The abandonment of the Astrid project marks a turning point for France’s nuclear industry. The planned nuclear reactor was supposed to be “safer, more efficient and more sustainable”, but therefore required significant funding. Stéphanie Tillement, a researcher at IMT Atlantique, has studied how Fukushima impacted the nuclear industry. Her work has focused in particular on the rationale for abandoning the …

The field of connected devices is growing at a staggering pace across all industries. There is a growing need to develop a communication standard, meaning a ‘common language’ that different smart systems could understand and interpret. To contribute to this goal, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is funding a European project in which Mines Saint-Étienne researchers Maxime Lefrançois and Antoine …

Producing high-quality raw materials from waste is contingent on effective sorting. Plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are no exception. To help solve this problem, researchers at IMT Mines Alès have developed a selective automation algorithm designed for these plastics. It can be integrated in new industrial-scale sorting machines.   How will your coffee maker be reincarnated after …

The start-up AiiNTENSE was incubated at IMT Starter and develops decision support tools for healthcare with the aim of advising intensive care personnel on the most appropriate therapeutic procedures. To this end, the start-up is developing a data platform of all diseases and conditions, which it has made available to researchers. It therefore seeks to provide support for launching clinical …

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 …

Turbulence is a mysterious phenomenon in fluid mechanics. Although it has been observed and studied for centuries, it still holds secrets that physicists and mathematicians strive to unlock. Guillaume Balarac is part of this research community. A researcher at Grenoble INP (at the LEGI Geophysical and Industrial Flows Laboratory), he uses and improves simulations to understand turbulent flows better. His …

Measuring and quantifying have informed Véronique Bellon-Maurel’s entire scientific career. A pioneer in near infrared spectroscopy, the researcher’s work has ranged from analyzing fruit to digital agriculture. Over the course of her fundamental research, Véronique Bellon-Maurel has contributed to the optimization of many industrial processes. She is now the Director of #DigitAg, a multi-partner Convergence Lab, and is the winner …

The lithium-ion battery is one of the best-sellers of recent decades in microelectronics. It is present in most of the devices we use in our daily lives, from our mobile phones to electric cars. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to John Goodenough, Stanley Wittingham, and Akira Yoshino, in recognition of their initial research that led to its …

Rogue waves are powerful waves that erupt suddenly. They are rare, but destructive. Above all, they are unpredictable. Surprisingly, researchers have been able to better understand these fascinating waves by studying similar phenomena in fiber optic lasers.   Before scientists began measuring and observing them, rogue waves had long been perceived as legends. They can reach a height of 30 …