Timeline

The 10th Generative AI Belgium meetup brought 300 people to Wintercircus Ghent to explore the future of art in the AI age. The event sparked deep conversations about authenticity, creativity, and the role of AI in artistic expression. I co-organized and moderated the event, facilitating discussions on prompt engineering, AI-generated content, and the blurring lines between real and artificial art.

I shared my perspective on Apple's AI strategy in De Morgen. I argued that Apple's privacy-first, on-device approach limits scale compared to cloud-based competitors. I also highlighted how their ecosystem could still make AI a true differentiator—if Apple moves from a defensive to a visionary stance.

I shared my perspective with Jorn Lelong from De Morgen on Google's AI-powered overhaul of search. I explained how the shift from link lists to direct chatbot answers raises new questions of trust and responsibility, and highlighted that people don't search for links but for answers—making this a prime example of UX and AI shaping a new paradigm.

Presented on the future of AI in the real estate industry to over 100 CIB members at Wintercircus Ghent. The talk covered the latest AI trends and their impact on real estate, emphasizing the need for sector organizations to embrace digitalization and AI. The event highlighted how In The Pocket and CIB are collaborating to drive innovation in the industry.

I ran an AI literacy session at ORIS to prove learning about AI can be fun. We mixed big 2025 trends—multimodal models, reasoning vs. responding, AI agents, and geopolitics—with hands-on discussion and creative energy. The result: less fear, more curiosity, and a room full of new ideas.

A comprehensive blogpost breaking down the buzz around AI agents and helping teams navigate the hype. The post provides a clear framework for understanding when to use different AI interaction modes. I wrote this to help product teams make informed decisions about AI implementation strategies.

ChatITP evolved from an internal experiment at In The Pocket to become the company's third most-used application. The project demonstrated how thoughtful experimentation and user trust can scale an AI sandbox into a core productivity tool. I led the development and scaling strategy, focusing on iterative improvement and user-centered design.

A guest lecture on 'How to define a feasible AI business case' for business school students at Vlerick. The session equipped students with practical frameworks for evaluating and developing AI business opportunities. I delivered the lecture using In The Pocket's AI Strategy Canvas and guided students through real-world case study development.

An exclusive roundtable dinner in the Netherlands bringing together AI product leaders from major companies like KLM and Philips. The discussion generated three key insights about building successful AI products in the current landscape. I organized and facilitated the conversation, guiding discussions on AI product strategy and implementation challenges.

Over 250 people joined despite a train strike for the 9th Generative AI Belgium meetup at Google HQ. Talks covered enterprise AI agents (Google), AI security risks (Toreon), and evaluation challenges (Wout Schellaert). The evening showed how cheaper models and deeper integration raise new opportunities and risks—while the community energy keeps growing.

Provided expert insights on xAI's Grok 3 model for a De Morgen article. Key takeaways included the increasingly crowded AI leaderboard and OpenAI's loss of its technical edge, the controversial decision by xAI to double down on minimal content restrictions, and the potential impact of xAI's hybrid open-source and commercial strategy on industry competition. The piece also featured commentary from other AI experts.

Shared perspectives with Jorn Lelong from De Morgen on Europe's role in the global AI race. Innovation isn't the problem—Europe has strong ventures and academic research—but heavy reliance on U.S. and Asian infrastructure creates dependency. With big investments on the horizon, the real need is a focused strategy to make AI entrepreneurship viable and scalable across Europe.

Shared insights with Freek Evers in HUMO on what AI agents are and why they matter. Key points: agents are proactive assistants that act beyond simple prompts, AI systems are becoming more complex and efficient, and big tech is investing heavily to bring these agents into daily life. The article explored how these shifts will shape both work and personal tech in 2025.

A two-day conference in Qatar featuring Fanar, the groundbreaking Arabic-first large language model that dominated discussions. The event demonstrated how LLMs represent more than just technology—they're instruments of culture, sovereignty, and national strategy. I participated as an international expert, contributing perspectives on AI model development and cultural representation in AI systems.

The 9th Generative AI Belgium meetup addressed the 'elephants in the room' with 230 in-person and 80+ remote attendees at In The Pocket's Ghent offices. The event featured compelling talks that mixed big-picture questions with technical depth, closing out the year with remarkable community energy. I co-organized and hosted the event, facilitating discussions on the challenging topics the AI community often avoids.

Joined Eddie Woodley on the Vision to Venture podcast to talk about AI engineering, product value, and client skepticism. A key theme was the role of technical translation: turning ambitious feature requests into feasible AI implementations, while framing technical trade-offs in business terms. The conversation highlighted how this imperfect translation creates ownership of value and keeps AI projects moving forward.

Spoke at the Bits in Bio meetup in Ghent, hosted at argenx, on lessons from the Generative AI revolution. The talk focused on keeping quality in mind when building digital products and on how to practically leverage AI, machine learning, and generative AI. Organized by Kenny Helsens and Volodimir Olexiouk, Bits in Bio brings together people from digital tech and biotech to share knowledge and spark collaboration.

A live demonstration for 200+ podcast creators showing how AI can transform podcasting workflows from ideation to publication. The session concluded that while AI excels at accelerating production tasks, fully AI-generated podcasts still lack authentic personality, particularly in Dutch. I co-presented with Sebastiaan Van den Branden, live-creating a podcast on stage to showcase AI capabilities and limitations.

A 24-hour AI hackathon that transformed 100 Liantis employees from AI newcomers to prototype builders, resulting in nine impressive demos. The event showcased both the power and limitations of low-code AI tools like Microsoft's Copilot Studio. I co-facilitated the hackathon with Nina Žižakić and Peter Vermaercke, guiding teams from ideation to final pitch.

Presented at the Mobile Healthcare Festival in 's-Hertogenbosch on the role of AI in healthcare. The talk explored how AI can move beyond accessibility to inclusivity for both patients and practitioners, provided the right use cases and technologies are chosen. Shared practical frameworks for identifying, refining, and validating AI use cases in healthcare.

In The Pocket's flagship conference bringing 300 attendees together to explore digital trends, with AI dominating the agenda. The event explored critical questions about AI quality, design, and brand strategy in an AI-driven future. I presented on quality considerations in GenAI applications and co-presented on brand presence strategies with Peter Vermaercke and Sebastiaan Van den Branden.

A keynote on why emerging technologies matter in today's digital landscape, delivered at ENGIE Belgium's Chapter Day. The talk argued that emerging tech offers better innovation opportunities than saturated traditional channels. I presented alongside colleagues Yannis Tenret and Bram De Coninck, focusing on practical applications and competitive advantages.

The 8th Generative AI Belgium meetup explored the intersection of legal and AI with 130 attendees and four expert speakers. The event covered collaboration frameworks, technical compliance, legal-AI startups, and regulatory impacts like the European AI Act. I co-organized the event, focusing on the critical relationship between legal frameworks and AI implementation.

An experimental XR prototype submitted to Google's Gemini Competition that transforms user questions into polished pitch decks through AI-powered workflows. The system provided transparent AI reasoning, allowing users to intervene and refine outputs for better results. I developed the AI agent architecture and user experience design, while Stijn Spanhove created the immersive XR environment.

At Leuven MindGate's latest event, demonstrated AI through a series of interactive demos that made the technology tangible and sparked both technical and philosophical conversations. The evening highlighted Leuven's role as a global innovation hub and its importance for In The Pocket's growth into a European digital product studio. Organized by Kristel Gooris and colleagues, with contributions from Stijn Spanhove, Olivier De Roo, and Pieter Portauw.

At the Data Driven Healthcare event in Rotterdam, learned how data transfer and availability remain major challenges in Dutch healthcare, while Belgium has made strides in unifying medical records. Shared In The Pocket's perspective on use cases versus emerging tech—showing how AI is the next platform shift after web, mobile, and cloud. At the booth, demonstrated how XR can assist visually impaired people, complete with an Apple Vision Pro demo.

A marketing-focused event exploring 'Future, Flaws & Flowers' with industry leaders and creative professionals. The event emphasized the marketing sector's urgent need for reinvention and adaptability in the AI era. I presented on AI-proofing marketing strategies alongside Rob Van Impe (Average Rob) and MAKEOUT STUDIO.

The 7th meetup reached full capacity weeks in advance with 130 attendees eager to explore AI applications across different domains. Four speakers showcased diverse GenAI implementations from sales support to media experiments, demonstrating the community's growing sophistication. I co-organized the event, curating speakers who represented the cutting edge of practical GenAI product development.

At Maker Faire Gent, shared creative AI experiments with over a thousand makers, families, and tech enthusiasts under the name TuringTunes™. Showcased an AI photo booth that transformed visitors into astronauts, wizards, and robots, and a piano visualizer translating mood into colorful AI-generated images. A vibrant weekend of curiosity and creativity, with the booth run together with Nina Žižakić and Liam Goethals.

Spoke at the NextGen event of Dierickx Leys Private Bank, hosted by Nicolas Blondeau and team. The talk asked 'Are you future-proof in the age of AI?' and concluded: AI is both a hype and a technological shift with huge opportunities, accessible AI tools empower the masses but raise ethical concerns, and while AI won't replace humans, it will reshape work—making continuous learning and collaboration essential.

The 5th Generative AI Belgium meetup marked one year of the community, welcoming 160 attendees in Ghent and remotely. With 1,000 members now onboard, the event featured talks by Jens Bontinck (ML6), Koen Boncquet (HubSpot), Silen Naihin (Stackwise), and Jens-Joris Decorte (TechWolf). Hosted and sponsored by TechWolf and Fortino Capital, it showcased the growing momentum of Belgium’s GenAI ecosystem.

Contributed to a Vlaamse overheid event on data science and AI at Departement Zorg, highlighting progress in data maturity, literacy, and AI exploration. Frederik De Bosschere delivered a keynote on practical applications of AI in government, while Nina Žižakić, Liam Goethals, and Peter Vermaercke applied the Data Strategy Canvas with policymakers. The day showcased projects from Koenraad Jacob, Karine Moykens, Maarten Verlé, Stefan Vanbeveren, and others, underlining the department’s forward-thinking approach.

A weekend experiment exploring multimodal AI by transforming live piano performances into dynamic AI-generated images. The system successfully mapped musical features to emotional and visual concepts, creating a novel form of audio-visual expression. I developed the complete pipeline from MIDI capture to image generation, exploring underrepresented modalities in AI research.

Moderated the AI & Data Collaboration panel at the Digital Finance Summit in Brussels. The discussion featured Mathias Vergauwen (Microsoft), GAO Bo (AI Club Asia), Tommaso Migliore (MDOTM), and Kevin Françoisse (Skwiz), covering topics like code conversion for legacy systems, GenAI bridging human and numerical data, OpenAI vs. open source models, and regulatory parallels between fintech and healthcare. A lively exchange on how AI is reshaping finance.

The 6th Generative AI Belgium meetup brought 110 participants together at Collibra’s Brussels offices, mixing Ghent and Brussels community members. Talks featured Igor Soltysik (NVIDIA), Brajendra Singh (AWS), and Michiel Brinkman (Google Cloud) on how leading tech giants manage infrastructure for Generative AI. Despite stormy weather, the event thrived on great atmosphere, strong content, and valuable networking.

In The Pocket's flagship conference where AI emerged as the defining trend of 2023, featuring industry leaders and groundbreaking discussions. The event explored everything from OpenAI's scaling strategies to practical AI business applications. I moderated a high-profile panel with Thomas Degry (OpenAI) and Steven Latré (imec), while colleagues presented diverse AI implementations.

Built a tongue-in-cheek demo app called 'The Infinite Todo List' to show how AI assistants like ChatITP fit into the no/low-code universe. The app endlessly generates new tasks to highlight rapid prototyping possibilities—while poking fun at productivity culture. Created in the run-up to In The Pocket’s Shift event as a showcase of AI-powered web app prototyping.

Facilitated an inspiration and ideation session on Generative AI for DPG Media, focusing on applications within the VTM Go platform. The session explored opportunities to integrate AI into one of Belgium’s most widely used streaming services. Organized by Josephine Deproost and co-facilitated with Peter Vermaercke and Frederik De Bosschere.

Facilitated a Generative AI ideation workshop at AI5050 around the key question: 'What are the AI challenges only you can solve?' Participants explored beyond commodity use cases like mail classifiers or meeting summarizers, focusing instead on AI applications that can create lasting competitive advantage. The session was run together with Peter Vermaercke, Nina Žižakić, Pooria Nobahari, and Stijn Spanhove.

The 3rd Generative AI Belgium meetup brought together around 70 attendees for three insightful, hands-on talks on Generative AI. With a healthy mix of newcomers and returning members, the event combined strong content with great networking to keep the community momentum growing.

Joined a panel discussion at Mirto on the social impact of AI, exploring concrete applications and diverse perspectives. Highlights included Sabine Demey (imec) on data-efficient and sustainable ML models, Pascal Brackman (RouteYou) on precise labeling use cases, and Lieven Bossuyt on integrating social economy workers into the MLOps cycle as data labelers. A thoughtful exchange on how AI can align with social value.

A 24-hour sprint that produced Babel, a GenAI tool for navigating Flemish government information and services. The prototype gained immediate traction with thousands of users in its first week and media coverage in De Tijd. I led the technical development with In The Pocket colleagues, demonstrating how quickly GenAI can create real-world value.

The 2nd Generative AI Belgium meetup gathered 70+ enthusiasts for talks on business applications of Generative AI. Xander Steenbrugge shared his vision on building in an open-source ecosystem, Wolf Boone (Microsoft) highlighted common Azure OpenAI use cases, and Philippe Moussalli (ML6) showcased fine-tuning Stable Diffusion for production-quality clip-art. Hosted by ML6, the event sparked lively discussions and set the stage for future editions.

The inaugural Generative AI Belgium meetup gathered 100+ attendees for four inspiring talks, pizza, and plenty of discussion. Talks by Louis Ghekiere, Stijn Spanhove, Laurens Corijn, and Kasper Jordaens set the tone for a vibrant community exploring Generative AI together. A strong kickoff that laid the foundation for the series of meetups to follow.

Delivered three talks on Generative AI to 500+ Design, Journalism, and Communication students during Artevelde's Week of Airis, organized by Jens Pas. Peter Vermaercke highlighted co-creation and parallels with past disruptive technologies, Nina Žižakić explained how generative models work and their biases, and Louis Ghekiere presented a case study of human–AI collaboration in designing the Shift brand. A strong kickoff to the new semester showcasing how GenAI can already create value today.

Presented at the MLxUX event in In The Pocket’s new Antwerp office, sharing experiences on the intersection of machine learning and user experience. Other speakers included Josh Lovejoy (Google), Katrien Dewijngaert (KBC), and Lies Cassiman (Colruyt). The evening combined expert talks and community networking, marking the first of many MLxUX and Shift Afterwork events in Antwerp.

Spoke at the UXGhent meetup on learnings from a year of MLxUX practice. The talk explored how data, AI, and machine learning intersect with product development, highlighting both opportunities and challenges, and aimed to spark discussion within the UX community.

Presented at Wintersim 2019, a top conference in Operational Research and simulations. The presentation focused on Line-Based Bayesian Optimisation techniques developed in our research group.

Presented Line-Based Bayesian Optimization approach at the Benelearn/BNAIC conference 2019 in Brussels, Belgium. The contribution was nominated for best Student contribution.

Research on making predictions and building ML models with little or no data available. Developed Line-Based Bayesian Optimisation techniques to tackle data-efficient machine learning challenges in industrial applications.

Graduated with great distinction as Computer Science Engineer at Ghent University. Five years of academic and extracurricular projects developing technical skills and meeting inspiring people.

Year-long Design Project developing a PoC for indoor navigation using augmented reality. Led a team of 9 people as Product Owner in an agile/scrum environment. Won the Demo-Day competition.

Part-time internship at Uman.ai, a start-up spin-off from ML6, revolutionizing company knowledge management and skill tracking. Developed and integrated ML technologies in production environments.

Joined the newly formed Data Science/ML team to develop an NLP recommender system. Created a PoC with a frontend in 6 weeks. Developed dynamic search result reordering technique used for conference contribution.

Presented technique for reordering search results in response to quick changes in user behavior. Research developed during Showpad internship, accepted at Benelearn/BNAIC 2018.

Led a team of 60 people in creating and performing full theatrical shows from scratch, including acting, dance, live music, and musical songs. Managed creative projects with financial stakes and strict deadlines.

Performed, acted, and sung in 4 theatrical productions during computer science studies. Part of VTK student association's creative community producing full shows from scratch.

Took initiative to revitalize CenEka, the student association of computer science and electrotechnical engineering at Ghent University. Built meaningful relationships with university and industry.

Built an intelligent robot to distribute M&Ms to meeting participants while avoiding obstacles. Created a social robot with custom UI, advanced Human-Robot Interface, face detection, and tactile feedback.

Built a pizza oven from scratch, learning about masonry, insulation, and heat coefficients. A practical application of material science engineering concepts and a passion for great pizza.

Built a vertical farm to grow vegetables indoors using both traditional dirt and hydroponic methods. Explored sustainable growing techniques and indoor agriculture.

Created a graphics engine from OpenGL API including progressive meshes, mesh compression, and rendering optimization techniques. Part of computer graphics course exploring advanced rendering concepts.

Quiz application developed as group project introducing GUI applications in Java and agile software development. Featured custom networking layer and a unique snacks-themed quiz round.

Investigated programmatic drone control and environmental navigation with a team of 3 students. Created a simulation environment from scratch in Processing for drone navigation in unknown environments.

Developed a bubble shooter game clone with AI adversary in C++ using Allegro graphics engine. Explored advanced C++ concepts, AI implementation, and collaborative development with Git.

Created a program to control a simplified robot arm for drawing shapes using microcontrollers. Tackled the challenges of constrained memory and performance in robotic applications.

Created musical instruments using 3D printing technology, combining knowledge of music theory, physics, mathematics of wind instruments, and computer-aided design (CAD).

Best performing team in Human Activity Classification based on accelerometer data challenge. Team project for master course in machine learning combining semester knowledge in competitive format.

Graphics library built in Java on top of Java Swing GUI. Exercise in API design and mathematical visualizations, focusing on clean architecture rather than performance optimization.

Platform to easily create Augmented Reality experiences, bridging the gap between digital and real worlds. Proof of concept combining full-stack development with AR technologies.