Meeting with Laurent Michel
Laurent Michel graduated from INSA in 1987 with a degree in physical engineering, specialising in materials for electronics (DEA). He then went on to do a PhD on the study of the anelastic behaviour of polymer matrix composite materials by thermo-stimulated creep, funded by DGA-DRET, in the solid state physics laboratory at Paul Sabatier University.
In 1993, he joined ENSICA’s Mechanical Engineering department to teach mechanics and launch the school’s first research activities in the field of organic matrix composites.
A professor of structural mechanics and materials, in 2019 he became head of the Department of Structural Mechanics and Materials (DMSM) at ISAE-SUPAERO. Since 1 July, he has been head of the general engineering training programme at ISAE-SUPAERO.
You have been Head of the ISAE-SUPAERO General Engineer training programme since 1 July. What will your duties involve?
The main tasks of this new post concern the day-to-day running of the general engineering course. But the essential and immediate challenge is to overhaul this curriculum, incorporating a skills-based approach. New technologies (quantum, AI, cybersecurity, etc.), the energy transition and environmental and social issues will also have to find their place in this new formula for the curriculum, without losing its DNA.
How does this new position fit in with your career path?
I’ve been a professor of structural mechanics and materials since 1993, first at ENSICA, then at ISAE-SUPAERO. I have also developed research activities, mainly around the damage tolerance of composite materials and their mechanical behaviour in fatigue or under the effect of the environment.
In terms of training, I have been responsible for a number of tasks in the general engineering curriculum, including setting up a specific 2nd year course in structural design (120 hours) when the ENSICA curriculum was overhauled, recruiting engineering students on the basis of competitive examinations and admissions on the basis of qualifications, and setting up the Validation of Acquired Experience.
Finally, since the merger of the SUPAERO and ENSICA engineering programmes in 2015, I have taken on the role of training coordinator for the Structures and Materials Mechanics Department (DMSM), and then I have been responsible for the common scientific core module on the mechanics of deformable solids in the General Engineering programme, and co-responsibility for the 3rd year ‘Structures and Materials’ course.
How do you see your new responsibilities?
It will be an opportunity for me to get closer to all our students and explore their expectations of the Institute. I’ll be passing on a bit more, and in a different way. Finally, I attach a great deal of importance to the feeling of ownership, particularly among the teaching staff: I think it’s important that the teachers and students are in tune with each other and that they enjoy what they do.
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