Stories | The heart of talent development in AI and digital innovation

Stories from LAB42 focus on people and experiences inside the building. They highlight how founders, researchers and students work together, how ideas take shape, and how collaboration happens in practice.

These pieces are less about announcements and more about perspective. They offer a closer look at what it’s like to be part of the LAB42 ecosystem — from early conversations to growing teams and long-term collaboration.

Browse the stories below to get a feel for the people, culture and everyday reality of LAB42.

AI graduate becomes firefighter

What can you do after a Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence? Starting a Master would be the obvious choice. AI graduate Merel Atia took a completely different path though: she joined the Amsterdam fire brigade! And the great thing is, after some years she found a way to use her AI skills. 

The future of computer systems: fast and sustainable

The demand for faster, more powerful computer systems continues to increase, partly due to innovations in AI and data analysis. At the same time, sustainability is becoming increasingly important, and the energy consumption of the sector is a major burden on the environment. For example, a single search on ChatGPT costs significantly more energy than a search on Google. Training AI models also costs a huge amount of energy. ‘That's just not right, it’s not sustainable. We have to do something about this’, says Andy Pimentel, professor and chair of Parallel Computing Systems at LAB42. He aims to make computer systems not only faster, but also more sustainable.

How can AI deliver on its promises in healthcare?

In theory, AI has much to offer healthcare, but developing successful applications in recent years has proved more difficult than thought. Most AI solutions are still in the experimental pre-clinical stage. Three UvA researchers highlight how the gap between science and medical practice can be closed.

Resident LifeWatch ERIC contributes to solutions to stop the decline in biodiversity

One of the members of our community is LifeWatch ERIC, renting a workspace at LAB42. We asked them some questions to understand what's driving their business.

Using language sciences for social good

Language technologies, like ChatGPT, are developing quickly. But we don’t really know how they work. And they are not always designed to help society.

2050: the year that it will happen

Even before you step into the Intelligent Robotics Lab of LAB42, you're greeted by 8 pairs of eyes — not the employees of the lab, but the welcoming committee of LAB42 in the form of various robots. Upon entering the lab, you immediately encounter a soccer field, confirming you're in the right place. Walking further, you arrive at the destination: Wike Duivenvoorden, Bachelor's student in Artificial Intelligence and coordinator of promotion & events for the Dutch Nao Team.

'We need renowned AI experts next door'

AI has implications outside the realm of computers: through a collaboration AI is applied to help chemists develop new, sustainable materials. ‘AI is an indispensable tool to achieve the material transition needed for a sustainable society’, says Bernd Ensing, associate professor of Computational Chemistry and leading the AI4SMM research group (Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Molecules and Materials) at the University of Amsterdam.

Community member UbiOps wants meaningful AI to see the light of day

One of the members of our community is UbiOps, renting a workspace at LAB42. We asked them some questions to understand what's driving their business.

How do you humanise talking machines (but without the bad parts)?

This year, AI systems that can write almost human-like texts have made a breakthrough worldwide. However, many academic questions on how exactly these systems work remain unanswered. Three UvA researchers are trying to make the underlying language models more transparent, reliable and human.

The Code to Change connects high-potential women and underrepresented groups with tech companies

One of the members of our community is The Code to Change, a diversity and inclusion organisation. They are working on connecting high-potential women and underrepresented groups with tech companies.

What impact do AI systems have on social inequality?

AI is everywhere and we can barely imagine how to live without it. One of the important questions though is: how do AI systems affect social inequality? Professor of Socially Intelligent AI, Sennay Ghebreab, focuses on identifying ways in which AI systems reflect or reinforce existing inequalities in society. He is also committed to using AI systems to help combat these inequalities. 

Unlocking Opportunities: The Thesis Fair Connects Organisations and Talented Students

The Thesis Fair has been held at Science Park since 2011. The event has resulted in many collaborations between students and companies. But what is the concept behind this event? We had the opportunity to interview Yasmin Santis, the Thesis Fair manager, to delve into the details.

Solving the climate problem with machine learning

‘We are heading towards a wall at a tremendous speed, and we haven’t yet hit the brakes’, Max Welling says. He’s referring to climate change. ‘It is highly likely that the earth will be four degrees warmer by the end of this century.’ Max Welling is a professor of Machine Learning at the University of Amsterdam and head of Microsoft Research’s AI4Science programme. 

Taking a robot to Mars: it all starts in LAB42

The robotics lab is located on the ground floor of Lab42. This is where Bachelor's and Master's students gain experimental skills. As a result, they learn that an algorithm that works in theory can turn out very differently in practice. ‘Companies are desperate for graduates with these skills.’

'Companies are having a lot of data, but they often lack the tools to put it to good use.'

Like her students, Director of the College of Informatics Jacobijn Sandberg recently relocated to LAB42. She hopes the new building will lead to many inspiring collaborations between researchers, students and businesses.

Aybüke Özgün: the philosophy of AI

Have you ever wondered how often you use your imagination each day? It’s likely to be more often than you think. ‘Humans use their imagination all the time,’ claims Aybüke Özgün, logician and researcher at the UvA’s Institute for Logic, Language and Computation. She studies the logic behind imagination and knowledge and how the two are related. We’re not talking about the sort of imagination required for unicorns and castles in the air, but the kind we use for more practical matters.

Jelle Zuidema: Finding out why AI makes certain choices

It's a well-known example: in 2015, it became painfully clear that the application of AI can sometimes go terribly wrong. A month previously, Google had introduced the option of automatically tagging photos and putting them in an album. Very convenient in itself, you might say. However, the system got it very wrong in the case of a photo of a dark-skinned man and his girlfriend. Their photo was tagged ‘gorilla’. The app received a lot of criticism, and Google promised to remedy the error. But guess what? Three years later, the error had not been corrected at all; it turned out that Google had simply blocked the ‘gorilla’ category.

‘Partnerships are a very appealing option for businesses’

The UvA and Bosch have extended their partnership with the launch of Delta Lab 2. Herke van Hoof, former lab manager for Delta Lab 1, is now passing the baton to Eric Nalisnick. Below, the two Machine Learning Lab scientists discuss the partnership.

Khalil Sima'an: a translation machine that really understands language

How do you translate the Dutch word gezellig into English? Cosy is probably the first thing that comes to mind but it doesn’t really convey the full meaning. And take the Italian word culaccino, for example, which refers to the mark that a cold glass leaves on a table. Or the Portuguese word saudade, which can best be described as a combination of melancholy and yearning.

Raquel Fernández: talking to your computer as if it were human

You may have seen one while shopping online: you scroll a bit and a pop-up suddenly appears in the corner of your screen, asking, ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’ These ‘conversational agents’ or chatbots are like digital assistants meant to make our lives easier. The question is, do they? 

Evangelos Kanoulas: saving lives with AI

Immunotherapy has the potential to cure cancer. But it is an expensive treatment that sometimes has unpleasant side effects and is only effective in 30 per cent of cases. Can AI help? Computer scientist Evangelos Kanoulas works as an associate professor at the Informatics Institute, as well as at the UvA Business School – and he recently founded the start-up Ellogon.AI in order to study this topic.

Dean McHugh: computer models that ensure justice prevails

PhD candidate causal relations Dean McHugh is trying to find a model for causality. Where others might say ‘it's just a matter of how you define it’ to minimise the relevance of a given discussion, this statement actually sums up Dean's work rather nicely. To give a concrete example, his models might someday be a vital part of the justice system.