Francis wyffels (°1983) is a associate professor at IDLab-AIRO of Ghent University – imec with expertise in the domain of machine learning and robotics. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science Engineering in 2013 at Ghent University in the domain of robotics and AI. Currently, Francis wyffels leads the AI & Robotics Lab (AIRO). Research-wise he has a focus on three main research areas: (1) intelligent robotics, (2) bio-inspired computing and robotics, and (3) didactic research in computer science and STEM. In the robotics research tracks (1) & (2), the link between (robot) morphology, control and perception are central. The goal of this interdisciplinary research is the manipulation of difficult objects within challenging human-driven context to ultimately create a robot helper.
In collaboration with international researchers and institutions, Francis wyffels' team actively works to bridge theoretical research with practical applications. By linking AIRO’s research expertise with companies, they foster valorization projects that bring innovative robotic and AI solutions to industry, addressing real-world challenges through tailored partnerships.
Francis wyffels strongly engages in dissemination activities for which he has been awarded the UGent Hermes award for public/scientific engagement and knowledge transfer and the Google RISE award. By means of international projects with children and schools, he wants to ensure a more realistic perspective on what robotics and AI can achieve, and hopefully, reduce the almost innate fear for them. An example of this is WeGoSTEM, a project started in 2017, reaching out to more than 30,000 children. Through this and similar projects, Francis wyffels was able to establish STEM communities with researchers, teachers and volunteers in Belgium, Greece, The Netherlands, Malaysia, India, Argentina etc. All these efforts ensure that the didactic research line can be validated on a large scale and in an international setting while guaranteeing impact in schools by ready-to-use open-source teaching materials made available at dwengo.org. Apart from the aforementioned research-related educational projects in schools, Francis wyffels has experience with citizen science projects. Through such projects, people become more aware of (the possibilities of) technology and creation. An example of this is the citizen science project "Help Bubbles do the laundry" in De Krook (the public library of Ghent), where visitors taught a robot to fold the laundry.
Francis wyffels is an editor at IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and has been a reviewer for journal and conference publications such as the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
Contact
Affiliate to the AI & Robotics Lab
Chair of Dwengo vzw
