Research projects

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.           

Many universities, laboratories, and businesses lack the knowledge, expertise, or resources to hire a full-time bioinformatician. The Bioinformatics Knowledge Center (BiKC) addresses this need through practical research and services.                                               

Howest is establishing an Integrated Security Operations Center (ISOC). An ISOC is an extension of the more familiar SOC (Security Operations Center, the physical location of an information security team).                                                                           

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?