jeffery by Willeke Duijvekam for NWO's magazine Onderzoek and for CWI, July 2025.
“Quantum computing was the coolest subject I’d ever studied,” says Stacey Jeffery (CWI, QuSoft, UvA). In NWO’s magazine Onderzoek she reflects on her journey, research in quantum algorithms, and founding WIQD to promote inclusivity.
See: 🔗 edu.nl/qan8u
#QuantumComputing #WIQD #Inclusion #Science
CWI-led study shows communities can cut energy costs by renting space in large grid-connected batteries. Tested with real data, the model benefits both neighbourhoods and operators. Read more: edu.nl/4aqcw
Announcement of the PhD School 'Machine Learning and Optimization' with the information (2-4 Sep. 2025, Learning Enhanced Optimization Research Semester Programme at CWI in Amsterdam, registration now open). The image shows an open book with mathematical symbols falling down and a 3D mathematical surface with wave-like features.
🎓 PhD School on Machine Learning & Optimization
Join us at CWI (Amsterdam), 2-4 September 2025
As part of CWI’s Research Semester on Learning-Enhanced Optimization, this 3-day PhD School is open to PhDs, postdocs and early-career researchers.
📆 Register by 24 August
🔗 edu.nl/jnhq4
Zorg functioneert verre van optimaal en wiskunde moet daar verandering in brengen: ‘De uitdagingen hier in Amsterdam zijn best groot’
Mijn interview met Rob vd Mei @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social
en Bianca Buurman
www.parool.nl/amsterdam/zo...
Help us with pretesting stimuli for an experiment on 'AI disclosures' 📣
Together with @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social, we have a Qualtrics survey that will help us getting sense of our stimuli 👇
Thank you!
uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Same question. Same AI. Different answer. CWI’s @Davide Ceolin and Inria colleagues found that the language you use can strongly influence how LLMs like ChatGPT respond. This poses a risk for global companies relying on multilingual AI.
🔗 Read the story: edu.nl/txqja
HELIOS, led by AMOLF with DIFFER & CWI, received funding from NWO-I’s new Strategic Renewal Fund 🎉. Together we want to design ultra-efficient perovskite solar cells with up to 20 layers. CWI leads the AI effort.
edu.nl/73ryx
#AI #solar #perovskite #solarenergy
Visitors of the CHIWORK 2025 conference at CWI having lunch, discussing,and looking at posters
👥🍽️ Conversations in full flow at #CHIWORK25 — great company, inspiring ideas!
As the final sessions wrap up, we’re weaving people, research, tech & purpose here in Amsterdam 🧵
🔗 Explore CHIWORK: edu.nl/da4u7
#HCI #FutureWork #Amsterdam
Alexander Schmidhuber (MIT) speaking at STOC 2025 in Prague in the workshop on quantum algorithms organized by Ronald de Wolf and Stacey Jeffery from CWI, QuSoft and UvA.
Ronald de Wolf and Stacey Jeffery (CWI/UvA/QuSoft) are organizing a workshop on quantum algorithms this week at STOC in Prague - a top theoretical CS conference. With speakers from MIT (like Alexander Schmidhuber, 📸), Stanford, Nagoya & more.
🔗 edu.nl/3d9kn (workshop)
🔗 edu.nl/6k4qf (STOC 2025)
🤖 Fake news 2.0? Traditional detection tools 🔎fail against AI-generated content. Dutch researchers warn: the game has changed — and so must we. Transparency is key, says CWI researcher Davide Ceolin in IT magazine Computer Weekly.
#technology #it #fakenews #ai #LLM #chatgpt #contentfarming
Prof. Han La Poutré and Prof. Ronald Cramer giving lectures to a French delegation from the Cycle Supérieur du Numérique, who visited CWI via the Institut français NL (French Embassy) on 17June 2025. Pictures: CWI/Paul Roberts.
Bienvenue @ CWI! Today, a French delegation from the Cycle Supérieur du Numérique visited us via the Institut français NL (French Embassy).
Han La Poutré introduced CWI, and Ronald Cramer gave an engaging talk on post-quantum cryptography.
Merci et au revoir!
#CSNum #PQC #cryptography
Happy anniversary from your neighbours at Sciencepark!
Our former CWI colleague Francien Bossema in front of a scanner.
🥇 Francien Bossema wins the 2025 KHMW Thesis Award for Interdisciplinary Research for her PhD work at CWI - combining maths, imaging & cultural heritage.
She now works at @UniLeiden.
Award ceremony on 9 July at KHMW:
🔗 edu.nl/ka94p
#KHMW #PhD #interdisciplinaryresearch #heritageimaging
