Dr Tosca Heunis

Tosca Heunis is a biomedical engineer appointed as the project coordinator for the TANDem research project, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She is also the Technology Group lead, and is responsible for the development of the TAND Toolkit app.

She completed her PhD in biomedical engineering at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, whilst being appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Process Engineering. Her research focused on the early detection of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using recurrence quantification analysis of resting state electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. The primary objective was to develop a biomarker to differentiate individuals with ASD from typically developing individuals. The secondary objectives included evaluating the ability of the biomarker to distinguish between ASD and non-ASD within Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), and to distinguish non-syndromal and syndromal ASD. Tosca has experience with big data collection, data analysis using machine learning and statistical techniques, software pipelines, and data visualization.

After her PhD, Tosca worked as a software engineer and project manager at an enterprise mobility software startup. She managed the full lifecycle of several international projects and worked with clients in various industries to determine their needs and translate these needs into suitable mobile and cloud-based software applications. She gained experience with multiple business processes in industries such as agriculture, logistics and supply chain, financial services, field service, occupational health and safety, government institutions and asset management.

Tosca is passionate about working in a multidisciplinary environment, at the forefront of technology in the biomedical, healthcare and neuroscience fields. She enjoys translating scientific research into clinical applications in the medical field to help to improve daily clinical practice and the lives of families and individuals with TSC.