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Mission statement

The research unit KERMIT (Knowledge-based Systems) adopts a holistic view on mathematical and computational modelling, acknowledging the needs of our modern information society with a particular focus on the applied biological sciences. It strives to keep a unique balance between theoretical developments and practical applications, a strategy that has proven particularly successful, regarding the output, visibility and recognition of the team. It plays a pioneering role by promoting existing as well as developing new methods in a broad range of disciplines shown below.


Methodological expertise

KERMIT started out in 2000 with two men and a dog as a team in fuzzy set theory and preference modelling, and quickly expanded into the fields of artificial/computational intelligence and operations research. Over the years, it has evolved into a holistic team covering the entire data-to-decision pipeline. It provides methodological expertise in the following areas:

  • image processing and computer vision (e.g. mathematical morphology, filters)
  • knowledge-based systems (e.g. bioportals, ontologies)
  • dynamical modelling (e.g. differential equations, cellular automata, individual-based models)
  • data science and machine learning (e.g. time series prediction, structured prediction, deep learning, big data)
  • management of imprecision and uncertainty (e.g. probability, possibility and fuzzy set theory; stochastic modelling, theory of copulas)
  • optimization and operations research (e.g. preference modelling, multi-criteria decision making)

News

Doctoral degree for Giles Hanley-Cook

On February 17, 2023, Giles Hanley-Cook successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis "Dietary (bio)diversity: quantification, validation, and public health recommendations" and was awarded the title of Doctor of Bioscience Engineering: Food Science and Nutrition. Giles was supervised by Carl Lachat, Andrew Jones and Bernard De Baets.

PhD Giles Hanley-Cook PhD Giles Hanley-Cook

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Publications

Most recent journal publications
Biblio logo(707) No bacterial-mediated alleviation of thermal stress in a brown seaweed suggests the absence of ecological bacterial rescue effects
S. Delva, B. De Baets, J.M. Baetens, O. De Clerck and W. Stock
(2023) SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT . 876, 162532.
Biblio logo(706) A decomposition theorem for number-conserving multi-state cellular automata on triangular grids
B. Wolnik, A. Nenca and B. De Baets
(2023) THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE. 953, 113795.
Biblio logo(705) A nearest neighbor open-set classifier based on excesses of distance ratios
M.L. Steyn, T. de Wet, B. De Baets and S. Luca
(2023) JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL AND GRAPHICAL STATISTICS. 32, 319-328.
All KERMIT publications