I studied at the KHLim college university of Hasselt. As thesis, I built software that didn’t exist at that time. The software enabled to identify a tree, by identifying key characteristics of its leaves. At that time this was only possible by book (Flora). The software was honored by the Toshiba award in 2000, which resulted in an educational trip to South Africa.
In 2000 I converted the software to a website bomen-determineren.com (Dutch). In 2011 I translated the site to English: tree-key.org. In 2012 I created an app (iPhone/iPad). After more than ten years, the Tree Key can be used as it is meant to be: people can take a walk in a forest and identify trees, using the site or app. When I created the Trey Key, I created the potential for change to teachers and students.
The Dutch version of the site was visited a million times, due to the fact the matter is mandatory in the curriculum of primary schools.
To be honest, these facts and figures make me a little bit proud. The strong the fact I’m an innovator. But I’m also aware of my limitations. I’m not a visionary. I didn’t made research on the content. I was fortuned to have to right dose of inspiration at the right moment. Anyway, I have the greatest respect to visionaries and inventors. People who change other peoples lives by their innovations.