Stories

105 results
  • Bart Mennink: Cryptography, Humour, and a Fresh Start in Maastricht

    He calls his PhD students “Minions"; they call him "Gru." He delivers lectures in a dinosaur costume and runs marathons dressed as a gladiator. Meet Bart Mennink, the new Professor of Cryptography at the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences. 

    Photo of computer code on a monitor by Markus Spiske
  • Beyond the bang: how Maastricht scientists helped win the Breakthrough Prize

    This year's Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the 17,500 scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider, including researchers from Maastricht University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering. They contribute to major experiments exploring the universe’s deepest mysteries...

    LHCb scientist posing in front of the LCHb experiment at CERN
  • Plastic-eating people do not like biodegradable polymers

    Cola bottles and microplastics are two examples of plastics that frequently end up in the environment, which we then consume. Why? Simply because biodegradable alternatives have a hard time entering the market. Simon Schick at AMIBM investigated why this is the case.

    Trash floating on body of water. Photo by Lisa Fotios
  • The human behaviour of a computer scientist

    Bulat Khaertdinov is the first winner of the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s Dissertation Prize. At the Department of Advanced Computer Sciences, he trains artificial intelligence to recognise and respond to human behaviour. Read on and familiarise yourself with the work of a computer scientist...

    Bulat Khaertdinov holds his PhD-diploma while walking out of the auditorium
  • Brazil, malaria, and Cartier, the adventures of a sensor engineer

    It is always great when a plan comes together, especially if it happens all at once. Rocio Arreguín Campos developed a quick and easy-to-use diagnostic tool for malaria. Together with her boss, Bart van Grinsven, she successfully tested the device in Brazil. Read their story about sensors, malaria...

    Malaria-infected red blood cell with characteristic spikes in the middle of healthy cells
  • Synthetic data, digital twins, and American money

    Artificial intelligence can become trustworthy in medicine if trained on high-quality data from a sufficiently large and divers patient population. But what happens when data is scarce because a condition or trait is extremely rare? Michel Dumontier and his team are addressing this by combining real...

    Michel Dumontier working on his laptop
  • From paradise to enterprise, aggression rules small populations.

    Imagine living on an island that loses about 90% of its land area due to natural disasters. How would you ensure there is enough space and food for yourself and your offspring? Would you become aggressive? Read how Leon Claessens and his colleagues figured out that in such cases, nature will promote...

    Leon Claessens next to a dino head