果冻传媒

Notably, three of the ten Veni grants awarded to early-career researchers at 果冻传媒 were granted to members of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. This reflects the department鈥檚 strong research performance during 果冻传媒鈥檚 most successful Veni round to date.

The recipients are Samantha Fairchild, Alexandra Lassota, and Jacob Kr眉ger.

The Veni Laureates and what they aim to achieve through their Veni grants:

Samantha Fairchild: Crossing the transcendental divide

At the core of Samantha Fairchild鈥檚 Veni project  is the goal of fostering a symbiotic relationship between the study of Riemann surfaces and algebraic curves鈥攖wo mathematically equivalent objects traditionally explored by separate branches of mathematics.

One of the key challenges in leveraging this equivalence lies in the so-called "transcendental divide": transitioning between the two representations requires transcendental functions, which cannot be expressed using polynomials.

This project introduces an innovative approach to bridging that divide by harnessing recent developments in numerical algebraic geometry.

鈥淎s part of my work on this project, I will build research networks between two fields and connect young mathematicians with industry to address real-world challenges and improve career readiness,鈥� says Fairchild.

Alexandra Lassota: Making the hard tractable 鈥� exploring new parameters for integer programs

Alexandra Lassota鈥檚 Veni project addresses one of the most important challenges in theoretical computer science and optimization: developing efficient algorithms for solving integer programs (IPs).

Integer programs play a central role in many advanced solutions in operations research, supporting complex and large scale problems across industry and society. However, their computational difficulty remains a major barrier.

Many practical applications reveal underlying structures that can be used to simplify these problems. Lassota鈥檚 research focuses on identifying new classes of integer programs that can be solved efficiently and creating algorithms to tackle them. This work advances the theoretical understanding of integer programs and provides a more flexible and powerful set of tools, helping to redefine what kinds of problems can be solved in practice.

鈥淒esigning efficient algorithms for integer programming鈥攂roadly used across various industrial and societal applications鈥攚ill help, for instance, societal decision making and optimize resource usage,鈥� says Lassota. 鈥淭he Veni grant will help me to grow as an independent researcher and to pursue bold new research ideas.鈥�

Jacob Kr眉ger: Conceptualizing human assumptions in software evolution (CHASE)

Software developers often rely on assumptions to complete tasks when lacking full information. However, incorrect assumptions can lead to serious software defects. Currently, little is known about how developers form assumptions, how these evolve with software, or how to detect when they go wrong.

Jacob Kr眉ger鈥檚 Veni project, CHASE, aims to break new ground by analyzing developer discussions and conducting experiments to uncover how assumptions interact with software evolution.

The project will lay the foundation for a new theory in this area, paving the way for techniques to prevent faulty assumptions and opening a novel research direction in software engineering.