Projects
Neural coding of natural speech in the brain stem of cochlear implant users KU Leuven
Hearing loss is a common health issue that, if left untreated, may have far-reaching consequences on education, social functioning and mental well-being. In order to select the appropriate rehabilitation strategy (hearing aids, middle ear surgery, etc.), the hearing loss needs to be carefully evaluated. Various hearing evaluation techniques are available for use in clinic. Most of them are behavioural tests that depend on feedback from the ...
Decoding speech from the brain using deep neural networks KU Leuven
A growing number of hearing-impaired people benefit from a hearing
aid. Due to the current labour-intensive behavioural diagnostics of
the auditory system, hearing aids are not sufficiently adapted to
individual users, as only a limited number of tests can be conducted
per patient.
To address this, we will develop a new measure of brain activity that
will allow automatic and fine-grained ...
A novel paradigm for Precision Medicine: sparse non-linear Neural Networks for end-to-end Genome Interpretation KU Leuven
In the last decade, the surge of high-throughput sequencing and big data technologies seemed almost unstoppable, to the point that even finally uncovering all aspects of our genome and enabling precision medicine seemed at reach. Ten years later, notwithstanding many advances in genetics, our genome is still hiding most of its secrets. When it comes to disorders with complex aetiology, the bottleneck has indeed only shifted from a data ...
Closing the neural tube: gene-gene interactions of TET1 and the interplay with nutrient metabolism KU Leuven
The etiology of congenital malformations, particularly neural tube defects (NTDs), is complex, and involves a combination of genetic and environmental factors affecting each other. Understanding the relationship between intrinsic genetic factors and extrinsic environmental factors has been challenging. Here in this thesis, I describe my efforts to improve our understanding of the epigenome-gene-environment interaction model. Of particular ...
Assessing and targeting eye avoidance in autism spectrum disorders: The development of a novel neural marker and the evaluation of promising biomedical intervention techniques. KU Leuven
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are an early-onset group of neurodevelopmental disorders that are characterized by impairments in social communication and interaction, including difficulties using eye contact and processing the body language and mental states of others. Among different social cues, eye contact forms a highly salient and powerful signal for mediating human social interaction. Related to the difficulties that individuals with ...
PREDISTINE - A Privacy-Preserving and Resilient Framework for Distributed Modular Neural Networks on the Tiny Edge KU Leuven
Due to the large amount and diversity of data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen a breakthrough in IoT applications in recent years. Traditionally this implies that data must be sent to the cloud, which increases communication costs, causes delays in system response, and makes data vulnerable to privacy breaches. A solution is to migrate AI models to constraint devices. However, these are ...