Thomas Wielfaert

Natural Language Processing, Data Visualisation, Machine Learning

Relevant Work Experience

2017-present
NLP Data Scientist / Research Manager at Knowliah (Boortmeerbeek, Belgium).

Main tasks:

  • Creating Natural Language Processing pipelines and microservices for the document and knowledge management software that we develop in-house: named entity recognition, topic modelling, auto-summarisation, search query expansion, etc.

  • Managing the applied research projects to improve our products: document classification, terminology management, legal contracts, electronic patient files.

  • Creating project proposals for grant applications and maintaining the relations with our academic partners.

2012-2016
Research assistant Linguistics (B.A.P.), KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium).

Education

2012-present
PhD in Computational Linguistics (KU Leuven).

Keywords: distributional semantics, visual analytics, corpus linguistics

2017-2018
Blockchain Developer and Architect @home (Howest, Bruges).

Covered subjects: Blockchain architecture, Smart contracts (Solidity), Hyperledger, cryptography, IoT and IT law. (Completed 2 out of 3 semesters, on hold.)

2010-2011
Selected courses in computer science, statistics and experimental psychology (Ghent University).
2009-2010
MA of Advanced Studies in Linguistics: Interdisciplinary Linguistics (Antwerp University).

Interuniversity consecutive master (ManaMa) focused on Computational Linguistics (Universities of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Leuven). Internship at the VUB AI Lab, (Free University of Brussels).

2008-2009
MA English Linguistics and Literature (Ghent University).

Research stay at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa (summer 2008).

2005-2009
BA Dutch and English Linguistics and Literature (Ghent University).

Erasmus exchange, King’s College London (first semester 2007-2008).

Skills

IT :

  • Programming in Python, JavaScript (Node.js), Java, C#, R, SQL, HTML, CSS and C.
  • Machine learning incl. linear and logistic regression, deep learning (TensorFlow), kernel methods, probabilistic modelling, clustering and dimension reduction.
  • Data visualisation in D3.js, R (ggplot2, lattice, shiny), Processing(.js), Tableau.
  • Microservices, REST, Docker, Git.

Languages :

  • Dutch: mother tongue
  • English: near-native skills
  • French: good reading, speaking and writing
  • German: good reading, speaking and writing
  • Italian: good understanding and reading, moderate speaking and writing

Academic publications

Currently living in the Ghent metropolitan area, Belgium