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Stanford University has published a prestigious ranking that highlights the most influential researchers in a wide range of scientific fields. The list, based on bibliographic criteria, aims to provide a standardized means of identifying the world's scientific leaders. It is one criterion among others for assessing the quality of scientific research. Twelve researchers from the University of Namur are among them!

A delegation from the Université de Namur took part in an exploratory mission to the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal. The aim: to discover the research carried out in the field, meet UCAD researchers and initiate future collaborations between the two institutions.

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.

Can we still speak of democracy when algorithms influence our electoral choices or participate in the drafting of laws? This topic is explored by Aline Nardi, researcher at the Faculty of Law and member of the Namur Digital Institute (NADI).

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.

In recent years, public debate has been regularly disrupted by various attempts to distort "information." While this phenomenon is as old as information itself, digital technology, the powerful interactivity offered by online platforms, and recent developments in generative artificial intelligence have given it a whole new dimension. Manipulated online information spreads virally, reaching internet users around the world in a matter of minutes. It poses serious risks to society and threatens democracy and the rule of law. To see this, one need only recall events such as the US and French presidential elections, the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the terrorist attack at the Nova festival in 2023, and the war in Gaza.  Faced with this phenomenon, actors from all sectors have been mobilizing for several years. This conference offers a legal perspective on the manipulation of online information in relation to freedom of expression and the right to information from the point of view of European law. It focuses, on the one hand, on the response of the European Union legislator to combat online disinformation and, on the other hand, on mechanisms for protecting "quality" information.Free admission.

AbstractThe increasing regulatory pressure on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), particularly in Europe, has made compliance a critical yet complex challenge for industry stakeholders. Many of these CPS are often long-lived systems with legacy code and limited (or no) access to representative documentation. This poses a problem when these systems must comply with newer regulatory frameworks. Indeed, current conformity assessment practices rely predominantly on documentation review and operational observations, while the analysis of software artifacts remains underutilized. This situation is compounded by a persistent communication gap between legal experts and engineers, and a lack of systematic traceability between high-level regulatory obligations and low-level technical implementations. Such a disconnect frequently leads to inconsistencies detected late in the development process, increasing correction costs and delaying time-to-market. Furthermore, the growing complexity of regulations, such as the Medical Device Regulation (MDR), contributes to the perception that compliance hinders innovation.Transitioning from theoretical frameworks to industrial implementation presents significant challenges. During this research, efforts to validate the approach in real-world production environments were hampered by restricted access to sensitive data and architectures, as well as the inherent risks of intrusive analysis in highly interconnected systems. Consequently, this thesis emphasizes a conceptual framework validated through modular prototypes and isolated CPS categories (e.g., medical devices), demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed methods where full-scale production deployment is not yet feasible.This thesis addresses these challenges by investigating how regulatory requirements can be transformed into structured, traceable, and partially automatable elements directly linked to software artifacts. The research adopts an industry-grounded exploratory approach structured around three main axes: (1) the formalization of regulatory requirements to bridge the semantic gap between legal and technical domains; (2) the extraction of system functionalities from source code using Large Language Models; and (3) a unified framework, supported by tool prototypes, to bridge expected system behavior and actual implementation through evidence-based assessment.By combining regulatory analysis, software engineering, and AI-based methods, this work contributes to redefining compliance as a continuous, traceability-driven process. Ultimately, it aims to support a paradigm shift toward “compliant-by-design” systems, enabling earlier detection of discrepancies and better alignment between regulatory intent and technical implementation in complex CPS environments.JuryPhD, P.Eng. Jun YAN, Concordia University, CanadaProf., Ph.D., Fuyuki ISHIKAWA, National Institute of Informatics, JapanPh.D., Paolo ARCAINI, National Institute of Informatics, JapanProf., Ph.D., Benoît VANDEROSE, University of Namur, BelgiumProf., PhD, Anthony CLEVE, University of Namur, BelgiumProf., PhD, Xavier DEVROEY, University of Namur, Belgium

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Contact Co-President Bruno Dumas anthony.simonofski@unamur.be Co-President Alexandre de Streel xavier.devroey@unamur.be S'affilier Si vous souhaitez vous affilier ou si vous souhaitez modifier votre affiliation, rendez-vous sur la page "affiliation aux instituts de recherche". Organization Discover the members

Management Committee Co-President Valérie Henryvalerie.henry@unamur.be Co-President Jérémy Dehonjeremy.dehon@unamur.be IRDEN Secretariata Sarah DuvivierJeanick Pignolet info.irdena@unamur.be S'affilier Si vous souhaitez vous affilier ou si vous souhaitez modifier votre affiliation, rendez-vous sur la page "affiliation aux instituts de recherche". Discover the members Organization chart

What happens when AI knows a great deal about you? This fifth session of the “What If AI?” series explores the profiling and data collection mechanisms that enable artificial intelligence systems to predict behaviors, preferences, and decisions.Drawing on well-known examples such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the speakers will highlight the issues of surveillance, manipulation, and personalization. This session aims to encourage critical reflection on our tolerance for profiling and to provide tools for better protecting our privacy in an increasingly data-driven world. Je m'inscris