Merlijn Sebrechts
Senior Researcher at imec
Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMerlijn Sebrechts is a senior researcher and educator based in Ghent with 12 years' experience building secure, trustworthy cloud-to-edge systems and advising PhD students. At imec and Ghent University he leads research on deployment and verification of complex applications, confidential computing, and operator trust—translating academic rigor into practical open-source tooling. He contributes to widely used projects like snapcraft and Ubuntu Yaru, combining backend packaging improvements with thoughtful UI theming, and plays governance and standards roles through the Ubuntu Community Council and W3C/Bytecode Alliance work on WebAssembly. Known for bridging law, security, and systems design, he often turns research prototypes into reproducible, community-driven artifacts that industry partners can adopt.
12 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Professional Bachelor's degree, Electronics - ICT, specialization ICT, Professional Bachelor's degree, Electronics - ICT, specialization ICT at Hogeschool OdiseeDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Information Engineering Technology, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Information Engineering Technology at Ghent UniversityCERN School of Computing 2016, CERN School of Computing 2016 at CERN, SCK - CEN, Vrije Universiteit BrusselSecundary Education, Biotechnological Sciences, Secundary Education, Biotechnological Sciences at Bernardustechnicum Oudenaarde
Dutch, English, French
Stackoverflow
575reputation
81kreached
12answers
7questions
Github Skills (22)
theming10
python10
css10
packaging10
ui-design10
gtk10
snapcraft10
gnome10
build-automation10
command-line-interface9
icon-pack9
command-line9
iconsets9
cli9
app-icon9
Programming languages (24)
Github contributions (5)
ubuntu/yaru
Nov 2017 - Oct 2019
All Ubuntu Yaru GNOME themes
Role in this project:
UI Designer
UI DesignerContributions:87 commits, 40 PRs, 47 pushes in 1 year 11 months
Contributions summary:Merlijn contributed to the Ubuntu Yaru GNOME themes repository. Their commits involved modifying GTK-2.0 and GTK+3.0 CSS files to adjust the visual appearance of various elements. These changes included updates to button styles, menu bar elements, and other UI components to align with design standards. Additionally, the user worked on assets such as cursors and symbolic icons, indicating a focus on visual consistency and user interface theming.
linuxgnomeyaru-themeyaruubuntu
canonical/snapcraft
Sep 2019 - Nov 2022
Package, distribute, and update any app for Linux and IoT.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:14 commits, 17 PRs, 23 comments in 3 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Merlijn primarily contributed to the `snapcraft` project by adding features and making improvements to the build and packaging process for applications. They focused on enhancing the support for GNOME and KDE desktop environments, introducing interfaces and dependencies for them. The user also added functionality to extract metadata, specifically title and version, from AppStream files. Furthermore, the user added a new command to the CLI, allowing the user to upload the metadata file and upload the snap file to the store.
snapslinuxupdatesnapdistribute
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