How will computer science change your life in the next 50 years?

Tom Van Cutsem is a professor with the DistriNet research group at KU Leuven.

Tom's research interests lie broadly in secure distributed computing, at the intersection of distributed systems and programming languages. Most recently, Tom's research focuses on the study of decentralized systems, blockchains and smart contract platforms, both from a language engineering perspective (designing safer languages to write smart contracts) as well as from a middleware engineering perspective (improving the APIs of blockchain platforms).

Prior to joining DistriNet, Tom spent significant time in industry. In past work and roles Tom has worked on Web standards (JavaScript), reflection and modularity in object-oriented languages, mobile and ubiquitous computing, distributed stream processing, concurrent and parallel programming (actor languages, reactive and event-based systems) and AI pair programming tools (machine learning on code).

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the KU Leuven. My research lies in the intersection of 3D Interaction and Virtual Reality with Human-Computer Interaction. I am motivated by a deep interest in making the technologies supporting the fruition of 3D contents more accessible by everyone.

Ultimately, my driving passion is to contribute as best as I can towards making visionary science-fiction ideas become science-fact.

Vero Vanden Abeele is an Associate Professor in Human-Computer Interaction, at the department of Computer Science and the Faculty of Engineering Technology, KU Leuven. Vero’s research relates to user experience design, human-centered design, motivational design, games user research… with a specific focus on health and wellbeing. Vero has been interested in how to realize meaningful play for in a health context, and is involved in the international games research community as member of the CHI PLAY steering committee. Vero has also co-founded the startup TinkerList, a tool for live media production, with superior UX.

Vero holds a master's degree in industrial design ('Productontwikkeling') at the university of Antwerp, was introduced to Interaction Design at Carnegie Mellon University, as a Fulbright scholar. She completed a PhD at the faculty of Social Sciences at KU Leuven. As a PI, she is part of HCI@GroepT group and the
e-Media Research Lab.

Jesse Davis is Professor at the Department of Computer Science at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on developing novel artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, and data mining techniques, with a particular emphasis on analyzing structured data. Jesse’s passions lie in using these techniques to make sense of lifestyle data, address problems in (elite) athlete monitoring and detecting anomalies. Prior to joining KU Leuven, he obtained his bachelor’s degree from Williams College, his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and completed a post-doc at the University of Washington.

Jesse has co-founded and serves on the board of directors for two startups: Activ84Health and RunEASI. Activ84Health is an awarding winning start-up that develops innovative technology to motivate nursing home residents to be physically active and improve their quality of life. RunEASI is a recently launched company that aims to provide real-time biomechanical feedback about running, particularly in the context of rehabilitation.

Giovanni Samaey is toegepast wiskundige en computerwetenschapper. Hij ontwikkelt en onderzoekt algoritmes om computersimulaties vele malen te versnellen. Vele belangrijke problemen, zoals kanker, verkeer en slimme materialen, hebben met elkaar gemeen dat microscopische effecten (zoals het gedrag van individuele cellen of voertuigen) het gedrag op macroscopische schaal (de tumor of de verkeersstroom) beïnvloeden. Giovanni bestudeert algoritmes om in dergelijke gevallen tot aanvaardbare rekentijden te komen. Dit onderzoek combineert aspecten van toegepaste wiskunde en computerwetenschappen, en nodigt uit tot interactie met tal van wetenschappelijke domeinen.