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Ghent University

The research team Distributed Machine Learning is part of IDLab, a research group affiliated with Ghent University and imec, focuses on building AI-based solutions in collaborative human-human, human-robot or robot-robot settings. Our group focuses on specific topics in collaborative AI, human-robot interaction, multi-robot teams and swarms, interpretable and energy-efficient deep learning. Our research methods are grounded in the latest advances in machine learning and interdisciplinary computational modelling.

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Pieter Simoens is associate professor at Ghent University and is also affiliated with imec. He obtained his PhD degree in Computer Science from Ghent University in 2011. His current research interests revolve around edge computing, human-AI interaction and collective intelligence. In ChronoPilot, he will be working on computational modelling and implementation of algorithms for automated triggering of stimuli.

Yara Khaluf currently works as an Assistant Professor at the Information Technology group (INF), Wageningen University & Research (WUR). My scientific career started in 2010 in the relatively new field of swarm intelligence and robotics. I was the first to combine swarm robotics with real-time scheduling through designing autonomous task allocation algorithms, to assign robot swarms to tasks with time constraints. During my PhD studies, I have collaborated with world experts in the field of swarm intelligence, including Prof. Marco Dorigo, Prof. Thomas Stuetzle and Prof. Mauro Birattari. I spent several research visits at the IRIDIA lab, the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After obtaining my PhD degree with the highest praise of manga cum laude, I was offered a Postdoc position in the research group of Prof. Marco Dorigo at the University of Paderborn. While holding this position, I have pursued research in task allocation in robot swarms and mathematical modeling of large self-organized systems. Besides, I have obtained a 2-year fellowship from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft-DFG) to spend it for a postdoc position at IRIDIA, under the supervision of Prof. Marco Dorigo. Nevertheless, my next destination was the research group of IDLab at Ghent University. During this period, I have broadened my research focus to collective decision-making. I have enlarged my collaboration network to include prominent scientists in collective decision-making such as Prof. Heiko Hamann and Prof. James Marshall. Recently, I started focusing my research on new avenues that combine cognitive psychological processes and decision-making in AI systems. This gave me the opportunity to collaborate with a group of active experimental and cognitive psychologists.

Amrapali Pednekar is currently pursuing her PhD at IDLAB (University of Ghent) on the topic of modulating time perception using AI. She has a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and a bachelor's degree in Information Technology. She also has 3+ years of industry experience as a data scientist. In her professional career, she mainly worked on natural language processing and information retrieval where she built end-to-end machine learning solutions for business problems.

Alvaro Garrido is a doctoral candidate in the Distributed Machine Learning group at Ghent University. He completed his bachelor's and integrated master's degree in Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh. While pursuing his degree, he developed a keen interest in the phenomenon of Consciousness, which motivated him to explore Computational Neuroscience and AI during his final year of university. Studying both fields simultaneously convinced him of the potential of using AI to shape how humans perceive the world. In his current research, Alvaro is focused on developing AI techniques to modulate time perception.