Benelux A.I. Newsletter What’s hot in... Argumentation? Spring 2016 Edition (No. 1, Vol. 30) CONTENTS CONTENTS Contents Interview with... Jaap van den Herik 3 What’s Hot in... Argumentation? 7 Paper Discussion: Predicting Personality from Facebook Likes 9 Event Reports 12 Report on BNAIC 2015 – Hasselt . 12 VU/SIKS Symposium on Behavioural Informatics . 13 Event Announcements 14 BNAIC 2016 (Amsterdam) . 14 ECAI 2016 (The Hague) . 14 SIKS Course on Research methods and methodology for IKS . 15 SIKS tutorial on Mathematical Methods for IKS . 16 SIKS Course on Data Science . 17 Free Events for SIKS-PhD-students . 17 Summer School on Fuzzy Cognitive Maps . 18 Workshop on Articial Intelligence for Justice (AI4J) . 19 BNVKI Membership Fees 21 Contact Addresses / How to Subscribe? / Submissions. 22 Newsletter from the Benelux Association for AI (BNVKI) m www.BNVKI.org B [email protected] Page 2 INTERVIEW WITH... JAAP VAN DEN HERIK Interview with... Jaap van den Herik by Ali Mirsoleimani Prole. Professor Hendrik Jacob (Jaap) van den Herik (Rotterdam, 8 oktober 1947) is a Dutch computer scientist, and a professor at the University of Tilburg. Van den Heriks research interests lie in the elds of agents, computer networks, computer systems, computer science, knowledge management, articial intel- ligence, and game theory. He the original founder of the BNVKI. What is your academic background and how were you drawn to the questions you are dealing with now? I am a trained mathematician. My main topic was partial dierential equations, to be precise “the spectra of dierential operators.” Together with my friend Peter Nathans (who passed away in 2015) we built computer programs to triangulate the ma- trix representation of the dierential operator. We started with the theory by Henri Weil (1920s). We arrived at good results and completed the study with honours (cum laude). My career had the following course: mathe- matics ! applied mathematics ! numerical anal- ysis ! computer science ! articial intelligence ! computer chess (as specialty) ! game theory ! computers and law ! knowledge engineering ! e-humanities ! data science. In 2010 Jos Ver- maseren (Nikhef) approached me for cooperation. He proposed to apply game-playing techniques to modernize the FORM programs that were used in particle physics. We started to cooperate and I in- vited Aske Plaat – who held at that time a special chair in Tilburg – to have also a look into the intri- cacies. Aske is an expert in MTD(f). Our ERC Ad- vanced Research grant proposal shifted to Monte Jaap van den Herik Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), was awarded (12-12-12) and is now our main Flagship. Still I am dealing also with many other questions ranging from transfer learning to investigating cy- bercrime (Faculty of Law, Jan Jaap Oerlemans, also connections with EUR). On the top of these, the most challenging question of this moment is: How to bring the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS) to the top and to worldwide recognition? It is a continuous building process, step by step. The result will be fasci- nating. During your career you had positions at many dierent universities. What is it like being in so many dierent environments? How did that aect you as a researcher and as a person? Many questions in one. The short answer is: it is fantastic to be in so many dierent environments. It is Newsletter from the Benelux Association for AI (BNVKI) m www.BNVKI.org B [email protected] Page 3 INTERVIEW WITH... JAAP VAN DEN HERIK a very good process to grow to a full-edged researcher, and it is also good for the development of your personality. My doctoral supervisor was Professor Gerke Nieuwland (VUA). He said to Peter Nathans and me: “You are doing very good work. I have money to keep you for ten more months, but you cannot stay here. You should do as I did: Ingenieur in Delft, Doctor in Groningen, Professor in Amsterdam.” That advice is one of the best advice I have received in life. Can you tell us a little more about your decision to move to Leiden University? Is it related to the Leiden Centre of Data Science? To start with the last question, yes it is. In Tilburg I had developed (again with Aske Plaat and others) the TBDL-plan. TBDL stands for Tilburg Big Data Laboratory. Researchers and Deans supported that plan. I was the rst in the Netherlands. Since Tilburg has only presence in the Computer Science world in a limited way, I looked for cooperation with Eindhoven. There, my plans were well received. Meanwhile I continued to convince Tilburg (University authorities, Municipality and Police ocers) that this is the most promising future research. Tilburg was hesitating: a new big development, we are so small. “Readers, here you can learn from me”: hesitation is a curse for challenging and advanced research. Tilburg passed, Eindhoven took the lead (with due recognition to my initial eorts, thank you, gentlemen) and Jaap moved to Leiden where Professor Joost Kok has invited him to implement his plans. I hasten to add that Kok’s invi- tation was supported by Geert de Snoo (Dean of the Science Faculty) and Carel Stolker (rector Magnicus). Can you tell us a little more about HEPgame? HEPgame stands for High Energy Physics Game. In my BIGGRID period I collaborated with Frank Linde, the director of Nikhef. He was a visionary leader. Nikhef should be present in the European competitions at the highest level. He pushed selected researchers to apply for ERC grants. He endowed the researchers with support in the form of writing and meetings. In the 1960s Tiny Veltman and Gerard ’t Hooft had developed SCHOONSCHIP, a computer program to handle physic equations and expressions. This idea was awarded with a Noble prize (1999). In the 1980s Jos Vermaseren understood that the time was ripe to introduce new computer programming techniques for building a new program that could better handle the mathematical expressions. He completed the job in 1989. Not surprisingly, twenty years later, FORM was old-fashioned. Around 2010 it was time for the next step: AI techniques; how to nd the proper formulae to handle a large (very large) set of equations; how to combine the terms in such a way that the equations are tractable. With the results of the Higgs investigations progressing, new techniques were absolutely nec- essary. It was a fascinating time, HEPgame was a fascinating proposal, and now it is challenging research at the frontiers of the computer possibilities. I believe for you (Ali Mirsoleimani) and Ben Ruijl Leiden is a better place for this front-ranked research. It may have inuenced my transfer to Leiden, too. “Readers, here you can learn from me”: hesitation is a curse for challenging and advanced research. “ Jaap van den Herik ” How did you get involved in the BNVKI and the BNAIC? Around 1980 there were two centres of AI research. In Amsterdam we saw Bob Wielinga and Joost Breuker (emphasizing knowledge Representation and Knowledge Formulation) and in Delft Jaap van den Herik was involved in Search (as used in computer chess). In 1981, it was decided to have a meeting in Amsterdam of all current active researchers (we were with 16 at that time). There we decided to start the NVKI (Ned- Newsletter from the Benelux Association for AI (BNVKI) m www.BNVKI.org B [email protected] Page 4 INTERVIEW WITH... JAAP VAN DEN HERIK erlandse Vereniging voor Kunstmatige Intelligentie). The most active person in that time was Dennis de Champeaux de Laboulaye. Other active persons next to the ones mentioned already were Patrick Hudson and Henk Koppelaar. We chose for a board. However, that Board only formalized the Statutes and then fell into a Deep Winter Sleep. In that time I had to complete my Ph.D. thesis (defence in 1983), so I was pur- posely not organizational active. In 1987, the NVKI was awoken from its winter sleep by Laurent Siklóssy. He started a new board. Of course, Professor Laurent Siklóssy (VUA) became the new chairman. Erik Esmeijer became secretary, Koos Mars treasurer, and Jaap Editor-of-the-Newsletter and Vice-president. Moreover, we had in the team Joost Breuker and Maarten van Someren. In 1988, SWI organized the rst NAIC conference. The organizers were Maarten van Someren en Guus Schreiber. In fact, that activity was crucial for the further development of the NVKI. In 1990, I succeeded Siklóssy as chairperson. Under my guidance, the NVKI made two plans: (1) encourage ladies to become board member, and (2) submit a pro- posal for the ECAI (European Conference on Articial Intelligence) to be held in Amsterdam in 1994. Both plans came true. In 1991 Sandra Korthals-Stemerdink became the “rst lady” in our board and in 1994 we had the ECAI in Amsterdam. It was a wonderful time. There is much more, but I leave it with this, apart from the fact that I am grateful to our community at the time that they awarded me with the distinguished title: honorary member. Thank you, once more. In which way were you involved in the Computer Olympiad in Leiden two months ago? That is a long story. In 1982 the program PION (TU Delft) participated in the ACM computer chess cham- pionship and in 1983 in the World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC). So, the computer chess world knew the TU Delft as a centre of computer chess and AI activities. The ICCA (International Computer Chess Association; now ICGA (International Computer Games Association)) asked me to take over the Editorship of the ICCA Newsletter. The TU Delft allowed me to do so on the condition that I transferred the Newsletter to a recognized Journal, with scientic publications that were peer reviewed.