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 …

Editorial “Artificial Intelligence”. It’s hard to define a technology which encompasses such a large variety of tools and techniques (centralized or decentralized approaches, supervised or unsupervised learning, ontologies, etc.), with ramifications in each of these categories, ranging from neural networks to autonomous agents. The scope of AI is both broad and rich. It would therefore be a shame to allow …

Large retailers are in search of tools to help them improve the buying experience in their stores and compete more effectively with online shopping. From intelligent guidance for customers in overcrowded supermarkets to optimized selection of the products on the shelves, researchers Marin Lujak and Arnaud Doniec from IMT Lille Douai and Jacky Montmain from IMT Mines Alès are using …

The sun alone produces more than 64 billion neutrinos per second and per cm2 that pass right through the Earth. These elementary particles of matter are everywhere, yet they remain almost entirely elusive. The key word is almost… The European infrastructure KM3NeT, currently being installed in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, has been designed to detect the extremely faint …

Nicolas Thiollière, a researcher in nuclear physics at IMT Atlantique, and his team are assessing various possibilities for the future of France’s nuclear power plants. They seek to answer the following questions: how can the quantity of plutonium in circulation in the nuclear cycle be reduced? What impacts will the choice of fuel — specifically MOx — have on nuclear …

Start-up company Energysquare has created a wireless charging device for tablets and cellphones. Using a simple mechanism combining a sticker and a metal plate, devices can be charged by conduction. Energysquare, which is incubated at Télécom ParisTech, will soon see its technology tested in hotels. The company now also aims to export and adapt its product to other smart objects. …

Written by Franck Guarnieri, Aurélien Portelli, et Sébastien Travadel, Mines ParisTech. The original version has been published on The Conversation. It’s 2019 and for many, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has become a distant memory. In the West, the event is considered to be over. Safety standards have been audited and concerns about the sector’s security and viability officially addressed. …

Cyberattacks are a growing reality that organizations have to face up to. In the framework of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future, researchers at IMT and Technische Universität München (TUM) show that there are solutions to this virtual threat. In particular, the ASSET project is studying responses to attacks that target communication between smart objects and affect …

An activity can have many consequences for the environment, from its carbon footprint, water consumption, pollution, changes to biodiversity, etc. Our impacts are so complex that an entire field of research has been developed to evaluate and compare them. At IMT Mines Alès, a team of researchers is working on tools to improve the way we measure our impacts and …