Maik Larooij joins the ICAI OpenGov Lab

We’re very happy to welcome Maik Larooij to the ICAI OpenGov Lab! This week he started as the lab’s fourth dual PhD student, combining his role as consultant at the Rijksorganisatie voor Informatiehuishouding with pursuing a PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Maik will be supervised by David Graus (co-promotor), alongside Maarten Marx (co-promotor) and Jaap Kamps (promotor).

Maarten Marx, Maik Larooij, and David Graus in the OpenGov Lab

Maik is no stranger to us: over the past 2.5 years he built WooGLe as a student assistant under Maarten Marx, while completing his MSc in Computer Science/Big Data Engineering at VU/UvA.

Maik is not one to sit still, either. During his studies and work on WooGLe:

• ✍️ he co-authored several papers on open government data, including a Nature Scientific Data paper on the WooGLe corpus,
• 🏆 He received the UvA Alumni Impact Award in 2024 for his work on WooGLe,
• 🎓 and just before summer, Maik graduated with his thesis studying social media dynamics using AI bot simulation, which drew international media attention, including from Ars Technica, Science Magazine, and New Scientist.

Welcome aboard, Maik. We look forward to continuing work together and making a continued impact with AI for Open Government!