VORtech Blog

Can we reliably forecast and manage urban flooding with a machine learning model? That was a question that was raised at Deltares, a knowledge institute for water and the subsurface. Initial research was promising. As VORtech is building up its expertise in machine learning for physics-based modelling, we welcomed the opportunity to join Deltares and Delft University of Technology in further explorations.

In this blog series, we demonstrate that our mathematical strengths are an important complement to our programming skills. Using a mathematical approach, we achieve solutions that programming alone wouldn't. The blogs are based on interviews with colleagues who recently completed projects where mathematics played a decisive role. In this first post, we speak with Maarten, who conducted a fascinating project for Wageningen University & Research (WUR). He worked on efficiently storing and processing a vast amount of genetic data

We're seeing increasing attention to environmental concerns and CO2 emissions in the world of computing software. This is not without reason: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers are already responsible for approximately 1-1.5% of global electricity consumption. Writing elegant code can make a difference.

VORtech has won an important tender from TenneT in close collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Netherlands. For at least three years, we will be helping to develop software for calculations around the high-voltage network. 

VORtech won a tender from Rijkswaterstaat Water Verkeer en Leefomgeving (WVL) for the renewal of strategic passenger transport models.

There have been some staff changes within VORtech. We welcomed two new Scientific Software Engineers who we would like to introduce to you. The administration department had a few big changes. We had to say goodbye to two dear colleagues and we welcomed 2 new colleagues.

If you're interested in the role machine learning will play in developing computational software, Professor Rob van Nieuwpoort's group at LIACS in Leiden is a good starting point. They're working on generating efficient code for specialized hardware and developing foundation models for technical applications. In this interview, Professor Van Nieuwpoort discusses his group's research.

We would like to share some of the experiences we've had over the past 15 years working on critical software with a complex legacy component. It dates back to the 1980s and has evolved into a powerful system packed with domain knowledge and smart algorithms. Its "killer feature" is its ability to handle complex geometries. Over the years, the program has more than proven its value.

The top 10 of the November 2024 list of supercomputers is very much a western affair, all coming from the US, Europe and Japan. But in fact, if China’s fastest supercomputers were listed, they would be third and fifth on the list. And the commercial sector is building machines that are even faster than the number one.

Do you recognize this: software that was developed long ago, has been extended and adapted for years, but no longer meets today’s standards? If so, then our lunch lecture on modernizing software on September 24 is for you.