PhD Defense Sofie

This month, we’ve had another impressive defense: congratulations Dr. Sofie Labat! 

On Friday, October 24, Sofie successfully defended her thesis, “Affective Threads: Data-Driven Modeling of Emotional Processes in Social Interaction”, under the supervision of Professor Véronique Hoste and Professor Thomas Demeester. Her research delved into the intricate intersection of NLP and psychology: modeling emotions and their patterns within text threads.

The defense was preceded by two compelling invited talks: one by Professor Bennett Kleinberg (Tilburg University) on empathetic AI, and another by our very own Professor An-Sofie Claeys (Ghent University, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication) on humour in crisis communication.

We’re incredibly proud of Sofie’s achievement and excited to see where her research journey leads next!