Research Summary

During my PhD I was a member of the Web and Information System Engineering (WISE) lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The activities of WISE concentrate on innovative information systems such as next generation web applications, context-aware applications and cross-media information spaces. The WISE lab further investigates human-computer interaction aspects for those systems, such as interactive paper and cross-media solutions, data physicalisation as well as multimodal and multi-touch interaction.

The focus of my own research is on presentation tools. Presentation tools such as PowerPoint originated as simulators for physical photographic slides, but they also inherited all limitations. For instance, content is still relatively static, spatially bounded and presented in linear sequences, even though computers are capable of so much more. We addressed some issues related to dynamic content, interactivity, portability, presentation hardware, content reuse and content sharing. This has resulted in a new presentation tool called MindXpres, with many new features not found in existing commercial solutions. Please refer to http://mindxpres.com for more information.

Additionally, I have worked on an extensible framework for information exchange between devices that would otherwise be incompatible. Our lives are filled with smart devices such as digital cameras, smartwatches, fitness trackers and tablets, but when we want to move for instance a picture from a camera to a smartwatch we have to deal with incompatibilities, vendor-specific software and a tedious lengthy process of interactions. INFEX is a generic extensible framework that performs automatic protocol mediation and translation. This allows devices with different software and hardware specifications to exchange data, even if this was previously impossible. INFEX allows users to bypass proprietary software and abstracts technical difficulties away from end users. Please refer to the main INFEX paper for more information.

Interests

  • Presentation Tools
  • Education
  • Knowledge Transfer
  • Information Systems
  • Data Exchange

Press

Additional Acitivities

Departmental/Faculty Roles

  • 2013 - 2018 Member of the University Council ("opleidingsraad") for the Master’s of Applied Informatics
  • 2013 - 2016 Member of the University Council ("opleidingsraad") for the Master’s of Computer Science

Program Committees

  • Hypertext 2019: Program committee member and reviewer for the 30th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media
  • Hypertext 2020: Program committee member and reviewer for the 31st ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media
  • Hypertext 2021: Program committee member and reviewer for the 32nd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media

Research Projects

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    MindXpres

    An extensible content-driven cross-media presentation tool with many new features not found in existing commercial solutions. Please refer to the publications page or mindxpres.com for more information.

    Please refer to the publications page or mindxpres.com for more information.

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    INFEX

    A Unifying framework for cross-device information exploration and exchange. INFEX allows currently incompatible types of devices to be mixed and matched in applications for cross-device information exchange. Please refer to the main INFEX paper for more information.

    Please refer to the main INFEX paper for more information.

Supervised Bachelor and Master Theses

  • 2018 2017

    Master Thesis

    An Extensible Presentation Framework for Real-time Data Acquisition, Interaction and Augmented Reality Visualisations

  • 2017 2016

    Master Thesis

    A User-friendly and Device-independent Interface for Cross-Device Information Exchange

  • 2017 2016

    Master Thesis

    An Extensible Virtual Assistant for the PowerPoint Presentation Tool

  • 2017 2016

    Bachelor Thesis

    Context-aware Media Adaptation for Information Display

  • 2016 2015

    Master Thesis

    An Extensible Platform for Real-Time Feedback in Presentation Training

  • 2016 2015

    Master Thesis

    Ambient Information Processing and Visualisation

  • 2016 2015

    Master Thesis

    Investigating Graph-based Storage Backends for Link Services

  • 2016 2015

    Master Thesis

    Distributed Multi-Touch User Interfaces for Modular Musical Expression

  • 2014 2015

    Master Thesis

    Pen, Paper and Presentations

  • 2015 2014

    Master Thesis

    Multimodal Interaction for the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2015 2014

    Master Thesis

    Content Migration and Layout for the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2015 2014

    Master Thesis

    ADFIS - An Application Development Framework for Interactive Surfaces

  • 2015 2014

    Master Thesis

    Intuitive Information Visualisation for the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2014 2013

    Master Thesis

    Automatic Data Visualisation for the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2014 2013

    Master Thesis

    Intelligent Source Code Visualisation for the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2013 2012

    Master Thesis

    Audience-driven Presentations based on the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2013 2012

    Master Thesis

    A WYSIWYG Template Authoring Solution for the MindXpres Presentation Tool

  • 2013 2012

    Bachelor Thesis

    Dynamic Graph Visualisation for the MindXpres Presentation Tool