Aske Plaat
Professor of Data science
- Name
- Prof.dr. A. Plaat
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 7065
- a.plaat@liacs.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-7202-3322
Professor Aske Plaat is Professor of Data Science at Leiden University. He is co-founder of the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS) and initiated the interdisciplinary research programme Society, Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences (SAILS). Between 2016 and 2023 he held the position of scientific director at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). Plaat's research interests include reinforcement learning, scalable combinatorial reasoning algorithms, games and self-learning systems.
More information about Aske Plaat
PhD candidates
News
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Marcello Bonsangue new Scientific Director of the LIACS institute -
'Science works better when you are diverse' -
Two directors of education for LIACS -
Quantum Leiden creates potential for a great quantum future -
Visit by Members of Parliament highlights interdisciplinary research and collaboration -
The future of artificial intelligence -
BNAIC/Benelearn conference big success -
University invests extra funds in groundbreaking research -
‘Universities and government should take the lead in the fight against cybercrime’ -
Dies natalis: ‘Collaboration requires firm grounding in the individual disciplines’ -
Archaeology thanks to computer-based research -
Self-learning machines for better understanding of the universe -
Free symposium reveals surprising uses of AI -
Hui Wang wins Best Paper Award at BNAIC 2018 -
With artificial intelligence to new physics -
Major Expansion Leiden Quantum Computing -
Developing quantum software with a grant of 18.8 million euros -
Netherlands' smallest supercomputer -
Unexpected data are good for business -
Sifting through data the smart way -
Leiden University and ICTU start research on software development -
Why fundamental science matters -
Leiden University partner in research on handwriting and image recognition -
Data science can reduce likelihood of virus outbreaks
Former PhD candidates
Prof.dr. Aske Plaat obtained his PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. His work focused on search algorithms. After his graduation, he did post-doctoral research on the Cild system in combining supercomputing technologies group at the MIT Lab for Computer Science. In 1997 he was awarded the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an NWO/SION grant to work with Henri Bal at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on distributed algorithms for scalable computing.
With PI Jos Vermaseren (Nikhef) he is co-author of the HEPGAME project that was awarded a five-year Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (proposal) on 12/12/2012. HEPGAME uses machine learning algorithms to solve very complex high energy physics problems. In 2017 the Amsterdam-Leiden-Delft Quantum Software consortium received a 10 year NWO Gravitation grant, of which he leads the Quantum Machine Learning part.
Plaat has (co-)chaired and (co-)edited conferences on combinatorial algorithms, information management, and governance. He is a member of the board of the national SIKS research school for Artificial Intelligence and IPN Informatics Platform Netherlands. He was a member of the PRACE Access Committee.
In Leiden, he is a co-founder of the Computing Facility of Excellent Research (CFER), the Leiden Center of Data Science (LCDS), the Center for Computational Life Science (CCLS), and the university-wide initiative SAILS.
Research and education
Prof.dr. Plaat is head of the Reinforcement Learning Group. This group conducts research on intelligent combinatorial search algorithms and reinforcement learning.
From 2020 Plaat teaches the course Reinforcement Learning in the Master Computer Science. He also teaches the seminar on Advanced Deep Reinforcement Learning since the beginning of 2020.
Active projects
- Quantum Software Consortium
People: Vedran Dunjko, Carlo Beenakker, Dirk Bouwmeester, Harry Buhrman, Ronald Cramer, Ronald Hanson, Ronald de Wolf, Stephanie Wehner, Marcello Bonsangue, Aske Plaat
The ministry for Education, Culture, and Science has awarded a Gravitation grant for large-scale research on quantum software. This grant of 18.8 million euro unites researchers from QuSoft, CWI, Leiden University, QuTech, TU Delft, UvA and the VU in pursuing state of the art research programs in this new field. LIACS performs research into Quantum Machine Learning.
Funding: NWO 2017-2027
- Quantum Annealing Optimization Algorithms
People: Sheir Yarkoni, Florian Neukart, Thomas Bäck, Aske Plaat
Industry-relevant optimization problems may have many different forms, for example: continuous, stochastic, high-dimensional, and more. However, commercial quantum annealers can currently only solve QUBO problems, so problems need to be posed to the annealer in this form. Since finding an optimal transformation to QUBO is an NP-hard problem in itself, discovering efficient ways of generating QUBO forms for generic optimization problems is the first step in this research. We will also study Evolutionary Algorithms and Quantum Annealing.
Funding: LIACS & DWAVE 2017-
- Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives
People: Michiel Thijssen, Ernest Suyver, Maarten Heerlien, Lambert Schomaker, Lissa Roberts, Jaap van den Herik, Andreas Weber, Fons Verbeek, Michael Lew, Katy Wolstencroft, Lise Stork, Aske Plaat
Large and important parts of our cultural heritage are stored in archives that are difficult to access. The project aims to develop a technologically advanced and user-centered digital environment that provides access to archives containing handwritten notes and illustrations.
Funding: NWO Creative Industries and Brill Publishers, 2016-2020
- Grip on Software
People: Leon Helwerda, Aske Plaat, Fons Verbeek, Jeroen van der Leije, Frank Niessink
How can we further streamline the development of software for the government? Leiden University and ICTU are to investigate this in a joint research project that was launched on 6 July 2016. The Dutch government uses a lot of software – DigiD, for instance, or software to open and close bridges automatically. Much of that software is developed by ICTU, a Dutch government organization that helps other government institutions in the realization of digital services.
Funding: ICTU, 2016-2020
Professor of Data science
- Science
- Leiden Inst of Advanced Computer Science