Wout Decrop

Marine AI Engineer

Wout

Decrop

"Building AI models for plankton & vessel detection. Python, ML, & environmental research at VLIZ."

About Me

Enthusiast,
building AI for the ocean.

I'm a marine scientist at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Oostende, Belgium, specializing in machine learning applications for marine ecosystem monitoring. My research focuses on developing AI-powered tools for phytoplankton classification and underwater acoustic analysis.

I work on automated image classification workflows, leveraging convolutional neural networks for biodiversity assessment in the North Sea. I'm also involved in the iMagine project, developing best practices for AI-based image analysis in plankton research and underwater sound classification.

Quick Facts

Current PositionResearcher @ VLIZ
LocationGhent, Belgium
EducationBioscience Engineering
Focus AreasMarine AI & ML

Experience & Education

Work Experience

Marine AI Engineer

VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute

Feb 2023 - Present

Working fulltime on marine AI projects, developing machine learning pipelines and AI applications for oceanographic research in Oostende, Belgium.

Engineering Intern, Marine Observatory Centre

VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute

Jul 2022 - Sep 2022

Internship focusing on MongoDB, updating data pipelines, machine learning techniques, and several research boat days in the North Sea.

Engineering Intern, Marine Robotics Centre

VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute

Aug 2021

Hands-on experience operating on a boat, working with Grafana, MySQL, sonar data, and learning the inner workings of a research organization.

Education

Magna Cum Laude

Master of Bioscience Engineering - BE, Cell and Gene Biotechnology (major Computational Biology)

Universiteit Gent

2020 - 2022

Focus on computational biology, bioinformatics, and machine learning applications in biosciences.

Erasmus

Master of Bioinformatics

Aarhus University

2020 - 2021

Erasmus semester in Aarhus Denmark. Hands-on projects: image recognition and regression models. Skills: Python, Machine Learning, CNNs.

Cum Laude

Bachelor of Bioscience Engineering - BE, Cell and Gene Biotechnology

Universiteit Gent

2017 - 2020

Focused on cell and gene biotechnology, bioinformatics, and practical lab experience.

Expertise

Skills & Technologies

Programming Languages

PythonRJuliaMatlabSQLBash

Machine Learning & Tools

PyTorchTensorFlowscikit-learnKerasGitDockerJupyterVS Code

Expertise

Languages

DutchNative
EnglishFluent
SpanishB1
FrenchB1
ItalianA2
Germanbasic

Active Learning

Spanish

A2
A2+
B1
In progress
B2
Sep 20232024June 202420252025 June2026Jun 2026

Italian

A1
A2
Sep 20232024June 202420252025 June2026Jun 2026

Research

Selected Publications

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