Hi, I'm Marcel.
I research distributed systems with intersections to ML and IR. And sometimes, I build software.
Engineering
Startups, products, open-source work.
Research
Publications on decentralized search and more.
About Me
I believe in decentralized technology that empowers human autonomy and collaboration. Currently, I am contributing to this idea as a Ph.D. researcher at the Data-Intensive Systems Group of TU Delft, where I'm working on information retrieval in peer-to-peer systems. In connection to that, I'm also exploring decentralized AI and multi-agent LLM systems.
I did a lot of software engineering before I turned to academia, be it through freelancing, side projects, startups, or company work (see CV). This also resulted in some commercial software products. I still enjoy building software with a holistic approach that also includes design and user experience. A somewhat dying craft, these days I do most of it through agentic engineering.
Besides that, I like to read and often find myself inspired by authors. I am particularly fascinated by the human mind, an interest that extends into philosophy and the social sciences, and in many ways circles back to my interest in AI and P2P.