· Hub for the NS Community ·
Dear community members,
Normalized Software Systems (NSS) continues to be a key part of the curriculum at the Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University (FIT CTU) in Prague. This partnership, which began in 2015, represents a powerful collaboration between FIT CTU, the University of Antwerp and NSX.
This year, the course welcomed 89 students eager to explore the "Laws of Software Evolution" through NS principles. The curriculum provides insight into Combinatorial Effects, System (In)stability and understanding the practical implications of the theory through examples and Tooling.
As a highlight of the course there is direct engagement with the founders of the theory. Prof. Mannaert and Prof. Verelst will visit Prague for a Q&A session with the students. Beyond the classroom, they will meet with a dedicated group of Master's and PhD researchers currently pushing the boundaries of NS-related research. And this research continues to reach new heights, marked by several recent and successful PhD defences. These doctoral works are a significant contribution to our scientifically based method for evolutionary software.
Featured PhD Research Topics:
We believe that every participant, regardless of their final career path, leaves the course with a unique perspective and valuable knowledge that will fundamentally improve the way they design software in the future.
As mentioned in a previous newsletter, our community health initiative VivaHub continues to evolve. Last week, a mobile kiosk was launched at the Paardenmarkt site of the University of Antwerp: the VivaFlex - a next step in bringing prevention and guidance closer to people in their daily lives.
Building on the combination of the physical Health Kiosk and Zipster, this mobile setup allows us to reach people directly in their neighbourhoods and guide them towards the right local support.
Zipster will be used by professionals and volunteers in the kiosk, and a chatbot is being developed to make it easier for citizens to find their way in the neighbourhood. For this, we are integrating French Mistral technology into the Zipster application.
Talks are ongoing with cities such as Antwerp, Brussels and Mechelen, as well as smaller municipalities like Arendonk, to roll out kiosks more broadly.
For those interested, impressions of the launch can be found at the Vivahub website and this HLN article.
A nice example of how our work at NSX contributes to real-world impact, by combining digital capabilities with strong community-based approaches.
foto: Tessa Kraan
Helicus had a successful launch of their Second Generation Drone Cargo Port for automated payload ground handling.
With over one hundred participants attending, the launch of our second-generation Drone Cargo Port was a great success. The live demonstrations, in-depth technical discussions, and brainstorming sessions on future use cases were truly inspirational. We were honoured to bring together such an outstanding group of experts, customers, and authorities. The quality of exchanges and the high level of engagement particularly from leading professionals in healthcare, industry, aviation, and defense, clearly demonstrates the incredible momentum behind drone-enabled logistics automated integrated operations.
Missed the launch? You can view the full event highlights on Linkedin here.
Building on this success, we are thrilled to announce our next major milestone: The SAFIR Executive Conference on March 31, 2026 at University of Liège.
