Speakers


Welcome & opening remarks

Setareh Tasdighian

Founder and President, Women in Data Science Belgium

Christine Durinx

Managing Director,
VIB

Keynotes
Image of Jenny Ambukiyenyi Onya

Jenny Ambukiyenyi Onya

Managing Partner and Head of AI Products & Operations,
Neotex.ai and Fit-For-Purpose Technologies

Malvina Nissim, Ph.D.

Professor of Computational Linguistics and Society, University of Groningen

Lotte van den Berg

Manager Trustworthy AI,
Deloitte Belgium

Short Talks
Profile image of Lissa Melis

Lissa Melis, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor Operations Research,
Maastricht University

Image of Phuong Le

Phuong Le, Ph.D.

Lecturer and Researcher,
The School of Industrial Biology

Image of Lyse Naomi Wamba

Lyse Naomi Wamba

PhD Researcher,
KU Leuven

Poster session

We have a limited number of poster spots available and invite academic participants to send us a 250 word abstract if they are interested in presenting their work.

Mentorship sessions

We offer engaging mentorship sessions by top voices in the data science field:

  • Breaking Barriers: Empowering Women in Data Science by Jessica Bulthé
  • Catalyzing Innovation: Navigating Academia’s Knowledge Transfer and Spin-off Opportunities by Julia Gauglitz
  • Learning to Learn: How to Keep Growing Your Skills Sustainably by Vanessa Rivera Quinones

Program

8:30-9:30Welcome and registration
9:30-9:45Introduction to WiDS by Setareh Tasdighian
9:45-10:00Opening talk by Christine Durinx
10:00-10:45Keynote: “Revolutionizing Agri-Fintech with Halisi: Harnessing the Power of Human and Animal Facial Recognition” by Jenny Ambukiyenyi Onya
10:45-11:15Coffee break
_____________Short talks (15 min + 5 min Q&A)
11:15-11:35Disagreement among counterfactual explanations:
How transparency can be misleading by Lissa Melis
11:35-11:55Application of Machine Learning in higher education by Phuong Le
11:55-12:15Translating AI to the clinic by focusing on Explainability and Data privacy by Lyse Naomi Wamba
12:15-13:45Lunch break & mentorship sessions
13:45-14:30Keynote: “Women and Language Technology” by Malvina Nissim
14:30-15:30Session of lightning talks
15:30-16:15Coffee break and Poster session
16:15-17:00Keynote: “Responsible AI in practice” by Lotte van den Berg
17:00-17:15Closing word
17:15-18:30Networking reception
lightning talks

  • The use of (Generative) AI in journalism: AI-Driven headline generation at Mediahuis by Lisa Schetgen
  •  EXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) by Saja tawalbeh
  • Developing user-focused BI dashboards for business adoption by Sophie De Waele
  • Variational AutoEncoder for synthetic insurance data by Charlotte Jamotton
  • Using Pseudonymised data in ML projects by Leila Rebbouh
  • Deep learning-powered deciphering of gene regulatory dynamics by Darina Abbaffyova
  • To QA or not to QA, the Test Engineer’s Crisis by Helena Parruitte
  • Building a Career Path for Women in AI and Data by Vanessa Rivera Quinones