After spending time at Boston University, Harvard and Oldenburg University, professor Sarah Verhulst returned to Belgium in 2016 with a European Research Council Starting Grant for the RobSpear project. Her lab researches how to detect hearing loss earlier than standard hearing diagnostics with the help of auditory computer modeling and auditory EEG. Her team furthermore uses artificial intelligence to build a new generation of bio-inspired augmented hearing technologies.
In 2022, she received a European Innovation Council Transition Grant, with which the team will bring the innovative technology from the lab to the market so that people suffering from hearing difficulties have access to early diagnosis and better treatment options. EarDiTech joins the efforts of the research groups WAVES and ID-Lab at the Department of Information Technology at Ghent University along with the ENT and Audiology departments at Ghent University Hospital.