Cédric O launches EPITA Research and Innovation Week
Cédric O launches EPITA Research and Innovation Week
Dedicated to 2nd Year EPITA students, Research and Innovation Week was held at the beginning of the new academic year to allow future engineers to go behind the scenes and discover a fascinating world: the future of computing. The 12th edition of this event took place in Paris in September 9-13, 2019, with numerous conferences (also broadcast in different regions) given by professors-researchers (some of whom also visited the school’s different campuses) as well as practitioners. The event also included workshops and project presentations.
Cédric O in front of the students
This highly informative week took on an exceptional dimension, thanks to the presence of Cedric O, Secretary of State to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance and the Minister of Public Action and Accounts, responsible for the digital sector who kindly participated in its launch. It was an opportunity for EPITA students to speak with him and he was also able to meet with the representatives of the different entities from the Paris Le Kremlin-Bicetre campus of the IONIS Education Group, the EPITA laboratories (LRDE, 3ie, LSE…) from SECURESPHERE by EPITA to the EPITA StartUp Lab.
Left to right: Fabrice Bardèche, Executive Vice President of the IONIS Education Group, Cédric O and Joël Courtois, Managing Director of EPITA
Cutting-edge conferences
Aiming to develop the students’ passion and curiosity for the different areas of information technology, this edition of the Research and Innovation week offered an extremely interesting program. Among the conferences given by professionals, there was one by IBM devoted to Quantum Computing and by Idemia (present at the Viva Technology conference this year with 3ie) addressing “the importance of research and innovation in companies”, as well as those by the EPITA Alumni who have proven to become successful entrepreneurs such as Christophe Chevalier (class of 2011), co-founder and CEO of Botmind, Adrien Fenech (class of 2016), co-founder and CTO of Estimeo and Vincent Oliveira (class of 2013), co-founder and CTO of Tiller Systems. Students were also able to visit different businesses during the week: Thales, Niji (campus in Rennes), Sigfox (campus in Toulouse) and the Crédit Mutuel (campus in Strasbourg) also participated by welcoming EPITA students. In terms of the research sector, the speeches were extremely interesting, particularly the introduction to cryptography by LRDE and interest in exploratory robotics by the heads of the EPITA SEAL team. There were many potential career ideas for the school’s class of 2023.
Continually growing ambition
When students met Cedric O, making career choices is clearly the focus of the questions they have for him. The importance of research in computer science, the role of France, the need for greater parity, entrepreneurship, international experiences… the audience asked the Secretary of State many questions, leading to an extremely interesting and informal discussion. “It was important for me to come and meet the students because the digital sector is strategic for those of us working in the government, said Cédric O after the event. As I told them, this international war of innovation and technologies is, above all, a fight for talent. I came to meet the talents of tomorrow and share several very important messages, including one that I am also trying to share with the entire French ecosystem: we must be ambitious and strive to go above and beyond all limits. Because the ecosystems that come together are those that have followed these guidelines. If we want a global ecosystem that is able to compete on the European level with the United States and China, we will have to train the next Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Brian Chesky. It is now up to the EPITA students to take up this challenge.
@ Patrick Bagein – Minefi
Cédric O with the Neutral News team, accompanied by the EPITA StartUp Lab @ Patrick Bagein – Minefi
Marie Moin, director of SECURESPHERE by EPITA, speaking with the Secretary of State
Cedric O discovering one of the 3ie accomplishments, presented by Anne Dewilde, laboratory director