Biography

I am a professor at Ghent University, in the Image Processing and Interpretation (IPI) research group of the Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing (TELIN), an imec research group (formerly iMinds and IBBT). Together with colleagues from Bioscience Engineering and Sciences I lead the interfaculty UAV Research Centre (URC).

I studied computer science engineering at Ghent University (M.Sc. 2003) and obtained my PhD there in 2009, with Wilfried Philips as promotor for both my master’s and doctoral work. Before university I went to Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Presentatie (1983–1986), the Bisschoppelijke Normaalschool (1986–1992), Sint-Franciscuscollege (1992–1996) and Sint-Jozef-Klein-Seminarie (1996–1998, science–mathematics).

Events and community

• Hyperspectral Object Tracking Challenge — annual challenge at the IEEE WHISPERS conference, with a large annotated hyperspectral video dataset; co-organised with Nanjing University of Science and Technology and Griffith University.
• FEARS — the research symposium of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture; I chair its organising committee.
• De Bollebozen, episode 7 (ROB TV) — a regional television series (in collaboration with imec); this episode asks whether a camera can make the invisible visible.

Awards

• 2026 — Runner-up, ENLIGHT Teaching & Learning Award (6th ENLIGHT T&L Conference 2026): course Integrated Portfolio
• 2026 — Finalist, AIG Leo Baekelandprijs: Rob Van Rensbergen (master thesis)
• 2025 — Winner, AI4BLADES Challenge (WindEurope Technology Workshop 2025): Jonathan Sterckx
• 2025 — Best Paper Award, Optical Biopsy XXIII (SPIE Photonics West 2025): Jens De Winne
• 2023 — imec PhD Excellence Award (imec 2023): Haijin Zeng
• 2023 — Finalist, Hyperspectral Object Tracking Challenge (WHISPERS 2023): Rafał Muszyński
• 2022 — Finalist, MIPI Challenge, Quad-Bayer Re-mosaic track (ECCV 2022): Haijin Zeng
• 2014 — Finalist, 3D Deconvolution Microscopy Challenge (ISBI 2014)
• 2013 — Finalist, 3D Deconvolution Microscopy Challenge (ISBI 2013)
• 2010 — Finalist, Reconstruction Challenge (ISMRM 2010)

Smart drones workshop

A two-hour hands-on workshop for secondary-school pupils, organised by the UAV Research Centre: pupils program DJI Tello drones with a block-based language and let them avoid obstacles and fly stunts. The workshop is now part of the STEM week of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (in Dutch). Loan packages are available on demand.