Name Responsible Activity "Audio Visual Signal Processing" "Hichem Sahli" "The Audio-visual Signal Processing (AVSP) Lab investigates novel methods for the automated interpretation of social and affective behaviour. Research areas include social signal processing, multisensor fusion, computer vision, ubiquitous computing, and machine learning. Our expertise is mainly focused on developing automated methods to analyse social signals from verbal and non-verbal behaviour with multiple sensing modalities (e.g. wearables, video, speech, audio, physiological, etc). The overarching goal is to employ and advance intuitive and mathematically principled signal representations and machine learning models for understanding and describing human behavior. Emphasis is to devise novel personalized machine learning models that can accurately capture future changes in the key biomarkers and cognitive scores related to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and other neurological conditions (Depression, Stress)." "Histories of Art, Architecture and Visual Culture" "Pieter Martens" "The research unit Histories of Art, Architecture and Visual Culture (VISU) offers a platform for fundamental research on the history and theory of art, architecture and visual culture from the early modern period up to the present. It studies not only the artistic and architectural practice, the material object and the spatial environment, but also the broader cultural, historical and societal context, which often relates to current themes such as new media, visualisation of conflict and war, urbanisation, sustainability, multiculturality and globalisation. Key questions concern the circulation of images, artefacts, practices and knowlegde across boundaries. These cross-overs are understood as mutual interactions between the different arts and as exchanges between different cultures, traditions, regions or periods. The scientific research within VISU is structured around three closely interwoven research lines:• Histories of ArchitectureThis research line focuses on the history of architecture, urbanism and the decorative arts from the early modern period up to the present. Particular attention goes to the Low Countries (early modern period) in a European perspective and to Belgium (from the 19th century) in a global context. In line with the tradition of architectural history, research is carried out on all aspects of the built environment: from planning, design and execution of buildings to their interior design, decoration, use, reception, typological development and theorisation. At the same time the focus on architecture is broadened by studying also the multiple interactions with neighbouring domains: on the one hand with science and technology, among others via research on engineering and building techniques (cf. construction history); on the other with the arts and visual culture, among others via research on the oeuvre of artists-architects and the representation of architecture and cities in the visual arts (cf. urban iconography).• Early Modern Art and Visual Culture In extension of the previous research line, this line studies European early modern art and visual culture in a global perspective. Anchored in the art-historical tradition by an object-oriented approach, the aim is to broaden the monographic view and look at interactions between objects, images, makers and beholders, thus mapping the broader visual culture. Special expertise concerns the circulation of artworks and artefacts in networks of artists, scholars and merchants in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Low Countries. The study of canonical works by Bruegel and Rubens, among others, as well as anonymous pamphlets and news prints, in connection with material and literary culture and socio-political contexts, aims to reintegrate early modern images and objects in the societal debates and reflections of their time, often resonating today: knowledge explosion, new media, political and confessional polarisation, climate, globalisation, urbanisation, interrogation and meditation. • Modern and Contemporary Art, Photography and New Media    The modern and contemporary research line aligns itself with the themes described above but focuses on the period from the 19th to the 21st century. It investigates practice, dissemination, reception and conservation of art in its material, cultural and (inter)medial aspects. Particular emphasis lies on photography, film and other new media, which are considered in their diverse social uses within and beyond the field of art. The roles, operations and (after)lives of images are examined in the light of artistic practice and theory. Researched themes include image circulation and image performativity, dissent, collaboration, human and non-human entwinements; collective identity construction, gender and intersectionality, environmental concerns and landscape imaging, visualisations of history and critical reassessments of the past. These themes are approached within an interdisciplinary framework drawing from critical theory, film and media studies, anthropology, post-colonial studies, systems theories and new materialisms.  " "Research Centre for Visual Poetics" "Kyoko Iwaki" "Poetics derives from ""poiesis"", or ""active making"". The poetics of an artistic medium places the artwork at the center of study and studies the finished work as the result of a process of construction. It mounts explanations how the artwork works and why under certain circumstances it came to look the way it did. It reveals, more specifically, the inextricable weaving together of representation and discourse, the imbrication of visual and verbal experience at the core of performance and cinema. Visual poetics doesn't constitute a distinct critical school. It has no privileged semantic field, no core of procedures for interpreting, no unique rhetorical tactics. Any inquiry into the fundamental principles by which theatre and cinema are constructed, and the effects that flow from those principles, can fall within the domain of visual poetics. A research project in visual poetics may be primarily analytical, studying particular devices across a range of works or a particular work: it takes as its object a body of conventions; observation of general tendencies with a scrutiny of particulars. Or it can be mainly historical: trying to understand how theatre and cinema assume certain forms within a period or across periods. Visual poetics considers critics of visual art to be makers too, and could analyze their materials, principles, and concerns with effect both from an analytical and historical perspective. In this context the primary interest lies with ""ekphrasis"", or the engagement with performance and film through language. In poetics the choices of the artist will also be correlated with some purpose ¿ the design of the work, its function or effect on the perceiver. Poetics is interested in wider cultural factors and intersubjective data, but only as they relate to the question at hand. It doesn't neglect the influence of society, ideology, or culture on audiences or viewers, but assumes that cultural activities are mental in an important sense: learned, recalled and rethought by the embodied minds of social agents. To study intent and effect of the artwork, a mentalistic poetics is proposed, provided by what we broadly call the cognitive approach to mental life. The primary interest is a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences, what John Debes calls ""visual literacy""." "Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi)" "Philippe Meers" "The Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi) focuses on fundamental and applied research of culture and communication processes and issues, often but not exclusively with a visual dimension or pertaining aspects of visual media in many areas of society(e.g. scientific data gathering and communication, entertainment, education and news reporting). A wide range of media (film, television, print, internet) and aspects (production processes, representational issues, contexts of use) are being studied using a variety of specialized methods (textual analysis, audience research, structural analysis, visual ethnography, visual data production). Both historical and contemporary aspects are being studied, often from a combined vantage point of looking at the 'production' of media and images and its institutional, political and economic contexts, performing detailed analyses of the media and visual products themselves, and interrogating the users and the ways in which they construct meanings based on media and images. Our current research strands which we will continue to develop in the future are: • Visual media as tools and data sources for social and cultural research (visual sociology, visual anthropology, visual studies, cultural geography). • The study of the societal and scientific impact of new media technologies (internet, geo-media). • Media analysis, media literacy and visual literacy, multimodal research. • Analysis of non-fiction image cultures: from the private to the public sphere, from popular to scientific visualizations. • Application of visual methods to several fields of social research (health care, urban planning, poverty research, multiculturalism, politics…). • Historical research of cinema exhibition and film experience. • Contemporary cinema cultures: local, national and international contexts, texts and audiences." "Visual and Spatial Tissue Analysis" "The Visual & Spatial Tissue Analysis (VSTA) core facility offers in situ detection of DNA aberrations, multiplex RNA expression, point mutations (DNA/RNA/Basescope) and multiplex protein expression (immunostaining, Ultivue) with whole-slide imaging (brightfield/fluorescence) and advanced digital image analysis." "Immersive Lab" "Silvia Van Aken" "The Immersive Lab is a research center of AP University College Antwerp (Belgium) that centralizes the expertise about immersive technologies (virtual, augmented and mixed reality, omnidirectional video and hologram) and shares it with students, researchers, companies and non-profit organizations. Now that the first hype is gradually over and technology is evolving at breakneck speed and is available to producers and consumers, the obvious applications have found their way to the market. Objectives of the Immersive Lab: RESEARCH CENTER - The lab is stimulating, initiating and supporting research about immersive technologies for commercial, educational, cultural and scientific applications. The focus lies on integrated and practice-based research. KNOWLEDGE CENTER - The Lab bundles all the knowledge that is acquired from its own research or that is collected from external publications, study days, conferences, etc. The lab has a showroom where customized demonstrations, workshops, brainstorming sessions and lectures can be given. This way, both the client/visitor, who has never been in contact with the technology can come in for an introduction, and the experienced producer who wants to explore new markets. VALIDATION CENTER - Researchers and producers of immersive content can subject their products to usability tests in the Lab based on the analysis model developed by the Immersive Lab. PRODUCTION FACILITIES AND LENDING SERVICE - The lab focuses on the creation of high-quality content for commercial, educational, cultural and scientific applications. Companies, designers, artists, educational institutions, start-ups, etc. can use the lab's facilities and infrastructure, under certain conditions. Expert guidance can be provided." "Education and Society" "Joke Vandenabeele" "The Laboratory for Education and Society (LES) conducts research on three issues in our contemporary society. They examine how modern technologies shape our reality (virtuality and digitization), which paradoxes evoke increasing pluralism (cohesion and pluralisation), and what it means that our society is characterized by competence development (competition and professionalisation)." "Mathematics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus" "Karel Dekimpe" "Research topics of this research unit are:• Crystallographic and Bieberbach groups and their generalizations, both from an algebraic and geometrical point of view.• Affine and polynomial structures for (virtual) polycyclic groups, conceptual and computational aspects and applications• Group actions on varieties, algebraic topological and geometric characteristics.• Topological fixed point theory.• Popularization of mathematics and exact sciences for pupils in secondary education (see Mathematics Olympiad)• Online, interactive practice for mathematics using a shared inventory of multiple choice questions (see USolv-IT)" "Brain, Body and Cognition" "Kris Baetens" "The BBCO research group focuses its research on the comprehensive study of mental processes and their biological (brain and body) correlates in different domains of human functioning and behavior, such as cognition, social judgment, affect, well-being and sleep. Without doubt, the study of the brain and body, and its related mental processes is at the forefront of current research in many disciplines of psychology. Together with behavioral (experimental – observational) approaches, novel neurobiological methodology are becoming increasingly used in psychological research, and allow unprecedented insights in human mental processes during all brain states (waking, sedation, sleep). These novel techniques include:(a)     brain imaging techniques (e.g., electroencephalography, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging),(b)     (virtual) lesions studies,(c)     brain stimulations techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) which can be used at the forefront of neural treatment in order to alleviate symptoms of patients with neural or psychological dysfunctions,(d)     biological measures that investigate the role of the body, including neurotransmitters, hormones and genes on psychological functioning.It is expected that the field of neurobiology (brain and body) will continue to grow strongly in the coming years by developing more and more advanced applications and theoretical approaches, discovering more about the functions of the brain and body, and hereto unknown neurobiological processes that impact on psychology. Especially the deeper brain areas are still largely unexplored, including the function and structure of the cerebellum, and genetic origins of psychological functions, structures, and pathologies. It is therefore important that this research group responds to this ever-growing evolution with closer and larger collaborations." "Translation and Technology, Kulak Kortrijk Campus" "Ayla Rigouts Terryn" "The research group (RG) Translation and Technology is an interdisciplinary research group, which investigates specific issues related to the translation of specialized texts, the evaluation of (specialized) translations and translation technology from different perspectives. At the same time  the RG Translation and Technology will provide methodological support to projects from other RG's, both for translation and interpreting research. In addition, the RG Translation and Technology will further develop its own methodological expertise by working closely with other RG's, both within the KU Leuven and internationally.ObjectivesThe RG Translation and Technology aims to: stimulate research into the various aspects of specialized translation (in particular legal and medical texts), translation evaluation and translation technology, with particular attention to:translation of legal and medical / scientific texts;translation in health communication;translation evaluation;terminological research, including the legal and medical field;translation technology;corpus linguistics and parallel corpora;concept modeling and development of ontologies;register variation in Language for Specific Purposes (LSP).In concrete terms, the focus of the RG Translation and Technology can be defined as follows:the evaluation of the efficiency and quality of translation processes, translation products and translation tools, using procedures that allow: (a) to evaluate the impact of translation technology on translators and the translation process; (b) assess the quality of translations, translators and translation processes in an objective and standardized manner; and (c) maximize utilization of (parallel) corpora for the optimization of the translation process and for determining the functional equivalence of legal texts from different legal systems;the testing and enrichment of various evaluation procedures to and with corpus-based data, which provides significant added value, including applications such as term extraction, relevance of translation suggestions and semi-automatic selection of quality test items.The research can be both qualitative and quantitative.De OG Vertaling en Technologie is een interdisciplinaire OG die de vertaalproblematiek rond gespecialiseerde teksten, vertaalevaluatie en vertaaltechnologie vanuit verschillende invalshoeken bestudeert. De OG Vertaling en Technologie zal tegelijkertijd methodologische ondersteuning bieden aan projecten uit andere OG’s, zowel voor vertaal- als tolkwetenschappelijk onderzoek. Daarnaast zal de OG Vertaling en Technologie haar eigen methodologische expertise verder uitbouwen door nauw samen te werken met andere OG’s, zowel binnen de KU Leuven als internationaal."