Creating open discussion forums to facilitate exchanges on the challenges of transition in the aerospace sector, contributing to innovation, sharing our expertise and making it accessible, crossing viewpoints, promoting inclusion and openness around these subjects: we are acting collectively for transition on an international scale.
An overview of our international transition initiatives
On 7 and 8 February, ISAE-SUPAERO hosted the MEA - More Electric Aircraft international conference, in collaboration with the 3AF Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France and the SEE Société de l'électricité, de l'électronique et des technologies de l'information et de la communication.
260 professionals from industry, research and agencies came together for an exciting edition to share ideas, research results and solutions linked to technological and future developments associated with more/all-electric aircraft. The transition to more electric aircraft, driven by the ambitious goal of reducing carbon emissions from civil aviation to zero by 2050, is a growing challenge for industry and society.
For 2 days, the community came together on campus through conferences, two poster sessions and an exhibition to promote innovations and new technologies for electric aircraft.
Some key figures:
- 260 visitors,
- 15 countries represented,
- 80 companies and universities,
- more than 160 manufacturers.
Student delegation to the Ministry of Ecological Transition
One of the objectives of our Institute is to strengthen the link between the public sphere and its students, to help them learn about the institutions and mechanisms of political decision-making.
To this end, a delegation of students attended the round table organised by Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport, at the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, on the fringes of the opening of the Paris Air Show.
The debate on the future of air transport brought together : Bertrand Piccard for the Solar Impulse Foundation, Augustin de Romanet for the ADP Group, Diane Strauss for Transport et Environnement and a student from the ISAE Group. Our students were able to express their vision of the future of the sector at the opening of the debates and to exchange views with the Minister following the event.
Morning debate at ISAE-SUPAERO initiated by Members of Parliament
In September, as part of the study days on decarbonising aviation, ISAE-SUPAERO opened its campus to the French National Assembly's Aeronautics and Space group for a morning debate.
“Decarbonizing aviation: who's got the energy?” brought together local elected representatives, members of parliament, industrialists, associations, journalists, and students for a series of round tables at which Marwan Lahoud, Chairman of the ISAE-SUPAERO Board of Directors, and Laurent Joly, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Aviation (ISA), spoke alongside various public and private players.
The event was opened by the group's two co-presidents, Christine Arrighi and Cécile Rilhac, Olivier Lesbre, Director General of ISAE-SUPAERO, and Joseph Risson, a 3rd-year engineering student and winner of the 2023 Lopez-Loreta Foundation prize for his start-up Viraj H₂.
On 22 November 2023, as part of the 40th anniversary of the Académie de l'Air et de l'Espace, the AAE and ISAE-SUPAERO organized a meeting on the theme of the future of aviation: motorization and decarbonization.
Innovation Rendezvous
On 22 September 2022, ISAE-SUPAERO and ENAC organised "Les Rendez-vous de l'Innovation". Against a backdrop of urgent climate change, where the issue of air transport is omnipresent, the two higher education establishments decided to bring together innovation players to discuss a forward-looking theme: "Thinking and building the future of air transport together".
The public was invited to attend a number of round tables, conferences and demonstrations to find out about the changes underway in the air transport sector and to talk to the major players in the field about how research and innovation are working to support this transformation.
Continuing education: the first Cap H2 class certified
In June 2022, ISAE-SUPAERO, Capgemini Engineering and EUROSAE launched Cap H2, the first continuing education course in France to lead to certification in hydrogen technologies applicable to aviation.
The Cap H2 course was developed in partnership with Capgemini and EUROSAE, under the teaching responsibility of Yves Gourinat for ISAE-SUPAERO.
Our Institute's objective is to enhance the skills of professionals in the field of aircraft cryotechnical systems. At the end of the course, the trainees learned how to specify an architecture, open up certification avenues and identify the main technological obstacles. The first class consisted of 72 Capgemini Engineering employees, who received their certificates on 29 June 2023.
Given the success of this experiment and the very positive feedback from the first class, ISAE-SUPAERO, Capgemini Engineering and Eurosae have decided to open up Cap H2 to all manufacturers in the aeronautics sector from the start of the 2023 academic year.
This is a successful collaboration between three leading players in aeronautics training, who have combined their strengths to create a unique programme.
The Shift Project* and the Supaero Décarbo collective, made up of some twenty engineering graduates from the classes of 2000 and 2001, have published their report on the decarbonization of the aviation sector: “Being able to fly in 2050: what kind of aviation in a constrained world?”
Based on a scenario-based analysis of aviation emissions trajectories between now and 2050, the study attempts to shed light on the following questions: how can we act today to continue flying tomorrow, in a constrained world? How can we steer the aviation sector towards trajectories that are compatible with climate issues and less dependent on fossil fuel supplies?
2 October 2020
By being invited to the virtual seminar organized by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) “CO2 Emissions Reductions in the Aviation Sector" and to the third edition of the Space Forum La Tribune, our Institute, through the intermediary of Marie-Hélène Baroux (then Deputy Director General and Head of Sustainable Development) was able to debate and present its research and training in energy transition and Earth observation for climate to decision-makers in the aeronautical and space sectors. An ICAO international seminar aimed at finding solutions for the use of sustainable fuel, at which manufacturers, institutions and research bodies specializing in the environment took part to discuss and present their work on the implementation of innovative solutions.
In 2019, our former CEO, Olivier Lesbre, signed the manifesto issued by The Shift Project. Recent work on teaching climate and energy issues in higher education has revealed a strong desire on the part of the higher education community and students for an organized educational response to climate issues.
More than 80 heads of higher education institutions and 1,000 teachers and researchers, leading a list of some 7,500 signatories, have launched an appeal to the French government to “initiate a transition strategy for higher education that positions climate change as the number one emergency".
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