dr. Wouter Durnez
Senior researcher at the research group for Media, Innovation and Communication Technologies, Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University.
Wouter.Durnez@UGent.be | +32 9 264 97 69 | Website | ResearchGate
Technology
Gaming
Artificial intelligence
Virtual and augmented reality
Online morality
(Wouter hates writing about himself in third person, so here he goes, breaking the fourth wall with reckless abandon.)
I got my master’s degree in theoretical and experimental psychology in 2011. Then, I obtained my PhD under the tutelage of Stefaan Van Damme (2015), by investigating how maladaptive attentional processes related to pain and somatosensory perception can be understood within a motivational context.
After four years of fundamental research, I surfaced from the depths of academia to try and redirect my career towards my primary interest: technology. This resulted in a brief but highly educational stint as project manager at PreviewLabs (2016), a company geared towards rapid (game) prototyping. In 2017, I found my way back to the academic world in the role of researcher at imec-mict-UGent—a user research group operating in the intersection of academia and industry.
Currently, my primary projects are the ILLUMINATE and iPlay ICON projects. I am also working on mobileDNA, a project that makes use of a logging app to gain insight into smartphone behavior.
Last but not least, I’ve always had a definite interest in artificial intelligence (and honest-to-god, I’m not making this up because AI is being hyped). I am trying to make up for lost time by concurrently pursuing an additional master in that very domain.