Name Activity "Production Engineering, Machine Design and Automation (PMA) Section" "The division PMA (Production techniques, Machine design and Automation) is unique in its multi-disciplinary system approach in the study and development of innovative products, production processes and intelligent (production) machines. Research programs are primarily defined based on social (industrial) relevance. In addition, fundamental contributions are made to the underlying scientific disciplines (computational dynamics, optimization, control theory, tribology, signal processing, etc.). Particular attention is also paid to valorisation via spin-off companies. PMA participates with a number of Core Labs in Flanders Make (www.flandersmake.be).PMA's strategic research programs are:Innovative products, production techniques and systems: additive manufacturing, sheet metal working, subtractive machining and complex products, dimensional measurement technology, product development.Design and analysis of machines: simulation and testing of the high bandwidth dynamic behaviour of systems, intelligent lightweight structures, modelling of multi-body systems, estimation techniques for mechatronic systems, mechatronic systems with smart dynamics.Mechatronics and robotics: design of mechatronic systems, ultra-precision machines, micro- and meso-mechatronic systems, optimization and control for autonomous and cognitive systems and for human-machine interaction, real-time and embedded control, new industrial robotics." "Digital Solutions Leu" "Patrick De Mazière" "CENTRE OF EXPERTISE DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FOCUSES THE KNOW-HOW ON IT & TECHNOLOGY WITH THE PURPOSE OF INNOVATION-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT IN, FOR INSTANCE, THE CARE SECTOR, WHICH IS AN IMPORTANT TARGET GROUP FOR THIS CENTRE OF EXPERTISE. Digital Solutions considers it its mission to Assimilate emerging social and technological evolutions in computing and digitisation and to visualise socially relevant application domains with a view to employability. Support the digital transformation in our companies and society in a practical and sustainable way in order to embed wealth creation In addition to its broad technical background, this expertise unit specialises in the following lines of focus: Behaviour-Driven Development: methods for incorporating customer requirements into the software development process from the start, so that the end product meets the customer's requirements and functionalities as well as possible. Contact: Elke Steegmans. Data & AI (Machine Learning, Data Engineering, ...) & Internet of Everything (IoE): ranging from electronic data capture (including data acquisition) and filtering, to data/text mining (NLP included) and decision trees, to visualisation of the results so non-specialists can also easily interpret the data. The results obtained can also be added to IoE devices. Contact: Danny Volkaerts. Technology Enhanced Care: not only telecare or telemedicine, but also specific electric or electronic design for the benefit of people with disabilities, or data/AI driven (health)care or VR/AR applications to support revalidation and training in (health)care. Contact: Patrick De Mazière. Technology Enhanced Learning: the development and/or application of supporting services like e-portfolios or teaching IT courses to people with disabilities or minorities. Contact: Sebastiaan Jans. XPLab (VR / AR / Holography / Gamification): the application of this technology on domains such as (health)care, marketing, AI, and others. This line of focus is shared with the centre of expertise Smart Organisations. Contact: Dave Seré." "Multidimensional signal processing and communication" "Adrian Munteanu" "The IRIS RESEARCH GROUP was founded in December 21, 1988. Image/video processing and machine vision always have been and remain central research activities. Our motivation is to stay ahead of the obvious R&D tendencies, which drives us towards in depth fundamental research. Our mission statement is to impact on the transformation processes of the knowledge society, which keeps us alert to continuously update our strategic R&D agenda and extend/generalize our background knowledge. We are often seeking inspiration in the unexplored engineering bottlenecks at the interface of various application domains. The specific goal of the group is FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH, continued in Applied Research projects up to a stage where the results - when exploited - have an impact on society and/or ICT applications. - MULTIMEDIA R&D is focused on the design of various ICT modules, part of the E2E distributed and interactive system design chain: data representation, compression algorithms, transmission, forensics, visualization, computational models, complexity and power management. - In MACHINE VISION, new concepts are investigated for establishing a unified approach for various applications. The activity complements our E2E skills by providing modules for audiovisual signal analysis, motion estimation and segmentation, 3D reconstruction from motion & stereo, segmentation and classification, object tracking, ontology-based semantic scene analysis, event detection, robot navigation & sensing, 3D animation, positioning and tracking wireless devices. - In the area of TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK CONTROL, we focus on another competence needed for E2E system design: heuristic mechanisms and Artificial Intelligence. - In MEDICAL IMAGING and e-HEALTH, we have 3 specific foci: (i) robust mathematical solution methods, bridging the gap between inverse problems and numerical analysis, (ii) image processing and analysis, (iii) human motion with particular attention for frail and elderly people. TECHNOLOGY & KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER, participation in various application value chains and collaboration with industry, public services, and hospitals. are priorities for us. Starting from the previously described fundamental research experience, the IRIS group regularly renews and extends its R&D activities towards various application domains of Information Technology. Besides medical imaging - the oldest application domain of the group, expertise is present in automotive applications, localization and tracking, mobile and fixed communication, new media, remote sensing, satellite image processing, anti-personnel mine and minefield detection, public safety and surveillance., ... Collaborative contracts are existing with different players in the value chain of these applications. A continuous effort goes towards strengthening the involvement of IRIS in collaborative contracts with industry, public services, and hospitals. We are actively searching for opportunities of industrial valorization. The group operates in the broader context of the department ETRO, ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATICS, where three main research groups are collaborating to cover a wide range of generic technologies in Micro- and Optoelectronics (LAMI), Speech & Audio Processing (DSSP) and Multidimensional signal processing and communication with emphasis on Image Processing & Machine Vision (IRIS), which cannot be dealt with separately when the real world applications of the Information Society are envisaged. The collaboration between the three participating research groups leads to integrated transdisciplinary R&D, e.g. (i) in speech/audio and image/video processing in the context of multimedia research, (ii) in the exploitation of new opto-electronic devices for applications of ambient intelligence, gaming and industrial processes, and (iii) in joint channel-source coding." "Electronics and Informatics" "ETRO (Electronics and Information Processing) focuses on three major topics: devices and electronic technology (LAMI) on the one hand, and on the other hand the processing of information through electronic means in fields related to digital images and video (IRIS) and speech (DSSP). 1. IRIS studies how to map image processing algorithms on appropriate architectures for efficient implementation, image and video compression, data visualisation, pattern recognition, tracking based on visual cues and various aspects of machine vision in applications like satellite image analysis, medical imaging, industrial visual inspection, anti-personnel mine detection. 2. DSSP studies the analysis, modification, and (re-)synthesis of acoustic speech signals by digital processing equipment. It deals with diverse fields, among which are digital signal processing, pattern recognition, phonetics and software/hardware development. 3. In micro-electronic technology research (LAMI), the emphasis of the research is on optical/electrical interconnect technology, new opto-electronic/electronic devices and the design of mixed analog/digital circuits. Together, the three subunits within ETRO are covering a wide range of generic technologies in the field of Information Technology, which cannot be dealt with separately when the real world applications of the 'information society' are envisaged." "Public Health and Primary Care, Kulak Kortrijk Campus" "Public Health and Primary Care, Kulak Campus Kortrijk  with a focus on community health, best practice and health policy" "Comparative, Historical and Applied Linguistics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus" "Toon Van Hal" "French, Italian and comparative linguisticsDir. Piet DesmetResearch (and teaching) in the field of:(1) French and applied linguistics (esp.language didactics)(2) computer-assisted language learningThe CoHistAL group at KULAK  houses the research team ITEC (Interactive technologies), focusing on domain-specific educational technology." "Department of Accounting, Corporate Finance and Taxation" "Bertel De Groote" "The Department of Accounting, Corporate Finance and Taxation is part of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. Its research is centered around the areas of accounting, corporate finance and taxation." "Department of Biotechnology" "Godelieve Gheysen" "Innovation through molecular characterization and optimization of biological systems." "Semiconductor Physics" "Electronic characterization of semiconductor interfaces (internal photoemission, electron spin resonance). Electronic properties of semiconductor interfaces and thin layers including low-dimensional systems. The modelling activities are focused on the first-principles simulations (based on density functional theory - DFT) of the structural, electronic and transport properties of various materials and heterostructures of potential interest for nanoelectronic applications. Presently, the main research activity concerns the DFT simulations of the properties of 2D materials and their van der Waals heterostructures, including Xenes (graphene, silicene, germanene and stanene), transistion metal (di)chalcogenides and 2D metal oxides. Special attention is given to the study of intrinsic and extrinsic defects in these 2D materials, and their impact on the electronic and transport properties of these materials" "Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics (STADIUS)" "Toon van Waterschoot" "The Stadius Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing, and Data Analytics (STADIUS) is an academic research center, with a research focus on mathematical engineer- ing, where mathematical tools from numerical linear and multi-linear algebra, statistics and optimization are used for applications of dynamical systems and control, signal processing, data modeling and analytics. STADIUS offers recognized expertise in diverse application fields such as industrial automation, audio and speech communication, digital communications, biomedical signal and data processing, and bio-informatics."