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Johannes Schmidt-Hieber awarded prestigious Van Dantzig Prize Tuesday 25 March 2025 15:57
Every five years, the VVSOR (Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research) awards the Van Dantzig Prize to a researcher under 40 years old who has made significant advancements in the field. The 2025 edition awarded the prize to Johannes Schmidt-Hieber for his pioneering work in statistical learning theory, nonparametric statistics, and the mathematical foundations of deep learning. His research has provided critical insights into how neural networks function, offering a more rigorous understanding of artificial intelligence.
Named after David van Dantzig, one of the founding figures of Dutch statistics and operations research, the Van Dantzig Prize is a symbol of excellence in the field and is, in fact, the highest prize attainable in Dutch statistics and operations research.
With his contributions to mathematical statistics, Johannes has shown that statistical thinking can provide the theoretical underpinnings of new methods such as machine learning and data analytics. His research is building the theoretical foundations for commonly used algorithms. Despite the very technical nature of his research, Johannes holds a keen interest in the applicability of his work. This is one reason behind the fact that one of his papers, published in 2020, has already accumulated over 1,000 citations, a very exceptional achievement for papers from the field of mathematical statistics.
We congratulate Johannes with this incredible achievement!
AMEP winner 2025 Monday 24 March 2025 09:16
On Thursday 13 March, the three nominees for the Applied Mathematics Education Prize (AMEP), Gjerrit Meinsma, Felix Schwenninger and Jasper de Jong, all gave a talk on the theme 'Cultural Mathematics'.
Gjerrit Meinsma linked playing the piano to mathematics through the use of signals, showcasing how modern pianos are out of tune when tuned.
Felix Schwenninger linked theoretical mathematics to culture within mathematics, highlighting fallacies in how certain topics are presented to be building upon one another while never explaining the basis.
Jasper de Jong used mathematics to link strategies to win the 2022 gaming classic Among Us to the culture of studying.
With a very tight vote, if anything indication of just how appreciated all three finalists are among students, Jasper de Jong has been voted winner of the AMEP 2025!
We thank all three finalists for their participation and for their wonderful talks, but, most importantly, we thank them for their efforts in educating the next generation of mathematicians here at the UT.
Applied Mathematics Education Prize Thursday 6 March 2025 12:55
Thursday 13 March, between 12:45 and 13:30, the Applied Mathematics Education Prize (AMEP) is set to take place in SP4.
This year, the students of AM have elected the following three finalists:
- Jasper de Jong
- Gjerrit Meinsma
- Felix Schwenninger
Both students and staff members are invited to come listen to these three inspiring teachers talk about 'Cultural Mathematics'.
Particulalry the students are invited to attend and vote on their favourite talk and teacher.
We wish luck to the three finalists and hope to see many there showing their support for the fantastic teachers AM has the luck of having.
Abacus Joins GIMPS to Hunt for Mersenne Primes Friday 21 February 2025 14:22
Abacus has joined the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), a global project searching for rare Mersenne primes. There is a team named Abacus and anyone interested can join this team. Anyone can contribute by running free software on their computers to help find these primes.
For questions email the coco. What's better than having an Aba-prime!
For information on how to install, see https://www.mersenne.org/
About GIMPS:
GIMPS is a distributed computing project that has discovered many of the largest known prime numbers.
Goodbye to Jan Schut Tuesday 12 November 2024 17:38
With the arrival of a new MSc Coordinator comes, of course, having to say goodbye to our previous MSc Coordinator, Jan Schut.
Jan Schut joined the department of Mathematics in 1983, at a time when students and staff members were much closer together due to the central placement of the Abacus room in the Cubicus, near the canteen where staff members would come get their lunch and coffee. He quickly joined the board of Abacus as General Adjunct in three different occasions.
After leaving AM to join ATLAS, he rejoined AM as MSc Coordinator alongside the at the time Programme Director: Jan Willem Polderman. He has, since then, been the MSc Coordinator, helping many students work through their MSc degree.
With a little thank you package and the Ideaal! containing his goodbye piece, we say goodbye to Jan Schut.
Thank you, Jan, for all of your hard work throughout these years!
Bouquet from the Education Committee Monday 4 November 2024 11:01
Now that quartile 1 has almost ended, the Education Committee has awarded the first bouquet of the year to Mentzelos Melistas to thank him for his efforts and enthusiasm throughout the first quartile. Mentzelos has had an impact on students both as a colleague (in the Math Line to all TA's who have worked with him) as well as a teacher for LS1 to the freshmen, who have been able to appreciate his kindness, empathy and the passion he has for his work.
By awarding Mentzelos with this bouquet, the Education Committee thanks him once again for all of his hard work and the joy he portrays and spreads to the students.
New Programme Director and MSc Coordinator Monday 21 October 2024 17:33
The beginning of the academic year has brought a few changes and new faces to the Applied Mathematics programme.
In particular, we would like to introduce to you our new interim Programme Director as well as our new MSc coordinator:
Hil Meijer - Interim Programme Director
Hil Meijer started at the department in January 2007 and is currently an Associate Professor within the chair MIA (Mathematics of Imaging and AI). His research and teaching deals with Computational Neuroscience and Dynamical Systems. He has been chair of the Programme Committee AM during 2017-2023. You may reach him at his office, Zilverling room 2096, as well as through his e-mail address h.g.e.meijer@utwente.nl.
And once in a while he pops up at Abacus too.
Lisette van den Broek - MSc Coordinator
Lisette van den Broek has been working at the UT for about a year. She is 27 years old, Dutch, and has a background in Nutrition & Health, which she pursued as a degree at Wageningen University. She also assumed the position of MSc coordinator for the studies Electrical Engineering and Embedded Systems.
You may reach her at her office, Zilverling room A110, as well as through the new e-mail address master-am@utwente.nl.
Abacus celebrates eleventh lustrum! Friday 20 September 2024 11:44
On the 19th of November 2024, Abacus will turn 55 years old and we will thus celebrate the eleventh lustrum.
To celebrate this, we will have three weeks full of activities from 11 until 29 November.
But we already want to hype you up with a sports day on the 25th of September!
You will even be able to play some lasergaming at this activity!
For the other activities, you can already enrol on the website, where you can also find more information!
New Board Monday 9 September 2024 11:33
On the 3rd of September, the 57th board of W.S.G Abacus was constituted as follows:
Chairman & Officer External Affairs: Patrick Heuven
Secretary & Officer Educational Affairs: Erik Leering
Treasurer: Renske Idzenga
Officer Internal Affairs: Rick Hüther
Officer Internal Affairs: Jorg Gortemaker
General Adjunct: Maria Christina van der Weele
We thank the previous board for their dedication and the great year. We are looking forward to a great year with all of you.
Candidate board 2024-2025 Tuesday 9 July 2024 20:15
We are excited and more than proud to announce to you the candidate 57th board of Wiskundig Studiegenootschap Abacus! 🖤💛
Chairman & Officer External Affairs: Patrick Heuven
Secretary & Officer Educational Affairs: Erik Leering
Treasurer: Renske Idzenga
Officer Internal Affairs: Rick Hüther
Officer Internal Affairs: Jorg Gortemaker
General Adjunct: Maria Christina van der Weele
They will hopefully be charged during the change GMA on Tuesday 3 September 🫶🏼
