Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS)

AI can help scientists to collect data about the earth faster. This saves them a lot of time on trying to figure out how to analyze all the data they collect. Julia Wasala, PhD student at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Sciences(LIACS), tells us how AI can be used to save time.

A night sky of more than 40 petabytes in size, simulating young star clusters and understanding how the body inhibits viruses: three Leiden projects have received computing time on one of the national computer systems.

From a white leather armchair, on which Barack Obama once sat, Dean Michiel Kreutzer opened the academic year. This time not with visitors, but completely corona-proof via a live stream. In a homely setting, Kreutzer spoke with several guests, including Covid-19 researcher Thomas Hankemeier and brand…

Where should you plant ten trees so that as many city-dwellers as possible can enjoy them? If a smart algorithm knows how people move through the city and where there are already trees, it can calculate the optimal solution. Data scientist Mitra Baratchi makes this possible. Her students are now using…

Researchers from Leiden University analysed almost 30 years of communication on astrobiology. News articles proved most speculative, especially via quotes from scientists. Especially exoplanet research is often accompanied by high expectations about extraterrestrial life, they write in PLOS One.

‘I would never want to be treated by a computer,’ says Boudewijn Lelieveldt, Head of Radiology at the Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Image Processing and Medical Delta professor in the Bioinformatics group at Delft University of Technology. No matter how intelligent a system, we have to continue…

Five talks will be given during the Leiden Science Family Day: two children's lectures and three lectures for adults. Will you be there ?

On June 9-10 2016 Dr. E. Devroe of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) was invited as a key-note speaker on ‘Intelligence Led policing and community oriented policing’ at the annual meeting of the ‘Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’ (OSCE), Transnational Threats Department,…

General contact information

You gain a strong foundation in computer science, combined with knowledge of machine learning, cognitive science, human-robot interaction. You will learn to develop and program systems based on knowledge of the human brain.

Lecture

This section of the website is for current students of the Creative Intelligence & Technology MSc program. When starting the program, students should familiarize themselves with the content of this page.

Computational thinking, programming, and algorithms form the basic of many of the things that are shaping our world, the way we work, interact, organize ourselves, and even spend our free time with social networks, streaming media, and games. And this transformation is far from being complete, it is…

In 2025, Leiden University College became the first university programme in the Netherlands to receive the special “Sustainable Higher Education” label from the NVAO, the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation.

This article illustrates how the term 'dual use' has become associated with a broader dichotomy between ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ purposes.

A growing global concern is that automated recognition systems may exacerbate and reinforce existing biases that different societies have with respect to gender, age, race, and sexual orientation. Questions around the consequences of automated gender recognition are particularly poorly understood and…

Humans can see the world through the eyes of other humans and imagine what they know, want, and intend. This competence is known as Theory of Mind.

The [a]social creatures lab focusses on understanding social interaction with and between artificial creatures.

Developing new medicines is one of modern science's most significant hurdles, a process marked by high costs, long timelines, and frequent failures of promising candidates.

AI Labs are collaborations of Leiden University with external parties such as industry, governmental parties and other universities on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. The Science institutes of Leiden University are unique located in the largest Bioscience Park of the Netherlands, next door to…

Lecture

Design of a Linguistic System for Interstellar Communication Based on Logic

The Leiden Science Young Talent Award celebrates a student who completed their bachelor’s degree with an outstanding thesis.

A small number of EC points from your elective space can be obtained through project work instead of taking elective courses. This enables students to work on a project that they really want to do.

Research is meant to generate knowledge, in a rational and sensible way. Many research methods exist to do this, and creativity is an important factor. Our mission is to explore creative, playful, unexpected, and unconventional forms of academic research.

On 10 May 2021, Melanie Fink and Barbora Budinská published their views on recent developments in the areas of EU regulation of Artificial Intelligence and the Banking Union respectively as Op-Eds on EU Law Live.

In the BNR Newsradioprogram De Nieuwe Wereld, professors Aske Plaat (Data Science) and Catholijn Jonker (Explainable AI) of the computer science institute of Leiden University discuss about decisions made by computers. From self-driving cars to intelligent soap pumps: should we be able to follow the…

What does digitalisation mean for the labour market, the business sector and society in general? Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor Leiden Law School and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State at the Open University, spoke at a meeting of the Social and Economic Council…

Carlotta Rigotti and Dr Eduard Fosch-Villaronga from Leiden University presented the Horizon Europe BIAS project and its preliminary findings on fairness and diversity biases of AI applications in the labour market during the 'Algorithms for Her?' conference.

One of the holy grails of drug research is to be able to assess the safety of chemicals and pharmaceuticals without using laboratory animals. Researchers from Leiden University, among others, now receive a grant from the National Science Agenda to pursue that goal.

How do children learn to see the world through someone else’s perspective? Max van Duijn, assistant professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), receives 24,167 euros from the Elise Mathilde Foundation and the Leiden University Fund (LUF). With this grant he will set up a…

Het Nationaal Archief en het Noord-Hollands Archief onderzoekswedstrijd

What’s at stake at the NATO summit in The Hague? Three academics from Leiden share their insights.

You can do a degree in Artificial Intelligence at Leiden University, but its role is also increasing in other degree programmes.

How do people acquire language? How can you train your brain? What is the effect of stress on an unborn child? LIBC research topics range from language processing to cognitive robotics, and from psychiatric disorders to the impact of social factors on human behaviour. Meet several main research topics…

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Social science research helps us understand human behaviour and social structures. These are determined by various factors, which makes the research complex and increases the likelihood of drawing the wrong conclusions. The choice of research method and analysis is therefore extremely important. It…

The PDI-SSH grant will be used by Meuwese to create a web portal and collection of tools and resources, named ‘WetSuite’, that will help researchers apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to legal textual data from public bodies.

With the emergence of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it’s easier than ever to share information. Including disinformation. During his PhD computer scientist Xueqin Chen developed a new way to recognise fake news and predict how messages spread within online social networks…

From black holes to artificial intelligence and from drug research to data science: welcome to the fascinating world of the Faculty of Science. Our researchers, students and guests regularly give public lectures about their work. You are welcome to attend.

Do you have a question about studying at leiden University or student life in The Hague? Do you want more information about the Crisis and Security Management programme? Chat with a current student for answers to your questions!