Speaker

Nik Van den Wijngaert

VP Space & Security - imec

Biography

Nik Van den Wijngaert is Vice President Space & Security at imec, where he leads the development of a comprehensive security strategy grounded in European sovereignty. Since joining imec in 2017, he has held roles spanning smart and resilient cities and headed a department delivering higher-TRL, system-level demonstrators, translating research into deployable capabilities. Nik earned an MSc in Mathematics and Computer Science (2001) and a PhD (2005) from the University of Antwerp. After post-doctoral research, he co-founded a technology venture that was acquired in 2012. He then served as a consultant to government and commercial clients worldwide, spending extended periods in North America and Southeast Asia. Across these roles, he has focused on bridging academia, industry, and the public sector to accelerate innovation, strengthen security postures, and scale complex systems. At imec, he brings that experience to bear on space and security initiatives, helping align R&D roadmaps with strategic European interests while building partnerships that move promising technologies from lab to market.

Talk(s)

11:35 AM

Beyond Moore, into mission: imec innovations shaping next-gen resilience

As the security and defense industry accelerates into deep technology, it is essential to develop effective innovation pipelines that can transform early-stage research and dual-use technologies into industrial capabilities, with sufficient absorption capacity to realise their potential.

Imec is in the initial stages of engaging with the security sector, yet our roadmap already indicates significant advances in resilience, including earlier detection, smarter computing, and improved communication under stress with tighter SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power). This talk surveys a few promising areas, focusing on what makes them disruptive, the step changes they target and their current level of maturity.