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The Namur Digital Institute (NaDI) is launching a series of original events: "Les Séances du Numérique". Films followed by debates with experts to understand digital challenges and stimulate collective thinking. A project spearheaded by Anthony Simonofski, Anne-Sophie Collard, Benoît Vanderose and Fanny Barnabé.

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

BNAIC/BeNeLearn 2025 will be held at the University of Namur under the auspices of the Belgian-Dutch Association for Artificial Intelligence (BNVKI) and the Dutch Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems (SIKS). The conference aims at presenting an overview of state-of-the-art research in artificial intelligence and machine learning in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. More information and registration

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

Trust of traditional political institutions and elected representatives, rise of authoritarian logics, definition of public services... Democracy today seems to be going through a turbulent zone. What role does the university play in this context? To shed light on this question, we interviewed four researchers from different disciplines: educationalist Sephora Boucenna, philosopher Louis Carré, political scientist Vincent Jacquet and legal scholar Aline Nardi. Their contrasting views sketch out the contours of an issue that is more topical than ever: thinking about and defending the link between university and democracy.

Florentin Rochet, a professor of computer security at the University of Namur, specializes in applied cryptography and secure communications. Against the backdrop of rapid advances in artificial intelligence and open-source solutions, he shares his analysis of the current situation and offers his outlook for the future. 

On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, His Majesty the King visited UNamur. In collaboration with Henallux and IMEP, students from the Faculty of Education (FaSEF) led several interactive workshops focused on key issues in education. On the agenda: discussions with His Majesty the King on topics such as inclusion, the diversification of learning, the development of critical thinking in the age of artificial intelligence, challenges facing the education sector, and sustainable development.

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. MSFE (Master of Specialization in Teacher Training) September 16, 2025Welcome session: from 18h10 to 19h10, at B&LC, salle MEUSE, rue Godefroid, 5 - 5000 Namur. All those interested in the program, in the process of registering or already registered are welcome to attend. The MSFE is a 60-credit program, offered on a staggered schedule, mainly on Tuesdays and Thursdays (in the evening) and Saturdays all day. This master's degree of specialization is aimed in particular at future (or current) instructors at Hautes Écoles and Écoles Supérieures des Arts, in charge of UEs linked to didactics, pedagogy and training to and through practice in the master's programs in teaching sections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, who will need to have this diploma within six years of first appointment to a position for which this master's degree is required. It will also be of interest, as part of their professional development, to all teacher trainers in continuing education, whether they carry out their duties within inter-network or network continuing education organizations, or as freelancers.All information on the program Schedule: available at https://horaires.unamur.be, Student/Faculty of Education/MSFE tab Contact : gaelle.chapelle@unamur.be and secretariat.fasef@unamur.be > CAPAES September 16, 2025Reception session: from 7:10pm to 10:10pm, at B&LC, salle SAMBRE, rue Godefroid, 5 - 5000 Namur. The CAPAES is organized in staggered hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays (in the evening). The CAPAES is intended only for teachers working in a haute-école or in social promotion higher education for whom obtaining a pedagogical title appropriate to higher education is a necessity. All information on the program Schedule: available at https://horaires.unamur.be, Student/Faculty of Education/CAPAES tab Contact : gaelle.chapelle@unamur.be and secretariat.fasef@unamur.be > MAPEMASS (Master's degree in professional support) September 16, 2025Welcome session: from 6:10 pm to 9:10 pm, room L33 (Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres building,1 rue Joseph Grafé, 5000 - Namur).All those interested in the program, in the process of enrolling or already enrolled, are welcome to attend.MAPEMASS is a 60-credit program, offered on a staggered schedule, mainly on Tuesdays and Thursdays (in the evening) and Saturdays all day.The Master of Specialization in Support for Professionals in Education, Management, Health and Social Action (MAPEMASS) offers original training and pursues the ambition of offering trainers, team leaders, consultants, HR managers, etc. training in supporting teams and the professionals who make them up. All information on the programSchedule: available on https://horaires.unamur.be, Student/Faculty of Education/MAPEMASS tabContact : sephora.boucenna@unamur.be and secretariat.fasef@unamur.be Masters in Teaching (sections 4 and 5) September 15, 2025from 12:40pm to 2pm, room BN141. 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 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.

As part of the Inforums and CyberExcellence seminars, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Ryan Wails (Georgetown University), who will speak to us about cybersecurity. You will find the abstract of his presentation and his biography below.No registration required.We hope to see many of you at this event!On the Interplay of Modern Traffic Analysis and Internet Censorship & Circumvention TechniquesIn this talk, I will review the current state of real-world Internet censorship and some tools that network users employ to circumvent censorship. Then, I’ll take a forward-looking view on how censors might incorporate modern ML-based traffic analysis techniques to block users, highlighting the need for stronger circumvention tools. Finally, I’ll discuss our new internet censorship evasion technique called Unidentified Protocol Generation (published at USENIX Security 2025), which is capable of evading detection by state-of-the-art traffic analysis.Author bio: Ryan Wails is a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown University studying network privacy and security. He completed his PhD while working at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. This lab is known for originating the Tor network and establishing the PETs research community, which is now among the top international research communities in computer security. Ryan is a core contributor to the Tor project and has published in leading conferences on network simulators, privacy attacks, privacy-preserving measurements, path selection algorithms, censorship circumvention, and website fingerprinting. He has received several international distinctions, including Best Paper awards at top conferences and recognition at community events for his contributions.

On May 13, the software engineering project presentations (known as the MDL project) were held before a panel consisting of coaches and external clients who had come for the occasion. Through the seven projects presented this year, the students were able to showcase their work and explain how they collaborated with their clients to successfully complete their development projects.