All technology starts with a vision, a tool created to meet one of society’s objectives. Its development path is formed by both human projections and the dynamics of the transformations it generates. It is therefore important to take the time to ask ourselves what we intended to do with digital technology and what we will do with it. We must …

Hervé Debar, Télécom SudParis – Institut Mines-Télécom WannaCry was the first case of a cyberattack that had a major effect on hospitals. The increasing digitization of hospitals (like all areas of society) offers significant opportunities for reducing the cost of health care while making the care provided more effective. However, with digitization comes cybersecurity challenges and these threats must be …

Natacha Gondran, Mines Saint-Étienne – Institut Mines-Télécom In the 1970s, regulations were introduced to require companies to prevent industrial pollution. Examples include the Clean Air Act (1970) in the United States and legislation on facilities classified for the protection of the environment in France (1976). Since then, awareness has grown about the impacts industry has on the environment, and companies’ …

At a time when the challenge of waste recovery is becoming increasingly evident, gasification is emerging as a promising solution. The process allows organic waste to be decomposed into synthetic gas, which can be burned for energy purposes, or reprocessed to obtain gases of interest, such as methane and hydrogen. Javier Escudero has been studying this virtuous alternative to incineration …

Water preservation and management involves detecting its pollutants. Among those most frequently found in surface water and groundwater are weed-killers, such as the well-known glyphosate. At Mines Alès, Ingrid Bazin is working on developing innovative bioreceptors to monitor these small molecules, with the aim of one day providing the water industry with cutting-edge biosensors.   The number of water pollutants …

The ability of wetland areas to retain and treat a wide variety of pollutants in urban and rural areas has been known about for a number of years. Understanding how they work has facilitated the creation of biofilters such as constructed wetlands. At Mines Nantes, researcher Florent Chazarenc has studied these systems over lengthy periods and created solutions adapted to …

Using nature as inspiration is certainly the oldest scientific approach and one that still has much to reveal. Bio-inspired robotics is a research topic at Mines Nantes that uses this process. It does not aim to simply mimic, but actually to understand the tricks nature has found to solve problems. Researcher Frédéric Boyer’s work is driven by such meticulous observation. …

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Questions of health, well-being and personal independence are central preoccupations of all modern societies. Age-related illnesses, and our ageing populations, pose a number of social and economic challenges. Over the last two decades, information sciences and technologies have helped us rise to these challenges. Concepts such as distance health care and online treatment are now accepted as a part of …