Elias Blanckaert

Elias has a master’s degree in Communication Studies: Media, Strategic Communication and Marketing (magna cum laude) at the VUB. His master’s thesis was about the impact of appearance on consumer purchase intention. His analysis showed that in Western communities, white women of average body size provide the greatest purchase intention. Since 2022, he works as a user researcher at imec-SMIT, VUB. 

His main research activities focus on the innovation of the media landscape through the use of new technologies. As a user researcher, he has a strong focus on the use of living lab and co-creation methods.

He worked on the European Möbius project, which attempts to modernise the European book publishing industry. There is a strong focus on uncovering the prosumers potential and delivering new enriched media experiences. Since 2024, Elias works on the European Presence project which aims to enhance the impact of immersive human-to-human and human-machine interactions, delivering a toolset of technologies such as holoportation, haptics and virtual humans, integrated and demonstrated in XR professional and social setups, analysed in user studies.