\project thesis
\startcomponent acknowledgements

\startchapter
  [title={Acknowledgements},
   reference=chap:acknowledgements]

Foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors.
Having three of them ensured that there was always enough ideas to work on, theory to understand, papers to review, seminars to attend, and chats to have.
Frits Vaandrager, thank you for being a very motivating supervisor, pushing creativity, and being only a few meters away.
It started with a small puzzle (trying whether a certain test algorithm would help a learning case study), which was a great, hands-on start of my PhD.
You introduced me to the field of model learning in a way which showcases both the theoretical and practical aspects.

Alexandra Silva, thank you for inviting me to London, Caribbean islands, hidden cocktail clubs, and the best food.
You introduced me to more abstract reasoning about state machines, the coalgebraic way.
Although not directly shown in this thesis, this way of thinking has helped and you pushed me to pursuit clear reasoning.
Besides the theoretical things I've learned, you've also taught me many personal lessons inside and outside of academia.

Bas Terwijn, thanks for broadening my understanding of the topics touched upon in this thesis.
Unfortunately, we have no papers together, but the connections you showed to logic, computational learning, and computability theory have influenced the thesis nevertheless.
I am also grateful for the many nice chats we had.

At the first floor of the Mercator building, I had the pleasure of spending four years with fun office mates.
Michele Volpato, thanks for introducing me to the PhD life, by always joking around.
Hopefully, we can play a game of Briscola again.
Alexis Linard, many thanks for all the tasty {\it\nl proeverijen,\en} wheter it was beers, wines, {\nl poffertjes, kroketten\en}, or anything else.
Your French influences will be missed.
Niels van der Wijde, thanks for the abstract nonsense and bashing on politics.
Further down the corridor, there was the office of Paul Fiterau and Rick Smeters.
Paul, thanks for being the kindest colleague I've had and for inviting us to your musical hobbies.
Rick, thanks for
???
Was there a more iconic duo on our floor?
Perhaps Petra van den Bos and Ramon Janssen.
???
Nils
Tim
Harco
Jurriaan
David Venhoek
Jan
David N Jansen
Ingrid

Doing a PhD would not be complete without a good amount of playing kicker, having {\nl borrels\en}, and eating cakes at the institute.
Thanks to all of you, Baris, Jacopo, Henning, Simone, Gabriel, Marcos, Markus, Giso, Manxia, Bas, Bas, Bram, Paulus, Marc, Dan, Leon, Sam.
???

Thanks to people across the channel (which hopefully will remain part of the EU): Gerco, Tobias, Louis, Paul, Nath, Fred, Rueben, Kareem, Carsten, Benni, Borja, ???
for the theoretical adventure, but also thanks for joining me to {\it Phonox} and other parties in London.
Special thanks to Matteo and Emanuela for hosting me many times.

I had a lot of fun at the IPA events.
I'm very thankful for Tim Willemse and Loek Cleophas for organising these events.
Special thanks to Nico Naus and Priyanka ??? for organising a Halloween social event with me.
Also thanks to all the participants in the IPA events, you made it a lot of fun!

My gratitude extends to all the people I have met at summer schools and conferences.
Hope we meet again!

I would also like to thanks other friends, for hosting me, cooking excellent dinners, or otherwise having fun with me.
Thanks, Gabe, Edo, Nick, Geert, Carmen, Marlon, Hannah, Wouter, Dennis,
???
Hash ru???

Familie

Tessa



\stopchapter
\stopcomponent