Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming an indispensable technology in particle and astroparticle physics. To accelerate scientific discovery, Nikhef is establishing a dedicated AI R&D group to enable more, faster and better science across all its research programmes.
Nikhef is a place where scientific discovery and technological innovation naturally reinforce each other. ‘With our experiments, we collect enormous volumes of highly complex data from which we extract information,’ says Nikhef director Jorgen D’Hondt.
‘Sometimes we search for a specific needle in an enormous haystack; other times we aim to measure physical properties of particle collisions or cosmic observations with the greatest accuracy.’
Over the past decade, increasingly sophisticated algorithms have transformed the way particle species are identified in high-energy collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
One of the most notable achievements in which AI already played a decisive role was the ATLAS group’s measurement of the so-called Higgs potential, the structure of the field that gives elementary particles their mass. Neural networks improved with a factor of four the search for relevant particles in the detectors.
Cutting-edge particle detectors generating unprecedented amounts of data must be matched with the best performing data-analysis algorithms. Determined to remain at the forefront of the field, Nikhef is adapting the latest AI developments for swift integration into particle and astroparticle physics research.
D’Hondt is the driving force behind this new focus on AI at Nikhef. With strong support from the NWO-I organisation, the new AI R&D group is being built at a rapid pace to develop in-house AI expertise and embed it deeply into the institute’s research.
A key priority will be ensuring the scientific robustness, transparancy, and reliability of AI-supported results. It will strengthen the depth and breadth of our exploration of the fundamental physics of both the smallest and the largest structures in the universe.
The AI R&D group will soon recruit two AI-oriented data scientists and two postdoctoral researchers. The use of AI is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, driven in part by the increasing availability of specialised graphics processors capable of analysing vast and complex datasets with exceptional precision.
To support these efforts, the group will acquire state-of-the-art hardware systems tailored to high-performance AI developments.
