Rien Maertens (he/him)

Curiosity-driven computer scientist, experienced teacher, and full-stack developer with a passion for research, students, and science. Possess a broad and deep skillset, from high-level systems design to low-level programming. Investigator searching for bugs, solutions, and knowledge. Calm and resilient, motivated team player that wants to improve society together.

• hello@maertens.gent
• github.com/rien
• ORCiD 0000-0002-2927-3032
• Ghent, Belgium

Experience

• Doctoral researcher in Computer Science (UGent, 2019–now)
  • Researches plagiarism detection in source code, internationally adopted by teachers, researchers and companies, among which OpenAI.
  • Coach of masters students, interns, and colleagues.
  • Dissemination of research on conferences and in scientific articles.
• Educator in Computer Science (UGent, 2017–now)
  • Creating, coaching, and grading programming exercises and projects.
  • Supervising written exercises on advanced algorithms.
  • Lectures on data structures and algorithm testing
• Council member in the education committee, department council, and faculty council.
  • Organisation of supervision tasks.
  • Reforming the Computer Science program.
  • Improving student and colleague well-being.
• Cybersecurity Adept
  • Winner of the Cyber Security Challenge Belgium 2019.
  • Member of the national team during the European Cyber Security Challenge 2018 in London.
  • Alumnus of the Cyber Summerschool 2023 organised by the Belgian Defense.
• Chair and system administrator at Zeus WPI, a student hackerspace for Computer Science students.

Projects

• Dolos, a source code plagiarism detection program that combines advanced algorithms with intuitive data visualisations.
  • Project lead and researcher
  • Data visualiser and UX designer
  • Software architect and full-stack developer
• Dodona, an online programming learning environment.
  • Full-stack developer
  • System administrator

Open-source developer of ReStream to livestream reMarkable tablets, Zauth, an OAuth2 authentication server, and the bioinformatics pipeline UMGAP.

Education

• Computer Science (Faculty of Sciences, UGent)
  • DSc. 2019–2025 (expected)
  • MSc. 2017–2019 (cum laude)
  • BSc. 2014–2017 (cum laude)
• Training:
  • Coaching and supervision
  • Diversity-sensitive teaching
  • First-aid & crisis actor

Knowledge

• Languages: Dutch ≫ English ≫ French
• Programming languages: Java, Python, TypeScript, C, Rust, Ruby, Haskell, …
• Frameworks: Vue, D3, Rails, …
• Technologies: Docker, Ansible, SQL, Unix …

Teaching Assignments

Introduction to Algorithms & Datastructures

10 semesters, 2020 - present

Introduction to algorithms and data structures for BA1 Computer Science (120 students) and BA2 Mathematics (25 students). I am responsible for the programming exercises in Java and a written exam component.

Advanced Algorithms & Datastructures

10 semesters, 2020 - present

Multiple advanced courses for Mathematics and Computer Science students (20 - 60 students) in the theoretical foundations of algorithms and their practical implementations. I am responsible for written theory exercises, programming exercises and projects in C and Java.

Object-Oriented Programming

1 semester, 2021

Course in BA1 Computer Science (120 students) on object-oriented programming in Java and graphical user interfaces with JavaFX. I supervised the programming exercises, designed and graded the project.

Mathematics II(B)

1 semester, 2020

Advanced mathematics course in BA2 Business Engineering (120 studentes) on linear algebra, differential equations, multiple integrals. I taught mathematical exercises, designed and graded the practical exam.

Programming (Python & Java)

3 semesters, 2017 - 2019

In each of these similarly named introductory courses, I helped as a student worker and later as an assistant with supervising programming exercises.

Publications (Google Scholar)

“Discovering and Exploring Cases of Educational Source Code Plagiarism with Dolos” (2024)
Maertens R., Van Neyghem M., Geldhof M., Van Petegem C., Strijbol N., Dawyndt P. & Mesuere. B.
In: SoftwareX 26,
doi: 10.1016/j.softx.2024.101755

“Pass/Fail Prediction in Programming Courses” (2023)
Van Petegem C., Deconinck L., Mourisse D., Maertens R., Strijbol N., Dhoedt B., De Wever B., Dawyndt P. & Mesuere. B.
In: Journal of Educational Computing Research 61(1),
doi: 10.1177/07356331221085595.

“TESTed — An Educational Testing Framework with Language‐Agnostic Test Suites for Programming Exercises” (2023)
Strijbol N., Van Petegem C., Maertens R., Sels B., Scholliers C., Dawyndt P. & Mesuere. B.
In: SoftwareX 22,
doi: 10.1016/j.softx.2023.101404.

“Dodona: Learn to Code with a Virtual Co‐Teacher That Supports Active Learning” (2023)
Van Petegem C., Maertens R., Strijbol N., Van Renterghem J., Van der Jeugt F., De Wever B., Dawyndt P. & Mesuere B.
In: SoftwareX 24,
doi: 10.1016/j.softx.2023.101578.

“UMGAP: The Unipept MetaGenomics Analysis Pipeline” (2022).
Van der Jeugt F., Maertens R. , Steyaert A., Verschaffelt P., De Tender C., Dawyndt P. & Mesuere. B.
In: BMC Genomics 23.1,
doi: 10.1186/s12864-022-08542-4.

“Dolos: Language‐agnostic Plagiarism Detection in Source Code” (2022)
Maertens R., Van Petegem C., Strijbol N., Baeyens T., Jacobs A. C., Dawyndt P. & Mesuere. B.
In: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 38(4),
doi: 10.1111/jcal.12662.