Host Iman Mossavat welcomes Dr. Benjamin Paaßen, Junior Professor for Knowledge Representation and Machine Learning at Bielefeld University and researcher at the Educational Technology Lab at DFKI. Together, they examine the growing debate around using large language models (LLMs) as substitutes for human participants in psychological and educational research. Dr. Paaßen shares why replacing human input with machine responses risks producing misleading results, especially when subtle linguistic shifts reveal critical differences between human and AI reasoning. He stresses that while LLMs can be useful in narrow, text-based tasks validated against large sets of human data, they cannot replicate the depth of human cognition. The discussion highlights the limits of AI in research settings, the dangers of overestimating machine intelligence, and the importance of maintaining rigorous standards when integrating these tools into scientific work.

Radio 4 Brainport, Eindhoven

I heard many people complain about the poor sound quality of DAB+. Dennis van Benthem of Orban, the makers of the OPTIMOD, claim that DAB can sound great even at 48 kbit/s . But it would be a mistake to feed sound processed for FM into a digital encoder.

On AM and FM, radio stations may want to sound loud. It even increases coverage. The boomy sound of radio DJ voices on FM seems to have become fashionable. But we live in a digital age. Do we need processing on DAB+ or on AAC-encoded internet streams?

Thnaks Dennis for going into the technical details.

photo credits to Chantal Mateboer

Jean-Paul Linnartz @ Radio4brainport.org

In this heartfelt episode, Meagin van der Westhuizen sits down with Andrea Agudelo to explore the Homewards program—an inclusive social initiative in Eindhoven designed to help newcomers and long-time residents alike feel truly connected to their city.

Andrea shares her personal journey as a foreigner and her passion for creating spaces where people can meet, share, and build community beyond structured interactions.

From discovering cozy coffee spots to forming lasting friendships, Homewards offers more than just information—it offers warmth, fun, and a sense of belonging. Whether you're new to Eindhoven or simply looking to reconnect, this episode will inspire you to take that first step toward community.

🔗 Registration is extended till September 12th.

Iman Mossavat speaks with Jakub Zavrel, CEO and founder of Zeta Alpha, about how AI can enhance enterprise search and knowledge management. Zavrel explains that large language models are limited unless connected to company-specific data, and that retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, fine-tuned to organizational domains, improve accuracy and trust. He emphasizes the importance of data engineering, benchmarks, and secure access control, and reflects on the evolving landscape of open versus proprietary models. The conversation also touches on broader issues such as AI regulation, societal impacts, workforce augmentation, and the long-term vision of empowering organizations through AI-driven institutional memory.

TU/e Rector Magnificus Silvia Lenaerts kicked off the new academic year with an opening speech.

A panel discussed the question: ‘What conditions must the Hague create to enable innovation clusters like Brainport to thrive and strengthen European competitiveness?’ Participants included Eindhoven mayor and former Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Sophie in 't Veld (from 2004 to 2024 Member of the European Parliament), start-up advisor and Lightyear founder Lex Hoefsloot, and researcher Maaike Okano-Heijmans, program head of Geopolitics of Technology and Digitization at the Clingendael Institute.

This year, TU Eindhoven invited Dutch Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans, who sketched a world not of closer cooperation, but of strategic rivalry: "Imperalism is back almost everywhere, including in Europe. In 2030 Putin wants to be ready for a large scale confrontation with NATO. In short, the Netherlands is not at war today.

But we’re not living fully in peace, either.

We’re living in the grey zone between war and peace. Russia is testing our readiness and studying our preparedness. This is not only with hard military power, as we all know, it is already conducting hybrid attacks in Europe, such as cyber-attacks and sabotage operations."

According to the minister, innovation and new technologies make the difference for our own security.

"That’s why the region of Eindhoven is crucial to our security. Nowadays, we often talk about Defence expenditures, but it is better to talk about Defence investments. Our Defence budgets should not only be an investment in our security, but also in our economy, innovation, technology and our scientific qualities. We need to create more reciprocal opportunities – stimulating science and the economy, foster innovation, employment and entrepreneurship in this region, and incorporate insights and innovation into all areas of Defence operations."

His talk was interrupted several times by pro-Palestine activities. TUe and the minister offered to handle a couple of questions after the presentation, provided that he could finish his talk first. As activities continued to interrupt the talk, police intervene

On Tea-Talk, Karishma and Supriya speak with Andrew Funk and Toby Plüss at PSV Stadium in Eindhoven during their incredible journey, The Great Walk Europe.

Having already walked across Austria and Germany, they’re now in the Netherlands, with Belgium and Spain still ahead. Their mission: over 850 km, more than 20 marathons, and 1 million steps to raise awareness and funds for people experiencing homelessness. Their message is clear: No one should have to sleep on the streets.

Discover their story, the challenges so far, and how you can join them for a stage to make a difference, one step at a time.

Iman Mossavat speaks with Professor Daniel Cremers, Director of the Munich Center for Machine Learning, Professor at the Technical University of Munich, and one of Germany's most distinguished AI researchers. Cremers is a recipient of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and the 2024 ECCV Koenderink Test of Time Award.

They discuss the groundbreaking work his team carried out in protein structure prediction back in 2016, years before AlphaFold made headlines. Although this work was presented at NeurIPS 2016, the flagship machine learning conference, in front of thousands of researchers, it was largely overlooked in subsequent citations.

Beyond the science, Cremers reflects on the tension between academia and Big Tech, the challenges of recognition in a fast-moving field, and what it means to pursue meaningful work in AI today.

Join Iman Mossavat on the Radio 4 Brainport podcast, "Deep Dives with Iman." This episode features Professor Sepp Hochreiter, a pioneer renowned for his foundational AI work, including Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and identifying vanishing gradients. Discover his journey, AI breakthroughs, and the future of large models.

The discussion covers LSTM's evolution, its widespread use in devices and applications from Amazon Alexa, to Android for text completion and speech, before the rise of Transformers. Hear about the new XLSTM, an enhanced version matching Transformer performance while being significantly faster and more energy-efficient for deployment (inference), especially for long contexts. Learn how XLSTM-based models like TiRex, the King of Time, lead in time series predictions, beating competitors from major companies and representing a European innovation. Professor Hochreiter also shares insights on AI's industrialization, focusing on specialized, smaller models for machinery and production processes. XLSTM is open source and suited for smaller devices, making it accessible for companies and academic institutions.

In this episode of Deep Dives with Iman, host Iman Mossavat speaks with Dr. Tina Nikoukhah, Director of Research at GetReal Security and recipient of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Young Talent Award. A specialist in media forensics, Tina discusses the increasing sophistication of synthetic media and the blurring of the line between what is real and what appears to be. She describes how GetReal uncovers the "hidden fingerprints" left by image and video processing, and how techniques like watermarking and C2PA, a kind of "nutrition label" for content, help track manipulation. Passive analysis methods and metadata inspection offer further insight into content authenticity. Tina emphasizes the foundational role of mathematics and signal processing in the field, as well as the broader challenge of building public awareness. Rather than labeling content as simply real or fake, Tina stresses the importance of transparency and trust in today's digital media landscape.

Can probability theory help explain how the mind works? In this episode of Deep Dives with Iman, host Iman Mossavat talks with Dr. Hadi Vafaii, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley’s Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, working in Jacob Yates’s lab. The conversation focuses on “perception as inference”—a century-old idea that continues to influence modern neuroscience, from predictive coding to the free energy principle.

While rooted in probability theory and Bayesian statistics, Hadi builds intuition step by step, using simple, relatable examples. He explains how the brain interprets the world by guessing the hidden causes behind what we see and hear, combining prior knowledge with new evidence. The episode also explores how personal beliefs and life experiences shape interpretation and why uncertainty is a vital part of life rather than a weakness.

Iman Mossavat brings listeners a gripping conversation with Dr. Guido Palazzo, Professor of Business Ethics at EPFL Lausanne, on the hidden forces behind corporate scandals. Palazzo discusses his latest book, The Dark Pattern, co-authored with Dr. Ulrich Hoffrage, which reveals how well-intentioned leaders can become ethically blind under powerful organizational pressures. He outlines nine recurring conditions, such as toxic leadership, unrealistic goals, and euphemistic language, that create a culture where wrongdoing becomes normalized. Palazzo also explains how technology and AI can deepen ethical failure by adding distance and abstraction. This episode offers a framework for understanding—and preventing—ethical breakdowns, grounded in real-world scandals from major global companie

Curious about Brabant’s “zwetsen” or Limburg’s sing-song “wa sisse”? Join Susan, sharing her love for meltingly delicious vlaai and youth talent, with Bart to decode dialects like “gij” and boost Brainport’s future. Uncover cultural connections and tips for thriving in Eindhoven’s global hub. Smile, discover, connect!

Episode 2 Part III: of Are We Still on the Same Page?, part of Radio 4 Brainport. Subscribe now! #Brainport #Dialects #Culture

Lost in translation or feeling alone in Brainport’s vibrant expat scene? Susan talks with Wendie from De Liefdesdokter about building lasting friendships as an expat, overcoming language barriers, and creating meaningful connections in Eindhoven’s multicultural hub. Learn tips to join local clubs, use welcoming smiles, and thrive socially. Smile, discover, connect! Episode 2, part 2 of Are We Still on the Same Page?, #Brainport #Dutch #Dialects #expats #language #expatlife #netherlands #thenetherlands #Radio4brainport #eindhoven #podcast

Struggling with Dutch and its tricky grammar like “de/het” or verb shifts like “omdat ik appels eet”? Baffled by Brabant’s “houdoe”? Join Susan, sharing her Indisch-Limburg roots and passion for Brainport’s cultural mix, with linguist Bart to unravel learning the guttural “g” and decoding local dialects. Explore expat challenges and vibrant local vibes in Eindhoven’s tech hub. Smile, discover, connect! Episode 2 of Are We Still on the Same Page?, a radio podcast for Radio 4 Brainport. Subscribe now! #Brainport #Dutch #Dialects #expats #language #expatlife #netherlands #thenetherlands #Radio4brainport #eindhoven #supportedbyASML #podcast

In Ralu on Board, Edition 17, we delved into South African philosophy, Ubuntu, with Nobantu Mpotulo, a leadership master coach, who integrate African indigenous wisdom of ubuntu into her coaching practice.

Nobantu, has a special meaning in South Africa, meaning “Mother of People, which she took to heart, by developing her special mission: help people see more, hear more, love more, illuminate more, be more and do less, which is the Ubuntu coaching mantra developed by Nobantu.

Nobantu’s favourite quote is: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom”, by Victor Frankl; and her wisdom on how leadership needs to change for the current and future world is simply inspiring.

Tune in to listen to the full story with Nobantu on Ralu on Board, Edition 17.

In this deep dive, host Iman Mossavat sits down with Dr. Shea Brown—physicist, former astrophysics professor, and founder of BABL AI—for a sharp look at AI accountability. Brown shares his journey from studying the cosmos to interrogating AI systems, spotlighting how scientific skepticism must carry over into today’s tech landscape. At BABL AI, he leads efforts to audit and govern AI to ensure it serves human interests—especially in high-stakes areas like hiring, credit scoring, and public services. With real-world examples and hands-on audit methods, Brown explains how AI systems often fail silently and how risk-based auditing can surface hidden harms. Mossavat brings the conversation to the classroom, underscoring the need to train students not just to build AI, but to test it critically. The episode challenges tech optimism with grounded insight—and highlights a future where regulation, education, and responsible innovation must work hand in hand.

101 editions of the IEEE VTC conferences, and still innovation in wireless communication is hot.

I had a chance to ask keynote speakers and panelists Erik Larsson (Linköping) and Petar Popovski (Aalborg) about the new directions that will influence 6G. The highlights in less than two minutes:

What does more intelligence mean for the network?

Will Reconfigurable but passive Intelligent Surfaces, RIS, boost performance, or would we rather go for a swarm of amplifying analog repeaters? These can collectively improve the propagation environment.

Jean-Paul Linnartz

Host Iman Mossavat explores the complex intersection of algorithms and education policy with Mayesha Tasnim and Paul Verhagen of the Civic AI Lab at the University of Amsterdam. In cities like Amsterdam and Eindhoven, school placement is increasingly driven by algorithms. But how fair and transparent are these systems?

Together, they unpack how public algorithms shape student futures, revealing the trade-offs between fairness, efficiency, and transparency. From the role of lotteries in Amsterdam’s admissions to the challenges of "gaming the system," this episode dives into what it truly means to design equitable technology in public policy.

Listeners gain rare insight into how smarter algorithms can improve outcomes, while still risking unintended consequences.

Radio 4 Brainport, 2025

#CivicAILab #DeepDivesWithIman #Radio4Brainport #AIandSociety

Colleen Farrelly uses mathematics as a versatile tool across many fields, driven by curiosity and social purpose. Calling herself a “wandering mathematician,” she connects pure math with real-world problems—from epidemic modeling and radiomics to data analysis.

Colleen shares her experience modeling to help position resources that limited an Ebola outbreak. She explains how understanding the geometry and topology of medical images helps generative algorithms produce medically plausible data. She also highlights how tools useful in one domain, like finance, can be applied to others such as ecology or marketing. She stresses the importance of critical thinking: questioning and exploring better approaches.

Colleen authored The Shape of Data: "Geometry-Based Machine Learning and Data Analysis in R" and "Modern Graph Theory Algorithms with Python."

#Mathematics #Geometry #Topology #DataScience #AI #Innovation #DeepDivesWithIman

Radio 4 Brainport, Eindhoven. AI Deep Dives with Iman

In Ralu on Board, Edition 16, Julie Hemels-Hoff and Arnout Nederpelt, delve into the importance of inclusive marketing and branding, but also leadership and culture.

Julie is the CEO and founder of Blueeyse, an inclusive marketing and communication agency, and Arnout wears many hats, he is a business analyst at ASML, and also the ……

A rich and insightful conversation on the significance of diverse role models, of neurodivergent leadership and inclusive marketing.

Arnout and Julie, have pills of wisdom for both organisations that want to become more inclusive and create work environments which are not just one size fits all, but are fit for everyone, and also for individuals who wonder how they can be more inclusive.

My takeaway is that if you came from a place of love, with genuine curiosity you will be forgiven for mistakes as along as you are willing to learn and grow, respect, and include the others around you, because we are all worth just the way we are!

Tune in and listen to this podcast which will for sure enlighten you on how to play your part in creating a more inclusive world/ community/ workplace.

Thanks to Julie & Arnout for sharing their views!