Faculty of Sciences

Ensuring that every child learns how to code, that is the common goal of several UGent researchers and the educational platform CodeCosmos. They developed a digital co-teacher together for the popular programming language Scratch. A world-first because this is the first tool that can automatically evaluate Scratch exercises. “Coach CoDi goes light years beyond all other feedback tools”, says UGent professor Christophe Scholliers.

From now on, Professor Dominique Van Der Straeten can call herself a fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This international recognition honours researchers who are making an invaluable contribution to science and its application. In the case of professor Van Der Straeten, it recognises her research, which aims to reduce ‘hidden’ hunger and the consequences of climate change.

Studying abroad is always an adventure. Student biochemistry and biotechnology Simon Knockaert felt more than at home on the Ghent University Global Campus in South Korea, 9,000 kilometres from Ghent.

Do you recognize this building? A mosaic of different types of glass. As a symbol for the university, with its enormous mix of study programmes, research domains, nationalities …

Programming is for younger generations what computer lessons were for today’s twenty and thirty year olds. It is as standard in their curriculum as languages and maths. Only, it’s a rather bumpy ride. Dodona, the project by Peter Dawyndt and Bart Mesuere, can help in smoothing the path.

Every day, professor Xavier Saelens and his team work on new and improved vaccines and medicines to counter flu and corona viruses. Recently, they’ve been doing their work in a new research facility. “Our primary goal: to help those suffering from diseases.”

Physicists at Ghent University have succeeded in cooling several ten thousand atoms to just above absolute zero (about -273°C). In doing so, they created a so-called Bose–Einstein condensate: a state in which all atoms behave exactly the same, as was once predicted by physicists Einstein and Bose.

Are we likely to face a greater number of intense storms in the summer, due to climate change? Yet why does it rain harder when the temperature rises? That seems counter-intuitive, but not at all, says Steven Caluwaerts, climatologist at Ghent University and the KMI (Royal Meteorological Institute).

She came here two years ago, and immediately developed a close connection with both the city and the university. He has now been living here for about ten years and feels completely at home. Both are pursuing their careers in the academic world, and that can sometimes be uncertain. The story of Gretel Mejía Bonifazi from Guatemala and Igor Fijalkowski from Poland, two international members of Ghent University.

The darker a bird’s wing, the better it can fly. That’s the conclusion reached by Michaël Nicolaï, as a biologist and researcher at Ghent University. “Pigment seems not only to give colour, it also helps in flying for longer.”

All students from Ghent University Global Campus (GUGC) in Incheon, South Korea come to the so-called Home Campus in Ghent for one semester during their study programme. Solha Kang and Eunhey Choi both just finished their exams and are about to return home. We managed to catch up with them right before they hopped on the plane to discuss what they thought of their stay in Belgium.