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Three themes will be addressed by various experts:The objectification of rurality and shortagewith the participation of AVIQ and IWEPSLevers for changewith examples from doctors in the field, the participation of Communes and the SSMGMedical on-call care in rural areasthe example of Luxembourg, Sivry-Rance and Namur

The design of collective decision-making mechanisms for robot swarms engaged in tasks that require consensus among the robots is a challenging problem in swarm robotics. The complexity of this design problem increases with the number of options and the number of cues that robots have to consider to make a decision. The research work presented in this thesis addresses this challenge by exploring the potential of evolutionary robotics (ER) as a design tool for synthesising neural network controllers that underpin the robots' decision-making process. The main objective is to design individual mechanisms that support the emergence of robust, scalable, and effective collective decision-making strategies while avoiding common assumptions made in previous research. These assumptions include pre-defined correlations between environmental features and robot behaviour or the use of specific opinion formation mechanisms, such as the voter or majority rule, to update opinions.The thesis focuses on two fundamental collective decision-making scenarios: the collective perception scenario and the site selection scenario. The first scenario involves robots collectively identifying the most prevalent element in the environment, represented by the colour covering the largest portion of the arena floor. The second scenario requires the robots to collectively choose the best site among several options based on their quality. The Faculty of Computer Science at UNamur invites you to Ahmed ALMANSOORI's PhD Thesis "On the Evolution of Mechanisms for Collective Decision-making in a Swarm of Robots". Directed by Prof. Elio TUCI.In front of a jury composed of:Prof. Wim VANHOOF, President, University of NamurProf. Elio TUCI, Promoter, University of NamurProf. Patrick HEYMANS, Internal Member, University of NamurProf. Muhanad HAYDER MOHAMMED MOHAMMED, Internal Member, University of NamurProf. Yara KHALUF, External Member, Wageningen University (Netherlands)You are cordially invited to a drink, which will follow the public defense.For good organization, please give your answer by Thursday, October 10 by means of this link.Contact: Notaro Amelie - amelie.notaro@unamur.be

Human beings have always sought to surpass the limits of their bodies. The first prosthetic foot appeared in Egypt in 600 BC. The 13th century saw the appearance of spectacles in Italy. The 17th century saw the development of various "scopes" to enhance vision of the infinitely small and the infinitely large. In the industrial sector, the 19th and 20th centuries saw the development of mechanization and then automation, with the aim of making gestures formerly performed by human hands alone faster and more precise... Not to mention all the progress accumulated over the centuries in medicine and surgery, which are also aimed at repairing or surpassing the natural limits of the human body. We agree that the field is very vast and is part of the long history of mankind... It is therefore important to target what we are talking about when we invoke the terms 'Augmented Man' and to distinguish it, despite the continuity of the project, from the innovations of the past. As philosopher Emmanuelle Perrin-Huisman (2018) points out, to speak of augmentation is first and foremost to take a quantitative rather than a qualitative viewpoint. Augmenting Man, she tells us, "is wanting to increase his longevity, his performance, his power, his power over nature and others." Then, to speak of augmented Man in the 21st century is to target augmentations that rely on nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, computer and cognitive sciences (NBIC) and their increasingly advanced convergence in projects to surpass Man's physical, cognitive or emotional limits. Finally, it also means questioning the imaginaries of immortality and technological Darwinism that are part of transhumanist currents of thought heralding the gradual emergence of a post-human individual. More information

Come and discover the Observatoire Astronomique Antoine Thomas, an observatory built on the very site where the Jesuit fathers established their own observation, training and research dome in the 19th century. Located in downtown Namur, in the heart of the university, our observatory is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, for both night-time and daytime observation, with one of Belgium's largest solar telescopes. A visit to the observatory allows you to discover how astronomy is practiced today and to observe the beauty of our starry sky. Join the list of future visitors today! Each month, we'll be offering a one-hour evening to discover the wonders of the night sky. The dates of the evenings will be communicated to those registered according to weather conditions. To subscribe to the contact list, please fill in the form available on our website. Practical information:Guided tour and observations From 10 years old 20:00 to 21:00 and 21:00 to 22:00 Faculty of Medicine - Place du Palais de Justice, Namur Free - On registration The observatory is not accessible to people with reduced mobility This activity is organized with the support of Wallonie Recherche. Registration

Several sessions are scheduled: November 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 5pm to 7pm. Sign up

Several sessions are scheduled: November 5, 12, 19 and 26 from5pm to 7pm. Sign up

Several sessions are scheduled: November 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 5pm to 7pm. Sign up

Several sessions are scheduled: November 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 5pm to 7pm. Sign up

The early 21st century has seen a reinvigoration of space exploration both by private and state actors that seek to explore, exploit, settle, and own outer space and its celestial bodies.According to scholars and scientists alike, this reinvigoration warrants labeling our time as the "Second Space Age". Key actors of this Second Space Age have framed the exploration and colonization of outer space as not only progressive and desirable, but also as inevitable to ensure the survival of humanity in face of the multiple crises of the Anthropocene (climate change, over/underpopulation, resource scarcity etc.). Within this "astrofuturist" framework, outer space has become a utopian space that allows for a transformative posthuman experience for all of humanity, for humanity's escape from its terrestrial limitations, for breaking with humanity's terrestrial history, and even for human immortality. The way that outer space is a key ingredient for utopian vision of humanity's future highlights that outer space is a cultural construct negotiated in an interplay between science, technology and culture. These "astrocultural objects", which are central to ascribing meaning to outer space and to stirring the collective imagination, underline the cultural embeddedness both of outer space and our practices of exploring it. A critical engagement with space exploration must therefore go beyond questions of mere technological feasibility then, and instead also interrogate, for example, the prevalence of visions Mars colonization as a remedy for climate change, the politics of race/class/gender in privatized outer space, the continuities of capitalist-colonial structures in the private space industry, or the dominance of specifically US-American frontier discourses of renewal and expansion in allegedly utopian visions of humanity's future in space.If the exploration of outer space is to play a key role in humanity's future beyond our planetary crises, the humanities have to play a key role in critically engaging with our visions for that future.Keynote by Jens Temmen (HHU Düsseldorf)Panel: André Füzfa (UNamur)Moderator: Christina Stange-Fayos (UToulouse)Keynote in EnglishContact: UNIVERSEH - universeh@unamur.be More info about UNIVERSEH and the General Meeting

The observations acquired from space and Soviet landers strongly suggest that Venus' crust is primarily basaltic (akin to Earth's oceanic crust). Yet, some of the most intriguing features of Venus are its crustal plateaus, characterized by heavily deformed terrains, which cover about 7% of its surface and have long been suggested to bear a superficial resemblance to Earth's continental crust and mountain ranges.On Earth, melting of the mantle overlying subduction zones (in the presence of hydrous fluids) followed by fractional crystallization is believed to be the primary mechanism generating the large volumes of intermediate to felsic rocks (rich in SiO2) that make up the continental crust (e.g., granites). The possibility that Venus' highland plateaus are dominated by intermediate to felsic rocks will be reevaluated by the EnVision and Veritas missions, in the hope of providing evidence for the presence of water oceans and, therefore, habitable conditions in Venus' distant past.The speaker will discuss alternative igneous processes that could have produced intermediate to felsic rocks on Venus and the "geologic observations" that would be needed to suggest that more hospitable conditions prevailed on early Venus.Keynote by Max Collinet (UNIVERSEH - UNamur)Panel: TBAModerator: Anne-Sophie Libert (UNamur)Keynote in EnglishContact: UNIVERSEH - universeh@unamur.be More info about UNIVERSEH and the General Meeting