About

Martin De Wulf

Follow @madewulf

I am the CTO of Bluesquare, where I lead a team of around 20 developers and product managers building two products, IASO and OpenHEXA, alongside a steady flow of client software projects. After eight years in Global Health, I have worked with UN agencies, Ministries of Health, and most of the field's major donors.

I also run Bluesquare's Campaign Digitalization Practice, where I have helped track dozens of health campaigns, including every Polio campaign in the WHO Africa region, as well as national vaccination and bed net distribution campaigns targeting million of beneficiaries. You can read more about that work here.

Background

I am a computer science PhD turned web and mobile developer, driven by a love for code. What I enjoy most about programming is solving real-world problems and creating value "out of thin air". Details of my doctoral research are on Google Scholar and on my old university homepage.

Between finishing my PhD and joining Bluesquare, I worked in several startups and a web agency, which exposed me to telecom networks, social network dynamics, high-level UX and design practices, algorithmic transport planning, mobile messaging applications, and much more.

I have extensive experience taking software products from concept to production, on the backend, mainly in Python; on mobile, as an iOS and Android developer; and on the front end, with modern JavaScript. As CTO, I have also become well versed in current hosting and infrastructure practices.

"Martin is not only one of the most talented engineers I was lucky enough to work with - Martin understands product and proactively suggests ideas for growth and engagement."

— Frédéric della Faille, founder and designer at Checkthis / Frontback

Projects

Since I started working in private companies in 2008, I have been involved in a wide variety of development projects. Here are some of them:

  • IASO: A platform used in global health, in particular for the digitalization of campaigns, to:
    • Manage master lists of health facilities (these are actually trees, but everybody calls them lists)
    • Collect data connected to these facilities offline through an Android mobile application
    • Analyze and export the collected data in a dedicated data science environment
  • OpenHEXA: A data science and engineering platform, increasingly AI-powered.
  • Trypelim: A platform combining an Android app with a Django/Python/React web dashboard, used in DR Congo to track and manage the elimination of Sleeping Sickness.
  • Lexicolor: A fast-paced word game for two players on the same iOS device.
  • Instaply for iOS: The iOS client of Instaply, an app for customer service through text messaging. I was also responsible for their SDK, data warehouse, and open API.
  • Matchador: A lighthearted matching game for iPhone, named one of the Mobile Games of the Year by Le Soir.
  • Fotolia Instant: A mobile app for selling smartphone photos on the Fotolia stock photography market. I worked on both the iOS and Android versions.
  • Frontback: A deceptively simple photo-sharing app for iPhone that showcases both the user and what they see. Downloaded millions of times.
  • Checkthis for iPhone: A beautifully simple iPhone app for publishing and mobile blogging, with social features.
  • zofa.biz: A shift scheduling system for physicians working in hospitals.
  • populationpyramid.net: An interactive visualization of population pyramids for every country, based on open UN data.
  • migrationsmap.net: An interactive visualization of global migrant communities.
  • g1000.org: The website for a democratic innovation event held in Belgium.
  • Viking Talk: An iOS VoIP application I worked on during the first half of 2012.
  • ShowYouLikeIt: A startup project that didn't succeed, but you can still glimpse it here.

Get in touch

Email me at [email protected], or find me on: