Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "The information content of dynamic cues in human sound localization." "Herbert Peremans" "Condensed Matter Theory, Engineering Management" "Understanding the workings of human sound localization, and in particular which acoustic cues we use to perceive our acoustic environment in three dimensions (3D), is not only of fundamental interest, but has become increasingly relevant in the light of nowadays advance of 3D audio displays through headphones. In the past, most research has focused on the role of static cues , i.e. when the head and source are stationary, yet it is known that localization is greatly improved if listeners are allowed to move their head during stimulus presentation. In this project, we investigate the role of dynamic cues provided by small movements of the head or source, within an information- theoretic framework. We use a proven ideal-observer model for static human sound localization and extend it to account for the dynamic acoustic cues involved. First, we study what head movements carry the most information and how this depends on the location of the source. Next, we consider the mirror situation and investigate how much information can be conveyed through small movements of the source. Finally, we study the effects on sound localization when actual head movements are not taken into account correctly, which is the case if a 3D audio display is provided through ordinary headphones. The predictions from the theoretical analysis are validated with psycho-acoustic experiments." "Design of opto-electronic properties in two dimensional materials by enhanced flexoelectric coupling." "Francois Peeters" "Condensed Matter Theory" "Electromechanical effects, such as piezo- and flexoelectricity, are a consequence of the coupling of an applied electric field to the strain and the strain gradient, respectively. These effects are expected to be strongly enhanced in two dimensional materials (2D), first, due to the reduction in lattice symmetries in the 2D limit, and second, due to the superior elastic properties, allowing strains even up to 10% in some cases. Furthermore, 2D materials are fully flexible and bendable, thus ushering a new era of flexible opto-electronic devices. In this proposal, we will first investigate the fundamental flexoelectric properties of a wide variety of 2D materials by using a combination of analytical and ab-initio approaches. Important questions related to the magnitude of the coupling coefficients, the effect of phonon anharmonicity and the identification of materials with optimal electro- and mechanical properties will be answered. Subsequently we will model specific strain configurations as out-of-plane (ripples, folds, kirigami) and in-plane geometries (patterned layers, heterostructures, etc.). These are of significant importance because, as opposed to bulk electromechanical effects, modifications at the nanoscale in 2D materials greatly affect their optoelectronic properties. As concrete examples we will investigate the possibility of creating flexotransistors or flexo-photovoltaic devices." "Direct electron detector for soft matter TEM." "Johan Verbeeck" "Institutional Research Unit, Applied Electrochemistry & Catalysis (ELCAT), Laboratory of adsorption and catalysis (LADCA), Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)" "Modern materials are made to perform a certain task very well at a low (energy) cost of production. This drive towards more efficient materials has shifted the attention from making e.g. the strongest material to making a sufficiently strong material at an acceptable use of natural resources. Combining this trend in materials science with the nano revolution where properties of materials depend increasingly on their structure at the nanoscale, requires scientific instruments that study these so-called soft materials on the nanoscale. Typically, this is a task for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) offering a look inside materials down to the atomic structure. A drawback of TEM however is that this process can destroy soft materials while viewing, making the analysis unreliable or impossible. In order to overcome this issue, we propose to acquire a so-called direct electron detector which efficiently detects every electron that interacts with a given material reducing the required electron dose by up to a factor of 100. This considerably shifts the field of applicability of TEM into the range of soft materials allowing us to resolve their structure down to the atomic level." "WET: Watermarking, Encryption and Transcoding." "Bart Preneel" "ESAT - COSIC, Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography" "Encryption, or cryptography in general, provides means for secure delivery of content to the consumer such that only rightful persons can derive the original information from its encrypted version. Once the content is decrypted, however, this protection is gone. Watermarking can complement cryptography in this scenario by embedding information within the content itself. When producing and distributing video, next to security issues, one also often has to deal with varying transport networks and end-user devices. Here one aims for the principle encode once - use many which can be accomplished by H.264/AVC and SVC encoded video. Hence, in theory, security and flexible encoding solutions exist, however in reality, when combining these techniques no low-complexity off-the-shelf solutions exist. Therefore we will investigate how transcoding (of the bit rate and/or spatial resolution) and watermarking can be performed directly on encrypted (format-compliant) H.264/AVC or SVC encoded video to optimally balance between robust watermarks, transcoding possibilities and security of the encryption routine. By joining the complementary expertise of the involved research groups MMLab, ETRO-IRIS and COSIC this can be accomplished through this novel fundamental scientific research. Furthermore, the obtained results can give new insights in related problems and recommendations for future video codecs." "Modeling and simulation of power electronic systems in the complementary systems framework." "NUMA, Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics Section" "Diamond-based impedimetric and nanophotonic biosensors for the detection of proteins." "Jeroen Lammertyn" "Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS)" "This project aims at the development of biosensors for the detection of medically relevant proteins in matrix materials like blood serum. The detection will be based on two complemantary, label-free methods: i) impedance spectroscopy is an established electronic approach, while ii) nanophotonics is a very recent evolution. Both technologies employ synthetic diamond layers which serve at the same time for electronic- and optical sensing purposes. The receptor molecules are immunoglobulins, the classical approach in protein sensing, and in addition also aptamers are employed. These are novel, synthetic receptors with appealing properties concerning synthesis and long-term stability. Due to the miniaturized size of the nanophotonic and impedimetric sensors we make use of microfluids to bring analytes, such as serum droplets, in a targeted way to the sensor spots." "Behavioural modelling for linearisation of frequency-translating subsystems to enable characterisation of emerging wireless applications." "Dominique Schreurs" "ESAT- TELEMIC, Telecommunications and Microwaves" "Wireless and mobile telecommunications applications have become common place nowadays. To accommodate the demand by the market for ever higher data rates at lower cost, research is being deployed in various directions. New architectures are being investigated to achieve high linearity and output power simultaneously, circuit design is targeting towards lower battery consumption, and system design has moved to higher carrier frequencies to allow wider IF bandwidths. These tendencies have in common that they impose higher requirements on behavioural models for circuit blocks and also on metrology. The research in this project attempts to contribute to these two domains. The aim of the project is to deploy the state-space based behavioural modelling technique towards a new range of applications. It can be enumerated in five steps with gradual increase in complexity: 1. Inverse modelling to enable linearization of amplifiers 2. Behavioural modelling of frequency-translating circuit blocks 3. Inverse modelling to enable linearization of frequency-translating circuit blocks 4. Behavioural modelling of a subsystem 5. Inverse modelling to enable linearization of a subsystem As demonstrator of the achievements, an application in metrology will be pursued."