One of the crucial aspects of working together in a big consortium like NETWORKS is actually meeting each other now and then.
Virtual meetings were of great help during the pandemic, and essentially a way to make sure things kept moving, but they are by no means -the real thing-. We were very glad that we could meet in person again in a NETWORKS training week. These training weeks are a combination of technical content and informal interaction, where we have noticed that the latter component is enormously important for the first component: the informal meetings have led to quite a few research collaborations.
Over the past 8 years, the content of the training weeks has evolved quite a bit. In the first editions, the entire week was filled with mini-courses on topics at the very core of NETWORKS. Gradually we have moved to a pretty different format, in which a substantial chunk of the time is devoted to presentations about new work by the team members, preferably being the result of collaborations within NETWORKS. For students it is a chance to gain experience in presenting — some actually use it as a tryout for a presentation to be held at a conference. The high level of these talks always strikes me, both in terms of the advanced content and in terms of the strong presentation skills.
Besides mini-courses and technical talks, there are two other directly science-related elements in the program. In the first place, there are open problem sessions, in which some of the NETWORKS members present an outstanding open problem that he or she came across. Quite often these generate discussion. It has occurred already a couple of times that the problem was actually solved by the end of the week, and it has even led to joint papers. In the second place, there is ample time for groups of researchers to sit together to talk about ongoing work. As many projects are collaborations between members from different nodes, these training weeks are a good opportunity to get together in person and to discuss in depth.
It is great to see how well the format works. We had two wonderful mini-course teachers, Daniel Valesin and Mark de Berg, who managed to make sure that technically demanding material very well came across. As mentioned, the short presentations by the NETWORKS members were of an excellent level. In addition, the social element is highly pleasant. De Schildkamp in Asperen is a highly comfortable location, offering many extras such as a large collection of board games, a set of dartboards, and even a bowling alley. Looking forward to the next training week!
Prof. dr. ir. Hans Heesterbeek, one of the leading infectious disease epidemiologists in the Netherlands, is a busy man. Fortunately for us, Hans Heesterbeek had a gap in his schedule to yet again answer some questions, this time not asked by professional journalists, but by us, four students from the Technical University in Eindhoven.
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.
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?
The Premier League of Darts is an annual competition where the best darts players of the world compete over several months for the title, and the prize of £275.000. However… the schedule chosen by the PDC is unbalanced: some matches between pairs of specific players will occur relatively often, while others will occur very rarely.
On a quiet afternoon, professor Meth is working in her office in Leiden on some tantalizing mathematics problems. Suddenly, someone knocking on her door nervously disrupts the silence.
