Lecture | Tuesday Talks: Science Insights
Tuesday Talks: Science Insights | 10 December 2024
- Date
- Tuesday 10 December 2024
- Time
- Address
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- CM.1.26
Leiden Science’s monthly dose of research inspiration from our staff, for our staff and all other curious minds. On Tuesday 10 December, Rob van Nieuwpoort, Professor Efficient Computing and eScience, will give an interesting lecture!
e-Science: Software-Enhanced Science
Nowadays, research in many disciplines depends on advanced research software. This software can be a part of our scientific instruments, our models, data analysis, visualisation, etc. The field of eScience investigates, develops, and promotes software in all fields of research. As such, eScience brings together data science, computational science, AI, algorithm research, and e-infrastructure, and applies solutions from these fields in all disciplines of research, from astronomy and climate research to the humanities and social sciences.
However, eScience comes with many challenges. For example, how do we make our solutions efficient and scalable? And how do we make the software sustainable? Research software is typically developed in multi-disciplinary collaborative projects. It is difficult, but essential, to bridge the gap between fundamental computer science research and its application in other disciplines. Almost always, some form of domain adaptation is needed: the software needs to be tailored to a specific discipline and research question. This is something we all need to do together.
The potential benefits of eScience are huge. With the help of high-quality and efficient software, we can achieve new breakthroughs, we can make our instruments more reliable and sensitive, and we can make research more reproducible. Finally, we can make research itself more efficient, delivering more research output per tax-payer euro (a timely issue, unfortunately), since software can be generalized and reused many times. The application of AI in science is a prominent recent example of this (e.g., large language models).
Programma
The programme of the Tuesday Talks: Science Insights is:
| 15.45 hrs | Take a seat |
| 16.00 hrs | Introduction by dean Jasper Knoester |
| 16.10 hrs | Lecture by Rob van Nieuwpoort, followed by Q&A |
| 17.00 hrs | Drinks |
About the speaker
Rob van Nieuwpoort is professor “Efficient Computing and eScience” at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) at Leiden university since 2023. Before that, he was the CTO of the Netherland eScience Center for 12 years. Rob has a PhD in computer science from the VU University Amsterdam.
Rob van Nieuwpoort’s research involves ways in which large-scale computing power can be used more efficiently in achieving scientific breakthroughs in various scientific fields. He develops new programming models that make the use of large-scale computer systems simpler and more efficient. In addition, energy efficiency plays a crucial part. For large-scale scientific experiments such as LOFAR and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, energy use is a limiting factor and a major expense. In these cases, software that is more efficient will have the immediate effect of increasing the sensitivity of the instruments. Rob’s second research interest is eScience. The field of eScience promotes the use of digital technology in all fields of research. The goal is to bridge the gap between fundamental computer science research and its application in scientific disciplines.
Join this edition of Tuesday Talks: Science Insights!
Everyone who is interested in this edition's topic is welcome. Please let us know if you are attending.
I will joinAbout Tuesday Talks: Science Insights
Tuesday Talks: Science Insights is Leiden Science’s monthly dose of research inspiration from our staff, for our staff and all others curious minds. Every second Tuesday of the month from 16:00 hrs till 17:00 hrs, drinks and meet up afterwards till 18.00 hrs.