Title Abstract "Paul Otlet's (1868-1944) spatial analogies. The convergence of virtual knowledge environments, networks, cities and architecture" "This study traces the analogy between information structures and town planning in the belgian context during the first four decdes of the twentieth century. The study of the analogy is founded on the exchange between the internationalisation of science and a young town planning practice the research starts from the work of Paul Otlet (1868-1944) and his visualisation of knowledge structures." "ESSENCE: Evolution of Shared Semantics in Computational Environments." "Luc Steels" "Artificial Intelligence, Informatics and Applied Informatics" "In everyday life, humans exhibit strong skills in resolving communication problems by re-negotiating what they mean. Modern-day computational systems, however, are lacking in resilience and robustness in this respect. Whenever different components with different vocabularies and models of meaning interact within distributed, open enviroments, they have to rely on their human designers’ abilities to resolve problems of miscommunication. The aim of the ESSENCE network is to translate these abilities of natural communicating systems to computational systems in order to improve their resilience and robustness, and by doing so to also make these systems more comprehensible to human users. To this end, we will bring together research on phenomena observed in human communication with research from areas that investigate heterogeneous computational communicating systems. We will develop a transnational virtual research centre that brings together researchers from computational systems that take inspiration from human-based models and vice versa. Within this centre, we will generate new expertise through research on specific sub-topics, which will act as thematic focal points within the area of shared, evolving semantics. This will be achieved by training a new cadre of researchers in the state of the art of both fields, adopting a holistic approach that spans across existing disciplinary boundaries. Our programme of interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial training will involve a diverse range of non-academic and industrial partners, and will ground our research in appropriate application contexts to improve the employability of network participants. ESSENCE will build a sustainable European research base for future training, research collaboration and commercial exploitation of new techniques in the area. It will establish strong collaborative links with third parties, and promote interest in the broader area through targeted public engagement and outreach activities." "From meta-learning towards lifelong learning; efficient and fast reinforcement learning for complex environments." "Internet Data Lab (IDLab)" "Reinforcement Learning agents have attained incredible achievements over the past few years, with AlphaGo's resounding victory over one of the world's top Go players as a crowning achievement. A severe limitation of such agents is that they only know how to function in one very specific environment; AlphaGo is unable to play Go with a tweaked ruleset, let alone play competitively in a different board game. The meta-learning principle aims to improve this. By training the agent not only on one task, but instead on many tasks from a distribution, the trained agent can quickly learn how to behave in a novel task from the distribution. In this project, we propose several improvements to the field of meta-reinforcement learning. First, we propose a meta-learner based on Hierarchical Temporal Memory, which mimics the human brain according to our current understanding of it. This system adapts quickly to changing patterns in the environment—a desirable property for a meta-learner. We also investigate a plethora of ways to auto-generate these task distributions, and evaluate how we can introduce new abilities efficiently to an already trained meta-learner. Finally, we will extend a meta-learner to work with not just one, but with many task distributions. Ideally, such a system would be able to quickly learn to perform any conceivable task at least as well as a human." "Secure Middleware for Smart Contract Runtime Environments" "Wouter Joosen" "Distributed and Secure Software (DistriNet)" "The emergence of Web3 and blockchain networks in recent years has paved the way for a new software architecture of open and interoperable internet services. The architecture of these systems relies on smart contracts, which are self-enforcing programs that directly manipulate digital assets and ownership rights. Ensuring the security of smart contracts is crucial, given the potential for significant financial losses resulting from vulnerabilities. The purpose of this PhD research is to investigate and develop techniques for creating secure middleware frameworks and services layered on top of widely deployed runtime environments for smart contracts, such as the Ethereum Virtual Machine and WebAssembly. The goal of these services is to support application developers with smart contract upgrade, access control, monitoring, safe interaction with external contracts, etc. We will design and implement modular least-privilege interfaces for these middleware components. The overarching goal of the research is to enhance the security of smart contract execution, making it more reliable and less susceptible to attacks." "An Architectural Approach to Virtual Reality Locomotion" "Adalberto Simeone" "Architecture and Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)" "This project investigates how Virtual Reality (VR) and generative architecture can, together, lead to the design and development of novel locomotion methods. Specifically, we aim to develop algorithmical solutions that allow users of Virtual Environments (VEs) to explore the virtual space by natural locomotion without resorting to “supernatural” locomotion methods. We propose to enable natural locomotion through an architectural approach, to spatially transform a virtual environment in response to the movement of the user to create spaces that are not only functional but pleasant to inhabit. We thus propose a novel class of redirection methods – ‘overt’ architectural manipulations, by which we refer to dynamically changing architectural features in the VE depending on the user’s intended physical trajectory and the constraints that limit it. We will implement these architectural transformations by developing atechnological framework based on adjacency networks. We aim to procedurally generate the architecture and appearance of a VE, beginning with automatic floor plan generation and later making the algorithm dynamic through an iterative design process. We will evaluate our technological framework across a series of use-cases of increasing spatial complexity, from two contrasting modes of scientific inquiry: the experimental studies in Computer Science with the more phenomenological experience of space from Architectural Design Science." "Improving group musical experiences in virtual reality, using a biofeedback control system" "Nilesh Madhu, Pieter-Jan Maes" "Department of Experimental psychology, Department of Electronics and information systems, Department of Art, music and theatre sciences" "The IOP will improve the simulation of musical concert listening and ensemble performance experiences in virtual reality (VR). Innovation relies on the integration of improved computational methods for acoustic scene rendering, and improved empirical methods to measure subjective ‘presence’. The project works towards a biofeedback system allowing controlled regulation of humans’ behavioural, cognitive and affective responses within (musical) VR environments." "Effects of CSCL in the virtual and physical space on social and cognitive behavior in a longitudinal study" "Peter Dejonckheere" Onderwijsinnovatie "Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, or CSCL for short, meets the need for adapted teaching methods in higher, secondary and primary education in which the learner is more central and in which there is more connection with today's 'networked' society. This concerns, for example, learning environments where learners program together, write together, exchange knowledge and information together through chat lines, websites, apps, learning platforms, etc. However, it is unclear under what conditions applications of CSCL are most effective. In the current study, therefore, didactic principles are drawn up, designed and tested in various physical and virtual CSCL environments within higher, secondary and primary education. In higher education (teacher training Kortrijk and Torhout), students receive repeated lessons in a collaboration room from their regular program, but adapted to the specific CSCL environment. For secondary and primary school students, CSCL activities are custom designed in co-creation with involved teachers. Feedback is provided to the designed CSCL didactics by means of user findings and a longitudinal study among college students. The longitudinal study further examines the extent to which regular participation in CSCL activities contribute to the development of cognitive and social competences over time. For this purpose, a pre- and post-test design with a control group is used. Progress in cognitive and social skills is monitored through video analyses, multiple choice tests and questionnaires. By means of a website and various further training or professionalization moments, the CSCL didactics is disseminated among lecturers, teachers and other education professionals." "A Virtual Environment for the Analysis and Evaluation of Alternative Urban Development Projects for the Brussels Capital Region" "Johan Verbeke" "Architecture, Sint-Lucas Brussels and Ghent Campuses, Urban Design, Urbanism, Landscape and Planning" "This project focuses on the design and development of a platform for the deliberation of the existing alternative urban development projects prepared for Brussels. The motivations for this study were:1) The need for integrated planning environments for deliberation and participation due to the problematic urban situation in Brussels: During the last century, a combination of urban policies caused the destruction of architectural heritage and the nature of the city, with a compromising collaboration of the public sector (also known as Brusselization) (Lagrou 2003). This trauma created a protectionist attitude among the citizens and strangled large-scale developments. Potentials of alternative urban development projects as a reflective resource: Alternative urban development projects (AUDPs) simultaneously cover representations of the existing urban environment and imaginations of different realities. Thus they provide different frameworks for the discussion of the contemporary situation of the urban context (Pak and Kuhk 2009).2) Potentials of Web 2.0: Web 2.0-based geographic technologies (GeoWeb 2.0) stand as strong alternatives to the traditional, linear, and hierarchical knowledge production methods. They are well positioned as a medium for facilitating dialogue and learning as well as communicative action (Roche et al. 2012; Hudson-Smith et al. 2009).The research started with an in-depth review of the alternative approaches, AUDPs, and technological applications developed around the world. Based on this analysis, it lead to the creation of a conceptual design. Then, we two prototypes were implemented with two nongovernmental environmental organizations such as BRAL vzw, Groen Belgium and Jeunes Natuurlijk. " "IWT-TETRA-project 090144 deLearyous: ""Training of interpersonal communication by natural language interaction with autonomous virtual characters""" "Koen Eneman" "Electrical Engineering Technology (ESAT), Group T Leuven Campus" "The aim of the deLearyous research project is to develop an interactive serious 3D game for the training of interpersonal communication skills within a professional context, eg. in an employer-employee or customer-employee relationship. The game consists in letting the trainee interact with autonomous virtual characters, which respond to the input of the player in a realistic and expressive manner. This allows the trainee to practice different behaviors and roles at his/her own pace, in a safe and virtual environment." "3D audio personalization for virtual reality applications." "Herbert Peremans" "Co-Design of Cyber-Physical Systems (Cosys-Lab), Condensed Matter Theory, Engineering Management" "Our previous research resulted in a low-cost and user-friendly do-it-yourself method that allows a user to measure their Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) at home. While it is recognized that personalized 3D audio can add significant value to VR applications in a Business to Business environment, e.g. VR safety training, it appears that in addition to an efficient way of personalizing 3D audio, i.e. an HRTF measurement, two more elements are missing. First, the user having to assemble him/herself the measurement system from a number of commercially available components is perceived as a major obstacle. Second, the absence of standard software allowing effective use of personalized 3D audio acts as a significant impediment to its exploitation in applications. In this project we propose to remove these two obstacles to the use of personalized 3D audio in such Business to Business applications. The first obstacle will be addressed by developing a hardware module capable of capturing and transmitting both head movements and binaural microphone signals to a smartphone/laptop. In addition, we will extend Unity, a development platform widely used in the VR and game world, with a 3D audio module. This software module will allow application-developers to include personalized 3D audio in a standardized way in their products. Users of 2 these products can then upload their measured HRTF and experience the advantages of personalized 3D audio."