Public thesis defense - Movsun KUY
This thesis presents a novel approach to address the challenges of deploying and managing Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) in resource-constrained and multi-domain environments. The proposed solution leverages a Raspberry Pi clusterbased approach for NFV deployment in resource-constrained environments, combined with a deployable Sidecar VNF (S-VNF) coordinator for multi-domain NFV orchestration.The thesis demonstrates the feasibility of integrating NFV into edge computing environments by successfully deploying and managing Network Services (NSs) on a Raspberry Pi cluster. The S-VNF coordinator facilitates efficient cross-cloud NFV deployment and management while ensuring security and interoperability.While the obtained deployment and scaling delays in the testbed setup were significant due to the bare-metal deployment process used, the proposed solution remains valuable in environments where service maintenance time is a critical factor.By automating deployment and scaling, organizations can minimize the impact of service maintenance time, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance system resilience. Moreover, the solution enables NFV to be deployed effectively in edge environments, providing benefits such as reduced latency and improved network performance.Overall, this thesis contributes to the advancement of NFV by providing innovative solutions for deployment and management in challenging environments. The proposed framework has the potential to enable the widespread adoption of NFV and drive the development of new network services.Directed by Prof. Laurent SCHUMACHER and Prof. Sokchenda SRENG.In front of a jury composed of:Prof. Wim VANHOOF, President, University of NamurProf. Laurent SCHUMACHER, Co-Promoter, University of NamurProf. Sokchenda SRENG, Co-Promoter, ITC Graduate School (Cambodia)Prof. Florentin ROCHET, Internal Member, University of NamurProf. Johann MARQUEZ-BARJA, External Member, University of AntwerpProf. Bruno QUOITIN, External Member, University of MonsProf. Raveth HIN, External Member, ITC Graduate School (Cambodia)You are cordially invited to a drink, which will follow the public defense.For good organization, please give your answer by Thursday March 20 by means of this link.Contact: Daelman Isabelle - isabelle.daelman@unamur.be
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AI to the Future: User-Centric Innovation and Media Regulation
The workshop will feature:A keynote presentation on public value and AI implementation at VRT.Sessions on discoverability, user agency, and explainability.Discussions on regulation, including perspectives on the AI Act and transparency in media.An interactive session showingcasing AI-driven prototypes.The event will also highlight our project's latest findings. Join us for a day of thought-provoking discussions, knowledge exchange, and networking opportunities!Would you like to attend? Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so register as soon as possible. Registration will close on April 11, 2025.
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Anthony Cleve
A boost for ageing research thanks to a new Collen-Francqui Start-up Grant for Charlotte Beaudart
Charlotte Beaudart, a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine's Department of Biomedical Sciences, has been awarded the Mandat Start-Up Collen-Francqui! A prestigious distinction awarded by the Francqui Foundation to support promising young researchers in the development of their research program.
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Luisa Bastin
Ludovic Ems
Medical Journal Club in Primary Care
An innovative initiative at the heart of primary care in French-speaking Belgium In a bid to bring the academic world closer to the realities of the field, we are pleased to invite you to join our second Medical Journal Club meeting in primary care. Location and frequency of meetingsQuai 22 - UNamur 2x/year What is it? A space for general practitioners, pharmacists and students to meet and discuss scientific literature related to primary care.Objectives of the Journal Club Share and discuss scientific articles relevant to primary care practice in a friendly, caring atmosphere. Strengthen skills in critical reading and evidence-based medicine Create a lasting link between the field and academia Federate an active and committed medical-pharmaceutical communityTarget audienceGeneral practitioners (in practice or in training) Pharmacists Medical students, biomedical sciences and pharmacy Why participate? Because science moves fast, and we all benefit from taking the time to read, understand, and question the literature together. Because quality care starts with shared reflection. And because it's the ideal opportunity to strengthen bridges between disciplines. Interested? Have a question? Want to submit an article? Contact us at:capmg@unamur.beRegistration (free)INAMI accreditation required
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From video games to artificial intelligence, a stopover in Japan
Japan is almost 10,000 kilometers from Belgium, a country that fascinates, not least for its rich culture full of contrasts. Researchers at UNamur maintain close ties with several Japanese institutions, particularly in the fields of computer science, mathematics and video games. Let's take a look at some of these collaborations..
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UNamur's Faculty of Informatics joins the Informatics Europe network
This is great recognition for the excellence of the research carried out at the University of Namur: the Faculty of Informatics has been asked to join the prestigious Informatics Europe network, which brings together the most dynamic departments and faculties of Informatics across Europe.
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Training for training supervisors
Training courses for training supervisors are aimed at GPs who take on students as part of the Master's program in general medicine. The aim of this space is to equip and support GPs in their role as trainers of students in the Master of General Medicine program, while encouraging the sharing of experiences between peers.TrainerFlorence PourtoisTarget audienceGeneral practitioners hosting student internsObjectivesDevelop pedagogical skills linked to clinical supervision and reflective supportFoster constructive exchanges between practitioners around the role of internship supervisorSupport the gradual integration of students into professional practiceConsolidate the partnership between the faculty and the fieldWhy participate?Because training future general practitioners is an essential and rewarding mission. Because acquiring concrete teaching tools makes the role of internship supervisor easier. And because it's an opportunity to exchange ideas with other colleagues facing the same challenges.Participation via registration on the site: http://www.mgformations.be/INAMI accreditation requiredFor further information: capmg@unamur.be
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Public defense of doctoral thesis in computer science - Antoine Gratia
Abstract
Deep learning has become an extremely important technology in numerous domains such as computer vision, natural language processing, and autonomous systems. As neural networks grow in size and complexity to meet the demands of these applications, the cost of designing and training efficient models continues to rise in computation and energy consumption. Neural Architecture Search (NAS) has emerged as a promising solution to automate the design of performant neural networks. However, conventional NAS methods often require evaluating thousands of architectures, making them extremely resource-intensive and environmentally costly.This thesis introduces a novel, energy-aware NAS pipeline that operates at the intersection of Software Engineering and Machine Learning. We present CNNGen, a domain-specific generator for convolutional architectures, combined with performance and energy predictors to drastically reduce the number of architectures that need full training. These predictors are integrated into a multi-objective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), enabling an efficient search for architectures that balance accuracy and energy consumption.Our approach explores a variety of prediction strategies, including sequence-based models, image-based representations, and deep metric learning, to estimate model quality from partial or symbolic representations. We validate our framework across three benchmark datasets, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and Fashion-MNIST, demonstrating that it can produce results comparable to state-of-the-art architectures with significantly lower computational cost. By reducing the environmental footprint of NAS while maintaining high performance, this work contributes to the growing field of Green AI and highlights the value of predictive modelling in scalable and sustainable deep learning workflows.
Jury
Prof. Wim Vanhoof - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Gilles Perrouin - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Benoit Frénay - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Pierre-Yves Schobbens - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Clément Quinton - University of Lille, FranceProf. Paul Temple- University of Rennes, FranceProf. Schin'ichi Satoh - National Institute of Informatics, Japan
The public defense will be followed by a reception.Registration required.
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Research in the Faculty of Medicine
The Faculty of Medicine is equipped with several cross-disciplinary research entities that also rely on collaboration with UCL Godinne University Hospital within the Namur Institute for Life Sciences (Narilis) research institute..
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