Robbe Claeys joins KNoWS

I'm Robbe Claeys, proud to be born, raised and living in Ghent. I join KNoWS this month (May 2026) as a Baekeland PhD researcher, splitting my time between IDLab and PointCaré (a medtech startup at the Wintercircus). My background is in Bioinformatics, where my thesis on molecular graph generation planted the seed for my PhD topic: "Neuro-Symbolic Generative AI for Information-retrieval and Decision-support in Critical Care." The idea: take what I learned generating molecular graphs, apply it to RDF, and constrain the generative process with OWL and SHACL instead of the rules of chemistry. The result: ML-based, sub-second, ontology-aligned SPARQL query generation for use in the ICU, OR, and ER.

I'm fortunate to work under the supervision of Femke Ongenae and Henri Van Overmeire (PointCaré), whose perioperative CDS platform gives the research a direct line from theory to bedside.

Outside of work I boulder and hike. I hold that graphs are the ultimate (most generic) data structure and triples the ultimate (most generic) form of information. I also hold that a day without learning something new is a day wasted. If you want to argue about any of the above, I'm happy to talk.