# rugvin — Wouter Durnez

AI & software engineer building complete apps and websites, with a specialism in AI features and agents. PhD in experimental psychology, MSc in AI. Based in Ghent, Belgium.

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# About

I’m Wouter. This is rugvin, my independent studio in Ghent. The name is Dutch for dorsal fin. haai is the BV I freelance through.

I ship apps and websites. From bow to stern. You work directly with me, from the first decisions to the code running in production.

I build the whole thing: the interface people use and the systems behind it. Databases, auth and APIs. Payments, search, email, dashboards, AI: whatever the product needs to work. Staging to test it, production to run it. That’s the buoyancy to keep them afloat. And puns aplenty.

AI-native. Master’s degree and all. (Since before everyone updated their bio.) I build apps, websites and the systems behind them: interfaces, databases, integrations and deployment. AI is my specialism. When it makes the product better, I build in AI features and agents too.

Alongside client work: small apps, open-source tools, and the occasional poster.

## Background

I spent a decade in experimental psychology before trading papers for production code. At imec-mict-UGent, I worked on human-computer interaction using biometrics and smartphone logging, alongside the software to collect and analyse that data. During those years, I also completed a master’s in AI. Since then, I’ve worked on recommenders, generative AI features and agentic products.

Based in Ghent, Belgium. Focus: apps · websites · AI engineering. Stack: Python · TypeScript · AWS.

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# CV

## Summary
AI & software engineer building complete apps and websites, with a specialism in AI features and agents. PhD in experimental psychology, MSc in AI. Based in Ghent, Belgium.

## Experience
- **2025–present · Ringtime** — Founding AI Engineer. Client engagement through haai BV. AI recruiting agents and the recruiter workspace: campaigns, conversations and candidate results. Agent infrastructure, MLOps and voice agents covering 22 languages. (https://www.ringtime.ai/)
- **2023–2025 · Showpad** — Senior → Staff AI Engineer. GenAI platform: RAG, asset summaries, AI Page Generation, tool-wielding conversational agent in the flagship product. (https://www.showpad.com/)
- **2023 · Adapt & Enable** — Senior Data Scientist. Internal HR recommender — fuzzy skill extraction, weighted collaborative filtering, embeddings-based conversational variant. (https://www.ae.be/)
- **2023 · Jan De Nul** — Python Developer. Flask-based BI template — auth, structured logging, CI/CD, Docker. (https://www.jandenul.com/)
- **2018–2023 · imec-mict-UGent** — Senior Researcher. HCI research with biometrics and smartphone logging, plus the ETL/analysis frameworks that made it tractable. (https://www.ugent.be/mict/en/)

## Education
- **2018–2021** — MSc Artificial Intelligence (Engineering & Computer Science), KU Leuven
- **2011–2015** — PhD Experimental Psychology, Ghent University
- **2006–2011** — MSc Theoretical & Experimental Psychology, Ghent University

## Skills
- **Languages:** Python, TypeScript, SQL
- **AI:** LLM tooling, agent infrastructure, RAG, prompt engineering, tool use, evals, voice-AI agents, recommender systems, deep learning
- **Infra:** AWS, Docker, CI/CD, structured logging, MLOps
- **Libraries:** Fence (author), Astro, Flask, PyTorch
- **Research-adjacent:** HCI, biometrics / eye tracking, experimental design, statistics

## Contact
- Email: wouter@rugvin.be
- Available for contract work and consulting on complete apps and websites, content management, AI features and agents.

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# Tools

## Reef
An app and MCP server for long-term AI memory — private by default, shared with the people you choose.
Tags: app, python, mcp.
URL: https://reefwith.me

## Termicolor
Drop an image, get a terminal palette — WCAG-aware, export anywhere.
Tags: typescript, react, design.
URL: https://termicolor.io

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# Sites & apps

## Crux Screening
Injury-prevention screening for a Ghent physio practice — the Excel template, retired.
Tags: app, client, next.js.

## SiteSee
Field-inspection app for [HybriX Energy](https://www.hybrix-energy.com) — observations in, reports out.
Tags: pwa, client, react.

## Maus Cars
Car detailing & auto-import — Kortrijk.
Tags: site, client, astro.
URL: https://mauscars.be

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# Open-source code

## Fence
A lightweight LLM & agent library — the bloat moat, vs LangChain.
Tags: python, llm, open-source.
URL: https://github.com/WouterDurnez/fence

## Airhead
Tiny CNNs for brain-tumor segmentation — thesis-era medical imaging via low-rank tensor decomposition.
Tags: python, deep-learning, research.
URL: https://github.com/WouterDurnez/airhead