Research projects

It is well-known that the use of XR leads to better student outcomes and that the technology can better support the learning process. Thanks to XR, students can safely practice situations that would otherwise be difficult or impossible due to financial or safety reasons.         

Many schools have the ambition to implement Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), or overarching eXtended Reality (XR) in their offerings. Especially for students for whom skill training is a core task, XR applications can add value.                                       

XR Factor aims to survey Flemish secondary schools with dual finality and/or labor market finality that have diverse XR expertise. To obtain a comprehensive overview, we also engage in conversations with external stakeholders involved in XR implementations in schools.            

Companies realize that further digitization is necessary to continue innovating, growing, and making their processes more efficient. However, businesses are increasingly questioning how they can be supported in the energy transition without incurring significant costs.           

For cities, keeping the energy bill affordable is a challenge. Howest is assisting Kortrijk city in this regard. Through pilot projects in Kortrijk Weide and Transfo Zwevegem, the Smart Technology Energy lab is developing a data architecture for smart control of energy systems. 

This research explores two interconnected paths related to Artificial Intelligence (AI): interpreting results to provide better/individual guidance for students and investigating which AI applications could be beneficial for education.                                             

Can AI models engage in realistic conversations with people and perform complex tasks (behaving as a specific persona, such as a client in a psychologist's session)? And how can we combine generative AI tools to create a credible embodied conversational agent?