Notices by Dr. Anna Latour (anna@mathstodon.xyz)

Good morning and greetings from Lugano! I'm travelling back to NL today. Follow thread for hopefully not too many updates 🙃

#Switzerland #SBB #Lugano #Train #Trains #TrainTravel #Travel #DeutscheBahn #Treinleven #GoodMorning

Lugano train station has a coffee bar with a model railway stapled to the ceiling!

#Lugano #Switzerland #Coffee #Cappuchino #GoodMorning #Train #Trains #ModelRailway #Travel #Breakfast

We are stalled in the middle of nowhere and the train people also don't know why 🥳

People behind me are baffled by the concept of a Quiet Zone. People in front of me have two incredibly smelly dogs.

#DeutscheBahn #Train #TrainTravel #Trains #Travel #Germany

The difference between Bella and Benny in how they like to receive attention.

Bella loves to have the inside of her hind legs scratched (look at those air biscuits! 😻). Benny loves to use me as a mobile observation platform so he can survey his kingdom.

#Caturday #Cats #MastoCats #AcademicCats #CatsOfMastodon

Hi everyone,

I feel like a re-introduction is long overdue!

My name is Anna, and I'm an assistant professor of Algorithmics at the Delft University of Technology, specialising in combinatorial optimisation, symbolic AI, constraint programming, propositional model counting, operations research and reasoning under uncertainty.

I'm a nerd, a feminist and a traveller, not always in that order.

In my spare time I like to hike and go geocaching. I try to go swing dancing a few times a week. I am a Trekkie. I want to learn how to draw. I am an Indomie and Obsidian enthusiast. Based in the Netherlands, I miss Belgium, Canada and Singapore.

Since a job in academia somehow always is personal, I have chosen to mix professional interactions with the more personal ones on this platform. At least for now. Obviously, my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of my employer yadiyadiyada.

Hope to keep interacting with you all!

#Introduction #AcademicMastodon #Algorithmics #SymbolicAI #CombinatorialOptimisation #ConstraintProgramming #ModelCounting #OperationsResearch #ProbabilisticInference #Geocaching #LindyHop #Jazz #SwingDancing #Hiking #Obsidian #StarTrek #Travel #TUDelft #MastoMiGoreng #Indomie #GNUTerryPratchett #Catstodon #Mastocats #Caturday #ExpatLife #MakanApaToda

@chrjabs well, I guess there are some people around here who your wife might like to e-meet… @agasramirez @jeromechoo @aral @feorag

I am hiring!

I have a fully funded PhD position available for someone with an interest in logic and statistics, at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands).

Application deadline: 31 August 2025

https://careers.tudelft.nl/job/Delft-PhD-Position-Symbolic-AI-and-Reasoning-Under-Uncertainty-2628-CD/824585702/

#AcademicJobs #AcademicMastodon #GetFediHired #AcademicJob #SymbolicAI #Statistics #AI #ConstraintProgramming #CombinatorialOptimisation #SensitivityAnalysis #FormalMethods #CombinatorialOptimization #Delft #TUDelft #AcademicChatter

@feorag Oooooh! Hello, fellow Indomie appreciator!
@ghalfacree

#MakanApaToday #Indomie

@aral & @jeromechoo, come quick! Indomie love in this thread!

@detha @agasramirez @feorag @ghalfacree

Today we strike.

🟥

No meetings. No lectures. No research. No innovation. No knowledge economy.

🟥

Join us!

🟥

#WOInActie #KeepTheFlameBurning #Strike #HigherEducation #KabinetSchoof #Delft #TUDelft #KabinetSlooptHogerOnderwijs #Eppocalyps #DoeHetNiet #AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter

Rob Wilkins put up 3 signed copies of "Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes" for auction (https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/128726/auctions/181179/auction_items/6158640), with the proceeds going to Genre Creators for Trans Rights in the UK & SA (https://www.32auctions.com/genrefortrans)

h/t Rhianna Pratchett

#GNUTerryPratchett #TransRights #DiscWorld #TerryPratchett #RobWilkins

Excuse me? Don't think this is what we mean by "Autism Awareness Month".

All jokes aside, this is scary af.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/22/rfk-jr-autism-nih

#Autism #RFK #AutismAwarenessMonth

@aral I mean... I would probably go for 🚆 🚇 ⛴️ 🇬🇧 🚆 🚇 🍜 😋 , but yes, I guess that is the general idea :) @jeromechoo

@aral 😂 would not object! @jeromechoo

@jeromechoo wah you’re hitting me with this on a particularly bad “homesick for Singapore” day lol. I was actually watching old videos from Singapore and finally decided to snap out of it and try to live in the here and now. Opened mastodon, and there are your messages! 😂😭

I’m very happy that you enjoyed the food, tho, and this is an excellent reminder for myself to start planning my next trip to London 😁

Thank you so much for sharing! Love to see it!
@aral

Okay, I feel like I just unlocked a new level of academia?

I was reading a paper, and came across an interesting claim, so I checked the bibliography for the cited work, so I could read it.

Dear reader, the cited work was my own paper 😅

Guess the good news is that now I'll have one less paper to put on my "to read" list.

#AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter #AcademicReading

Came home to this.

Fun fact: I do not have a cat.

#Caturday #Cats #Catstodon

Last week, I presented the work I did with prof. Kuldeep Meel and prof. Arunabha Sen at IJCAI 2023.

We showed the benefits of reducing a problem to a computationally harder problem (yes, you read that right!), by demonstrating how it allows us to solve much larger problem instances.

It was so much fun to finally share this work with so many fantastic researchers at IJCAI! Thank you to all organisers for making this conference possible. I'm also super grateful to the reviewers who gave us great feedback!

Please find our paper, slides, poster, a short video, and our open source tool, gismo, here: www.annalatour.nl/publication/2023-08-01-Solving-the-Identifying-Code-Set-Problem-with-Grouped-Independent-Support

#IJCAI2023 #IJCAI #AcademicMastodon #FOSS #PostdocLife #ConstraintProgramming #BooleanSatisfiability #Complexity #AcademicChatter #OpenSource #OpenSourceSoftware

Sir Terry Pratchett was one of two people who I quoted directly in my dissertation. This line from Feet of Clay was the motto for my introductory chapter:

"This is where we’ve filled ourselves up with so many questions that they’re starting to overflow and become answers."

It resonated with me, because this is what doing research often feels like for me.

#GNUTerryPratchett #AcademicChatter #PhDLife #AcademicMastodon #Bookstodon #Fiction #Discworld #DiscworldQuote #FeetOfClay

I guess "You can be any sex you like provided you act male." would've also worked to describe the PhD experience. At least on some levels. Would've been a more depressing choice, tho.