Wouter Nuijten

Mr. Wouter Nuijten

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

4Years (2023-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
29 July 2023 in Entropy
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
BEBart van Erp
Bart van Erp
WNWouter Nuijten
Wouter Nuijten
TLThijs van de Laar
Thijs van de Laar
Bert de VriesBert de Vries
Bert de Vries
Bayesian state and parameter estimation are automated effectively in a variety of probabilistic programming languages. The process of model comparison on the other hand, which still requires error-prone and time-consuming manual derivations, is often overlooked despite its importance. This paper efficiently automates Bayesian model averaging, selection, and combination by message passing on a Forney-style factor graph with a custom mixture node. Parameter and state inference, and model comparison can then be executed simultaneously using message passing with scale factors. This approach shortens the model design cycle and allows for the straightforward extension to hierarchical and temporal model priors to accommodate for modeling complicated time-varying processes.


17 September 2024 in arXiv
Verified
Preprint
Open access
PDF file
WNWouter Nuijten
Wouter Nuijten
Bert de VriesBert de Vries
Bert de Vries
Active Inference is a framework that emphasizes the interaction between agents and their environment. While the framework has seen significant advancements in the development of agents, the environmental models are often borrowed from reinforcement learning problems, which may not fully capture the complexity of multi-agent interactions or allow complex, conditional communication. This paper introduces Reactive Environments, a comprehensive paradigm that facilitates complex multi-agent communication. In this paradigm, both agents and environments are defined as entities encapsulated by boundaries with interfaces. This setup facilitates a robust framework for communication in nonequilibrium-Steady-State systems, allowing for complex interactions and information exchange. We present a Julia package RxEnvironments.jl, which is a specific implementation of Reactive Environments, where we utilize a Reactive Programming style for efficient implementation. The flexibility of this paradigm is demonstrated through its application to several complex, multi-agent environments. These case studies highlight the potential of Reactive Environments in modeling sophisticated systems of interacting agents.

21 May 2026 in IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
MHMarco Hidalgo-Araya
Marco Hidalgo-Araya
RTRaphaël Trésor
Raphaël Trésor
BEBart Van Erp
Bart Van Erp
WNWouter Nuijten
Wouter Nuijten
TLThijs van de Laar
Thijs van de Laar
Bert de VriesBert de Vries
Bert de Vries
Speech enhancement in hearing aids remains difficult in nonstationary acoustic environments. This paper introduces AIDA-2, a unified modular framework that formulates signal processing, learning, and personalization as Bayesian inference with explicit uncertainty tracking. The proposed framework replaces ad hoc algorithm design with a single probabilistic generative model that continuously adapts to changing acoustic conditions and user preferences. It extends spectral subtraction with principled mechanisms for in situ personalization and adaptation to acoustic context. The system is implemented as an interconnected probabilistic state-space model, and inference is performed via variational message passing in the RxInfer.jl probabilistic programming environment, enabling real-time Bayesian processing under hearing-aid constraints. We focus the evaluation on the warped-frequency filter bank (WFB) and speech enhancement model (SEM), evaluated on the public VoiceBank+DEMAND corpus. Additionally, an acoustic context model (ACM) and end-user model (EUM) are described architecturally. The evaluated system requires 85 parameters, two orders of magnitude fewer than the tens of thousands to millions of trainable parameters used by contemporary deep-learning baselines. This proof of concept establishes an interpretable, data-efficient foundation for uncertainty-aware hearing-aid processing, pointing toward devices that learn continuously through probabilistic inference.

24 November 2025 in arXiv
Verified
Preprint
Open access
PDF file
WNWouter Nuijten
Wouter Nuijten
MLMykola Lukashchuk
Mykola Lukashchuk
Automated decision-making under uncertainty requires balancing exploitation and exploration. Classical methods treat these separately using heuristics, while Active Inference unifies them through Expected Free Energy (EFE) minimization. However, EFE minimization is computationally expensive, limiting scalability. We build on recent theory recasting EFE minimization as variational inference, formally unifying it with Planning-as-Inference and showing the epistemic drive as a unique entropic contribution. Our main contribution is a novel message-passing scheme for this unified objective, enabling scalable Active Inference in factored-state MDPs and overcoming high-dimensional planning intractability.