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Abstract Deep learning has become a central part of everyday life, and has given us powerful digital tools such as machine translators, voice assistants, and large language models. The Deaf communities, however, benefit verylittle from this progress. Sign languages are full natural languages, but they have no widely used written form, so the large text corpora and pretrained models that support these tools for spoken languages have no direct equivalent. As a result, sign language processing is held back by two related problems: a persistent shortage of annotated data, and a lack of tools to analyze the languages themselves.This thesis focuses on one component of the sign language processing pipeline that has received comparatively little attention: sign language segmentation, the temporal partitioning of a continuous signing video into individual sign units. Segmentation sits between raw video and almost every symbolic task built on top of it, yet it remains poorly understood. The goal of this work is twofold: to advance the segmentation task itself, and to turn sign language processing research into tools that are usable by the Deaf community, with French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB) as the main setting.The central contribution of this thesis is a set of segmentation models. We first study approaches based on recurrent neural networks, and show that their main difficulty lies in the modeling of the transitions between signs, the brief ambiguous movements that separate one sign from the next and that are easily confused with the signs themselves. This insight motivates the Hydra framework, a new approach that detects each sign as a whole unit rather than deciding, frame by frame, whether a sign is being produced. Concretely, instead of classifying every frame, the model predicts the distance from each frame to the nearest sign boundaries, which makes it less sensitive to the ambiguous regions and improves consistently over prior methods. Around this core, we present further contributions: a sign language-to-text dictionary that recognizes signs from an ordinary webcam, supporting work on isolated sign recognition, and a collaborative platform that gathers new sign data as a side effect of everyday use. Together, these contributions narrow the gap between sign language processing research and the people whose language it concerns. Jury Prof. Benoit Frénay - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Anthony Cleve - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Katrien Beuls - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Barbara Hammer - Bielefeld University, GermanyProf. Michèle Gouiffès - Paris-Saclay University, FranceDr. Mathieu De Coster - Ghent University, Belgium I am registering to attend Pierre Poitier's thesis defense

The Institute hosts five types of research seminars. These seminars bring together members to discuss a variety of topics and are generally held during the day.

"Methods" is a series of seminars co-organized by the Transitions and Development Finance & Public Policies (DeFiPP) Research Institutes at the University of Namur with the aim of promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and the exchange of knowledge. All seminars are held in a hybrid format.The "Methods" seminar series focuses on cutting-edge methodological approaches, particularly in the fields of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), video and image analysis, and multimodal analysis.

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. 

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.

Organized by the Children's Rights Unit of the Vulnerabilities & Societies Center. Information and registration

What the management of "foreign terrorist fighters" and their children says about the fight against terrorism, a carte blanche by elise delhaise, coline remacle and chloé thomas, devoted to the repatriation of the children of Belgian jihadistsLa chronique Carta Academica: ce que la gestion des "combattants terroristes étrangers" et de leurs enfants dit de la lutte contre le terrorismeLa chronique carta academica: "bulles sociales et covid-19: un réveillon qui fait du bruit", a carte blanche by nathalie basecqz and elise delhaise in the December 19, 2020 issue of le journal le soirNew elections, a solution? S. Wattier, in the futureFederal negotiations: one month to go before political chaos, s. Wattier, eveningAbortion law: the need to preserve women's rights, convictions and democracy, s. Wattier, le soirFederal negotiations: mouth-to-mouth, the self-proclamation of June 17, s. Wattier, le soirWhite card "alexander i: le premier gouvernement fédéral qui fait place à la diversité de genre", s.wattier in the newspaper le soir"Après le califat, l'embarras", e. Delhaise, c. Remacle, c. Thomas, la revue nouvelle Pilot projects integrated prevention against burn-out whose commission was chaired by v. FlohimontChronique "pourquoi apprécions-nous tant avoir des règles à suivre à la lettre?" la libre.be - l. RizzerioThe pandemic proves that commitment to the common good is not an abstract idea - la libre, l. RizzerioA step closer to social eugenics? La proposition de loi n° 55-1029 modifiant le code civil en vie d'instaurer une protection juridique prénatale - a paraître dans le jdj, j. FierensCoronavirus: we are all vulnerable, la libre.be, column by Madame l. Rizzerio Isolate? Regroup? What to do with prisoners convicted of terrorism? Interview with Mr. f. Xavier Could the decrees banning ritual slaughter be overturned? in the evening, Madame s. Wattier

Researchers at the Unit study, among other things: children's rights protection systems; children's vulnerability; children's best interests; children's right to autonomy and participation; children's procedural status; children's rights in the context of youth welfare and youth protection: the rights of the child in parentage and adoption law; the rights of the migrant child; the right of the child to a non-violent education; the rights of the child in the digital environment; the rights of intersex children; the rights of transgender children.The Unit's activities are manifold: promotion of doctoral theses and research projects; teaching and training (intervention in the Master de spécialisation interuniversitaire en approche interdisciplinaire des droits de l'enfant, the Certificat en approche interdisciplinaire des droits l'enfant, the Certificat en accompagnement de l'accrochage scolaire et social and the Certificat en approche multidisciplinaire des maltraitances infanto-juvéniles) ; organization and participation in colloquia, conferences, seminars in Belgium and abroad; publication of individual and collective works, articles, commentaries and proceedings; consultancy activities for public or private bodies; links with the associative world (Service Learning); collaboration with universities abroad.List of membersGéraldine Mathieu - Professor and Director of the UnitGilles Abel - Scientific collaborator and philosopherAline Bodson - Doctoral studentEmma Bourcelet - Assistant and doctoral studentManon Brulard -. ResearcherAurélie Cassiers - LecturerCéline Derclaye - Assistant and family mediatorAurore François - Visiting professorMarie Goffaux - Scientific collaborator, lawyer at the Namur BarEmilie Hermans - Doctoral studentPauline Mailleux - AssistantMichaël Mallien - Visiting lecturer, lawyer at the Brussels BarBee Marique - Didactic collaborator, lawyer and family mediator at the Dinant BarFrançois-Xavier Polis - Scientific collaborator, adolescent psychiatrist, director of AthanorAnne-Catherine Rasson - Scientific contributorMathieu Rolain- Didactic contributor and lecturerAgathe Willaume - Scientific contributor, director of SMAJ Other units Health, Social and Well-being Unit Vulnerabilities and Citizens' Rights Unit The CSS

Moved by a fundamental motivation to serve the community and make research results accessible, the Health, Social and Wellbeing Unit (SSBE) has today developed its activities around various human sciences, such as law, psychology, philosophy, economics, etc., and regularly collaborates with players in the so-called hard sciences (medicine, pharmacy, engineering...). Its research focus, like the constant concern for respect for the human person, lends itself more to a broader approach than just the legal framework.The researchers at SSBE examine how societal systems take into account, or fail to take into account, the various forms of vulnerability that can affect individuals or groups, on a one-off or permanent basis. The various norms and systems are thus analyzed in terms of their principles, practices, effectiveness, contradictions, players and developments, with a resolutely forward-looking objective and an important fundamental research dimension.SSBE has developed national and international expertise in the fields of social protection, welfare, psychosocial risks, mental health, equality and non-discrimination, and issues closely or remotely related to public health (patients' rights, aging, disability...), as well as in interdisciplinary research methodology. Other units Vulnerabilities and Children's Rights Unit Vulnerabilities and Citizens' Rights Unit The CSS

Special attention is therefore paid to the field of public law (constitutional law and civil liberties, administrative law and criminal law and procedure), and particularly to the individual in his or her relationship with public authority. Various contexts of vulnerability are targeted: terrorism, radicalization, religious minorities, gender discrimination, armed conflicts, incivilities, begging, mental disorders, organized crime, sexual and gender violence, child pornography, cyber harassment, professional secrecy, anti-discrimination, etc.While the Unit is fundamentally rooted in legal science research, and in the field of public law in particular, it is also - like each of the Units that make up the V&S Centre - interdisciplinary and naturally draws on other social sciences to refine its expertise. Other units Vulnerabilities and Children's Rights Unit Health, Social and Well-being Unit The CSS

The "Crime, Security and Surveillance in the Digital Age (CSS)" unit brings together researchers from CRIDS and the V&S Centre, some of whom are practitioners and most of whom are teachers, around three lines of research: crime, security and surveillance in the digital age.

Established about ten years ago within the UNamur School of Law, the Center for Vulnerabilities and Societies (V&S) has established itself as a hub for research and critical reflection on contemporary situations of vulnerability. Born from the merger of two existing centers (PROJUCIT and Fundamental Rights and Social Cohesion), it has gradually organized itself around a clear objective: to analyze how the law addresses the realities experienced by people affected by poverty, precariousness, and discrimination, or whose fundamental rights are at risk of being compromised.