Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "HVDC Cable Analytics: Using monitored data from contingency analysis to determine cable and accessory lifetime" "Dirk Van Hertem" "Electrical Energy Systems and Applications (ELECTA)" "HVDC Cable Analytics: Using monitored data from contingency analysis to determine cable and accessory lifetime" "Event Data Analytics: Feature Engineering and Diagnostic Analysis in a Hybrid Data Source Setting" "Benoit DEPAIRE" "Business Informatics" "In these modern times, businesses are being confronted more and more with a large volume of fine-grained data. However, they want to extract knowledge and meaning from this data to support their business and enable data-driven growth. Event data analytics can assist by, among others, learning how to stimulate certain events to happen, while preventing others from occurring. This PhD project aims at delivering these insights. To this end, three focal point can be distinguished of which the first two constitute potential data enrichment stages. Firstly, the masses of fine-grained data must be aggregated to a more understandable level. This means transforming events to behavioural patterns by means of, for example, event log abstraction techniques. Secondly, context changes must be detected. This includes discovering relations between different business objects and their attributes. These objects include, but are not limited to, customers, suppliers, employees, IT systems, assets, … One object can influence the other, both in a positive and negative way. Thirdly, diagnostic analytics will help understand which patterns are closely related to the phenomena of interest. In other words, while diagnostic analytics typically searches for the cause of a problem so that the problem can be avoided, this work also attempts to uncover how one can stimulate a new occurrence of positive events. This can be achieved with the same techniques." "Visual Analytics for Sense-making in Criminal Intelligence analysis" "Research Unit KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP)" "The purpose of Project VALCRI is to create a Visual Analytics-based sense-making capability for criminal intelligence analysis by developing and integrating a number of technologies into a coherent working environment for the analyst we call the Reasoning Workspace. Conceptually, the Reasoning Workspace comprises three areas:a Data Space which will enable an analyst to see what data and themes existan Analysis Space to which data can be brought into to carry out various computational analyses including statistical and text analysisa Hypothesis Space that will enable the analysts to assemble their evidence into coherent arguments that lead to meaningful and valid conclusionsThe user interface will be rooted in the concepts of Visual Analytics – the emerging “… science of analytical reasoning facilitated by visual interactive interfaces"""" (Thomas and Cook, 2004), and specially designed to support the interactive dynamics (Heer and Shneiderman, 2012) required to enable real-time analytic interaction with data. The design of the user interface will move away from the traditional windows and list of lists views for presenting data, and instead to create information objects that may be directly manipulated and freely organised visuo-spatially by the analysts so that location and spatial groupings have meaning and can be manipulated directly by selection and dragging; or we can initiate Boolean operations on the content of the two or more clusters by dragging one cluster onto another. In addition, the presentation of multiple views of the information objects, in the form of network graphs, timelines, geo-spatial etc. can lead to further insight, especially when interactivity is enabled. This tight coupling between visualisation and computation is crucial for developing and maintaining cognitive momentum, the train of thought that enables creativity and sense-making." "A multifactorial analysis of Chinese analytic passive constructions" "Benedikt Szmrecsanyi" "Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Leuven" "Applying the framework of Probabilistic Grammar and variationist sociolinguistics, this project will probe the alternation between competing Chinese passive constructions marked by bei/rang/jiao/gei/zao. Taking into consideration both language-internal and language-external constraints, I will rely on corpus data, psycholinguistic experimentation and multifactorial analysis techniques to explore how probabilistic grammars constrain variant choice, and the extent to which the conditioning of variation differs across varieties of Mandarin Chinese." "Optical networks: performance analysis, optimization and control by means of analytic modeling (FWO-postdoc Wouter Rogiest)" "Department of Telecommunications and information processing" "We study algorithms for flexible switching in optical packet-switched networks. By means of queueing models and analytic optimization techniques we evaluate the performance of existing algorithms. This characterization allows to propose modified algorithms, interacting flexibly with the instantaneous variations of traffic over the network." "Analytic modelling and analysis of kitting processing" "Dieter Fiems" "Department of Telecommunications and information processing" "A kitting operation in a production environment involves the preparation of materials kits, prior to assembly. This project develops and analyses queueing models for the performance analysis of such kitting processes. In particular, numerical analysis techniques are investigated as well as approximation techniques for the queueing models at hand." "Analytical and computational approaches for analysis and control of complex dynamical systems" "Wim Michiels" "Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics (NUMA)" "The mathematical modeling of complex dynamical systems naturally leads to a decomposition into simpler subsystems. Furthermore, signal transmission between subsystems is mostly not instantaneous and has to be modeled by delay elements. This will give rise to Delay-Differential Algebraic Equation (DDAE) models. The first part of the project concerns the investigation of the theoretical properties of DDAE models, developing mathematical analysis methods, and performing uncertainty quantification. It will be assumed that modeled physical systems can be actuated and that online measurements are available allowing to optimize the performance and robustness. The second part of the project focuses on developing methodologies for the analysis and control of periodic solutions. The time periodicity may stem from the linearization of a nonlinear autonomous system around a periodic orbit or from the application of novel periodic control strategies. Key in the methodology is the integration of analytical methods from control theory and computational methods for dynamical systems." "Development and optimization of X-ray based analytical techniques towards the analysis of rare extraterrestrial materials." "Laszlo Vincze" "Department of Chemistry" "Micro-XRF spectroscopy, using synchrotron or conventional X-ray source based excitation, is a well-established non-destructive, microanalytical method, providing information on the elemental distributions in the probed sample. When three dimensional spatially resolved information is of interest, often a confocal micro-XRF detection scheme is applied as an alternative to XRF tomography. However, both methods pose significant challenges when attempting to quantify this data. This proposal aims the further development of quantitative 3D confocal XRF and XAS techniques for the detailed non-destructive and contamination free study of rare-earth element and heavy metal compositional information of unique extraterrestrial materials, acquired from a.o. the JAXA Hayabusa2 space mission. The project will focus on a) implementing advanced confocal detection schemes in Monte Carlo based XRF quantification routines, as well as b) further developing 3D X-ray based structural analysis methods for the detection of low-Z (Ca, Mg, Al) and rare earth elements within millimeter sized geological samples. The experimental studies will be performed as a member of the Hayabusa2 analysis team, in close collaboration with the NanoGeoscience group lead by Prof. F.E. Brenker (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany)." "Analytical flow cytometer for high-throughput microbial phenotypic analysis at single cell level" "Dirk Springael" "Soil and Water Management, Forest, Nature and Landscape, Animal and Human Health Engineering (A2H)" "High throughput flow cytometry performed by an analytical flow cytometer (FC) equipped with an autosampling device, is an important tool in the analysis of microbial populations and communities at the single cell level. The type of measurements and usage frequency require such an apparatus to be located within the building of use. At the Landbouwinstituut of KU Leuven, such an FC apparatus in currently available in two research groups and plays a crucial role in the research of several microbiology research groups. However, its availability is coming under serious pressure, as in one research group the current equipment is old, not perfectly suited for the new intended applications and shows regular mall-functioning and in the other lab, the use of the apparatus is already over-demanded and the machine will in a few years move to another building. This project aims to purchase a novel FC that accommodates all requirements of the existing and intended novel FCM applications at the Landbouwinstituut and to ensure the long-term availability in the building of an FC crucial for high-throughput microbial analysis." "Development and optimization of X-ray based analytical techniques towards the analysis of rare extraterrestrial materials." "Laszlo Vincze" "Department of Chemistry" "Micro-XRF spectroscopy, using synchrotron or conventional X-ray source based excitation, is a well-established non-destructive, microanalytical method, providing information on the elemental distributions in the probed sample. When three dimensional spatially resolved information is of interest, often a confocal micro-XRF detection scheme is applied as an alternative to XRF tomography. However, both methods pose significant challenges when attempting to quantify this data. This proposal aims the further development of quantitative 3D confocal XRF and XAS techniques for the detailed non-destructive and contamination free study of rare-earth element and heavy metal compositional information of unique extraterrestrial materials, acquired from a.o. the prestigious JAXA Hayabusa2 space mission. The project will focus on a) the development of a lab based XAS/XES instrument, as well as b) further developing 3D structural analysis by means of state-of-the-art full-field XAS and inelastic X-ray scattering methodologies. The experimental studies will be performed as a member of the Hayabusa2 analysis team, in close collaboration with the NanoGeoscience group lead by Prof. F.E. Brenker (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany). Currently approved research projects include: at the P06 Hard X-ray Micro/Nanoprobe at the PETRA III (Hamburg, Germany) and DUBBLE beamline (BM26 and BM14) at the ESRF (Grenoble, France) synchrotron radiation facilities."