Research

Who are we? 

We are an interdisciplinary research group of imec and UGent, who consists of a highly motivated team of researchers combining human and technological expertise, with a background in communication, psychology, sociology, engineering and design.

We build bridges between technology, people and society by studying their intertwined relationships to tackle the current evolution towards a sustainable digital society. We do this by looking at shifting interfaces (from analogue to digital) and studying their interactions, impact and insights.

Building bridges between technology, people and society

1) Interactions

We design state-of-the art methods, using our research labs and prototypes for real-life testing, focusing on observation, co-creation and interaction design, to optimize your human-technology interactions.

2) Impact

We use theoretical frameworks from social sciences for evidence-based results, focusing on motivational, behavioral change and experience research, to maximize your effectiveness and adoption.

3) Insights

We evaluate and expose tension fields between data, privacy and ethics at governmental and industrial level, to advice your policy and decision makers.

What do we do?

We provide scientific insights on how people interact with technology today. And co-create future technologies for the people of tommorow.
Therefore we study people on three levels:

What people say

By asking opinions via online/offline surveys and interviews.

What people do

By observing behavior via mobile data logging and in the field monitoring.

What people feel

By measuring physiological data via a wide range of sensors (EEG, EMG, GSR, HR, Eye-tracking).

Research Themes

Research Projects

Below you can find our current research projects.

  • SolidLab Flanders- Investigating and facilitating the use of personal data pods
  • AI-CS BAROMETER - Monitoring the state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyber Security (CS) within Flemish companies
  • BESOCIAL - towards a sustainable social media archiving strategy for Belgium
  • Cyber Dating Abuse – Towards a clear conceptualisation and examination of a heart-breaking online phenomenon
  • Digimeter - Measuring media/technology usage and expectations in Flanders
  • DISCONNECT –Digital Wellbeing in a Culture of Ubiquitous Connectivity: Towards a Dynamic Pathway Model
  • DITUR - Digital Twins for Upscaled Retrofits
  • IN2FOOD – Resolving A Societal Challenge: Interdisciplinary Approach Towards Fostering Collaborative Innovation in Food Waste Management
  • Knowledge Center for Data & Society - Societal acceptance of AI
  • Living in a digital age: Investigating the determinants and consequences of lacking ICT access and skills
  • Mobile DNA - Application that shows your smartphone usage
  • NewsDNA - Diversity in the News thourgh Algorithmization
  • NUDGE -  NUDging consumers towards enerGy Efficiency through behavioral science
  • OSLO - Open Standards for Linking Organizations
  • SCAFFOLD - ePortfolios to scaffold workplace learning in health education
  • Social factors and risk behavior - Untangling the relationships between the online and offline world
  • The Future of Video Consumption - How does video consumption change among young media consumers
  • VRT Chair- Media in a Society in Transition
  • Multistakeholder evaluation telenet essential internet - Connecting vulnerable people to the internet and measuring their ICT skills
  • ExperienceDNA - User Experience Measurement in Virtual Smart Spaces
  • CoGhent-  CoGhent explores next-generation interfaces for cultural participation and neighborhood social cohesion 
  • Calibrain VR - How can we build individual profiles that help interpret a person's psychophysiological output with minimal to no extra calibration/baselining
  • DBNchallenge - The position of the Flemish data utility company in the market
  • Comon - Comon explores new technological solutions to wicked urban problems. It is a collective effort of Ghent University, the City of Ghent and imec to explore co-creative, experiment-driven collaborations between a wide variety of urban actors
  • Expertgaze - The use of modern-day technology to optimize training and on-the-job support
  • Smart Collaboration Assistant - Emergency training in extended reality via collaborative learning 
  • Urbanage - Urbanage explores and experiments with new Digital Twin technology to enhance urban planning processes that improve older citizens’ quality of life
  • Radar-based hand-gesture recognition - Mid-air hand-gesture recognition using a 140Ghz radar sensor 
  • ExperienceDNA: Framework and applicationsCreation of a digital framework and measurement protocol to simulate and capture user interactions 
  • Valence VR-enabled manufacturing for ergonomics
  • Gemeente Zonder Gemeentehuis - Towards digital solutions for citizen participation

Below you can find a few of our recent finished projects.

    • EBSI - European Blockchain Service Infrastructure
    • Hello Jenny - City of People / Slim in de stad
    • Illuminate - Interactive streaming and representation for totally immersive applications
    • IoT Chef -IoT technology to create a connected cooking system
    • LBLOD - Local decisions as linked open data
    • MM+M - Fossil free neighborhoods Muide-Meulestede + Mariakerke
    • Operator Knowledge - Automated creation of digital assembly instructions by operator driven knowledge capturing
    • TBM Ivision - Game-based therapy for children with cerebral visual impairment
    • Icosy2.0 - fieldtest
    • Stressy - Stress in the City
    • Daiquiri - Data & Artificial intelligence for Quantified Reporting in sports
    • POPHARS – Drugs at the festivals: Perceptions of prevention-, harm reduction-, care-, and law enforcement strategies
    • ROLECS - Roll out of local energy communities
    • SenseCity - Respond faster and more accurate to calamities
    • VLOCA - Flemish Open City Architecture
  • LOREM 4.0 - Cognitive load in the workplace
  • Coca Cola smartlabel 
  • TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service
  • HIER-OS - Exploring the possibilities of conversational interfaces to fight social isolation among senior citizens

Publications