The teaching team’s project had two objectives: to give students hands-on experience with current issues in software quality and to produce an overview that would be useful to academics and professionals in the field. Rather than limiting themselves to analyzing existing practices, the students were fully involved in an applied research project, ranging from the design of a measurement tool to the analysis and dissemination of results. This approach fostered active learning, centered on collaboration, critical thinking, and an understanding of real-world practices in the field.

The project began with an in-depth analysis of the scientific literature and leading international reports on software development. This phase helped identify the key themes to be investigated: team organization, methodologies, testing practices, automation, documentation, artificial intelligence, security, technologies, and developer experience.

Based on this, a 78-question survey was collaboratively developed through an iterative process during joint sessions involving students and faculty. Particular attention was paid to the clarity of the questions, their relevance, and their alignment with the practices observed within various organizations that presented their approaches as part of the course.

The survey was distributed between April and July 2025 to software development professionals in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation through academic and industry networks. A total of 52 respondents from organizations of various sizes and sectors (SMEs, mid-sized companies, large corporations, and the public sector) participated in the study. Once the survey was completed, the collected data underwent rigorous analysis by researchers at the SNAIL laboratory, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, before being synthesized and contextualized in the final report.

The SNAIL Report 2025 provides a structured overview of software development practices in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Among the trends highlighted are:

• widespread adoption of Agile approaches;
• a central role for collaborative tools and code reviews;
• widespread use of testing practices and automation via CI/CD pipelines;
• the growing integration of artificial intelligence into development activities;
• as well as persistent challenges regarding the formalization of practices, documentation, security, and training.

The report also highlights the importance of human and organizational factors in software quality, particularly collaboration, accountability, and team autonomy.

Beyond the results presented, this initiative illustrates the value of an educational approach based on the co-construction of knowledge, the close link between teaching and research, and openness to the professional world.

For the students, the project was a formative experience, allowing them to develop technical, methodological, and analytical skills while gaining an understanding of current challenges in software development. For the University of Namur, it is a concrete example of how pedagogical innovations can be leveraged to support teaching and research missions.

How might we define cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity, or IT security, seeks to explore the limits of information technology. In practical terms, when we create computer systems or software, we realize during use that they have certain limitations that can be exploited. We therefore seek to understand the root causes in order to make future generations of systems more robust and secure. The highly competitive nature of today’s market conflicts with this approach, as large companies want to develop their software as quickly as possible and stand out from their competitors, often at the expense of security.

In your opinion, what is the main threat to IT security today? 

The major risk is the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by developers to generate code. This AI-generated code may seem well-crafted at first glance, but that is not the case at all. There are a huge number of vulnerabilities in this type of code, which falls far short of the standard an experienced programmer can achieve.  By way of comparison, the subprime crisis that hit the United States in 2007–2008 was based on the massive sale of subprime mortgages and their transformation into complex financial products. This mechanism led to widespread mistrust of the banking system, ultimately triggering the global financial crisis we experienced. It’s somewhat the same principle at play with AI: the abundance of AI-generated code could flood the software created by companies, with the risk of growing uncertainty regarding its reliability. The consequences of this situation are difficult to predict, but there will certainly be a significant need for experts in the future to audit software. However, such individuals are rather scarce. Young computer scientists, understandably, are immersed in AI themselves. Unfortunately, recently published research suggests a negative impact on learning. We can hypothesize that it will also affect future generations of experts by reducing their numbers. The academic world and education therefore have a major role to play in rising to the challenge of the situation ahead. 

What other risks do you identify?

The emergence of a hackneyed narrative surrounding the term “cybersecurity” can also prove dangerous. Under the guise of improving public safety, current political movements—particularly in the United States, but also in Europe—are using cybersecurity as a banner to, in fact, carry out mass surveillance of citizens. This is part of a broader trend of the erosion of democracy and fundamental freedoms. True cybersecurity is that which protects all members of society without discrimination: the state, the police, journalists, businesses, citizens, the defense sector, and so on. 

Our heavy reliance on foreign IT solutions should also be a cause for concern. Our society is primarily based on a service economy, which itself depends on foreign IT solutions. What happens, then, if we lose control of these tools?

Various attacks against Walloon and Belgian public institutions, such as the Wallonia Public Service (SPW), have made headlines in recent months. How do you explain this?

What is curious about the SPW attack is the entry point the attackers used. It is generally known that cybercriminals exploit known vulnerabilities to gain access to computer systems. However, the vulnerabilities used by the cybercriminals in this attack are covered in basic computer security courses at the university level. This case may highlight the difficulty of updating software systems within an institution and maintaining internal expertise. Indeed, the reliance on external consulting is becoming increasingly systematic, which could be counterproductive to the very development of this internal expertise if knowledge transfer does not occur. Obviously, this is a complex reality in financial and human terms for institutions, one that must not be denied.

In this context, what roles can research and training play?

Research can help provide additional options and more secure alternatives. For example, open-source software, which offers greater robustness but requires a certain level of expertise in return. Unfortunately, these tools carry less weight compared to more commercial solutions. On the training side, the challenge lies in educating future IT professionals about these issues so they can manage and maintain open-source software. With the automation of IT—and this is understandable—we’re seeing less interest in these more “do-it-yourself” solutions.

What is your current research focused on?

With my research group, the Privacy and Security Lab, we are working on anonymous communications and secure communications in general, with expertise in privacy protection technologies. In particular, we are studying communication technologies that allow for the anonymization of internet communications. These tools, which we believe are more transparent—such as Tor, for example—are, however, less efficient and slower, which hinders their adoption by the general public. Our goal is to make these technologies accessible to the entire population by improving their efficiency. For this type of research and the development of new prototypes, we aim to collaborate with the Faculty of Law to leverage their expertise in privacy protection. We are also working to improve the integration and efficiency of encrypted transport protocols within network transport libraries, which leads to tangible results such as more efficient VPNs.

Inspired by ZEvent, a charity event that brings together top streamers over several days to raise funds for a nonprofit organization, the Computer Club wanted to adapt the concept to its own scale. “ZEvent really inspired us, and we thought: why not us? We have a lot of knowledge, we’re good with tech, we have contacts with the university’s IT department… So we wanted to create our own event,” explain Fabio, the 2025–2026 president of the IT Club, and Corentin, his predecessor.

The concept is simple: for 24 hours, students go live on the Twitch streaming platform to raise as many donations as possible for Télévie. “Every time we hit a milestone, we complete challenges. And throughout the live stream, we take turns, play video games, and chat.” While only one screen is broadcast live, about ten other computers are made available to students for playing games simultaneously, along with a space equipped with a Nintendo Switch and a PlayStation 3.

“It took us over four hours to turn the Cercle Info space into a streaming room,” the students explain. “We had to set up the computers and consoles, run the cables, configure the network, and make sure everything was working before going live…”
Beyond the charitable goal, this experience also left a lasting impression on the students on a personal level. “It’s a little stressful, but mostly it’s full of good memories,” they confide. “During the night, we’re all tired and the slightest thing sets us off laughing. And it brings us closer together—we rarely get the chance to spend 24 hours together.” ”
Organizing this event also helps bridge the gap between classroom theory and practical application. “Everything related to networking, for example, we learn about in class, but here we understand exactly how it works in practice.” A unique experience that the students hope to continue within the Faculty.

The event also received support from several university departments. In particular, the School of Computer Science lent equipment such as tables, chairs, and cables. The IT Department provided technical assistance by adapting the university’s network. Finally, the Fundraising Office also supported the initiative, enabling this student project to be incorporated into UNamur’s broader campaign in support of Télévie.

In his research, Antoine Hubermont, a member of naXys (Namur Institute for Complex Systems), focuses specifically on the infrastructure that enables the operation of Galileo, the European satellite navigation system. 

“We use it every day, but few people know that we have a European GPS, Galileo, based on a constellation of satellites orbiting more than 23,000 kilometers above Earth,” he explains. 

Using artificial intelligence methods, Antoine Hubermont is developing tools capable of predicting the onset of failures. 

More specifically, the Monsater project aims to create a platform that allows for visualizing and predicting the status of this equipment, assessing the risk of failure, and identifying anomalies in order to initiate a process to restore their functions. The platform integrates and combines the detection and prediction capabilities of artificial intelligence-based solutions with the technical capabilities of robotic solutions. 

In this work, Antoine Hubermont is supervised by Professor Elio Tuci, a member of naXys and professor at the Faculty of Computer Science at UNamur.