Network Institute
In the dynamic world of academic research, literature reviews are the cornerstone for synthesizing knowledge. However, the rapid pace of scientific discovery often renders these reviews obsolete shortly after publication. The concept of “living literature reviews” has emerged as a … Continue reading
Network Institute researchers Philip Verhagen and Dries Daems will, in collaboration with the Netherlands eScience Center, develop a platform to host a library of computational models and algorithms for simulating the past, called ModelPlaza. The platform is aiming to redefine … Continue reading
Just published by Cambridge University Press, this handbook provides a snapshot of the rapidly developing field of gesture studies. Sections cover forms and functions of gestures, methods of gesture analysis, and the relation of gestures to language, cognition, and interaction. … Continue reading
The Firefox Product team warmly invites students to attend Mozilla Festival House 2024! Mozilla Festival is a unique hybrid: part art, tech, and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane … Continue reading
Discover the transformative power of open hardware in academia at this university-wide gathering. When: 18th June 2024, 2:30-5pm (followed by drinks) Where: Aurora room (Main building VU) Register here Open hardware, or open-source hardware, is hardware whose design is made … Continue reading
The Forum for Young Scientists (FYS) is hosting a free, four-hour interactive workshop giving tips and tricks for interdisciplinary research. When: 29th May, 1-5pm (with snacks and a 30min break, networking and drinks afterwards) Where: VU campus (room to be … Continue reading
Apply for an interdisciplinary research project and work with 2 student assistants. Deadline June 14th, 2024 at 23.59 pm Accepted proposals will start in October 2024 with funding for 10 months The Network Institute’s (NI) Academy Assistants program (NIAA) is … Continue reading
The European University Association (EUA) is hosting two webinars on strategies for AI implementation in higher education. The first focuses on a more strategic approach, looking both at institutional approaches and broader models for developing strategies. This will include frameworks … Continue reading
The new call for the Network Institute Research Visits program is just open! The program offers scholars the opportunity to spend up to one month at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to conduct research on the themes of digital society in … Continue reading
As a small thank you for your continuous efforts as Network Institute members and supporters, we are giving away several Techlab-related items that we do not use anymore. The list of items can be found here, and we are giving … Continue reading
Earlier this year, the Network Institute published an open call for outreach initiatives with the aim of helping researchers connect with societal partners. As reported by the VU here, Organizational scientist Yvette Taminiau and Wende Wallert, art curator at VU ART SCIENCE … Continue reading
We would like to invite you to the upcoming Research Lunch organised by the Network Institute to facilitate exchange between researchers at the VU across disciplines and institutions. Digital phenotyping: chances and challenges: With Karin Bogdanova (TU Delft), Janika Thielecke (TNO) … Continue reading
We had about 75 attendees joining our informative event about the European Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) on 25th April. This also included many students who are interested in the implications of this landmark regulation: is it too relaxed or too … Continue reading
Generative AI has enabled the production of misinformation and disinformation on an unprecedented scale. As advertised by the VU, Profesor Wael AbdAlmageed will present the latest methods his group are creating to prevent these threats to child safety, public opinion, … Continue reading
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May 2018, represents a significant step forward in the protection of personal data within the European Union. However, despite its widespread implications, there remains a degree of uncertainty regarding … Continue reading
The Digital Science Center (DiSC) is an interdisciplinary research unit at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, with a similar focus and goals as the Network Institute. To foster exchange and research connections between both units, NI members are invited to … Continue reading
Today, organizations blend human intuition with data insights for better performance. Whether in customer support or finance, combining gut feeling with analytics or experienced decision-makers with algorithms enhances outcomes. What does it look like in practice? As advertised by the … Continue reading
The third episode of the Aesthetic Capital podcast is now available to listen here. Doortje Smithuijsen sits down with Dr. Tom Decates, a renowned doctor specializing in Botox and fillers, to dissect the growing phenomenon of aesthetic capital. Dr. Decates … Continue reading
We are inviting you to the upcoming “Generative AI for Research” lunch, co-hosted by the Network Institute and the KIN Center for Digital Innovation. This event aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among VU researchers and explore the potential of using … Continue reading
As a proof-of-concept project the Network Institute Tech Labs has created a modular conversational avatar using state-of-the-art speech and AI. This is meant to serve as a demonstrator for researchers who are interested in using: Conversational agents Realistic humanoid avatars … Continue reading
Quantum science carries risks and benefits to society yet it is hard to communicate these to the public. First then, what is the public’s perception of this topic? The NI’s Gudrun Reijnierse, VU visitor Aletta Meinsma, Sanne Kristensen, Ionica Smeets … Continue reading
The VU has published a post about the new Aesthetic Capital podcast which the NI is supporting, falling under the Connected World profile theme. In this podcast, Connected World senior fellow Doortje Smithuijsen discusses the impact aesthetic appearance has on … Continue reading
The Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is already in place in the European Union. This piece of regulation is a landmark and a unique law worldwide. Its recent approval and its application, since past February, is accompanied by many questions … Continue reading
The .nl domain registration system has been transferred to Amazon Web Services (AWS), a U.S. cloud provider. The Network Institute and others have signed an open letter instigated by the Internet Society Netherlands (ISOC NL), expressing our disappointment with the … Continue reading
Would you like to go beyond publishing research and have a more significant impact on society by implementing your findings in the real world? The Network Institute wants to help with planning, executing, and piloting impactful outreach activities. The winning … Continue reading
The Network Institute is organising a full-day event on the theme of inclusive technologies. When: 1st March, 9am-3:30pm after which there will be a bingo and drinks Where: at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Register for free here Feeds and frontpages … Continue reading
The Connected World profile theme of the VU is offering up to 18,000 euros in funding to recruit two student research assistants over a period of 9 months. VU staff can apply and propose Academy Assistant teams. Deadline: 26 February, … Continue reading
How does gender affect cybersecurity decisions? A new study by Winnie Mbaka and Katja Tuma from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam shed some light on this question in their paper “Role of Gender in the Evaluation of Security Decisions”, published in IEEE … Continue reading
The second edition of the interdisciplinary HumanCLAIM Workshop brought together scholars from various European universities with experts at the VU to explore the human perspective on multilingual AI models. The workshop started with a social event to explore how the … Continue reading
Would you like to promote your research and have a more significant impact on society? The Network Institute wants to help with planning, executing, and piloting impactful outreach activities. The winning initiative will obtain funding (up to 10,000 euros) and … Continue reading
Emotion contagion in groups via virtual representatives Emotions are known to be infectious when people meet in person. By interacting with each other, a group tends to become more similar in the emotions they express, resulting in the display of … Continue reading
The NI director Dr. Ivano Malavolta has been awarded the Dutch Prize for ICT. The jury selected his work out of nine other exceptional entries for his innovative progress in the “green robotics software” field. Malavolta managed to expand the … Continue reading
Eep Talstra, emeritus professor of Old Testament at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, after whom the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC) has been named, has written a new book that will be published by Amsterdam University … Continue reading
We would like to draw your attention to this conference on the future of digital wellbeing. When: on 1st and 2nd of February. Registration deadline: January 31 (see bottom of the page) Where: Hosted at KNAW’s Trippenhuis venue in Amsterdam (Kloveniersburgwal … Continue reading
The Network Institute is looking for staff members (postdoctoral level included) interested in undertaking the tasks below 32 hours per week, over 15 months. The NWO prefers hiring someone for the project who is already employed at the VU. So … Continue reading
VU staff may apply for up to 10,000 euros for a socially oriented impact project for 2024, lasting a maximum of one year on the “Connected World” theme. The call is open to a wide range of social impact, from … Continue reading
Do you wish to conduct innovative research and to engage students in this endeavour? Apply for the Connected World Academy Assistant programme. All interested VU staff can apply now! The Connected World theme allows Bachelor/Master students guided by you- VU … Continue reading
The third instalment of the Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Digital Society (IWDS) will take place at the VU on March 1st 2024. The theme is Inclusive Technologies. A call for participation will be published soon. IWDS’24 will be followed by … Continue reading
We are excited to invite you to the HumanCLAIM 2024 Workshop (see last year’s successful edition here), a one-day conference dedicated to the exploration of cognitively motivated cross-lingual language models. When: January 11, 2024 (9:30 AM – 4:30 PM) Where: … Continue reading
This past June, Maud van Merriënboer and more than a dozen others had the opportunity to participate in a TED Talk training organized by the VU Network Institute. The goal of the training was to help researchers develop the skills … Continue reading
We would like to invite you to the next Research Lunch organized by the Network Institute to facilitate exchange between researchers at the VU across faculties and disciplines. When: 14th December, 12-13:30 Where: NU-3B05 The University Library will illustrate the many opportunities the … Continue reading
NI-member and VU academic Lisa Beinborn and Nora Hollenstein published an introductory book to “Cognitive Plausibility in Natural Language Processing”. It is based on the idea that we can learn more about the cognitive plausibility of computational language models by … Continue reading
As part of the Connected World theme which the NI is supporting, we invite you to a whole-day event on the 8th December on educating for societal impact, decolonizing the digital society, knowledge production and indigenous knowledge as well as … Continue reading
On November 6, our research symposium The Role of Language in Engaging Audiences in New (Quantum) Technology took place. This was made possible by the Network Institute and NeFCA and organised as part of Aletta Meinsma’s (PhD student Quantum & … Continue reading
The Amsterdam Law & Tech Institute (ALTI) along with the NI will soon host three visiting researchers from Mexico: Dr. Nora del Carmen Osuna Millan (Computer Science), Dr. Virginia Berenice Niebla Zatarain (Computer Science), and Dr. Jesus Manuel Niebla Zatarain … Continue reading
On 26 and 27 October 2023 the Network Institute Research Visit project “Live-mapping Religious Difference Online: the interplay of Digital Society, religious texts mediated online, and live-mapping” of the Eep TAlstar Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC) organized two hackathons … Continue reading
This year marks a significant milestone: the 75th anniversary of the School of Business and Economics at Vrije Universiteit. Join us in shaping a vision that will guide the School of Business and Economics through the next 75 years. We … Continue reading
The open-access scientific publication that formed the basis for the last year’s NI-funded video installation ‘(re)think the role of smart sensors in the digital age‘ has been published now in the FUTURES journal here: The video installation motivated the researchers … Continue reading
Dear VU Researchers and Colleagues, Hereby we would like to invite you to the upcoming Research Lunch organised by the Network Institute to facilitate exchange between researchers at the VU across disciplines and institutions. When: 9th of November, 12.00-13.30 Where: … Continue reading
On Monday, November 6, James Pustejovsky from Brandeis University will visit the VU and CLTL. We would like to extend the invitation to members of the NI. To get a sense of how many people will attend events throughout the … Continue reading
Thanks to Patricia Lago for flagging a new journal by the Association for Computing Machinery. This new publication covers topics especially relevant to the NI’s mission and likely to overlap with our members’ interests: the ACM Journal on Computing and … Continue reading
The ‘Robot Bookworm’ project of the NI’s Academy Assistants (NIAA) has been successfully piloted. Nina Sangers (Language, literature and communication), Lisa van der Sande (Education studies) and Mike Ligthart (Computer Science) conducted this pilot featured on the VU’s news page, … Continue reading
In the week of November 20 the Network Institute is hosting Carina König. She is the coordinator of the Digital Science Center of the University of Innsbruck. The initiative will provide an opportunity to explore in depth what interdisciplinary research units … Continue reading
COMPTEXT 2024: A conference on the quantitative and computational analysis of textual data in social and political sciences, to be held in Amsterdam on 2-4 May 2024. The COMPTEXT 2024 Organising Committee consists of many NI members: ● Mariken A.C.G. … Continue reading
Responsible Robotics is an appealing goal. It captures the idea of developing and deploying physical autonomous systems for the benefit of both individuals and society. However, although a popular target, there are, as yet, no robustly reliable routes to achieving … Continue reading
Knowledge, collaboration, and innovation took centre stage at DBpedia Day, an integral part of SEMANTiCS 2023. Held on September 20, 2023, at the HYPERION Hotel in Leipzig, Germany, this event was a unique gathering of technology professionals, industry experts, and … Continue reading
Burglary is a common and costly crime which has also been found to be a gateway to violent crimes. On average, the offenders in this study committed 62 burglaries each. Personality is a robust predictor of involvement with crime but … Continue reading
On September 4, Aletta Meinsma (PhD researcher Quantum & Society, Leiden University) started her Network Institute research visit. For the next 3 months, she will be visiting Gudrun Reijnierse (Assistant Professor Language & Communication, VU). To get the visit off … Continue reading
The University of Twente and the VU’s synergistic “Creating Secure Societies” impact coalition is culminating in another meeting next month: When: 22nd November 2023, 2-6pm Where: University of Twente, at the Designlab, room LEARN-X Sign-up: here This synergy (find out … Continue reading
Tom Williams from the Colorado School of Mines will be giving an interdisciplinary talk at the VU – details below. Would be great to engage with an audience in the humanities and the social sciences in addition to CS folks. … Continue reading
What is the feasibility of live-mapping the differential use of religious texts in social media to identify religious issues present across digitally mediated culture? How can we mine social media such as X in the age of restrictions? How can … Continue reading
On Tuesday, October 24 from 12:00-13:00 the Amsterdam Business Research Institute (ABRI) Lunch Seminar hosted by Dr. Franz Strich from the Deakin University Melbourne will take place in the main building room HG-13A24. He will present an ongoing research project … Continue reading
We would like to invite you for the next monthly NI Research Lunch on Thursday, October 12th from 12h-13.30 in room NU-4A06, on the topic of Human-Interactive Agent Learning. Our topic this time builds upon the fruitful discussions on the previous Human-Robot … Continue reading
The research institute for Culture, Cognitive, History and Heritage (CLUE+) and the Network Institute are the foundational institutes of the “Connected World” profile theme. This has culminated in Ivar Vermeulen’s book “Connected World”. In fact, it is authored by 100 … Continue reading
As part of a Network Institute research visit, we are organizing a research symposium on November 6, 2023 entitled ‘The role of language in engaging audiences in new (quantum) technology’. We would like to invite you to join the day. Where: Restaurant De Bosbaan, Bosbaan … Continue reading
The Network Institute’s Academy Assistant (NIAA) program is kicking off its 14th year on the 11th October! When: 11th October 3:15-5:15pm Where: NU4A67 The NIAA funds 10-15 research positions which undertake projects leading to a proposal or published paper in … Continue reading
Michal B. Paradowski, from the Institute of Applied Linguistics (University of Warsaw) is presenting the seminar: “Computational Social Network Analysis meets linguistics: From the diffusion of lexical innovation to second language acquisition” in collaboration with LEARN! When: October 26th 10:30-12:00 … Continue reading
The research institute for Culture, Cognitive, History and Heritage (CLUE+) and the Network Institute are proud of being the foundational institutes of the “Connected World” profile theme. As part of this initiative, we are presenting a new book about the … Continue reading
Hereby we would like to invite you to the next Research Lunch organised by the Network Institute to facilitate exchange between researchers at the VU across disciplines and institutions. For the research lunch on the 21st of September, we invited representatives from the Innovation Exchange Amsterdam … Continue reading
Supervisors Maurits Dijkstra and Peter Bloem with assistants Henriette Capel and Robin Weiler worked on an NI Academy Project (see here) which resulted in a 2022 paper published in Nature Scientific Reports. See: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-19608-4 Proteins are the building blocks of … Continue reading
IXA (aka: the VU office for valorizing our research) and AmSIA (Amsterdam Science and Innovation Awards) are organizing an event/competition where you can network and pitch your own project with the chance to win one of three 10,000 euro cash … Continue reading
James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” will be screened at the VU’s Rialto cinema in the NU building at 18:30 on Thursday 12th October Professor Guszti Eiben will introduce the classic. He is a full professor of Artificial Intelligence at … Continue reading
We welcome everyone to our free one-day workshop for celebrating women studying and working in computing! Alice & Eve aims to bring together talents in the field of computing. The fourth edition of this workshop will be hosted on 27 … Continue reading
The Amsterdam AI network is seeking nominations for the Amsterdam AI Thesis Award 2023 (deadline: 14th of September). We are looking for thesis nominations that present exciting and innovative work in the area of AI and Data Science research, and … Continue reading
The Network Institute funded six Academy Assistant projects for this academic year. Each project is led by two PIs from different disciplines who can hire two Student Assistants (usually master’s students) to work on the project for one day per … Continue reading
The institute is looking for new members for its operational teams, if you are interested in joining us, contact us at this email address: network.institute.beta@vu.nl. The profile we are looking for is: young researcher (from PhD candidate to associate prof) … Continue reading
The Network Institute is collaborating with the Diversity and Inclusion officers of the Department of Computer Science organising an interactive seminar “From diversity to inclusion” in which we want to address the challenges of how different social identities contribute to … Continue reading
The source code for the Append Us Apart project is now publicly available on GitHub [link]. After months of design and development, and a successful launch on the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam premises, the Append Us Apart project created by Daan … Continue reading
In June 2022 we organized a workshop on Digital Nomads – Living in a Society of Digital Employees for discussing how society, employers and employees can deal with the new way of working in the digital society, and how to … Continue reading
The title of the art installation is Append Us Apart The use of Large Language Models has exploded since OpenAI provided access to their ‘ChatGPT’ model. This created a big wave of glorification of the model, but also criticism: makers … Continue reading
This year’s visitors for the Network Institute Research Visits have been selected! The Research Visits are our initiative for enabling interdisciplinary research across Universities worldwide. In October/November 2022 we hosted 7 Research Visitors from all over the world to collaborate … Continue reading
The “Virtual Reality Symposium: Let’s Get Virtual!” was hosted on the 22nd of June by the XR community and Network Institute at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The public event gathered researchers from the XR community who presented their cutting-edge work over … Continue reading
Hack4Her is a tech event organized by Isabella Venancia Grdner (STORM), Katja Tuma (Assistant Professor at the Computer Science department), and Mylène Brown-Coleman (STORM). We happily sponsored the event, which turned out to be a great success! Hack4Her is a … Continue reading
Dear members of the Network Institute, You are invited to the annual, traditional, shiny, fun, and completely unmissable Network Institute end-of-the-academic-year event, taking place: *** Tuesday July 11th, 15.00 hrs, NU building – Room 3B05 *** The highlight of the … Continue reading
The research visits are our initiative for enabling interdisciplinary research across Universities worldwide. In October/November 2022 we hosted 7 research visitors from all over the world to collaborate with VU researchers. For those who are interested in the types of … Continue reading
The title of the art installation is Phasescope A phasescope (or goniometer) plots an audio signal on a two-dimensional area by displaying the amplitude of one audio channel on the x-axis, and the other channel on the y-axis. We achieved … Continue reading
The title of the art installation is The Fast-Art-Machine There are smart cameras all around us in the public space. From the police, the city government, big and small companies, and from residents. We may have become used to them … Continue reading
Another research lunch is coming up, a special edition in the VU botanical garden with the aim of fostering collaboration between Computer Science and Social Sciences! We recognize the immense potential that lies at the intersection of these two disciplines. … Continue reading
We are organizing a Virtual Reality Symposium: Let’s Get Virtual! The morning of June 22 will be filled with speakers and conversations about VR research at the VU. Learn about what other scholars are doing and what facilities we have … Continue reading
The next research lunch organised by the Network Institute is dedicated to the Call for the Network Institute Academy Assistant Projects! What? NIAA information & match-making When? 11th of May, 12:00-13:30 Where? MF-A311 Do you have an idea for a … Continue reading
Communicating your research is one of the essential career skills to enhance your scientific and societal impact. Learn how to tell your story with the Network Institute’s exclusive TED Talk Master Class! Participants will practice public speaking and learn how … Continue reading
Two of our researchers from the Human Movement Sciences department, Vana Hutter and Lisanne Kleygrewe, have been working (along with others) on the project SHOTPROS: Using Virtual Reality (VR) to train the decision-making behavior of police officers in stressful situations. … Continue reading
The Amsterdam Young Academy (AYA) is an initiative of the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universtiteit where talented young scientists from different disciplines meet to develop views on science, scientific policy and how to build bridges between science and … Continue reading
How to improve diversity and inclusion policies by reading the body? The Connected World conference “Embodied Experiences” invites participants to use Corpoliteracy, as proposed by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, as a tool to explore the intersections of identity and body … Continue reading
The new call for the Network Institute Research Visits program is just open! The program offers scholars the opportunity to spend up to one month at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to conduct research on the themes of digital society in … Continue reading
The Network Institute’s (NI) Academy Assistants program (NIAA) is now entering its 14th year. Initially funded through a KNAW grant and aimed at combining social sciences and computer science research, it has since been adopted by the Network Institute and … Continue reading
When we see someone smile from ear to ear, most of us can’t help but smile along. Emotions are infectious, and under some circumstances this can be problematic. Think about stampedes, riots, bullying or depression. A computer model of how … Continue reading
The Neurofilament Light (NfL) online application developed by the Tech Labs of the Network Institute together with Eline Willemse and Lisa Vermunt of the Amsterdam UMC, is gathering momentum as more doctors are using this tool in diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases. … Continue reading
21 Network Institute members included in Stanford’s list of the world’s top-cited scientists! The annual study performed by Stanford University aims to identify the world’s top 2 percent of scientists in their field. Scientists from across the globe were classified … Continue reading