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).
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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).
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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).
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Preparing the ground. Gestures, supports and discourses of exploratory work in literature and film
The colloquium will be held on Tuesday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at the University of Namur (Belgium). Proposals for papers (programmatic title and abstract of 500 signs, followed by a biobibliography) can be sent by November 15, 2024 to Jean-Benoit.Gabriel@unamur.be and Denis.Saint-Amand@unamur.be.
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Public Defense of a Doctoral Dissertation in Philosophy - Vivien Giet
This dissertation proposes to analyze the transformation of subjectivation and the revolutionary event through the works of Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze.Methodologically, the aim is less to compare these two authors or to postulate the existence of a shared thought than to create a “collage,” in the sense proposed in Difference and Repetition, in order to highlight and bring into tension disparate elements through juxtaposition.On a theoretical level, the challenge is to account for the ruptures with causal and signifying chains that revolutionary moments reveal. From this perspective, we extend the Deleuze-Guattarian idea of the “utopia of immanence.” Developed during a fleeting convergence with the Frankfurt School, it situates revolutionary politics in a non-place: outside of stratifications and in opposition to social formations. Driven by a Benjaminian impulse, this notion is unfolded in its negative dimension.In turn, the tradition of the oppressed is drawn onto this plane of immanence. Far from establishing subterranean continuities between established minorities, it consists in the exploration of a field of ruins from which it becomes possible to break with culture and humanity frozen into monumental forms.The JuryProf. Louis CARRÉ (Chair), UNamurProf. Sébastien LAOUREUX (Advisor, Secretary), UNamurProf. Éric ALLIEZ (Co-advisor), University of Paris 8Prof. Jacques-Olivier BÉGOT, University of RennesProf. Maud HAGELSTEIN, ULiègeProf. Frédéric RAMBEAU, University of Paris 8You are cordially invited to attend this defense.The announcement of the results will be followed by a reception in the Academic Hall.
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The Political Archives of Contemporary History
HISTAR Doctoral School Day - Program
10:00 a.m. | Lecture: The Hidden Side of Political Archives in Belgium By Marie-Laurence Dubois, CEO of Valorescence2:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Roundtable: Political Archives and Democratic ChallengesWith:Jean Faniel (CRISP)Marie-Laurence Dubois (Aksoni)Odile Gaultier-Voituron (Sciences Po Paris)Marie-Cerise Fivet (Citizenship and Participation)Joffrey Lienart (Emile Vandervelde Institute)
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Public Defense of a Doctoral Dissertation in Languages, Literature, and Translation Studies - Clara Lombart
Abstract
When we communicate, we constantly adapt the way we speak so that we can be understood. The goal is to avoid overwhelming our conversation partner with too much new information, while also avoiding the unnecessary repetition of information they already know. In this context, certain pieces of information are highlighted in speech because they are considered new or important to the listener.This thesis focuses specifically on how we emphasize this type of information in conversation. It aims to understand how these mechanisms work, both in a spoken language (taking gestures into account as well), French, and in a sign language, LSFB. What methods are used? How often? And how are they employed in conversation?The presentation will be delivered in three languages: LSFB, French, and English.
Jury
Prof. Lieven VANDELANOTTE (Chair), UNamurProf. Laurence MEURANT (Advisor), FNRS – UNamurProf. Kathy HUET (Co-advisor), UMonsDr. Jorina BRYSBAERT, FNRS – UCLouvainProf. Véronique DELVAUX, FNRS – UMonsProf. Gaëlle FERRÉ, University of PoitiersProf. Pilar PRIETO VIVES, Pompeu Fabra UniversityDr. Anna PUUPPONEN, University of JyväskyläYou are cordially invited to attend this defense.The announcement will be followed by a reception in the Academic Hall.
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Autism in 2026: The (Almost) Invisible Differences in Our Families and Practices. An Update.
In 2026, what do we really know about the subtle, late-onset, or masked forms of autism?How can we better recognize them without overinterpreting them?And above all: what concrete steps can we take in our daily practice?This lecture offers a clear, rigorous, and nuanced overview.Drawing on clinical cases, concrete examples, and recent data, Dr. Grosjean will address:• the so-called “invisible” or compensated forms of autism•diagnostic challenges in adults and atypicaltrajectories• frequent misdiagnoses with other disorders•implications for families and professionals👉 A lecture to encourage new ways of thinking, refine one’s perspective, and avoid oversimplifications.🎟 Free admission (maximum 130 people)✉ Contact: martin.desseilles@unamur.be📜 Accreditation required for physiciansThis event is organized in collaboration with UNamur, the University Hospital of Liège, and the University of Liège.
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Pan-Africanism: A Project of Liberation Between Memory and Modernity
Following the luncheon discussion on the legacies and reinventions of Pan-Africanism, a central question emerged: how can the Pan-African project be revitalized without freezing it into a closed identity or dissolving it into mere cultural or symbolic discourse?The lecture by Amzat Boukari Yabara, a historian and leading thinker on contemporary Pan-African dynamics, is a direct extension of these discussions. This session will delve deeper into the ongoing debates by examining the continuities and ruptures between the Pan-Africanism of the anti-colonial struggles and the challenges of the 21st century.Far from a nostalgic celebration or an identity-based Afro-radicalism, the aim is to conceive of Pan-Africanism as a political, intellectual, and ethical project capable of articulating memory, creation, and the future. How can we rebuild Pan-African solidarities without repeating the dead-ends of the past?This conference is intended to be a key moment of clarification and forward-looking discussion, building on the reflections from the lunch-debate to open a space for thought oriented toward action, innovation, and historical responsibility.
Free admission - Reservations recommended
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Public Defense of a Doctoral Dissertation in Computer Science - Thibaut Septon
The past decade has seen the release of numerous mixed reality headsets. Some are aimed at casual recreational use (for example, the Meta Quest 3), while others are marketed as next-generation computing platforms (for example, the Apple Vision Pro). As these devices become integrated into our daily lives, they are redefining the way we—as human beings—interact with them.Their nature differs significantly from traditional computing devices (e.g., computers or smartphones), introducing multiple paradigm shifts driven by several factors. On the one hand, they integrate and democratize various sensors that enable the use of gaze, hand gestures, and speech as means of interaction, thereby serving as effective vectors for the adoption of multimodal user interfaces. On the other hand, their portable nature implies continuous contextual changes that fundamentally alter interface design and redefine human-computer interaction as their use becomes ubiquitous.To better understand such systems, this research is divided into three areas. First, we immerse users in a deliberately constructed pervasive environment to explore their perceptions while examining their attitudes toward managing intrusive content through manual interventions, thereby highlighting needs emerging from such contexts. Second, we explore new communication channels by leveraging metaphors and designing interaction techniques that use multiple modalities to enable more natural communication, thereby addressing the needs arising from pervasive use. Finally, after designing multimodal interaction techniques, we examine the technical requirements and review existing tools that support the development of multimodal user interfaces, identify the limitations of some of these tools, and address them by introducing a new tool called Ummi.Through these three complementary perspectives, this thesis addresses six research questions and contributes to the fields of mixed reality and multimodal interaction.The juryProf. Vincent Englebert - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Bruno Dumas - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Xavier Devroey - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Marcos Serrano - University of Toulouse, FranceProf. Denis Lalanne - University of Fribourg, SwitzerlandFree event; registration required.
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International Conference - Memory(ies) and Political Competition in the Roman World (3rd century BC - 4th century AD)
The study of memory phenomena in ancient societies has been a growing field of research since the 1990s, and has been particularly dynamic over the last decade. Awareness of the impact of memory, due to its plasticity, on social and political actors in the ancient world opens up new perspectives for analyzing attested phenomena and events. The conference proposes to study the use of memory and its specific dynamics in the context of political competition, in various spheres and covering a broad chronological framework, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD, with the aim of encouraging dialogue between respective specialists.Organizers: Simon Lambert (F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow), Pierre Assenmaker (Professor, UNamur), and Françoise Van Haeperen (Full Professor, UCLouvain)Information and registration: simon.lambert@unamur.be
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Conference - The elimination of unemployment benefits: What are the impacts and what recourse is available?
Program and speakers
Explanation of the reform - Mr. La TorreMain changes relating to the abolition of unemployment benefits and their implementation. The standstill obligation - S. RemouchampsLegal and constitutional analysis of the reform in light of the principle of non-regression.Judicial perspective on the reform - Mr. SimonOverview of certain contentious issues and possible avenues of appeal for citizens deprived of their rights.Right to RIS and/or social assistance - A. MichelThe process of submitting an application to the CPAS.
Registrations
Registration is required via https://www.ajn.be (payment confirms registration).Advance registration fee (payment by January 23, 2026): €40 (€20 for trainee lawyers)Standard price for payments received after January 23, 2026: €50 (€25 for trainee lawyers)Free for students (enter a student email address or send a copy of your student card)Payment to bank account BE16 6301 8124 6074 - AJN AsblReference: "29-01-2026 + participant's name."Accreditation request pending for IFJ, OBFG, and IJE. Further information: ajn@unamur.be.
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