www.amicilovanienses.org
Dear friends,
2022 proved to be a year of many challenges and many opportunities few pages will provide a quick glimpse into the activities of Amici past year. Even though the global pandemic continued to guide gatherings, we slowly started to reconnect with our local network, the Bay Area and in the Los Angeles area. How wonderful to be to-face! It is our hope to catch up with all of you in 2023.
Thanks to your generosity in time, talent and treasure, Amici able to launch new programs and increase support to existing Thanks to you, we are able to live up to our promise as a bridge continents, advocating for innovative approaches to today’s In all our activities, you remain our focus and our compass.
Drop us a line, stay in touch. We are here for you and with you
In gratitude, Martine Peetermans, Executive Director
Max Mirgoli, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Partnerships at imec, has over 33 years of experience in high tech and semi conductor industry. Max has held numerous leadership roles in some of the most innovative companies around the globe. In addition, Max holds several positions within top Silicon Valley start-up companies and advises them in their growth phase.
Jan Rabaey is a Professor in the graduate School, EECS Dept. at University of California, Berkeley. In 2019, Jan joined imec, as the CTO of the System-Technology Co-Optimization Division. He has been involved in a broad variety of start-up ventures, including Cortera Neurotechnologies of which he was a co-founder.
Welcome to the Board, Jan and Max!
With nine active board members, we ensure diverse expertise and immense wisdom in a wide array of topics. You may find the complete list of board members HERE.
- We continued to advocate for research on neurodegeneration by Mission Lucidity.
- We welcomed Leuven entrepreneurs for an immersive experience in Silicon Valley.
- We launched a new initiative on frugal innovation in partnership with Santa Clara University.
- We reconnected with our networks in the Bay Area and Los Angeles and expanded our reach.
In March of 2022, board Members Andre Oosterlinck and Guy Mannaerts joined the Mission Lucidity delegation to Stanford for a debrief with Prof. Birgitt Schuele, partner in the Brain on a Chip project focused on Parkinsons’ disease.
Later in the year, Ambassador Gunther Sleeuwagen hosted Dr. Jenny Ceccarini and Prof. Peter Janssen at the Residence of Belgium, Los Angeles, for an in-depth conversation on new approaches to study neurodegeneration.
Dr. Ceccarini shared about Mission Lucidity’s technological solutions that can help prevent and treat neurodegenerative diseases. Prof. Peter Janssen presented on his research focused on minimally invasive brain stimulation to delay cognitive decline.
Guests included expert leaders from the medical field and similar research initiatives. The conversations we initiated then, are flowing through the beginning of 2023.
Read more about Mission Lucidity’s vision and strategy HERE.
On March 20, 2022, we kicked off the inaugural Silicon Valley Immersive Program in partnership with Leuven Research and Development and LeuvenInc, supported by Expandify.
A group of 5 Leuven entrepreneurs participated in a weeklong immersive program to experience the Silicon Valley mindset of Thinking BIG. Together with LRD and LeuvenInc., we are currently planning the next program for entrepreneurs exploring expansion to the US.
Thank you to our local network members for participating, facilitating and hosting!
Thank you to Stichting Amici Almae Matris for granting us the needed funds to launch this initiative.
In September 2022, Amici Lovanienses brought together Santa Clara University’s Frugal Innovation Hub and KU Leuven’s Kick program. They decided to join hands in an effort that combines frugal innovation, entrepreneurship and social impact.
The students were challenged to design some sustainable and affordable equipment to access safe drinking water for Sabore’s Well, an organization in the remote area of Narok, Kenya. With the Leuven group focusing on the anthropological aspects of the solution, and the SCU team focusing on the technical aspects of the system, the students ensured a holistic approach to the challenge. In March 2023, the team will travel to Kenya to install the system, engage with the community and meet some of the younger beneficiaries.
This is a first joint effort between the two universities, bridging three continents, touching the lives of many. We look forward to exploring more possibilities for the next academic year.
Amici Lovanienses recognized the following efforts as grant recipients in 2022. All three initiatives share the following characteristics:
- Collaborative, inclusive and global
- At the intersection of science and technology with a humancentered focus
- Enabling the next generation to build and expand on gained knowledge and experience
Trismegistos, called after the famous epithet of Hermes - Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and writing who also played a major role in Greek religion and philosophy, is a platform aiming to surmount barriers of language and discipline in the study of the ancient world (roughly BC 800 - 800 AD). It brings together a variety of projects dealing with metadata, mainly of published documents. Its core component is Trismegistos Texts, which includes papyrological and epigraphic texts, not only in Greek and Latin, but also in a great variety of local scripts, from Etruscan to Runic. Almost all published texts are included in the database, numbering almost 1 million. Most of the metadata are provided by partner projects, normally limited to texts in a certain language, on a type of writing surface (e.g. papyrus) or of a certain type (e.g. literary vs. documentary).
The Science@Leuven fund is providing scholarships to motivated foreign students at KU Leuven Faculty of Science.
In the words of one of the recipients of a scholarship:
“Receiving the scholarship was a turning point in my life, and its significance only intensifies as the years go by. The award allowed me to complete a critical stage of my studies in Leuven, which later became the foundation of my career in research.”
Kaveh Lahabi, Master of Physics
Our Board remains committed to furthering the research efforts by the Brain on a Chip team, a collaborative effort between various institutions with a common goal: transforming the field of neurodegeneration by creating experimental brain models based on patients’ cells on an electrical chip.
In part, thanks to your substantial support, this initiative was able to stay on track and move to Phase 2 as planned. Wim Roelandts, board member, laid the foundation for this research project a few years ago. Both Wim and his wife, Maria Constantino-Roelandts, remain generous donors to the initiative.
Wim literally has skin in the game! How? Read the article to learn more.
We hope you enjoyed reading about some of our initiatives. If you would like to know more about any of these efforts, let me know. I will gladly provide you with more details and connect you with the appropriate individuals.
Amici Lovanienses supports a wide variety of efforts on the intersection of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. We believe that now is the time to forge collaborations that reimagine the way we shape answers to society’s challenges.
We warmly invite you to join us in our efforts. Your generosity is very much appreciated.
www.amicilovanienses.org
Martine Peetermans
Martine.Peetermans@amicilovanienses.org