Personal profile
Current courses
Click here for my courses.
Research interests
We develop and apply advanced data-analytical approaches to study how eye diseases and brain injuries impact our ability to see. By analyzing big sets of brain imaging data, we aim to predict how well someone can function in their daily life with impaired vision. Our focus is on developing smart methods that use statistics and machine learning to understand how the brain adapts and changes when our vision is affected.
But we are not just stopping at understanding vision problems: we are also creating new ways to predict, measure and track the success of eye treatments, such as gene therapy and retinal prosthetics, as well as visual rehabilitation programs. In this context, our goals are to deliver objective outcome measures for clinical trials, and to equip medical professionals with enhanced tools that facilitate the prediction of treatment outcomes and the ongoing monitoring of patient progress.
Besides our focus on vision problems, we also study how vision works in general. We are exploring the basics of how we see things and using that knowledge to improve both human and computer vision. It is a two-way street: understanding how biology sees helps us teach computers to see better, and vice versa.
Current research projects include:
- Bridging the gap between visual function and functional vision (NWO Vidi).
- Neuroimaging biomarkers for predicting vision training success after stroke (NWO KIC).
- Data-driven patient profiling using measures of visual cortex integrity (NWO Gravitation).
Partners
- Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
- VR4eVR Consortium
- Lifelong Vision Consortium
External positions
Board Member (Hemianopsiestichting)
7 Mar 2022 → …
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Normative modelling of white-matter pathways in the visual system
Mulders, T. J. F., Mentink, L. J., Theelen, T., Klevering, B. J., Beckmann, C. F. & Haak, K. V., Mar 2026, In: Acta ophthalmologica. 104, 1 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Meeting Abstract › Scientific › peer-review
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The negative sigmoid loss for controlling false positive rate in osteolytic lesion segmentation
van Leeuwen, M. P., van Oudheusden, T. R., Oei, S. P., Steunenberg, B. E., Kint, J. F., Ranschaert, E., Bosma, G. P. T., Heres, H. M., Postma, E., Haak, K. V., Saygili, G. & Ong, L. L. S., 6 May 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Computers in biology and medicine. 210, p. 111713Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
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UltraFast Layer-Resolved Encoding (uFLARE) functional MRI deciphers bidirectional signaling from spontaneous activity
Carvalho, J., Fernandes, F. F., Valente, M., Haak, K. V. & Shemesh, N., May 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature Communications. 17, 1, 17 p., 3823.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
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A Note On The Stability Of The Focal Loss
van Leeuwen, M., Haak, K., Saygili, G., Postma, E. & Ong, S., 2025, In: Transactions on Machine Learning Research.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
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Automatic Identification of Anatomical Locations for Bone Abnormalities in CT Imaging: A Multiplanar YOLOv5 Detection Approach
van Leeuwen, M. P., van Oudheusden, T. R., Oei, S. P., Bosma, G. P. T., Haak, K. V., Saygili, G. & Ong, L.-L. S., 2025, 2025 47th Annual International Conference Of The Ieee Engineering In Medicine And Biology Society (embc). IEEE, 7 p. (Annual International Conference Of The Ieee Engineering In Medicine And Biology Society).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review
Datasets
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Source data for running codes (uploaded in github)
Park, S. (Creator), Haak, K. V. (Contributor), Oldham, S. (Contributor), Cho, H. (Contributor), Byeon, K. (Contributor), Park, B.-Y. (Creator), Thomson, P. (Contributor), Chen, H. (Contributor), Gao, W. (Contributor), Xu, T. (Contributor), Valk, S. (Contributor), Milham, M. P. (Contributor), Bernhardt, B. (Contributor), Di Martino, A. (Contributor) & Hong, S.-J. (Creator), Figshare, 2024
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.22696093, https://springernature.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Source_data_for_running_codes_uploaded_in_github_/22696093
Dataset