Group of Dirk Valkenborg

Dirk Valkenborg is a professor in Statistical Bioinformatics at the Data Science Institute (DSI) at Hasselt University. He received his M.Sc. degree in Electrotechnical engineering under supervision of Bart De Moor at the Catholic University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) in 2004. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mathematics and Statistical Bioinformatics under supervision of Tomasz Burzykowski from the University of Hasselt (Hasselt, Belgium) in 2008 and obtained a M.Sc. degree in Biostatistics in 2009 from the same supervisor and institution. His current focus lies on the development of computational methodologies for the low-level interpretation of high-dimensional data, such as, mass spectrometry, NMR, imaging technology, and genomic sequencing. Furthermore, traditional machine learning and deep learning techniques are being developed for advanced signal processing and more explainable data-driven models. 

My work will focus on two of the work packages created by FAIR’s grand challenge: the responsible AI work package and the AI-driven data engineering work package. The Ph.D. project itself is divided into seven specific work packages, five of which focus on FAIR’s responsible AI work package, which mainly revolves around generating deeper insights into CNNs. The final two work packages will shift the focus to use-cases of AI within sports analytics, more specifically American football, and therefore fall under FAIR’s AI-driven data engineering work package. Here, machine learning and deep learning models will be developed to find deeper insights into the performances of players and teams, which will as a result allow for teams to better strategize and ideally contribute to a team’s success.