iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

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 🎉

CWI PhD student Marten Folkertsma with the committee after the defence on 19 January 2026. Picture: Alborz Sahebdivani

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

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

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.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

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

Cover of ERCIM News 142 on 'Inclusive Digital Futures - Intersectionality, Accessibility, and Responsible Innovation', showing colourful balloons in a blue sky.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

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

Freek Witteveen (CWI, QuSoft) giving a keynote lecture at the 14th QSC General Assembly in Leiden.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

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

Lively discussions at the poster presentations at the WSC Woudschoten Conference 2024.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

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

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.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

🎬 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!

Recording of Ronald de Wolf (CWI, QuSoft, UvA) at CWI for the documentary 'Beyond Turing'.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

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

Screenshot from 'Python: The Documentary' (film by CULT.REPO), showing Guido van Rossum at CWI.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

#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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

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

SCIERA network diagram, shown at CWI’s first public demo of SCION – a safer Internet that lets users guide traffic and avoid certain regions.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

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

Operasinger on stage in front of a huge statue of a cat

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

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

edu.nl

Project to reduce waiting times in healthcare moves into practice

A mathematical model that reduces waiting times in elderly care by intelligently matching supply and demand will soon be tested in practice in the Amsterdam region.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

“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

Portrait of Stacey Jeffery by Willeke Duijvekam for NWO's magazine Onderzoek and for CWI, July 2025.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

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

edu.nl

Battery sharing could cut energy costs for communities, study finds

As solar and wind use grows, a CWI-led study offers cost-effective solution for local energy storage.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

🎓 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

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.

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Reposted by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

Hannes Cools @hannescools.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

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_...

eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

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

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

👥🍽️ 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

Visitors of the CHIWORK 2025 conference at CWI having lunch, discussing,and looking at posters

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

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)

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.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

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

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.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

🥇 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

Our former CWI colleague Francien Bossema in front of a scanner.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

How can we make AI systems reliable – even under uncertainty? 📍 Join us in Amsterdam, 19–20 June, for the Workshop on Theory of Control and Reinforcement Learning at CWI! 🔗 Register for participation by 10 June (extended deadline): edu.nl/mnduw #AI #RL #ControlTheory #TrustworthyAI #CWI #RSP

Poster on the Theory of Control & Reinforcement Learnig Workshop, 19-20 June 2025 (extended deadline for registration: 10 June)

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Electric sparks may look simple - but simulating them is anything but. Congrats to Jannis Teunissen on receiving the 2024 Noah Hershkowitz Early Career Award 🏆 from Plasma Sources Science and Technology journal (@ioppublishing.bsky.social), for his groundbreaking simulations! See: edu.nl/yxgat

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

A tilted photo, but a perfectly balanced moment: two Gödel Prize winners - Thomas Rothvoss (University of Washington) and Ronald de Wolf (CWI & UvA, in green) - in one frame. Yesterday, Rothvoss gave his CWI Distinguished Lecture at CWI, introduced by Daniel Dadush. See: edu.nl/wgja6

Turing room at CWI, with two Gödel Prize winners - Thomas Rothvoss (University of Washington) and Ronald de Wolf (CWI & UvA, sitting in the audience) - in one frame.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Yesterday, during ICT Open, @hannes.muehleisen.org received the Dutch Prize for ICT research 2025. Congratulations! 🎉https://edu.nl/yv4nn

Hannes Mühleisen on stage at ICT Open, receiving his award.

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Reposted by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

Cursor @cursortue.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Thanks to the ‘springboard effect’ of @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social, Barry Koren became a full professor at @tue.nl right away. Now he’s saying goodbye to a university that "delivers quality without bragging about it". At his farewell lecture, he was named Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

cursor.tue.nl

Professor Barry Koren receives decoration upon farewell

Thanks to the ‘springboard effect’ of the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Barry Koren became a full professor at TU/e right away. Now, thirteen years later, he’s saying goodbye to a university t...

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

This week in Quanta Magazine, CWI, @uva.nl and QuSoft researcher Ronald de Wolf comments on a new quantum speedup for optimization problems. "I’m enthusiastic. But it’s still quite possible researchers will eventually find a classical algorithm that does just as well." See: edu.nl/kgcfa #Algorithms

quantamagazine.org

Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems | Quanta Magazine

It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

At NWO’s event for International Women’s Day, CWI researchers Mae Sosto & Andrei Nesterov showed how gender biases still show up in language models and derogatory terms persist in widely used datasets. They are part of our Human-Centered Data Analytics group, focusing on responsible AI.

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

📢 Exciting news: Vanessa Evers will be CWI’s new general director from mid-2025! A leading researcher in social AI, she will combine this role with her professorship at the University of Twente. "I look forward to showcasing CWI’s research and its role in tackling major challenges." 🔗 edu.nl/348ju

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

How to reduce waiting times for nursing homes? At CWI Rebekka Arntzen developed mathematical models to make elderly healthcare more efficient. Using real-world data, her simulations show that these models can 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀. Today Rebekka defended her PhD thesis. edu.nl/fpxkg

edu.nl

Mathematical model can reduce waiting times in healthcare

PhD candidate Rebekka Arntzen developed mathematical models to make healthcare for the elderly more efficient. As a result, waiting times are reduced, and older adults receive care that is better tail...

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

🔬⚡ TU/e researchers mapped light emission, field direction & strength in streamer discharges for the first time. Using a laser & high-speed cameras, they captured fast ionization waves (>100 km/s), matching simulations of CWI’s Jannis Teunissen 👉 go.aps.org/3Cctbw3 #plasma #physics @sandernijdam.nl

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Join CWI’s free Open Lectures on 7 & 8 April to explore how immersive tech shapes communication. 🎤 Talks on Social XR 💡 Insights on VR & AI 🔐 Privacy & security in XR 📍 Turing Room, next to CWI | 🕤 09:30–12:00 | 💸 Free, no registration See you there! edu.nl/ygde7

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Reposted by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

Laura Hollink @laurahollink.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

➡️ Vacancy for a tenure track or tenured position in Responsible AI at CWI in Amsterdam, NL. Looking for a talented, independent (esp. female!) researcher in e.g. bias, fairness, human oversight, ethics in AI: bit.ly/4gqlekT @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social #ResponsibleAI #KnowledgeGraphs #LLM #Recsys

cwi.nl

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Peter Boncz @peterabcz.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

CIDR2025 is a wrap! Lived the many interesting papers & discussions, Gong Show, @duckdb reception.. ACM president Yannis Ioannidis gave an inspiring talk on open science. Proceedings are in ACM DL & VLDB (see cidrdb.org). 🙏 all in+outside @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social who helped organize!!

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

The January issue of ERCIM News (#140) is published! Special theme: Large-Scale Data Analytics. With contributions from EGI, EUR, Maris and CWI in NL. Don’t miss the announcement on the misinformation detection RSP on p.46. Subscribe for free & explore: ercim-news.ercim.eu #DataScience #ERCIMNews

Cover of ERCIM News 140, January 2025, depicting the sky at night with stars and a shooting star, and the special theme, 'Large-Scale Data Analytics'

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

🌍 CIDR 2025 wraps up in Amsterdam! Over the past four days, 170 international experts gathered to explore cutting-edge data systems research 🚀. Highlights 💡: managing CERN’s 10,000 exabytes, AI-driven hardware trends, the best papers, including those from CWI teams. Read more ➡️ edu.nl/uu747

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

On 9 January, Tristan van Leeuwen delivered his inaugural lecture at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social: 'Omgekeerd rekenen is (g)een probleem'. His work on Computational Inverse Problems focuses on improving imaging techniques for healthcare and geosciences, while making mathematics accessible to all.✨

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

As the year is coming to an end, we look back on some of the highlights of this year. Ｈａｐｐｙｈｏｌｉｄａｙｓ！🎄🎆🎉 youtu.be/nkF0xdmngCU

youtu.be

Recap 2024

YouTube video by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Congratulations to @databricks.bsky.social on raising $𝟭𝟬 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 in one of the largest private funding rounds in history! We are proud to be connected to Databricks through its Amsterdam research and development team. bit.ly/41DVVrK Picture: Shutterstock.com/ Tada Images

bit.ly

CWI's research partner Databricks raises $10 billion in landmark funding round

US-based software company and CWI research partner Databricks has raised $10 billion in one of the largest private funding rounds to date, bringing the company’s valuation to $62 billion. Databricks d...

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

During a completely sold-out Gala van de Wetenschap on 7 November Tim Baarslag told the audience how AI helps us negotiate the best deal for both parties. After his presentation two dancers did a 'negotiation dance'. You can watch it here ➡️https://youtu.be/Oi45mS2yz18 #ai #negotiate

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Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

'There is a lot of depth and wisdom in old research'. Check out the interview with Snowflake co-founder Marcin Żukowski who became a Dijkstra Fellow last November, sharing lessons from his journey in tech. Co-starring @andypavlo.bsky.social and @madelonhulsebos.bsky.social. youtu.be/moQY_eiHCTs

youtu.be

Dijkstra Fellowship Award 2024 for Marcin Żukowski

YouTube video by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

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