Awards

Dutch Prize for Research in ICT 2014

The Dutch Prize for Research in ICT (which comes with 50K) was awarded to me in 2014 for the multi-faceted, innovative and relevant research in the area of norm compliance, represented in the concept of a Socially-Adaptive Electronic Partner (SAEP), as well as my outreach activities and societal engagement. My acceptance speech was a great occasion to write about why I love computer science and how my values guide my life and work!

Award Ceremony (Source: NWO)

The prize is the most prestigious national ICT award for a scientist under 40 years old, who has conducted innovative research or who has realised a scientific breakthrough in ICT. It is meant as an homage to the scientist and to promote the area of ICT. It is awarded by the KHMW (Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen) via IPN (Informatica Platform Nederland) and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research).

A wonderful aspect of receiving this prize is that a poster (Dutch, English) is made about the recipient’s research, explaining the research in an accessible way.

ICT Prize Poster

More information can be found in the following articles (in Dutch):

IT Spiegelbeeld (Role model) Award 2012

The VHTO Spiegelbeeld Award is a prize for women who are dedicated to informing young girls and women about science, technology and IT. The award is an initiative of VHTO, the Dutch consultancy agency that aims to attract girls and women to an education and career in science and technology.

It was awarded to me in 2012 for my efforts as role model in the “speed date” programme of VHTO, in which female science and technology professionals visit high schools to talk to girls about their work. The aim is to provide a broader image to these girls of what a career in STEM might look like, in order to increase participation of girls and women in STEM.

Best Paper Awards

Our paper about the Hybrid Intelligence project has won the 2020 IEEE Computer best paper award! A very nice recognition of the project already at its start.

  • Akata, Zeynep and Balliet, Dan and de Rijke, Maarten and Dignum, Frank and Dignum, Virginia and Eiben, Guszti and Fokkens, Antske and Grossi, Davide and Hindriks, Koen and Hoos, Holger and Hung, Haley and Jonker, Catholijn and Monz, Christof and Neerincx, Mark and Oliehoek, Frans and Prakken, Henri and Schlobach, Stefan and van der Gaag, Linda and van Harmelen, Frank and van Hoof, Herke and van Riemsdijk, Birna and van Wynsberghe, Aimee and Verbrugge, Rineke and Verheij, Bart and Vossen, Piek and Welling, Max. A Research Agenda for Hybrid Intelligence: Augmenting Human Intellect With Collaborative, Adaptive, Responsible, and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (PDF,URL). IEEE Computer, 53(8): 18-28. 2020. © IEEE.

In 2009 we started a new line of research on empirical software engineering for agent programming. It was received very positively by reviewers, resulting in a Best Paper Award (runner up) at PRIMA’10 and a Best Paper Award at PRIMA’09:

In the third year of my PhD, my research on declarative goals in agent programming was nominated for a Best Student Paper award at AAMAS, the primary conference in our area. It was a very nice recognition, I’m still grateful to the reviewer who nominated me!