Louise Gunning-Schepers, the president of KHMW, welcomed the group of 64 Young Talent Award winners. Prior to the first-year award ceremonies, the winners were given three key pieces of advice by Ionica Smeets, professor of science communication at Leiden University. The award of €500 is given for achieving the highest grades in the first year of studying at a Dutch academic institution.

Two students in the College of Informatics received the Young Talent incentive prizes this year:

The jury KHMW about Hua Chang: “Through HAVO and HBO, Hua Chang Bakker's studies in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam are where he actually belongs. Winning the KHMW Young Talent Prize for Artificial Intelligence underlines that. The prize winner likes to be the best, while seeing loss as an opportunity for improvement. Without competition, life is just boring, but friends, work and study association also make life more fun. Hua Chang is also pursuing another study at the UvA: he is currently completing the third year of studying Information Science. He would like to learn how to do research himself and wants to contribute to something not yet known. A master's degree, followed by a PhD, would make that possible. Awarding this prize is a great start for that ambition.”