session pitch naXys
2026-01-29 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Brussels)
“Coexistence and stability in ecological systems” (Frederik De Laender)
“Measuring and implementing sustainability in finance: The need for systemic approaches” (Sophie Béreau)
“Analysis of the control system mechanisms of robots” (Elio Tuci)
“Rare trajectories in quantum field theory and classical dynamics” (Yves Caudano)
“Emergent properties of complex systems. A tale of networks and nonlinearity” (Timoteo Carletti)
This seminar will take place in Room S09 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Frédéric Crevecoeur (UCLouvain)
2026-02-05 13:00 - 14:00
Title: Neural mechanisms of sensorimotor control: towards a theory linking neural activity to motor behaviour
Abstract:
Contemporary neuroscience increasingly aims to build integrative frameworks that explain the relationship between neural activity and behaviour. Among the most widely used paradigms for quantifying behaviour in humans and other animals, motor control occupies a central position, because systems and control theory make it possible to formulate quantitative hypotheses about how the brain transforms sensory information into motor commands. In this presentation, I will discuss two examples linking neural activity to sensorimotor control. The first illustrates how abnormal movements observed in patients with Essential Tremor may originate from failures in estimating the state of the arm within the neural controller, giving rise to oscillations comparable to those observed in patients’ limbs. The second shows how motor cortex–like neural activity recorded during reaching movements in monkeys can emerge from a simple model that combines a neural network with a biomechanical plant. Both results offer quantitative insights that can help generate novel hypotheses about neural control of movement. Together, these examples illustrate how computational models provide powerful tools for interpreting physiological signals, with important implications for both basic neuroscience and translational research.
This seminar will take place in Room S09 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Diego Samuel Rodrigues (University of Campinas, SP, Brazil)
2026-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
Title: Parameter Estimation for Ordinary Differential Equation Models in Cancer Research
Abstract:
Inferring parameter values from data is a fundamental problem in quantitative oncology. This seminar offers a concise, example-driven overview of parameter estimation and experimental design for ordinary differential equation systems, bridging theoretical foundations with practical applications in cancer research.

This seminar will take place in Room S0 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Women and Girls in Science
2026-02-12
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science takes place every 11th of February, following the declaration by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 22nd of December 2015.
This annual event aims at promoting the access of women and girls to science and technology as well as their full and fair participation. It reminds the important role of women in the scientific community and constitutes a great opportunity to encourage girls and young women to participate in the scientific developments.
Our 2026 keynote speakers are
Pr. Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke (University of Gent) and Pr. Nelly Litvak (Eindhoven University of Technology)
More information and registration : https://wgis.unamur.be

Federica Garin (Université Grenoble Alpes)
2026-02-26 13:00 - 14:00
Title: Graphons and opinion dynamics on large graphs.
Abstract:
Graphons are the limits of large dense graphs. Graphons can also be used to define families of random graphs (the so-called W-random graphs), similar to Erdős-Rényi random graphs but with some inhomogeneity in the edge probabilities.
Graphons and W-random graphs, together with their signed counterparts, can be useful tools to study opinion dynamics on large-scale networks.
In this talk, I will review some recent work in this direction, where we explore some infinite-dimensional dynamics associated with the graphon, and we study how well they can approximate the corresponding dynamics associated with finite but large W-random graphs.

This seminar will take place in Room S08 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Leila Van Keirsbilck (UCLouvain)
2026-03-05 13:00 - 14:00
Title: Mapping and sampling impacts on centrality measures ability to explain financial institutions losses in crisis periods.
Abstract:
Since the 2008 crisis has triggered a huge interest in the financial networks literature, researchers found that node centrality measures computed from a network representation of the financial system before a crisis period could explain partly losses incurred during the crisis. But how do the choices made in order to obtain a specific network representation affect this ability of node centrality measures to explain losses? This article tests whether changes in the network mapping specification and changes in the sampling affect the econometric relation between losses and the systemic vulnerability of institutions determined by a centrality measure. We find that the significance of the classic shortest path betweenness centrality is highly impacted by a decrease in the network size. We also perform a best subset selection exercise showing that alternative betweenness measures, more robust to changes in the network size, perform as good as other classic centralities in explaining losses.
This seminar will take place in Room S08 at the Faculty of Sciences.

naXys Research Day
2026-04-24 09:00 - 17:00
naXys Research Day from 9 a.m. (Château de Namur).

Harry Shaw (Xyngal Morph)
2026-04-27 13:00 - 14:00
Title: Overview of quantum chemistry investigations into classically studied materials with potentially useful quantum properties
Authors: Harry Shaw1, Deborah Preston1, Virginia Ayres2, Kyle Sherbert3, Naveed Naimipour4, Nick Savino6, Manon Bart5, Ryan Glasser6
(1) Xyngal Morph LLC, Bel Air, MD
(2) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
(3) Department of Computer Science, Holy Cross University, Notre Dame, IN, USA
(4) Engineering Faculty, Wilbur Wright College, Chicago, IL
(5) Namur Institute for Complex Systems, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium
(6) School of Science and Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
Abstract:
While at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, several investigations were conducted to take materials that were well characterized in the classical domain to determine if they could be utilized in what can be called the “quantum domain”. Of special interest were radiation effects on GaN nanowires1, flying qubit investigations2, and tautomers which could be utilized in a variety of quantum circuits. The tautomer investigations were performed on cis- and trans-azobenzene and the proton tautomer croconic acid. Also of interest are the cyclopentadienyls Bis(cyclopentadienyl)cobalt(II) and Bis(cyclopentadienyl)iron with properties that could make them good candidates for spintronic applications3. In this talk we will discuss some aspects of these investigations including our use of Density Functional Theory (DFT) tools4.
NASA’s interest lies in how these materials could be used in systems for quantum communications, computing or other useful applications. Most of this research was conducted by graduate students and faculty associated with our NASA internships. Additional parallel research paths included development of optical angular momentum (OAM) capabilities, quantum entanglement, optical neural networks5, and quantum compressive sensing6.

Jacobs, B. W., V. M. Ayres, R. M. Ronningen, A. F. Zeller, E. H. Carey, M. A. Crimp, M. P. Petkov, S.L. Rutledge , J.B. Benavides, H.C. Shaw et al. “Heavy Ion Interactions with Nanotubes and Nanowires.” In APS March Meeting Abstracts, vol. 1, p. 1163. 2006.
Dong, H., Panda, G., Xie, K., Ayres, V., Shaw, H., Preston, D., & Deshpande, M. (2017). Flying qubit investigations for heterostructure-based qubit implementations. In 2017 IEEE 17th International Conference on Nanotechnology, NANO 2017 (pp. 636-640).
Leber, Roland. Growth and Characterisation of Metallocene Based Thin Films for Spintronic Applications. Diss. UCL (University College London), 2018.
https://www.scm.com/amsterdam-modeling-suite/adf
Bart M, Savino NJ, Regmi P, Cohen L, Safavi H, Shaw H, Lohani S, Searles TA, Kirby BT, Lee H, Glasser RT. Deep learning for enhanced free-space optical communications. Machine Learning: Science and Technology. 2022.
Sherbert, Kyle M., Naveed Naimipour, Haleh Safavi, Harry C. Shaw, and Mojtaba Soltanalian. “Quantum Compressive Sensing: Mathematical Machinery, Quantum Algorithms, and Quantum Circuitry.” Applied Sciences 12, no. 15 (2022): 7525.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/15/7525

This seminar will take place in Room S09 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Koichiro Yawata (Institute of Science, Tokyo)
2026-05-07 13:00 - 14:00
Title: Reduced-Order Control of Coupled Phase Oscillator Populations and Hypergraph-Based Approaches to Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Abstract:
In this seminar, I will present two recent pieces of work from my research: one on reduced-order control of coupled oscillator populations and another on hypergraph-based approaches to combinatorial optimization.
1. Reduced-Order Control of Coupled Oscillator Populations via Frequency-Dependent Forcing
We propose a frequency-dependent forcing framework for heterogeneous populations of coupled phase oscillators. Using the Ott-Antonsen ansatz, we derive a low-dimensional description of the collective dynamics and study control methods for the macroscopic phase and synchronization level.
2. Hypergraph Neural Networks Accelerate MUS Enumeration
We propose a hypergraph-neural-network-based method for accelerating MUS enumeration in constraint satisfaction problems. By combining hypergraph modeling with reinforcement learning, the method reduces satisfiability checks and improves enumeration efficiency.
This seminar will take place in Room S08 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Nelly Litvak (Eindhoven University of Technology)
2026-10-01 13:00 - 14:00
Title:
Abstract:
This seminar will take place in Room S08 at the Faculty of Sciences.
