Is it easier to find half a needle than a full needle in a random network?
Common sense tells us that objects of comparable size should be equally hard to find. Yet, when searching inside a random network, surprises are awaiting . . .
Distributed consensus: What do money transactions and attacking armies have in common?
In February 2014, a big bank in the Netherlands suffered from an internet banking malfunction which led many costumers to accidentally perform duplicate bank transfers.
AI thinks my dog is a Pig! Want to know why?
Applications of machine learning models are everywhere, with many online platforms and major science fields using tools relying on machine learning. Take, for example, image recognition and computer vision. But did you know that the results of supposedly perfect and accurate machine learning models can be deceived by slight perturbations in the data?
Can algorithms learn to price collusively?
This is a question I have been thinking about for the last two years. In this article, I will give a little overview of what I have discovered in that time.
MO-together and not alone! How networks can help fundraising in the no-profit sector
Back in 2015, I joined the Movember health movement, a movement that you probably have heard of having something related to men growing a moustache. As a woman, you might imagine, I did not join for the moustache thing, but rather for the cause behind the moustache symbol, that is, raising awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.
The travelling salesman problem
Suppose you have a delivery service. You have one truck and have to deliver a large number of parcels to different cities in the country every day. Then you run into the following problem: in which order should you visit the cities?
Brain-inspired computers operating at the speed of light
A car, a home, and a wristwatch, all of them seem to be “smart” today. This intelligence runs on computing, which lately made the headlines for being scarce to obtain.
Why you may need to reconsider your route selection criterium
You have a job interview in 20 minutes and you are in a hurry to arrive at your application in time. To make matters even more stressful, there are many routes to your destination, but you have no idea which one to select. Luckily, you have access to a navigation system that can help you in your route selection process.
How Aho and Ullman slayed the Dragon
Alfred Aho and Jeffrey Ullman received the 2020 A.M Turing Award for their contributions to computer science. Let’s explore how their contributions have shaped the principles, techniques and tools for writing compilers.
Enigma: a complexity titan
In times of war, secure communication can be the difference between life and death, or even winning or losing a war. The first to patent a rotor machine in Europe was Arthur Scherbius in 1918. Scherbius’ version of the rotor machine became a commercial success, unlike the other patented machines. Scherbius named his machine Enigma.