Event

Francqui 2025 Chair - Explainable Software Engineering

English versionIn the context of an international Chaire Francqui 2024-2025, the Faculty of Computer Science (UNamur) has the honor to receive Professor Arie Van Deursen (TU Delft, Netherlands ) from the 24th to the 27st of March, for a series of lectures on the theme of: “ Explainable Software Engineering ”.The inaugural lecture, entitled “Explainable Software Engineering in the Public Sector”, will be held on the 25th of March 2025, at 6pm at PA02 (Sentier Thomas, 5000 – Namur).French versionAs part of an international Francqui Chair 2024-2025, the Faculty of Computer Science (UNamur) will have the pleasure of welcoming Professor Arie Van Deursen (TU Delft, Netherlands) from March 24 to 27, 2025, for a series of lessons on the theme: "Explainable Software Engineering".The inaugural lesson, entitled "Explainable Software Engineering in the Public Sector", will take place on Tuesday March 25, 2025 at 6:00 pm at PA02 (Sentier Thomas, 5000 - Namur). Explainable Software Engineering in the Public Sector The field of software engineering seeks to devise theories, methods, tools, and techniques that support the development, operation, and evolution of the digital infrastructure modern society relies on. While the software engineering capabilities have advanced substantially over the past decades, it remains challenging to deliver high quality systems in a timely and cost-effective manner. Government system in particular have a weak reputation in this respect.To better understand why, we analyze 125 complex software projects in the public sector in The Netherlands. The projects are described in public reports published by the Advisory Council on IT Assessments (AcICT), which advises the Dutch parliament and cabinet on riks and chances of success in complex Information Technology (IT) projects. The projects span a time period of 10 years, represent a total budget of over 14 billion Euros, and cover such areas as tax collection, social security, pensions, health, traffic control, defense, or water management.We study these reports through the lens of "explainability", focusing on supporting decision making. Furthermore, we reflect on current advances in software engineering, including modern software testing and large language models, in addressing current software engineering challenges. Program INAUGURAL LECTURE: Explainable Software Engineering in the Public Sector - Tuesday 25/03 - 18:00-19:00 - PA02 SESSION 1: Architectural decision making in software engineering - Monday 24/03 - 10:30-12:30 - I33SESSION 2 : Tests as executable explanations - Tuesday 25/03 - 14:00-16:00 - I33SESSION 3: Technical debt, test smells, legacy systems - Wednesday 26/03 - 14:00-16:00 - I33SESSION 4: Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering - Thursday 27/03 - 10:30-12:30 - I33 About the speaker Arie van Deursen is a professor at Delft University of Technology, where he leads the Software Engineering Research Group. His research interests include software testing, language models for code, trustworthy artificial intelligence, and human aspects of software engineering. He presently serves as chair of the Steering Commmittee of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE).He is a member of the Dutch Advisory Council on IT Assessments (AcICT), as well as a member of the Advisory Board of ING Bank The Netherlands. In 2023, he was elected fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE). Read more Register for the event
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Marc Romainville: Learning to think right by discovering why we think wrong

In a digital context where fake news and other "alternative truths" abound and spread frantically, how can we educate to doubt? That's the question answered by pedagogy expert Professor Marc Romainville. He shows how schools must appropriate this central mission to shape tomorrow's citizen.
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Towards a new generation of human-inspired linguistic models: a groundbreaking scientific study conducted by UNamur and VUB

Can a computer learn a language like a child? A recent study published in the leading journal Computational Linguistics by Professors Katrien Beuls (Université de Namur) and Paul Van Eecke (AI-lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) sheds new light on this question. The researchers argue for a fundamental revision of the way artificial intelligence acquires and processes language.
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Event

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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MOSI, from word to sign: a bilingual reading aid from French to Langue des signes de Belgique francophone (LSFB)

Instantly obtain a translation in sign language (LSFB) of a word written in French: that's what MOSI (Du mot au signe) makes possible. This new tool is the fruit of a collaboration between the University of Namur, the asbl École et Surdité and the asbl LSFB, supported by the King Baudouin Foundation.
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Projects - Pacte pour un Enseignement d'Excellence

Our research activities are divided into 3 main areas.
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Scientific Consortium

Since 2017 and as part of the work of the Pacte pour un Enseignement d'excellence, eight scientific "Consortiums" of the tronc commun have been formed. They bring together a total of some fifty members from the various universities, colleges and higher arts schools in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Their mission is to establish, on the e-classe digital platform, a repertoire of didactic tools and pedagogical devices that the educational community will be able to consult, select and procure easily, according to its needs and those of its students. These resources are available on the e-classe digital platform.
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Study day - May 14, 2019

How can we successfully meet the challenge of a common, ambitious, multi-disciplinary training program that prepares students for the world of tomorrow?The challenge of a common, ambitious, multi-disciplinary training program that prepares students for the world of tomorrow.
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Event

CSLabs Hackathon

A Hackathon is a short event where teams reflect on a particular theme. They attempt to find solutions by developing innovative projects. At the end of the event, a jury determines which projects have caught their attention and thus won the competition. A CSLabs initiative The Computer Science Labs is a junior enterprise that grew out of the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Namur. In practical terms, its actions revolve around carrying out projects, training members on IT-related topics and organizing events. Read more
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The p.ART.cour(t)s

A collection of tools to make it easier for teachers to set up cultural and artistic education activities in nursery, primary and secondary schools, to build confidence and the desire to dare.A p.ART.cour(t)? ART... Step by step... A p.ART.cour(t) is a series of introductory sessions built around a common thread. Each session lasts from fifteen minutes to two hours. Some p.ART.cour(t)s focus on a particular technique or theme... Others are built around a standard session to be reproduced on a regular basis. Some cover one or more artistic disciplines, while others are truly interdisciplinary.A p.ART.cour(t) is first and foremost a starting point, an aid, a proposal, a trigger for the teacher. It is a source of inspiration or imitation, of appropriation to freely create and/or experiment with activities in cultural and artistic education. The p.ART.cour(t) can take the form of a PDF or a digital book. Sometimes, an illustrative video or sound tracks accompany the teaching pack. The aim of p.ART.cour(t)s is to enable every student to experience art. To live, to feel, to experiment, without the pressure or obligation to produce a predefined result or one that corresponds to a standard. Consequently, the emphasis throughout p.ART.cour(t) is on the discovery, the student's encounter with art. The p.ART.cour(t)s in pictures Teacher feedbackThank you for the experience, on my own I wouldn't have dared.... And the students really enjoyed the experience, I think. (1st differentiated)Interesting interdisciplinary project. Sequences linked together so real class project. (P5-P6)My students loved it when I told them we were going to make, discover ART. We became artists. They sometimes asked me when we were going to make art again! (P1-P2) Children's feedbackI enjoyed it because the point of it wasn't to be the best, but it was more about having fun.I learned to have confidence in myself, to be less shy.How to access it?All the p.ART.cour(t)s, and many other identified existing resources, can be found on www.e-classe.be.If you're an FWB teacher (and have a cerberus account), you can access them easily: just go to the platform and type the word P.ART.cour(t) (with its funny spelling) into the search bar, you'll then arrive in a folder that brings them all together. If you're not a teacher, don't panic! You can access them via the brochure. How do I do this? In the brochure, each p.ART.cour(t) is briefly presented. You can access the free online tool by clicking on the title of the p.ART.cour(t) via a direct link. Access to a video is also found behind the icon. Discover the brochure A few examples RAS... Répertoire d'artistes surprenantes (to be discovered end of August 2025)A (re)discovery of 50 Belgian women artists through their biographies, a focus on a representative work, names of related artists to discover and educational leads. Remue-ménage colors (M2-P2)Four workshops to explore color in movement, painting and music. Read more For my ears (P5-S2)A month of musical listening, presented in the form of a digital booklet with information and listening links. Each day of the week has its own theme. Read more In the footsteps of silent cinema (P3-S3)Students create burlesque films, from script to editing to acting, after an introduction to early cinema and viewing film clips. Read more The game of artistic families (P4-S3)Inspired by the game of seven families, this device, whose illustrations are images of works of art, invites the student to select a batch of cards and explain the reasons for this subjective choice. Read more The technolab, a creative place within the school (P3-S3)Thirty or so artists and their techniques are to be discovered (e.g. pyrography for wood, textile printing, ...) as well as how fablabs work and the various tools these places offer to transfer their practices to the classroom as part of ECA and FMTTN. A creative and accessible lead is given for each artist presented. Read more Other examples elsewhere Ma petite fabrique de matériel (M-S2) Make basic art materials (charcoal, walnut stain, glue, paint...) on a small budget and suggest ways to use them. From ingredients to final production! Content available on E-class and idea networkLet's animate everything (P3-S3) Collaborative production of short animated films using the Stop Motion technique. A fun tool for developing creativity and awakening a critical eye for the media. Content available on E-class and PECATake the line for a spin (M3-P3) Workshops mixing dance and visual arts around the notion of line. Themes include geometry, doodling, writing, Chinese calligraphy, pattern and following the line.Content available on E-class and PECAOur five skins (M1-M3)Ten activities to be experienced in the classroom or outdoors around the 5 layers of a child's identity according to Hundertwasser: body, clothes, home, family and friends, and planet. Discovery of the world, openness to others and diversity, cultural references.Content available on E-class and Réseau idéeGestural listening (M1-)P.ART.cour(t) listening program comprising around ten short musical extracts, and played mainly by a solo instrument (which also enables instrument discovery). The excerpts on offer last between 40 seconds and 2 minutes, and have been designed to serve gestural listening.Content available on Genially and the IMEP
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With AI, it's all about putting the user in control

For Bruno Dumas, computer science fits in with the principles of applied psychology Artificial intelligence (AI) is interfering in our professional as well as our private lives. It both seduces and worries us. On a global scale, it is at the heart of major strategic, societal or economic issues, still being debated in mid-February 2025, at the AI World Summit in Paris. But how can we, as users, avoid being subjected to it? How can we gain access to the necessary transparency of its workings? By placing his research prism on the user's side, Bruno Dumas is something of a "computer psychologist". An expert in human-computer interaction, co-president of the NaDI Institute (Namur Digital Institute), he defends the idea of a reasoned and enlightened use of emerging technologies.
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Our training courses

Our training center offers a wide range of training courses for teaching and support professionals.The training courses we offer are created on the basis of emerging needs in the field, our research findings and recent scientific literature updating promising practices for professionals.
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