Videos

On social media clips of skirmishes between citizens and the police regularly pop up and, in a flash, go viral. They elicit a lot of reactions, not least the classic "things used to be better in the old days". But was there less violence on the streets in the past? Historian Martin Schoups delves into documents from 19th-century Antwerp.

A 'vector', isn't that something for mathematicians and physicists? Linguist Weiwei Zhang (KU Leuven) proves the opposite. She uses vectors to study related words and synonyms that appear in different language variants, such as "subway" in American English and "underground" in British English.

Social contacts are very important for our well-being. Unfortunately, people with disabilities often rely on a much smaller network. Evy Meys (KU Leuven) is investigating how their network can be strengthened.

In this video, Elke Emmers (KU Leuven) takes you on a speed date with a real plot twist. In her research she tries to adjust the attitudes of teachers, remedial educationalists and other professionals towards persons with disabilities. 

Imagine a city where street lighting only functions when there are cars nearby and where waste bins alarm garbage trucks when they're full and need to be emptied... This might soon become reality, but only if we manage to process the huge amount of data that these smart devices will produce. That's what José Santos is trying to accomplish in order to turn our cities into smart cities.

In Belgium, 1 in 7 children is born into a disadvantaged family. Together with her colleagues at the Artevelde University College Kaat Helsloot developed a care path to offer vulnerable children and their mothers extra support.

Social media have become the most important source of information for many young people. But at the same time, a lot of fake news is circulating on these platforms. Time to better arm young people to recognize and debunk fake news, according to Annelore Deprez.

"Advertising"? I'm not susceptible to ads!" Sounds familiar? Serena D'hooge breaks that illusion and tells you more about the simple but very effective advertising technique, called 'evaluative conditioning'.

Imagine you are forced to flee your home and have to resettle in a strange place. Awful thought, isn't it? Well, every day 44,000 people are forced to leave their homes... Tian Shi looks at how Hmong people, an Indochinese refugee group, settled in Europe in the 1970's after the Vietnam war.

Did you know that there are about 7,000 languages in the world? And that more than 2,600 of these languages are in danger of extinction? With every language that disappears, we lose a unique part of the rich diversity that exists in human languages. That's why Dana Louagie studies Aboriginal languages.

Cinnamon, one of the main ingredients of Belgium's beloved speculaas 😋, is almost exclusively harvested by farmers in Kerinci, a small region in Indonesia. One would think these farmers are rich, but are they really? Sidi Rana Menggala has the answer.

Do Google Home, Alexa and Siri have a social impact on our behaviour? Can they encourage us to drive more safely or convince us to exercise more often? That is what Pieter Vanpaemel (Vlerick Business School - KU Leuven) researches in his doctorate.