We are pleased to invite you to the 4TU.NIRICT PhD School, which will take place on Tuesday, 17 March 2026, at the Crowne Plaza Utrecht Central Station.
This PhD School on Emerging Computing Paradigms is aimed at mid-stage PhD candidates (in particular year 2 and year 3) based in the Netherlands and working in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and closely related research areas.
📅 Date & location
Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Location: Crowne Plaza Utrecht Central Station
What to expect
- An inspiring and up-to-date programme featuring lectures on neuromorphic computing, quantum computing, and sustainable computing
- Interactive sessions with fellow PhD candidates, including pitches, speed dating, and group work
- A free full-day event, including lunch and a closing drinks reception
🧠 Program
- 10:00-10:05 Opening – Przemyslaw Pawelczak (TUD) and Suzan Bayhan (UT)
- 10:05-11:05 Lecture 1: Sustainability of Computing – Ana Varbanescu (UT)
“Computation” has become a massive part of our daily lives; even more so, in science, a lot of experiments and analysis rely on massive computation. Under the assumption that computation is cheap, and time-to-result is the only relevant metric for all of us, we currently use computational resources at low efficiency. In this talk, we argue this approach is unsustainable, and leads to an unacceptable amount of waste of computing resources. We argue sustainable computing must focus in reducing computing waste. To this end, we introduce our approach to quantify computing waste, and reflect on its impact in scientific computing and AI. We present different ways to reduce compute waste, including adapting applications and systems to different constraints. Finally, we propose a strategy for system co-design to demonstrate how zero-waste can be achieved.
Bio: Ana Lucia Varbanescu is professor at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from TUDelft. She was an intern at IBM TJWatson Research and at NVIDIA, and a visiting researcher at Imperial College London, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and University of Valladolid, Spain. Ana's research stems from HPC, and investigates the use of heterogeneous systems for high-performance applications, with a special focus on performance and energy efficiency modeling for both scientific and data-intensive applications. Her latest research focuses on zero-waste computing and model- based systems co-design in the computing continuum. - 11:05-11:20 Coffee break
- 11:20-11:50 PhD pitches & academic speed dating
- 11:50-12:50 Lecture 2: Introduction to quantum computing – Freek Witteveen (CWI)
What is the relation between physics and computation? Is Nature a computer? Can computers use physics to do better? One surprising discovery in this direction is that the physics you use for your computer can make a difference: computers that make use of quantum physics appear to have fundamentally different properties than computers using classical physics. In this introductory talk, I will explain how quantum physics can be used for computation, and for which computational problems it is helpful to do so (and for which we think it is probably not). Since its inception in the 1990s, quantum computing has changed from an intriguing theoretical concept to a large-scale engineering project with potential real-world applications, and I will also give a brief overview on the prospects, challenges and promises of this project.
Bio: Freek Witteveen works on the interface of quantum computer science and many-body physics. He obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam, worked at the University of Copenhagen and is currently affiliated with CWI and QuSoft in Amsterdam. - 12:50-13:30 Lunch break
- 13:30-15:00 Group work and discussion
- 15:00-15:15 Coffee break
- 15:15-16:15 Lecture 3: Neuromorphic Edge AI: algorithms, hardware, & applications - Federico Corradi (TU/e)
As Artificial Intelligence moves from the cloud to the edge, conventional computing architectures face significant challenges regarding power consumption, and latency. This talk explores the paradigm of Neuromorphic Edge AI, where the principles of biological information processing are translated into silicon. I will discuss the co-design of algorithms and hardware, focusing on Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) implemented through asynchronous circuits and mixed-signal design. By moving away from the von Neumann bottleneck, these event-driven architectures enable gains in energy efficiency and novel computing paradigms. The presentation will cover recent advancements in neuromorphic processors and sensors, illustrating their practical deployment in resource-constrained applications ranging from agile robotics to ultra-low-power biomedical sensing.
Bio: Dr. Federico Corradi received the M.Sc. degree (cum laude) in Physics from La Sapienza University in Rome and the Ph.D. degree in Neuroinformatics from the University of Zurich and the ETH Neuroscience Centre Zurich, Switzerland, in 2015. From 2012 to 2017, he was with iniLabs, Zurich, where he developed several neuromorphic integrated processors and event-driven sensors. From 2017 to 2019, he was a Senior Researcher at IMEC, Eindhoven, where he worked on neuromorphic architectures and sensor interfaces, bridging academic and industrial research. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands, where he leads the Neuromorphic Edge Computing Systems Laboratory. His research interests include neuromorphic computing, spiking neural networks (SNNs) implemented with asynchronous circuits and mixed-signal design, with applications in robotics and biomedical sensing. He serves as an Associate Editor for Elsevier Microprocessors \& Microsystems and as a member of the technical program committees of international conferences such as ICONS, IJCNN, NEWCAS, and ISCAS. He has delivered invited talks at international venues, including the Korea Semiconductor Academy (2025), the BrainInspiration Conference (2024), and the International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FIRE 2025), among others.
Dr. Corradi received the ISCAS Honorary Mention of the NSA Track in 2014 and was recognized as the winner for the Rising Star Award in Neuromorphic Computing & Engineering by IOP Science in 2025. He actively promotes open-source neuromorphic design methodologies and interdisciplinary education at the intersection of hardware and computational neuroscience. - 16:15-17:00 Closing & drinks
🎓 Credits
Participants may obtain 1EC for attending the PhD School (note: obtaining the 1EC would require completion of a group assignment after the end of PhD school). In the registration form, you can indicate whether you are interested in obtaining the 1EC or not.
📝 Registration
- Registration is required: [Register here]
- A maximum number of participants applies (currently a limit is set to 25 participants)
- Registration deadline: 25 February 2026
Places are limited, so we encourage you to register early. Please register via [this link] to secure your spot, lunch 🥪, and networking refreshments 🍹.
We look forward to welcoming you in Utrecht on 17 March 2026.
For questions, please contact: m.mommers@tue.nl
For more information about 4TU.NIRICT, take a look at our website or follow us on LinkedIn.