Speakers


Welcome & opening remarks

Setareh Tasdighian

Founder and President, Women in Data Science Belgium

Keynotes

Julia Gauglitz

Valorisation Manager Precision Medicine Technologies Consortium at the University of Antwerp

Lieve Lanoye

Team Leader Market Intro and Big Data at TP Vision

Joana Pereira

Group Leader at VIB Center for AI and Computational Biology, Leuven, Belgium

Short Talks

Liesbeth Allein

Postdoctoral Researcher in NLP and ML at KU Leuven

Liza Darrous

Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Geneva

Yaël De Rocker

PhD Researcher in data analytics at Ghent University and Flanders Make

Sophie De Waele

Data Consultant at Dataroots

Merel Theisen

Principal Software Engineer in QuantumBlack at McKinsey

Stefania Tuveri

Postdoctoral Researcher in MB and Cancer at KU Leuven

Vanessa Vermeirssen

Professor CBIGR lab at Ghent University

Charlotte Waelkens

Senior Data Scientist at Lighthouse

Mentorship sessions

Anastasia Karavdina

Solution Architect AI/ML & BI at Vattenfall

Lynn Verbeke

Group Head International Bioinformatics Consulting Teams at Excelra


Program Women in Data Science 2025



Time Session
8:30–9:15 Welcome and registration
9:15–9:30 Introduction to WiDS by Setareh Tasdighian
09:30–10:15 Keynote by Joana Pereira - VIB
AI-Guided Discovery of Novel Families and Functions Across the Protein Universe
10:15–10:45 Coffee break 1
AI in Business Session
10:45–11:05 Merel Theisen - McKinsey
Kedro: an open-source framework for building maintainable AI pipelines
11:05–11:25 Charlotte Waelkens - Lighthouse
Unleash the power of GenAI with Smart Summaries
11:25–11:45 Sophie de Waele - Dataroots
Developing user focused BI-dashboards for business adoption
11:45–12:15 Keynote by Lieve Lanoye - TP Vision
Applying AI to bring innovation: insights and pitfalls.
12:15–13:45 Lunch break & Mentorship sessions
12:30–13:15 Mentorship session by Anastasia Karavdina
How to prepare your transition into Industry as Data professional

Mentorship session by Lynn Verbeke
Navigating the Biotech Jungle: real-World Skills for Bioinformaticians
Life Science Session
13:45–14:05 Vanessa Vermeirsen - Ghent University
From integrative biology to precision medicine: pinpointing disease mechanisms with data science
14:05–14:25 Stefania Tuveri - KU Leuven
When the Data Speaks Twice: Interpreting Prenatal Genomics for Both Mother and Child
14:25–14:45 Liza Darrous - University of Geneva
Unraveling the genetic web: Using data science to understand disease causality
14:45–15:15 Coffee break 2 & Poster session
Green AI Session
15:15–15:35 Yaël De Rocker - Ghent University
Bringing machines back to life: data science for circular industrial innovation
15:35–15:55 Liesbeth Allein - KU Leuven
Decoding Climate Change Polarization Through Causal Reasoning
15:55–16:40 Keynote by Julia Gauglitz - University of Antwerp
Cultivating Awareness: From Knowledge Transfer to the Food on Our Plate
16:40–17:00 Closing remarks & Best Speaker Award
17:00–18:30 Networking & Reception