I am a PhD student at IDLab, affiliated with both Ghent University and imec. My original research subject lay at the intersection of the Semantic Web technologies and Linked Open Data publishing, but with a focus on researching how applications can find and use this data - beyond the traditional SPARQL usecase. I have worked on a flexible and multi-modal route planner, as well as an autocompletion client that can query several heterogeneous data sources at the same time. Our route planner is able to find subjectively pleasant routes by asking the user what they want to see while walking; see it in action here. And, because all computations are done on the client, there are no data-hoarding behemoths that are learning your opinions on shopping streets.
Other than that, I have developed an appreciation for the intricacies of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), especially for Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) projects such as OpenStreetmap and, closer to home, Telraam. Of course, it is not enough to simply publish Open Data: people must be able to find this data. Whenever time permits it, I like to work on making data discoverable, and try to follow the developments within the FAIR community. Alternatively, I would like to help pave the way towards more mature WebAssembly tooling for working with RDF data — my applications have a need for speed.
Last, but not least, I would love to explore Semantic Web applications that focus on pen-and-paper games, such
as as Dungeons & Dragons.
Why spend years modelling and gathering data from the real world, when there are perfectly suitably imaginary
worlds out there?
By avoiding pedantic discussions (what is an address really?),
we could skip straight to the good stuff such as semantic interoperability.
Curious to hear what I have in mind?
Feel free to reach out, I will always find time to discuss this.