I’m an Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher committed to making machines perceive the world more intelligently. My passion for this endeavor stems from a solid background in cognitive science and a long-lasting, deep curiosity about human (visual) intelligence. I strongly believe in the power of interdisciplinary science. By merging insights from cognitive science with cutting-edge machine learning techniques, I’m convinced we can build AI models that are safer, more trustworthy, and more robust.

In April 2024, I joined imec (Belgium). One of my main projects here is to build a GenAI-based simulation framework to enable early validation of next-gen sensor hardware and push the boundaries of vehicle perception. Read more here.

I obtained my PhD degree from KU Leuven, advised by prof. Johan Wagemans. I also received research training as a visiting PhD student at CSAIL, MIT, advised by prof. Phillip Isola and prof. Aude Oliva, and as a postdoc at Brown University, advised by prof. Thomas Serre.

My PhD work was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and contributed to quantifying, predicting, explaining, and ultimately modifying how memorable an image is to an observer. I “steered” a generative deep neural network to produce more memorable versions of an image, using guidance from a network trained on human memory data.