What if barcodes disappeared from our supermarket items? Étienne Perret, a researcher in radio-frequency electronics at Grenoble INP, works on identification technologies. His work over recent years has focused on the development of RFID without electronic components, commonly known as chipless RFID. The technology aims to offer some of the advantages of classical RFID but at a similar cost to …

Life cycle analysis (LCA) is increasingly common, in particular for eco-design or to obtain a label. It is used to assess the environmental footprint of a product or service by taking into account as many sources as possible. In the following interview, Miguel Lopez-Ferber, a researcher in environmental assessment at IMT Mines Alès, offers insights about the benefits and complexity …

Responsibilities surrounding digital waste are multi-faceted. On one side, it is governments’ responsibility to establish tighter border controls to better manage the flow of waste and make sure that it is not transferred to developing countries. On the other side, electronic device manufacturers must take accountability for their position by facilitating end-of-life management of their products. And consumers must be …

After the “Digital” fund, Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) and the Fondation Mines-Télécom launched a second fund last October called “Industry & Energy 4.0” and dedicated to the sciences of energy, materials and processes. The Capsit and Plas’tri start-ups incubated at IMT Atlantique and Mines Saint-Étienne respectively are the first to benefit from the honor loans of this new fund.   

How can protective masks be recycled and reused without risking safety? Scientists, medical practitioners and manufacturers have teamed up to explore different treatment methods. As part of this consortium, IMT Atlantique researchers are studying the impact of decontamination processes on mask performance.   Surgical and FFP2 masks are intended for single use. Thrown away after just a few hours of use, …

The original version of this article was published on The Conversation.  By Abdelhak Maachi and Rodolphe Sonnier, IMT Mines Alès. Despite the recommendations of IPCC experts, who in 2018 recommended that greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 40 to 70% by 2050 in an attempt to limit the impacts of the climate crisis, global CO2 output increased by 0.6% in 2019. Among the efforts made …

At this beginning of the year 2020, I’MTech takes a look back at 10 of the most noteworthy articles from the past year. What scientific topics made headlines at the close of the 2010s and the dawn of the 2020s? A look at this pivotal year, in which unsurprisingly, AI and the environment feature prominently… but not exclusively!   #1 …

Article written in partnership with The Conversation. By Stéphanie Tillement and Nicolas Thiolliere, IMT Atlantique. Nuclear energy plays a very important role in France – where 75 % of the country’s electricity is produced using this energy – and raises crucial questions concerning both its role in the future electricity mix and methods for managing the associated radioactive materials and …

Humans are big consumers of sand, to the extent that this now valuable resource is becoming increasingly scarce. Being in such high demand, it is extracted in conditions that aren’t always respectful of the environment. With the increasing scarcity of sand and the sometimes devastating consequences of mining at beaches, it is becoming crucial to find alternatives. Isabelle Cojan and …

Article written in partnership with The Conversation France. By Rodolphe Sonnier, IMT Mines Alès. This article was co-authored by Clément Lacoste (IMT Mines Alès), Laurent Ferry (IMT Mines Alès) and Henri Vahabi (Université de Lorraine). The discovery of fire is often cited as the most important discovery in the history of mankind, given its major impact on the development of …