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World Engineer Day 2020: a young alumni puts his engineering skills to work for the climate

Publication Date

04 March 2020

From conquering space to protecting the environment: a commitment to the climate

As a young high school graduate, Maxime Efoui Hess dreamed of working in space research. Amazed by the human adventure of the conquest of space, he joined ISAE-SUPAERO in 2013.

During his gap year, he began to think about how to include environmental issues in his professional life and drew parallels between the climate and space.

In these two fields, which seem to be poles apart, a closed ecosystem to which no new resources can be added is being studied. Above all, we become aware of the planet we live on and the damaging effects of global warming on it.

Indeed, who better than an astronaut to see the Earth as a whole and measure, from a distance, the impact of carbon constraints on its health?

In his 3rd year at ISAE-SUPAERO, the student chose to follow the ” Energy, Transport, Environment ” course offered by the Institute. It was during this course that Maxime discovered The Shift Project, a public interest lobby that advocates a scientific vision capable of providing solutions for engineering to free it from the carbon constraint. The Shift Project deals with concrete, physical problems, including technical skills and scientific analysis. Students are seduced and see a career path taking shape that is in line with their commitments.

So, at the end of his studies, Maxime joined the lobby to put his engineering skills at the service of the climate. The young graduate is certain of this: engineers have a role to play in every industrial project, integrating environmental concepts from the outset and reducing society’s ecological impact as far as possible.

Engineers must use their skills and global vision to change the current model

When Maxime joined The Shift Project, he didn’t follow the traditional route of a graduate from a top engineering school. And for good reason: he is convinced that engineers have a role to play in the ecological transition. Engineers have learned to take an overall view of the various stages in a project: from its inception to its final use, from the choice of components to their recycling.

Their role? To make the right decision by encompassing all the components, all the aspects, all the purposes. So even if a decision has no direct bearing on the climate at a given moment, it can nevertheless change everything. By contributing their technical and intellectual skills, engineers help to change a model. To change society’s model using the “engineer’s vision”, the grandes écoles have a role to play.

At the end of 2019, The Shift Project produced a report on the place of the environment and climate in higher education programmes. There is strong demand from students and lecturers to take environmental constraints into account when setting up research projects and training programmes. Higher education establishments are developing curricula in which the environment is a key priority, and are setting up numerous initiatives to raise awareness and train students in their role in defending the climate. All that remains is to add these initiatives to a systemic vision and prove to students that their skills are useful and even essential for changing the current model and adapting it to the climate challenges.

Students aware of environmental issues

As soon as they started their new academic year, the 1st year engineering students took part in a climate awareness day at the beginning of September.

Caroline BERARD, former Head of Engineering Programme, reminded the 220 new students that “ the aeronautics industry has met three challenges: making aircraft fly, making them safe and making them accessible to a wider public by lowering production costs. Now there’s a fourth, and it’s up to you to rise to it: designing carbon-free aircraft. The tone is set!

More than 80% of first-year students at ISAE-SUPAERO want to be trained in sustainable development.
To meet this demand, ISAE-SUPAERO is offering an “Energy Transition” module as part of the engineering curriculum. In 3rd year, students can choose “Energy, transport and environment ” as their field of application.

An “environmental engineering” certificate is also offered to all ISAE Group students.

Climate change a priority in higher education

In 2019, Olivier Lesbre, Managing Director, signed the manifesto issued by The Shift Project, a think tank working for a carbon-free economy. Recent work on the teaching of climate and energy issues in higher education has revealed a strong desire on the part of the higher education teaching community and students for an organised response to training on climate issues. More than 80 heads of higher education establishments and 1,000 teachers and researchers, leading a list of some 7,500 signatories, are calling on the government to “initiate a transition strategy for higher education that positions the climate as a top priority”.

ISAE-SUPAERO RESEARCH: major initiatives to invent the sustainable air transport of tomorrow

We are working on new air transport concepts through several research chairs

The Cedar Chair for Eco-Design of AiRcraft, created by Airbus 6 years ago, supports research into innovative concepts to prepare the next generation of transport aircraft.
The Safran-AEGIS Chair, launched in 2016, aims to reduce the environmental footprint (pollutant discharges and noise emissions) of aircraft propulsion by working on new engine and airframe integration formulas.
The Daher Chair, launched in 2019, to conduct research into the design and certification of light aircraft with hybrid-electric propulsion.