Leuven, Flemish Region, Belgium
I’m passionate about technology @ the intersection of hardware and software, with a career rooted in software-hardware co-optimization, embedded systems, microkernels, telecommunication technology, data platforms and infrastructure. My expertise spans the design and development of high-performance, secure software modules within software factories for telecommunication devices, built on heterogeneous and customized compute architectures. I thrive on innovation, merging market trends with internal technical capabilities to drive impactful solutions. Throughout my career, I’ve taken on diverse roles, tackling increasingly complex challenges and contributing to the evolution of next-gen software platforms. With a proven track record of leading R&D teams in fast-paced, highly competitive industries, I’ve focused on balancing sustainable growth with technological advancement. Since 2018, I have the privilege of working at Imec, where I’ve deepened my focus on the scientific and research dimensions of IoT, data, and AI—while maintaining strong ties to hardware and exploring the dynamic field of semiconductor technologies. We apply our research amongs others in the domains of sustainable mobility, logistics, environment, health, food & agriculture, semiconductor; using digital twin and data space design patterns to create innovative prototypes.
Responsible within the Applied AI sub department for the horizontal application of data technology and infrastructure across projects and domains, in close cooperation with research groups working on semantic web technology, knowledge graphs, AI technologies such as Graph Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning, technologies for security/trust/sovereginty, innovation research, ... Active in the EU research landscape on the new data & AI economy, data spaces, digital twins, ... Leading a team of business/technical architects to bridge societal/business/technical challenges and solutions within our vertical domains. Active interest in bridging data / AI / nanotech domains (e.g. edge compute challenges). Applying digital twins and trusted data sharing principles into the semiconductor (fabrication) domain. Exploring application of LLMs, GNNs, Reinforcement Learning,... within the semiconductor fabrication and beyond.
Technical Director / Lead architect within the EDiT department. This department specializes in digital transformations from need to innovation prototype. The department is mainly active in vertical domains mobility, logistics, sustainable environment and healthcare. The main technical horizontal domains are smart data platforms, data meshes / spaces and digital twins.
Technology architecture within the City Of Things program (https://www.imec.be/nl/vlaamse-innovatiemotor/samenwerking/vlaamse-onderzoeksprogrammas/city-of-things). Mainly working on sensor technology & platforms , wireless communication, IoT platforms, data platforms, (AI and non-AI) algorithms and local digital twins.
(OneAccess was merged into Ekinops) Responsible for the OnOS6 software factory.
Director of the OneOS6 program and its software factory. The mission of this program is to deliver and maintain the Core Networking Software to all other R&D programs that will use it to create data or voice based virtual or physical products. Setup of a DevOps pipeline with CI/CT. Managing strategy, software factory roadmaps, stakeholder (suppliers, product mgt, external clients) management, operational processes, budget.
Transformation of the taskforce into an R&D program that aims to use the new OneOS6 software platform (https://www.ekinops.com/products-services/products/compose/oneos6) on all new products (from entry-level to high-density vCPE). The data plane is OS independent and can be run on Linux-only machines or on hybrid environments. keywords are DPDK, MCAPI, API modules, ...
Manager of a taskforce of 30 engineers (France, Belgium, India) to realize the detailed architecture and implementation of the next-gen OneOS6 software platform as a MCEE (Multi-Core Executive Environment) combining Linux OS and a high performance bare metal near real-time kernel.
Responsible for the ICC Belgium "Operating System and Drivers" team that focusses on delivering a high performance execution environment and specializing in Layer 2 protocols like e.g. ATM (asynchronous Transfer Mode). Working with dedicated single-core CPU's with hardware acceleration coprocessors and FPGAs. Responsible for the automation of the test bench in our (local) 2 production lines of our devices, focusing on early problem detection and quality validation.
Different types of engineering (software/hardware) assignments in system, data and management planes of professional routers and switches. Specialized in software-hardware interaction (System-On-A-Chip / microkernels / communication drivers) with a focus on our USP : best-class performance/processor ratio in the market of professional multi-protocol, multi-interface routers. Coding mainly in C and PowerPC assembler for that special code that makes the difference (microkernel and drivers)