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September 14, 2026 What's on the schedule for everyone9:00 a.m. | Welcome at Pedro Arrupe, Rue de Bruxelles 67, 5000 Namur9:30 a.m. | Ceremony at Pedro Arrupe 11:00 a.m. | Back-to-school celebration at Saint-Loup Church—to be confirmed, rue du Collège, 5000 Namur—followed by a welcome for students by the student clubs. Today's Rates September 15For Block 1 (Room I02)* - Welcome Session10:40 a.m.: Introduction by the Dean/Associate Dean (Anthony Cleve - Marie-Ange Remiche)11:10 a.m.: Introduction by the academic advisor (Géraldine Grandjean)11:30 a.m.: Introduction by the Academic Coordinator (Fanny Boraita)11:50 a.m.: Introduction to the Student Services Office (Cédric Aerts)12:10 p.m.: Introduction to CSLabs (Hugo Raskin) For students in the first 60 credits of the bachelor’s program (first-year students only*) – Room I022:00 p.m.: Introductory session for the English courseAttendance at these sessions is mandatory.For UES** students and new Master’s students (Room I30) – Welcome session2:00 p.m.: Introduction by the Dean/Associate Dean (Anthony Cleve – Marie-Ange Remiche)2:30 p.m.: Introduction by the academic advisor (Géraldine Grandjean)2:50 p.m.: Introduction by the Academic Coordinator (Fanny Boraita)3:10 p.m.: Introduction to the Student Services Office (Cédric Aerts)3:30 p.m.: Introduction to CSLabs (Hugo Raskin) September 16 For Block 1 (Room to be determined—check the schedule)*8:30 a.m.: Mathematical Foundations for Computer Science course (M. De Vleeschouwer)Attendance at this session is mandatoryFor all students: Classes begin (see schedule)Information session and PAE setupSeptember 18: Bachelor’s Program, Block 1 (non-first-year students): 1:00–2:00 p.m. – Academic HallSeptember 17: Bachelor’s Program, Blocks 2 and 3: 1:00–2:00 p.m. – Academic HallSeptember 16: MA1 and UES (non-first-year students): 1:00–2:00 p.m. in I30* First-time students: Students enrolled for the first time in a computer science program at UNamur, whether they are coming from high school, a college, another university, or are enrolled in a staggered-schedule program. ** UES: Additional course units for the master’s program (bridge year) Staggered-Schedule Classes Bachelor's and Master's 60Saturday, September 12—Classes BeginFor First-Year Students (Block 1 and UES):9:00 a.m.: Presentations in Room I02 by the Associate Dean, Ms. Marie-Ange REMICHE; the academic advisor, Ms. Géraldine GRANDJEAN; and the IT coordinator, Mr. Cédric AERTS. Lecture Hall I02 (ground floor of the School of Computer Science). Attendance at this session is mandatory. The presentation from the orientation session will be posted on the BVE afterward.10:00 a.m.: Classes begin for all students Specialized Master's Degree in Computer Science and Innovation: Business Analysis and IT Governance For students who need to take prerequisite coursesFriday, September 18, at 9:00 a.m., Seminar Room I22 on the 2nd floor of the Faculty building.For all new studentsClasses begin on Saturday, October 16, in the academic hall on the 4th floor of the School of Computer Science, starting at 8:30 a.m. And before school starts? Give yourself the best possible chance—enroll in preparatory courses!Preparatory courses allow you to get a taste of university-level education by reviewing the subjects essential to your future program of study.Designed exclusively for students graduating in 2026, these preparatory courses—scheduled between mid-August and early September—are tailored to each university program.Learn more about the schedules for the different sessions and register for the preparatory courses...  To make the most of your first semester at the university, be sure to attend the orientation days!The orientation days will take place on September 10 and 11, 2026.On the agenda: a tour of the campus and the city, a student housing fair (KàPs), themed workshops (student rights, digital tools, budgeting, student engagement, sports, and more), a barbecue, and a super-enthusiastic team ready to help you discover life on campus!Thursday, September 10: 7:30 a.m. – Student check-in; 8:30 a.m.–12:40 p.m. - Workshops for students; 12:40 p.m. – Lunch – Barbecue available by registration (€3.60 per sausage sandwich / falafel sandwich) and a bar run by the AGE; 2:00–6:00 p.m. - Project-based student housing fair; 8:30 p.m.–1:00 a.m. – Bunker reserved for first-year studentsFriday, the 11th: 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. - Workshops for students; 12:30 p.m. - Lunch; 2:00 p.m. - Depending on the faculty: organized by the faculty or open to all.Reserved for new students - Information will be sent after registration at UNamur.   

How can anomaly detection on a production line be improved? It was in response to a very concrete problem encountered at the company where he works that Arnaud Bougaham, with the support of his employer, decided to devote his thesis to this topic at the UNamur School of Computer Science. The goal? To develop an artificial intelligence model that assists operators in detecting anomalies on an industrial production line by reducing false alarms and making the diagnosis easier to understand. This approach also holds promise for deployment in the medical field. 

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Abstract  The design of a content-aware urban traffic management and monitoring system based on a swarm of drones is a challenging problem due to real-time data processing, multi-agent coordination, and decision-making under dynamic conditions. The complexity of this design problem increases with the number of options and the number of cues that traffic controllers must consider when making a decision. The research presented in this thesis addresses this challenge by exploring the potential of swarm intelligence and reinforcement learning-based controllers as design tools for developing adaptive, content-aware decision-making mechanisms for urban traffic management and monitoring using a swarm of drones. The main objective is to design distributed control mechanisms that support the emergence of robust, scalable, and effective autonomous traffic monitoring and management, while proposing and evaluating alternative solutions compared to previous research. In particular, we propose alternative approaches to elements such as the use of predefined correlations between traffic dynamics and driving characteristics, as well as the use of fixed monitoring mechanisms—such as cameras or radar sensors—combined with fixed control strategies.With regard to traffic monitoring, this thesis focuses on the evaluation of swarms of drones for traffic data collection. With regard to traffic management, this thesis focuses on the evaluation of two traffic control methodologies applied to three different urban scenarios. The control methodologies are: the centralized Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) and the decentralized Deep Q-Network (DQN). Briefly, in the former method, the agents operating on traffic collectively evaluate the effects of their actions on traffic quality to update their decision-making policy. The latter method requires agents managing traffic to collectively select the best action from among several alternatives based on the estimated quality of those actions.In the centralized SPSA controller, we investigate both single- and multi-agent intersection maps using a cell transition traffic model (CTM) to simulate traffic. The experimental results indicate that the proposed drone-based traffic controller can successfully mitigate traffic jams and coordinate the swarm of drones, despite constraints on individual exploration and limited communications at a single urban intersection. However, in multi-urban intersections, reducing traffic in one direction inevitably creates traffic problems in other parts of the road network due to a lack of coordination among agents managing traffic. The study also highlights the trade-off between adjacent intersections in the traffic pattern, where limiting communication can improve the swarm’s adaptability to changes. The evolved optimization controllers outperform traditional mechanisms—such as fixed traffic timing—in terms of accuracy, speed of convergence, varying vehicle input rates, and variations in the traffic model.In the second scenario, we first evaluate the performance of a centralized SPSA controller under realistic traffic dynamics using the Vissim simulator to simulate road traffic, rather than the CTM model. The aim is to evaluate the controller’s robustness against external disturbances arising from heterogeneous driving behavior. Next, we design and analyze a decentralized DQN controller for a multi-agent intersection map using the Vissim simulator. In this scenario, we extend the investigation to a more complex task in which drones must collectively transfer the collected data between intersections, and each agent selects its timing action based on both its own traffic data and information shared by other agents. The evolved drone-based DQN controllers enable the traffic units to learn about perceptual driving behavior and external disturbances from the Vissim traffic model. The results demonstrate the robustness and scalability of the evolved strategy under various conditions, including different initial conditions and driving behaviors. The swarm of drones also demonstrates adaptability to changes in traffic conditions, although this adaptability depends on the specific nature of the traffic dynamics and the information shared by other agents in the decision-making process.In the final scenario, we investigate multi-intersection traffic control on a simulated real map of the Belgian city of Namur, using a decentralized Deep Q-Network controller for traffic management and a swarm of drones for monitoring. The traffic model incorporates realistic features such as vehicle acceleration and deceleration, lane-changing behavior, and heterogeneous vehicle types. External disturbances, including parking events and pedestrian crossings, are also considered. The results demonstrate that the proposed autonomous traffic management and monitoring system is robust against disturbances and scalable to real urban areas. The study also highlights the effect of using a swarm of drones for data monitoring, compared to the same control strategy employing fixed cameras, in terms of convergence performance.In conclusion, this thesis contributes to the field of intelligent traffic management and monitoring by evaluating the potential of a swarm of drones as an effective tool for designing adaptive and coordinated traffic control and monitoring mechanisms. In the scenario under consideration, the results indicate that drone-based traffic controllers outperform conventional fixed-time traffic control and fixed-camera monitoring systems in terms of robustness, scalability, and adaptability. The findings of this research have implications for developing more resilient and autonomous drone-based traffic management systems capable of making informed collective decisions in complex and dynamic urban environments. Jury Prof. Elio Tuci - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Laurent Schumacher - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Marie-Ange Remiche - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Alexandre Mauroy - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Seyed Amir Tafrishi - University of Cardiff, UKProf. Ahmad Fakharian - Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran Sign me up

Researchers at UNamur have developed a new method that has uncovered 32 previously undetected bugs in some of the most widely used software libraries for training artificial intelligence models. Originating from a master’s thesis, this research has already led to fixes in several software programs used by millions of developers around the world. 

September 15, 2025 A program for all09h00 | Welcome at Pedro Arrupe (Rue de Bruxelles, 67 - 5000 Namur).11h00 | Back-to-school celebration at Saint-Aubain Cathedral (Place Saint-Aubain - 5000 Namur) then welcome students by the Cercles. First year bachelor Monday, September 15 - 2pm-3pm - VAUBAN auditorium : Welcome address Introduction to the various departments of the faculty Bachelor of Medicine 3pm - VAUBAN auditorium : Information session for students of the 1st Bachelor of Medicine by the Director of the Department of Medicine, Pr. Grégoire Wieërs. Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences 3pm - auditorium PA01 (Pedro Arrupe) : Information session for students of the 1st Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences by the pedagogical coordinator in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mr. Romain Siriez. Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences 3pm - auditorium PA02 (Pedro Arrupe) : Information session for students of the 1st Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences by the Department Director in Biomedical Sciences, Prof. Jean-Pierre Gillet. Attendance at these sessions is compulsory. A student guide will be available on the Bureau Virtuel de l'Etudiant (BVE). From (date to be confirmed), classes resume according to a specific timetable (the 1st quadrimester timetable will be posted at the valves on September 9). Practical work (TP/TD) does not start for 2 weeks, timetables and groups will be posted in due course.All information concerning course timetables, TP/TD, EAP configuration, exemption requests, registration for isolated courses can be found on the Webcampus. Via the MEDINFO course (search in "All courses")Course salesA course sales schedule will be available on your Virtual Student Office (VSO): bookstores will be open to all from the start of the school year. Le guide de l'étudiant Ce guide de l'étudiant comporte toutes les informations pratiques et utiles en début d’année académique.  Il vous accompagnera tout au long de l'année. Consultez le guide l'étudiant (Genially) Deux sessions pour vous préparer au concours L’accès aux études de médecine est notamment conditionné au classement en ordre utile  lors du concours d’entrée unique pour l’ensemble des universités de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Ces sessions sont ouvertes à tous, mais s'adressent en particulier aux élèves qui ont fait le choix d'un programme de sciences générales dans l'enseignement secondaire. Elles constituent une aide précieuse dans la préparation des différentes matières inscrites au programme du concours, mais nécessitent un réel investissement personnel.En savoir plus sur les cours préparatoires au concours d'entrée en médecine...Pharmacie et en Sciences biomédicalesMettez tous les atouts de votre côté !  Cours préparatoires en août 2026 (dates à confirmer).En savoir plus sur les horaires des différentes sessions et s'inscrire aux cours préparatoires... And before school starts? Give yourself the best possible chance—enroll in preparatory courses!Preparatory courses allow you to get a taste of university-level education by reviewing the subjects essential to your future program of study.Designed exclusively for students graduating in 2026, these preparatory courses—scheduled between mid-August and early September—are tailored to each university program.Learn more about the schedules for the different sessions and register for the preparatory courses...  To make the most of your first semester at the university, be sure to attend the orientation days!The orientation days will take place on September 10 and 11, 2026.On the agenda: a tour of the campus and the city, a student housing fair (KàPs), themed workshops (student rights, digital tools, budgeting, student engagement, sports, and more), a barbecue, and a super-enthusiastic team ready to help you discover life on campus!Thursday, September 10: 7:30 a.m. – Student check-in; 8:30 a.m.–12:40 p.m. - Workshops for students; 12:40 p.m. – Lunch – Barbecue available by registration (€3.60 per sausage sandwich / falafel sandwich) and a bar run by the AGE; 2:00–6:00 p.m. - Project-based student housing fair; 8:30 p.m.–1:00 a.m. – Bunker reserved for first-year studentsFriday, the 11th: 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. - Workshops for students; 12:30 p.m. - Lunch; 2:00 p.m. - Depending on the faculty: organized by the faculty or open to all.Reserved for new students - Information will be sent after registration at UNamur.   

By offering several modules to students in healthcare training programs that focus on learning through play, the University of Namur’s Faculty of Medicine is setting itself apart in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. These methods, which educational coordinator Hélène Givron explored in her dissertation, place communication at the heart of the learning process.

AbstractPopulation aging is accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, including tauopathies. This family of diseases, which includes Alzheimer’s disease, is characterized by the mislocalization, hyperphosphorylation, and accumulation of the tau protein in a pathological form, leading to neuronal dysfunction and ultimately neuronal death within the central nervous system. Numerous studies conducted in humans and in various animal models have demonstrated an association between repeated head trauma and the development of a specific tauopathy, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This progressive neurodegenerative disease is attributed to repeated exposure to impacts to the head that generate acceleration-deceleration forces in the brain.Although the brain and spinal cord share many cellular and tissue characteristics, the consequences of spinal cord trauma on the development of tauopathies remain largely unexplored. To investigate this question, a new mouse model of repeated mild spinal cord trauma was developed in the PS19 mouse, a transgenic model of tauopathy that replicates several characteristics of frontotemporal dementia. Two low-intensity spinal cord contusions (30 kDynes), administered three weeks apart, were performed at two months of age to assess their impact on the long-term progression of the disease.Although these injuries induce neither immediate clinical deficits, nor detectable tissue lesions, nor neuronal loss, they elicit a marked glial response as well as neuronal and axonal damage, as evidenced by increased circulating concentrations of neurofilament light chains. Longitudinal follow-up of the animals revealed an earlier onset of motor and sensory deficits, associated with an accelerated decline in their overall health.In the short term (3.5 months), no worsening of tauopathy was observed. However, at 6.5 months of age, a significant increase in the density of hyperphosphorylated forms of tau, detected by the pTau(Ser202/Thr205) and pTau(Ser422) antibodies, was observed near the epicenter of the lesion in the contusion-injured animals. By 9 months, this exacerbation of the pathology had spread along the rostral-caudal axis, between spinal cord segments C2 and C7, as well as to the thalamus. Although spinal cord injuries did not alter Tau protein aggregation, in vitro analyses showed that the insoluble protein fraction extracted from the spinal cord of contusion-injured animals possessed greater recruitment capacity.Although no direct causal link could be established, histological, biochemical, and transcriptomic analyses suggest the involvement of microglia, type I interferon signaling, and the p38 MAP kinase pathway in stimulating Tau hyperphosphorylation.Taken together, these results highlight a previously largely underestimated role of mild spinal cord injuries as a factor promoting the development and progression of tauopathies. They also reinforce existing literature suggesting that neuroinflammation—and more specifically, microglial activation and type I interferon signaling—contributes to the progression of these diseases. Finally, this study underscores the importance of long-term follow-up for individuals exposed to spinal cord injuries—even mild ones—due to the potential increased risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases involving the Tau protein.JuryProf. Pascal KIENLEN-CAMPARD (UCLouvain)Prof. Karelle LEROY (ULB)Prof. Aurélie LADANG (ULiège)Prof. Charles NICAISE (UNamur)Prof. Patsy RENARD (UNamur), ChairProf. Laurence RIS (UMons)

What's on the agenda for everyone 9:00 a.m. | Welcome reception at the Pedro Arrupe, Rue de Bruxelles 67, 5000 Namur9:30 a.m. | Ceremony at the Espace Pedro Arrupe 11:00 a.m. | Back-to-School Celebration at Saint-Loup Church—to be confirmed, Rue du Collège, 5000 Namur—followed by a welcome for students by the student clubs.Other specific activities for this day are available on each faculty’s webpage. More information on the Back-to-School page