At ISAE-SUPAERO, we train our students to meet the challenge of the energy transition. By supporting them in their systems approach, their ability to master complex systems and their commitment to public debate, we give them the keys to inventing the world of tomorrow.
ECTS awarded on "sustainable development" subjects in 2021 (generalist engineer)
Projected "sustainable development" ECTS in 2026 (generalist engineer)
Our "sustainable development" courses
Our ISAE-SUPAERO general engineering curriculum
In 1st year
Core curriculum
Rentrée climat (climate fresco): a fun and creative workshop on climate change. The aim is to challenge, raise awareness and get students to interact in a situation of collective intelligence.
Transition, environment and society" block (TES ): helps pupils identify current and future environmental and social challenges, understand the links between the sciences and the need for a systemic approach to the world. It's an opportunity to develop the critical thinking needed to tackle these issues.
The TES project: a project that puts students in the shoes of consultants tasked with thinking about technology and its uses in a societal context, on technologies such as AI, energy, the environment, transport, space, etc.
Current elective modules
- Aviation and climate
- Ecodesign,
- The energy transition: what role for the engineer,
- Physics of orders of magnitude for a world in transition,
- Wind propulsion.
2nd year
Core curriculum
Introduction to environmental issues : the aim of this course is to help train engineers who are aware of their role in the ecological transformation of our society to put it on a sustainable path. To achieve this, the course aims to :
- provide the factual elements needed to understand the current environmental situation and the mechanisms that have led to it;
- encourage students to take up these issues.
'Transition, environment and society' block: Following on from the 1ʳᵉ year core curriculum, students will be trained in environmental engineering tools and levers for transition, in order to be able to identify the relevant tools and levers to become a player in the transition as an engineer.
Current elective modules
- Circular economy,
- Climate impact of aviation: current situation and outlook,
- Sustainable Development Goals.
3rd year
Areas of application
- Energy, transport and the environment.
Over the next thirty years, energy demand associated with transport is set to grow the most. Against this backdrop, there are huge challenges to be met if energy production, consumption and transport development are to be brought into line with the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid and non-conventional technologies are emerging as effective solutions to these challenges, but they have to fit into a sometimes complex economic, regulatory and social environment. It includes courses on energy and climate and economics and ecology. - Aircraft design and operation: with the Air Transport System Transition pathway. This pathway focuses on assessing the environmental impact of aircraft and the air transport system, estimating the effects of technological solutions (energy carriers, new aircraft and operations, etc.) and non-technological solutions (economic, carbon offsetting, sobriety, etc.) making it possible to reduce the environmental impact of aviation, on air transport, stakeholders and society in order to simulate transition scenarios for air transport and estimate their viability.
Generally speaking
Other modules are available to choose from in 1ʳᵉ and 2ᵉ year:
- nature, man, ecology,
- life, the living and living in a time of biological crises,
- environmental ethics.
Details of elected representatives
Design and analysis of transition scenarios for the air transport sector.
The course is an introduction to eco-design: choosing materials with the environment in mind. Faced with current and future ecological and economic issues, directives and the demands of society, it is necessary to minimise the impact on the environment from the design phase of products, whether goods, services, etc.
The aim of this course is, on the one hand, to present the issues, the different approaches and the tools for eco-design and, on the other hand, to study energies and identify those that are renewable with their exploitation or transformation.
The aim of this module is to extend our students' know-how to an area of fluid mechanics that is a source of innovation: wind propulsion. This field is currently the focus of developments aimed at performance and/or sustainability. Competition sailboats made up of a rigid wing and foils fly at the water/air interface. This extremely high-performance mode of travel gives rise to problems of dynamic stability, which are a natural extension of the aeronautical field. These new developments are also being applied to merchant ships with hybrid propulsion to meet the challenge of the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels through wind propulsion.
Since the industrial revolution and the massive exploitation of fossil fuels, the economy has been free of the physical limits of the earth. The depletion of resources and climate change are forcing us to reintegrate these limits to enable the emergence of a sustainable society (17 UN objectives). Engineers have a key role to play in raising awareness of this issue, spreading it throughout society and contributing to the developments needed to change society's trajectory. This course provides the practical tools needed to design the transition to a sustainable world: estimation techniques, physics of orders of magnitude, critical thinking (reasoning, prototyping, modelling, integrating the limits of models).
The aim of this module is to extend our students' know-how to an area of fluid mechanics that is a source of innovation: wind propulsion. This field is currently the focus of developments aimed at performance and/or sustainability. Competition sailboats made up of a rigid wing and foils fly at the water/air interface. This extremely high-performance mode of travel gives rise to problems of dynamic stability, which are a natural extension of the field of aeronautics.
Acquire a holistic vision of the solutions for reducing the environmental impact of the 3 areas of the circular economy and discover the methods and tools for reducing the impact of the 7 pillars.
Today, we know that industry and engineers in particular have a vital role to play in the energy and environmental transition!
Laurent Michel Head of programme General engineer ISAE-SUPAEROOur specialised Industrial Engineering for Aeronautics and Space curriculum
In 1st year
- Core curriculum
- Sustainable development and CSR
Corporate social responsibility, also known as corporate social responsibility (CSR), is the way in which companies take account of environmental, social and ethical issues in their activities.
2nd year
- The factory of the future: challenges and issues
The aim of this course is to make students aware of the importance of the challenges facing industrial systems in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. These include the digitisation of the factory, factory flexibility and production configurability, new logistics tools and new simulation tools. The aim is to design a factory that saves energy and raw materials.
3rd year
- Avionics and embedded systems option
- Energy Systems and Materials option
More generally, the issues of eco-responsibility and energy efficiency in the aerospace sector are addressed in various technical courses throughout the course through the concepts of eco-design, optimisation, life-cycle analysis, recycling and recyclability of materials, etc.
The Climate Fresco and collective intelligence
The tone is set every autumn: our 1st year students are invited to take part in a fun and creative workshop on the environment. The aim is to find and explain the links between cause and effect in order to build a real 'fresco' of climate change.
Created by Cédric Ringenbach, a passionate engineer who teaches energy-climate issues in higher education, the Climate Fresco is an educational tool that articulates the IPCC's conclusions to provide a better understanding of the components of climate disruption and its systemic dimension.
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