Note that this newsletter and all other news relevant to BRICKS will also be published on the BRICKS website at www.bsik-bricks.nl

Call for overview of research highlights, publications BRICKS Midterm Review 2007
In addition to the report provided by the international evaluation committee, on November 1 2007 we will have to produce our own Midterm Review report. The period that has to be dealt with ranges from the beginning of 2004 up until the first half of 2007. The annual reports of 2004 and 2005 are covered. Because of our Midterm Review we are dismissed from providing an annual report 2006. However, if you have anything to add (as of 2004), please let us know! For the first half of 2007 we urge all project leaders to provide us with overviews on your research highlights, publications, visits and presentations at (inter)national conferences, workshops, etc. Your input will be highly appreciated!

BRICKS Midterm Symposium March 13 2007
We would like to thank you all for participating in the BRICKS Midterm Symposium on March 13 2007. The turn up of about 100 people was impressive. It was nice (and useful!) seeing researchers from different institutes getting together exchanging ideas. The one-minute elevator pitches in order to attract attention to the poster presentations were a big hit. One minute can be challenging, but there were some creative researchers amongst you! Erik Jan van Leeuwen (CWI) succeeded by winning the BRICKS 2007 Dissemination Award (an iPod nano 8G). Out of 48 entries he obtained the majority of votes from the public jury for his research poster 'Algorithms for Wireless Networks'.

BRICKS cards May 2007
With the slogan: Wiskunde & Informatica: Reken maar! (free translation: Mathematics & Computer Science: Count on it!) BRICKS together with ICTRegie, Platform Bèta Techniek and Pythagoras designed five different puzzle cards. These cards were meant to challenge high school students to think positively about mathematics and computer science. In order to help them solve the puzzles students could visit the special youth section of the BRICKS website. Hints led them to the right solution of the puzzles. In total 129 students between 12 and 19 years old sent in their answers. We will send every one who solved at least one puzzle a nice brain buster gadget. But for the ones who have solved all puzzles we set up a raffle. Twenty youngsters have won an iPod Nano 8 GB. Our competition caught the attention of several media. Have a look at the homepages we reached at reken_maar_media.shtml. We are currently working on the evaluation report. If you would like to know more about the results, or if you have interesting ideas on how to raise awareness for your research, please contact Martine Roeleveld.

Joost Rommes (MSV1) defends thesis
On June 25 2007 Joost Rommes (Utrecht University) finished his BRICKS research and defended his thesis 'Methods for eigenvalue problems with applications in model order reduction'. Congratulations, Joost! If you would like to know more about his research, please visit his website.

Jaco van de Pol (AFM6) full time professor at Universiteit Twente
As of September 1, 2007 Jaco van de Pol wil leave CWI to work as a full time professor at the FMT chair at Universiteit Twente. There he will continue his BRICKS research A Verification Grid for Enhanced Model Checking. We congratulate him with his new position!

Karen Aardal (IS3) points out need for BRICKS research
Cursor, the news magazine of TU/e, recently published an interview with Karen Aardal, project leader of IS3. She gave a good insight in the research carried out in her project group but she also pointed out the importance of fundamental research in general and the need for financial support. Read the article (Dutch only).

SIREN 2007, October 30, Delft
Last year many BRICKS researchers participated in the poster sessions at SIREN (Utrecht). This year SIREN is being held on October 30 at TU Delft. It would be great if we can represent our BRICKS research again! We can re-use all research posters that were printed for the BRICKS Midterm Symposium at CWI on March 13 2007. All posters are published in the poster section at the BRICKS website. If you think your poster needs some tuning, please provide your new content (= new poster!) to Martine Roeleveld. Please let her know if you plan to attend SIREN 2007, but make sure to register (including your poster!) at the official conference site yourself! Unfortunately the URL for registration is not available yet. We will keep you posted.

Publications 2007
Please send all your publications (preferably in BibTex) to info@bsik-bricks.nl. For the BRICKS midterm review it is very important to us to have the proper information at our disposal.

Your publications will also be published in the publication section of the BRICKS website.

Agenda 2007

• September 28 Meeting with BRICKS Management Board and project leaders
• October 30 SIREN 2007, Delft
• November 1 deadline BRICKS Midterm Review

Acknowledgment and logos
All publications reporting about BRICKS-funded research need to include an acknowledgment. For the initial BSIK projects, the ack line is:

"Part of this research has been funded by the Dutch BSIK/BRICKS project."

For the project under the BRICKS/FOCUS grant, the ack line is:

"This research has been partially funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under BRICKS/FOCUS grant number 642.xxx.xxx." (replace xxx.xxx by the grant number given by NWO).

Last modified 07/18/07