David Grob has been appointed Professor by Special Designation for Electronic Infrastructure

David Groep has been appointed Professor by Special Designation in the Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering at UM College of Science and Engineering effective April 1, 2022. His work revolves around the complex and large-scale ICT infrastructures that form the basis for equally ground-breaking research.

ICT and science are constantly pushing each other’s boundaries. This is perhaps most evident in the “big science”: the science that places such high demands on budget, innovation, staff and facilities that these projects often guarantee large international teams and government involvement. Examples include CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, the International Network of Gravitational Wave Detectors, and the Futuristic Square Kilometer Array, an intercontinental radio telescope.

Triple the Size: Big Science, Large-Scale Infrastructure and Big Challenges
Big Science places high demands on the ICT infrastructure that makes basic operations possible. This includes collecting and analyzing data and communicating securely. Since such projects often involve huge amounts of data, ICT factors such as computing power, storage space, and network availability are crucial when designing experiments. The number of people using these shared ICT facilities is impressive. This in turn requires strong security rules and techniques to work together securely.

As a result, these types of science projects stimulate innovation: current ICT infrastructures simply cannot meet the high demands of big science.

Focus on research
Professor Dr. Dr. David Grob has extensive experience in this type of large scale ICT infrastructure. For example, as head of the data processing group at Nikhef, he is responsible for one of the Dutch core data centers for the Global Computing Network (LHC) – an international group of computing centers that provide computing power for the Large Hadron Collider. He works on the national electronic infrastructure with SURF, the national provider of ICT services for education and research, and advises the NWO on thematic centers of digital competence for the natural sciences and technology.

Professor David Grob
As a Professor by Special Appointment at Maastricht University, Groep focuses on three research axes: 1) ICT infrastructure validation by examining its use in data-intensive science, 2) Identity and security management for authentication and authorization within research collaborations, and 3) Algorithms Which makes it possible to use the new hardware and systems architectures as optimally as possible.

The group continues to focus on global, European and national science ICT infrastructures. In addition, the data-intensive lines of research for the College of Science and Engineering will serve as testing environments for its research.