Pieter-Tjerk de Boer

I'm an assistant professor (Dutch: "universitair docent") in the Design and Analysis of Communication Systems (DACS) group at the Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science department of the University of Twente.
Before this, I studied physics (graduating in 1996), and obtained a PhD in computer science in 2000, both also at the University of Twente. In 2007, I did a two-month sabbatical at IRISA/INRIA in Rennes, France.

Research

My research is in the broad area of computer and telecommunications systems.
One main topic (also the topic of my own PhD thesis) is rare-event simulation, motivated by the need to estimate small probabilities (of undesirable events such as packet loss and call blocking) in queueing models of telecommunication systems. Techniques from rare-event simulation also have broader applications.
On a broader scale, I'm interested in many aspects of communication systems and networks, in particular their mathematical aspects, such as performance and correctness.
Furthermore, I have an active interest in many aspects of radio, such as Software-Defined Radio technology and propagation phenomena.

A list of publications is available here.

I'm currently (co)advising the following PhD students:

• Wouter de Vries, working on anycast routing;
• Masoud Abbasi Alaei, working on beamforming algorithms in the MIRABeam project.

Former (co)advised PhD students are:

• Anne Buijsrogge thesis on Rare event simulation for non-Markovian tandem queues defended in June 2019 (NWO-funded TENETS project).
• Luuk Hendriks: thesis on Measuring IPv6 Resilience and Security defended in January 2019.
• Wim Korevaar: thesis on Hermite-based communications; a time-frequency perspective defended in June 2016 (TSP project).
• Anna Kolesnichenko: thesis on Model-Checking Mean-Field Models: Algorithms & Applications defended in December 2014 (NWO-funded MATMaM project).
• Daniël Reijsbergen: thesis on Efficient Simulation Techniques for Stochastic Model Checking defended in December 2013 (NWO-funded McStores project).
• Tatiana Zaburnenko: thesis on Efficient heuristics for simulating rare events in queueing networks defended in January 2008 (NWO-funded).

Teaching

In the 2018/2019 academic year, I'm responsible for the following TOM (Twente Education Model) modules and (parts of) courses:

• 201700139 Pearls of Computer Science (computer science module 1), as teacher of two "pearls", supervisor of one of the final projects, and member of design team
• 201600146 Network Systems (computer science module 3, and electrical engineering elective module 7b), as coordinator, member of design team and core teacher.
• 192620300 Performance Evaluation (though mostly taught by Anne Buijsrogge)
• 201700077 Advanced Networking (together with Geert Heijenk)

Previous courses I've (co)taught include Telematics Networks, Network Security, Algebra and Security, Academic Skills; most of these have been phased-out with the introduction of the new TOM bachelor programs.

I'm the programme mentor for students following the Internet Science and Technology MSc study program (formerly Telematics), and chairman of the "examination board" (Dutch: examencommissie) for the computer science and internet science and technology programs.

In both 2014 and 2017, I was awarded the yearly "Onderwijsprijs" (teaching award) by the UT's computer science students.

The "challenges" I've developed for our computer networking classes are available also for use at other universities; please contact me if interested!

Amateur radio

My main hobby is amateur radio. Information on some of my amateur-radio related projects, including several computer programs for Linux and other unix-like systems, is available at my amateur radio page and at pa3fwm.nl.
Perhaps the most visible result of my amateur radio activities is the WebSDR system, allowing many users to simultaneously use and tune a radio receiver via the internet.
Sometimes these supposedly amateur activities also leads to scientific work, such as my 2018 publication on ionospheric cross modulation.
B.t.w., the university of Twente has an amateur radio club, the ETGD.

Miscellaneous stuff

A couple of things I wrote about miscellaneous subjects, that perhaps might be of interest to someone.

Contact

Dr. ir. Pieter-Tjerk de Boer
University of Twente
Design and Analysis of Communication Systems
Faculty for Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.

Phone: +31 53 4894327
E-mail: p.t.deboer@utwente.nl
Room: Zi-5102

Very short biography