Two new projects in framework of the BEWARE Fellowships programme
Thanks to the BEWARE Fellowships programme, the University of Namur will welcome two new post-doctoral students. Within the research institutes naXys and NaDI and in collaboration with the companies CISEO and SAVICS, they will contribute to the development of two projects. The first aims to design an intelligent robot for the pharmaceutical industry, and the second, a secure system for sharing decentralized data.
See content
M. Dejardin and E. Cornélis become members of the Central Economic Council
The two UNamur professors were appointed for a four-year term. The academic members of the Central Economic Council (CEC) are chosen in order to inform the debates of the social partners (employers and trade unions) present at the council with their expertise.
See content
Participatory funding: Specularia, experimental archaeology project
The Department of Art History and Archaeology of UNamur is participating for the first time in an experimental archaeology project, within the framework of a doctoral thesis on the production of glass in the Roman period. Conducted in partnership with Malagne, the Rochefort archaeopark, the Specularia project aims to gain a better understanding of the reality of the gestures and techniques of Gallo-Roman craftsmen and to scientifically validate hypotheses that are still debated today. To carry out this experiment, the Department of Art History and Archaeology is launching its first participatory funding.
See content
Parchment bindings under the microscope
To restore an old book correctly, it is essential to know the secrets of its manufacture and the reasons for its deterioration. Thanks to the King Baudouin Foundation's Jean-Jacques Comhaire Fund, the restoration workshop of the Moretus Plantin University Library has launched a new research project on parchment bindings in the Southern Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. The aim is to gain a better understanding in order to improve conservation.
See content
BABots: a European bio-robotics project led by UNamur researchers
The design and analysis of the individual and collective behaviour of small biological vermiform robots: this is the objective of BABots, an ambitious interdisciplinary research project led by the University of Namur and conducted by a consortium of seven European partners. This project could lead to multiple and promising solutions in the field of agriculture, bio-industry or even industry and medicine.
See content
The PraME Centre contributes to the restitution of a charter from 1176
At the end of January 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) returned a real treasure to Belgium: a medieval charter bearing the seal of the Count of Flanders Philippe d'Alsace, formerly kept in the abbey of Messines (West Flanders), which had disappeared at the beginning of the First World War. A look back at the tribulations of this archival document, the restitution of which is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the PraME Centre of UNamur, the General Archives of the Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
See content
AGC Glass supports the Specularia experimental archaeology project
This is a first at the UNamur: a team of archaeologists will soon be testing an experimental protocol to reproduce the process of shaping glass in Roman times. Entitled Specularia (Latin for "glass"), this project has the support of several associations and companies, including AGC Glass Europe.
See content
Synthetic choirs | A choir of robots created at the UNamur
A choir of robots sounds like science fiction! Yet it is a reality at the University of Namur. In the robotics laboratory of the Faculty of Computer Science, researchers from the naXys institute, led by professors Elio Tuci and Timoteo Carletti, some members of TRAKK, some artists and external partners collaborated on the "Synthetic Choirs" project.
See content
Researchers involved in ESA's JUICE space mission
Within the SPACE pole of the naXys Institute, researchers are interested in the evolution of planetary systems at different scales: space debris, natural and artificial satellites, asteroids, (exo)planets, etc. As part of the JUICE mission, post-doctoral researcher Alexis Coyette and Professor Anne-Sophie Libert are interested in Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons, and are seeking to model its internal composition and rotation. It is believed that this satellite has a global ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. The study of its rotation will provide more information about this ocean and thus the potential habitability of this satellite.
See content
From the twinkling of fireflies to the stripes of zebras: mathematics explain synchronisation
Very often in nature, we observe phenomena of natural synchronisation and the emergence of regular patterns: a crowd applauding in unison at the end of a concert, the cells in the walls of the heart pulsating in a coordinated fashion, black and white stripes on a zebra, brown spots surrounded by black in leopards... But how can we explain this uniformity if there is no global controller or explicit rule directing this coordination?
See content