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‘Welcome to France’: ISAE-SUPAERO accredited for the quality of its welcome to international students

Publication Date

17 January 2024

Category

Institute

Tag

Label

LACS

Welcome to France" label

The ISAE-SUPAERO campus welcomes 40% international students every year.

To facilitate their integration and their study experience in France, the Institute sets up a number of actions throughout the year:

mentoring;
integration day;
International Week;
on-campus accommodation;
support from academic and administrative advisers;
French as a foreign language (FLE) courses;
a wide range of sports and community activities.

Campus France has rewarded these efforts by awarding the ‘Bienvenue en France’ three-star label for the second time running.

The “Bienvenue en France” label is awarded to French higher education establishments that have developed facilities to welcome international students. It attests to the quality and accessibility of information, reception facilities, the range of courses on offer, teaching support, accommodation, the quality of campus life and post-graduate support.

ISAE-SUPAERO is one of 153 establishments to have been awarded the “Welcome to France” label, and 22% of those to date have been awarded the three-star label.

Marc Pélegrin, the driving force behind Supaero’s influence in Toulouse, has passed away

Publication Date

10 January 2024

Category

Institute

Tag

Governance

Marc Pélegrin, former Director of SupAéro and ONERA-CERT

He has helped to make Toulouse the European capital of aeronautics and space. More specifically, Professor Marc Pélegrin’s innovative vision has kept SupAéro at the forefront of higher education in aeronautics and space. He was responsible for the school’s successful move from Paris to Toulouse and for the creation of the ONERA-CERT centre on the same site. In this way, he revolutionised engineering training by merging training and research activities on the same campus.

As a scientist, Marc Pélegrin has also made a major contribution to research in the aeronautics and space sectors. A former student of Polytechnique and SupAéro (then located in Paris), he first taught at SupAéro, in the field of servo-controls and calculating machines. The research he initiated developed over the decades, opening up a wide range of perspectives.

It was in 1964 that he was asked to lead the transfer of SupAéro to Toulouse, against a backdrop of decentralisation. Although there was little enthusiasm for the project, Marc Pélegrin immediately set himself up as a visionary, seeing in his mission “the possibility of achieving what had struck me so much in the USA”, at MIT, where he had completed his studies: combining training and research. “At that institute, research and teaching were completely intertwined, and students often took part in research work”. As a result, he was able to convince the government to create a study and research centre in symbiosis with the school, under the authority of a joint director.

"I saw in this mission the possibility of realising what had struck me so much in the USA, when in 1945-50 I had the chance to complete my studies at MIT. At that institute, research and teaching were completely intertwined, and students often took part in research work.

Marc Pélegrin Former Director of SupAéro and ONERA-CERT

In terms of training, Marc Pélegrin has also seen things through: while SupAéro’s classes numbered barely 100 students, the school has three 200-seat lecture theatres, student residences, remarkable sports facilities and a Nord 262 aircraft for in-flight practical work. What’s more, the complementary relationship between CERT and SupAéro quickly made the school a pioneer among engineering schools: in 1974, SupAéro was one of the first to be accredited to award doctoral degrees in engineering.

Marc Pélegrin was joint director of the two institutions from 1968 to 1978, and then of ONERA-CERT until 1988. Over the years, SupAéro has trained hundreds of engineers who have gone on to contribute to the extraordinary success of the French aerospace industry. CERT also made a significant contribution, in particular through the pioneering work carried out in Marc Pélegrin’s scientific field of automatic control.

A centenary tribute in 2023, a Marc Pélegrin prize in 2024

On November 28, Marc Pélegrin’s 100th birthday was celebrated on the ISAE-SUPAERO campus in the presence of his family, former students and colleagues. This day, which he was unable to attend due to his state of health, highlighted the richness, importance and variety of the activities that have developed on the basis of his work and which today remain at the forefront of the world, both in the field of training and research, at ISAE-SUPAERO, ONERA and other laboratories.

On this occasion, ISAE-SUPAERO and ONERA announced the creation of a “Marc Pélegrin Prize”, to be awarded from 2024 onwards at international EuroGNC conferences for outstanding scientific contributions in the field of automatic control applied to the aerospace sector.

Congratulations to our eight ISAE-SUPAERO faculty members who are among the top 2% of scientists!

Publication Date

23 November 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Ranking

Teacher researcher

This ranking, considered to be the most prestigious in the world, was prepared by a team of experts led by Professor John Ioannidis, eminent professor at Stanford University.

Of the 8 million scientists considered to be active in the world, in 22 fields and 176 sub-fields, only 2% appear in this ranking. The study is based on the Scopus database, which provides standardised information on citations, the h-index, the hm-index adjusted for co-authorship, citations of articles in different author positions and a composite indicator.

This database was created to provide an up-to-date analysis and a public list of the best scientists. Eight ISAE-SUPAERO teacher-researchers feature in this ranking, highlighting the quality of the school’s scientific research:

Olivier Besson: his research activities are in the field of statistical processing of signals and networks, mainly the formation of robust adaptive beams, adaptive detection and estimation, with main applications in the field of radar;

Christophe Bouvet (Institut Clément Ader – ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities are in the field of Mechanics of Aeronautical Structures and Materials, and in particular the Dimensioning of Composite Structures;
Frédéric Dehais (ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities are in the fields of neuroergonomics, human factors, computer science and signal processing;
Christian Gogu (Institut Clément Ader – ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities focus on the numerical mechanics of sustainable aerostructures;
Pierre Magnan (ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities are in the field of image sensors;
Thierry Jardin (ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities are in the field of fluid dynamics;
Jean-Marc Moschetta (ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities are in the field of aerodynamics;
Thomas Oberlin (ISAE-SUPAERO): his research activities are in the field of artificial intelligence and imaging.

At the heart of ISAE-SUPAERO, a world-renowned institute in the field of aerospace

Publication Date

20 October 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Governance

Over the course of the day, journalist Paul-Henri Wallet criss-crossed the Institute’s “verdant 22-hectare” campus to meet our “passionate” students, lecturers and management team, and visited our “exceptional” infrastructure, scientific facilities and fablab, “a futuristic building (…) housing dozens of machines”, InnovSpace.

The article is freely available on the Figaro Étudiant website: https://etudiant.lefigaro.fr/article/etudes/isae-supaero-a-l-ecole-des-astronautes-francais-20231020

Building tomorrow’s sky together

Publication Date

06 October 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Partnership

Meeting with José Navarro Martin

What motivated you to join this scheme at ISAE-SUPAERO?

I’ve always wanted to get closer to academia and its research, and pass on what I’ve learned in industry. The pause in aeronautical activities during the pandemic and the French government’s recovery plan, which focuses on sustainable development, gave me this opportunity.

What project did you work on?

My secondment concerned the mechanical behaviour of composite materials in a harsh environment and their behaviour under thermomechanical stress derived from the use of liquid hydrogen as a fuel stored at cryogenic temperatures.

The aim was to propose a numerical model for analysing and predicting the behaviour of the material up to failure under static load, taking into account the requirements in terms of thermal cycling, permeability, damage tolerance and possible ageing due to direct contact with hydrogen.

We have developed a mesoscopic Finite Element (FE) model of the behaviour of a carbon fibre laminate, taking into account the effect of cooling and mechanical loading in the formation of microcracks. These microcracks create leak paths through the material that increase the permeability to hydrogen gas under pressure.

What have you gained from this collaboration in scientific and human terms?

On a human level, the whole team at the Department of Mechanics of Structures and Materials (DMSM), and especially my tutors, Laurent Michel and Yves Gourinat, gave me a very warm welcome. Despite working conditions that are still difficult in 2021, my integration into their team was complete from day one and the work was carried out in a friendly atmosphere. I was also able to help teach group tutorials for the engineering course and supervise internships and integration projects linked to hydrogen on the Specialised Master’s programme. The contact with the students has given me a great deal on a personal level. These collaborations have also enabled me to forge links with the other industrialists on site, thanks to the same recovery plan.

From a scientific point of view, I learnt an enormous amount about how to approach a problem without being driven by the need for immediate results, which is sometimes too prevalent in industry. I was also able to acquire skills in damage modelling and simulation that are not always available on a day-to-day basis in a design office whose main task is to design concrete products.

How will your collaboration with the Institute continue?

Unfortunately, the loan will come to an end at the end of the maximum two-year period stipulated by the French National Research Agency (ANR). However, the scientific and teaching collaboration will continue.

The subject of decarbonisation and hydrogen-powered aircraft is more topical than ever, and Airbus still needs to unlock the existing scientific barriers to the development of a lightweight fuel tank in line with the requirements derived from its use in the aeronautical field. I will also be continuing my collaboration with ISAE-SUPAERO as a part-time lecturer in this field.

More generally, what do you think of this collaboration between Airbus and ISAE-SUPAERO?

Research into the use of hydrogen in aeronautics is only just beginning. The arrival of specific laboratory equipment for tests in a cryogenic environment at the Institut Clément Ader from next year will enable us to apply and make progress on the characterisation and modelling of phenomena linked to the cryogenic use of composite materials. This secondment has enabled me to forge very important links with the researchers, teacher-researchers and staff at the DMSM and the ICA. I hope that, as in the film Casablanca, this will be just “the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.

A programme leading to certification for integrating hydrogen into aviation

ISAE-SUPAERO, Capgemini Engineering and EuroSae have developed a CapH2 certified executive education course dedicated to the integration of hydrogen in current and future aircraft architectures. ISAE-SUPAERO is responsible for coordination and scientific leadership, Cap Gemini for industrial project management and EuroSae for operational project management.

Operational since 2022, it is aimed at professionals in the aeronautical sector to help them make the transition to energy-efficient aviation. The first class (72 engineers) took the course during the 2022-2023 academic year and obtained their certificate in June 2023.

For Yves Gourinat, Professor of Structural Physics at ISAE-SUPAERO and scientific coordinator of the CapH2 course, the aim of the programme is to train and certify engineers from major European aerospace companies, giving them a global vision of the transformations to be made and the many technological challenges to be met.

Hydrogen is emerging as an effective alternative for reducing the environmental impact of the aviation sector. But this element, stored in liquid form, is difficult to handle because of its very low temperature and its fugacity. Its low density also requires 4 times more storage volume than paraffin.

These characteristics will therefore have an impact on the aircraft’s architecture, structures, materials and systems engineering, but also on regulations, compatibility with airport structures, etc. The use of this neo-fuel means that the aeronautical industry must take account of technological and societal changes.

One of the keys to success is increasing the skills of professionals in the sector. The CapH2 training programme responds to this by offering a 77-hour course including lessons and team projects based around three concepts: the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), the transformation of a 50-passenger commuter aircraft, and the cryogenic flying wing.

ISAE-SUPAERO’s many years of research into hydrogen and the aeronautical transition mean that the scientific aspect of the course can be integrated into a systems and interdisciplinary approach.

Ose Ingé programme: Mentor-Mentee interview

Publication Date

31 August 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Diversity program

Equal opportunities

Meeting with Tristana Bujia and Jean-Baptiste Brun

Can you introduce yourself?

Tristana: My name is Tristana and I’m 19. I’m currently doing a preparatory course in Physics, Chemistry and Engineering Sciences (PCSI) and in my second year I’m going to do a PC. I want to become an engineer (probably in chemistry).

Jean-Baptiste: I’m 30 years old and graduated from ISAE-SUPAERO in 2016 after two years of preparatory classes in MP at Lycée Charlemagne, Paris 4E. In engineering school, I chose to focus on energy, transport and the environment. At the end of my studies, I wanted to get away from the isolation of engineering school and work as close as possible to industrial production, and that’s what I did when I joined Air France Industries, the entity in charge of aircraft maintenance for Air France and its customers.

Why did you want to take part in the OSE Ingé scheme?

Tristana: I was offered the chance to take part in this programme and I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet engineers, as I didn’t have any around me. What’s more, we had the chance to visit an engineering school as well as Jean-Baptiste’s workplace to see what his job might be like. I wanted to be able to talk to someone who had followed a similar career path to the one I want to follow.

Jean-Baptiste: I’ve been very lucky throughout my time at school to be encouraged, guided and also well informed about the different choices I’ve had to make, and it’s only fair that I should be able to offer support, listen and share my experiences with students who are following a similar path and may be experiencing the same doubts and even frustrations. The preparatory classes are two years that are rich intellectually but can be emotionally trying and support, however occasional, can make more difference than an extra hour spent on a physics exercise. The involvement I’ve had allows me to be useful, I hope, to people who may need it. The idea wasn’t to be a performance coach to boost grades or to define a strategy for the different deadlines of the two years, but rather to be a listening ear and unfailing support, whether to aim for one of the top-ranked schools or to change direction if the preparatory classes weren’t suitable.

Can you describe your work together?

Tristana: We don’t really work together because the aim is not to revise courses. We’ve seen each other just under once a month this year to discuss our feelings about the preparatory classes and we’ve exchanged ideas on various subjects, such as how the preparatory classes work and how they’re organised, life in engineering school, ecology, etc.

Jean-Baptiste: The first thing was to define a way of working between us, even if it meant adjusting it. We saw each other physically or virtually once every two months or so, and exchanged messages from time to time, although it was difficult to be present and available without being intrusive, because that’s the last thing I would have wanted in his place. During these meetings, we talked about her daily life, her difficulties, the life of a student in a preparatory class. I’d share my memories of my two years of preparatory classes, but I’d also take care to talk about lighter subjects. At the same time, I tried to help out in other ways, such as finding contacts for the TIPE or organising a visit to my workplace with other mentees and classmates.

What did you learn from the Ose Ingé scheme?

Tristana: I learnt how the preparatory engineering school system works and visiting my mentor’s workplace gave me a better idea of what was possible after my studies. It’s an interesting system that gives you a different view from that of your teachers or specialisms, because the mentor has a fresher experience with a certain distance and experience of the world of work.

Jean-Baptiste: I’m not in the best position to answer that question, as I only had a support role. However, I think I found the right position and established a relationship of trust with Tristana. If that’s the case and our discussions have helped her at least once, hopefully more, then it’s been a success. The scheme is positive because of the opportunities it offers students for support and for sharing experiences. It’s also a challenge for the mentors, most of whom have a classic engineer’s mentality of trying to solve problems. And sometimes, as mentors, we don’t have to provide solutions, but simply listen and share our experience. It’s not very natural, but it happens in the end. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it without hesitation.

What is your best memory?

Tristana: My best memory was visiting Jean-Baptiste’s workplace and also the day when we played sport at the CREPS with all the mentees and a few mentors.

Jean-Baptiste: I remember a session in the first half of the year where I had the impression that the discussion helped to play down the situation Tristana was in and to gain a bit of perspective. She didn’t have all the keys to success in the prep school after that but I think she was able to think about something else and have a bit of peace of mind, for a few days or a few hours. And that’s already a good start.

ISAE-SUPAERO obtains the HappyAtSchool®label!

Publication Date

24 April 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Label

Student life

Happy At School is a ChooseMyCompany label, based exclusively on the opinions of students collected through an anonymous questionnaire, guaranteeing its impartial and independent nature.

The opinions gathered testify to the high quality of the professional experience offered by ISAE-SUPAERO and the richness of campus life.

Nearly 92% of students feel that their degree is recognised by employers
Nearly 81% of them feel that the Institute enables them to enter companies that interest them
Nearly 86. 5% of them believe that they will find a job that matches their aspirations, values and skills at the end of their studies
Nearly 90% consider their student life to be rich in extra-curricular projects, and 81.6% think that the facilities available on campus match the school’s ambitions.

Finally, almost 80% of them would recommend ISAE-SUPAERO to a friend to study at!

Meeting with Sylvain D’Hoine, Executive VP – Space at CS GROUP

Publication Date

10 March 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Partnership

Meeting with Sylvain D'Hoine

Could you tell us about CS GROUP’s activities and business lines?

CS GROUP is an innovative mid-sized company undergoing a major transformation. We are now moving to a larger scale, particularly in the space sector, with the integration of HE SPACE last January, which will enable us to strengthen our positions in this sector in Europe; but also by integrating the Sopra Steria group, which we will be joining on 1 March 2023. By combining our strengths, we are creating a European leader in digital services and critical systems in the defence & security, aeronautics, space, energy and cyber security sectors.

In the space business that I represent, we act as a link between institutional customers or prime contractors and new players in the space sector, offering them innovative space applications or systems. The sector’s traditional players have complex requirements and specifications, and we respond to these very precise specifications. On the other hand, for New Space, our teams are more focused on products or services. CS GROUP has the capacity to serve this world of New Space and traditional players thanks to its 40 years of experience in the field, which is what we call Smart Space!

Finally, CS GROUP embarked on an open source approach at a very early stage. For the past 10 years, it has been offering products based on components developed by a communitý of engineers, researchers, industrialists and startups in the sector, and which are now being massively adopted by major industrial and scientific players in the space sector both in the context of studies and operational systems. Examples include OREKIT, the most widely used space mechanics library in the world, and OTB for image processing.

Why did you decide to sign a partnership agreement with ISAE-SUPAERO?

First of all, ISAE-SUPAERO has a strong link with our two core businesses of aeronautics and space, and the Institute’s teaching in these two fields is widely recognised!

We have a lot of managers and employees who come from the school and we wanted your students to get to know our company better and what it can offer them. It’s less natural for them to turn to us than to large organisations, even though we create systems that are at least as complex on exciting projects, and there are great career opportunities within CS GROUP. The average age is 31, and it’s important for us to train and support young graduates. There’s a good mix between junior and more experienced employees, and the notion of passing on knowledge is vital.

What are your expectations and objectives in this partnership?

We want to increase our recruitment and integration capacity, but also widely distribute the open source heritage I mentioned earlier.

CS GROUP is characterised by its dual technical and business skills and a strong culture of innovation. We’re looking for people with IT development skills, and the teams will specialise in the business areas as they gain experience.

We are looking for engineers with IT development skills in our various business areas, who will be able to work on systems integration and operational procedures, and progress to technical manager or architect positions.

They make up ISAE-SUPAERO: who are our women in science?

Publication Date

08 March 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Corporate responsibility

Raphaëlle Roy

Lecturer and Researcher – Human Factors and Neuroergonomics at DCAS

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I’m a lecturer and researcher in the Human Factors and Neuroergonomics team in the Aerospace Vehicle Design and Control Department (DCAS). I work mainly on the monitoring of operators interacting with critical systems, using electrophysiology measurements and machine learning tools. Recently, I have also been applying these methods to human-robot interaction. The aim of these studies is twofold: to understand how humans function cognitively when interacting with critical systems, and also to propose solutions for dealing with so-called degraded states, such as fatigue or stress.

What made you choose a scientific career and pursue it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)?

What drew me to this profession was curiosity, the desire to understand, but also the contact with students and the freedom to pursue my own research and organise my day-to-day life in my own way. I came to ISAE-SUPAERO by chance, because after my thesis in Grenoble I was supposed to go to Germany. A combination of circumstances meant that my planned funding was not available in time. A friend told me about this institute and the research group that I then contacted. After a short post-doctorate, a teaching-research position opened up, which I was lucky enough to get!

What needs to be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in these scientific professions?

As in all professions, improving salary transparency would help to expose inequalities and combat them more effectively. What’s more, setting salaries that include a variable component has been shown to penalise women in particular, so I think it’s a method that should be avoided. Perhaps a better distribution of tasks and responsibilities would go some way to addressing these disparities and the self-censorship that may also persist. Institutes implementing such measures would send us a strong message that we will be considered equal to our male colleagues at all levels, both in terms of pay and job content.

Anaïs Chambon

Doctoral student at DAEP/DMSM

Her thesis concerns the experimental and analytical/numerical study of aeroelastic instabilities in flexible blade rotors. In other words, she is studying the instabilities generated by fluid-structure interactions in rotor blades.

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I’m in the final year of my PhD at DAEP/DMSM, where my thesis is on the experimental and analytical/digital study of aeroelastic instabilities in flexible-blade rotors. In other words, I’m studying the instabilities generated by the fluid-structure interactions of rotor blades.

What was the deciding factor for you in choosing a scientific career and pursuing it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)?

At secondary school, you have to do a one-week work placement in a company. At that age I was fascinated by volcanoes, so I was lucky enough to do my placement at the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory in Guadeloupe, where I’m from. I then had the opportunity to meet and work with scientists and researchers, which reinforced my decision to pursue a career in science.

What needs to be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in scientific careers?

Encourage young girls to go into scientific fields and to stay on that path, especially around secondary school age when the choice can be altered by the social environment or society. But if we encourage younger people, we need to encourage them by giving women the same career prospects as men in these professions.

Annafederica Urbano

Associate Professor of Launch Vehicles and Space Systems at DCAS

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I’m an associate professor in Launch Vehicles and Space Systems in the Aerospace Vehicle Design and Control Department (DCAS) in the SaCLaB research group on advanced space concepts. I teach courses on launch systems and rocket propulsion and carry out research on these subjects. I am interested in the management of cryogenic propellants in rocket engine tanks, combustion phenomena inside liquid rocket engine chambers and their design, and the optimisation of launch systems. The long-term objective of my research is to be able to study a series of physical phenomena linked to two-phase and supercritical flows in rocket engines in order to develop models for their design.

What made you choose a scientific career and pursue it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)?

I chose this profession because I’m passionate about rocket propulsion and the huge diversity of complex physical phenomena that govern its operation and raise a multitude of multidisciplinary scientific questions. Teaching allows me to transfer this knowledge and passion to new generations of researchers and engineers. Being a researcher means continually asking questions and trying to find ways of answering them. It’s a constantly evolving job that is very rewarding. ISAE SUPAERO is the ideal place to pursue this career in aerospace engineering.

What should be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in these scientific professions?

Good question… Do I really need to find an answer to this question? The only thing I can say is that example helps: so I think that the more women there are in these professions, the more young women will want to go into them. So we need to promote the position of women in these professions and communicate with the younger generations from a very early age, from primary school onwards.

Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez

Professor – Advanced Space Concepts at DCAS

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I’m a lecturer and researcher in the Aerospace Vehicle Design and Control Department (DCAS), in charge of the Advanced Space Concepts research group (SaCLaB). I am responsible for the Design and Operations of Space Systems (COS) field in the engineering training programme and programme leader for the TAS ASTRO and TAS ASTRO SEEDS Specialised Masters® programmes.

I am also the referent for an ESA-LAB on the theme of “Responsible and sustainable space exploration”. In research, I am interested in robotic and manned space exploration, which can be broken down into three themes:

astrodynamics, and more specifically the optimisation of transfer and rendezvous trajectories in non-Keplerian dynamics (in the Earth-Moon system, Mars and its satellites and asteroids)
changes in crew performance during long-duration space missions (autonomy, man-rover interface, etc.)
space debris: study of long-term behaviour, quantification and propagation of uncertainties, recycling, etc.

With my research group, we want to contribute to future manned and robotic exploration missions: mission analysis, design of space systems (new transport system, fuel depot, habitat, exploration rover) and management of the debris and waste generated by these activities.

What made you choose a scientific career and pursue it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)?

From an early age, I was always amazed by the infinity of Space. When I was seven, I was lucky enough to visit the Nice-Côte d’Azur Observatory. I was fascinated by the telescopes, domes and computers I saw there. My vocation was born, but my project was not clearly defined.

I then immersed myself in the life of Marie Curie and admired her courage and determination. I realised that I wanted to do research.

So I focused my studies on this desire. After the preparatory classes for the grandes écoles, I chose to enter SUPAERO. After graduating as an engineer, I worked for 15 years in the space industry and at CNES, where I was involved in the operations of the ATV, the first European cargo ship to supply the ISS.

This was a decisive step in my career: it confirmed my passion for manned flight and reminded me of my research dreams. That’s when I applied to ISAE-SUPAERO.

What needs to be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in these scientific professions?

Through my involvement with OSE l’ISAE-SUPAERO and ISAELLES, I’ve been able to observe that the biggest obstacle is young women’s lack of confidence in their abilities. Some have great ambitions and dreams of a career in science. But in most cases, and from a very early age, they are told that these professions are supposedly not for women, because they are too difficult, too competitive, require autonomy, risk-taking and assertiveness…

It’s these limitations that we need to focus our efforts on, by reassuring them, encouraging them and listening to them, in particular by making women scientists more visible in society!

Mélanie Drilleau

Research Engineer – Space systems for planetology and its applications at DEOS

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I am a Research Engineer in the Electronics, Optronics and Signals Department (DEOS), in the Space Systems for Planetology and Applications (SSPA) team. My main area of research is to use seismology to constrain the internal structure of planetary bodies, such as the Earth, Moon, Mars and asteroids, in order to gain a better understanding of the formation and evolution of our solar system.

What made you choose a career in science and pursue it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)?

There were of course a number of factors that triggered my choice, but I think I’ve always been fascinated by explaining natural phenomena that go beyond the human scale, both spatially and temporally. During my time at university, I also met a number of inspiring lecturers who helped me to make this choice.

What needs to be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in these scientific professions?

I think the key lies mainly in the education of girls and/or boys. The traditional binary images of the girl as the “good, obedient pupil at school” and the boy as the “transgressor and leader” are still with us today. At home and at school, let’s encourage all children, girls and boys alike, to take the initiative. Let’s encourage them to speak up, while listening attentively and sympathetically to what others have to say.

Naomi Murdoch

Researcher – Planetology and space instrumentation at DEOS

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I am a researcher in planetology and space instrumentation in the Space Systems for Planetology and Applications (SSPA) team at ISAE-SUPAERO.

My research interests lie in understanding the physical properties and geophysical evolution of asteroids and terrestrial planets. I study the interaction between space instrumentation and the surface environment of planetary bodies in order to prepare interplanetary space missions and to enable the data to be interpreted as accurately as possible.

I am currently analysing data from three space missions (InSight, Mars2020 Perseverance and DART) and am also helping to prepare two future space missions. The Hera probe that will visit the asteroid Didymos, which will be the follow-up to the DART mission, and the MMX rover that will visit the surface of Phobos, a moon of Mars.

What made you choose a career in science and pursue it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)?

I’ve always loved physics, but I’ve been able to pursue a scientific career largely thanks to meeting colleagues who have always pulled me up by my bootstraps!

What needs to be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in these scientific professions?

Equal pay.

Compulsory paternity leave of the same duration as maternity leave. This would reduce the barriers to recruitment, promotion and so on, because employers would no longer feel they were taking a ‘maternity risk’ by hiring a woman.

Valérie Budinger

Professor – Aircraft Systems Control and Electrification at DCAS

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO (position held, missions, department, etc.), what are you working on in general and more specifically at the moment, and what are the prospects for your research?

I’m a professor in the Aerospace Vehicle Design and Control Department (DCAS). I teach and do research in the field of systems control and aircraft electrification, which is a strategy being considered to help decarbonise air transport.

For the past 5 years, I have also been in charge of the department, which has 36 permanent staff and 45 doctoral and post-doctoral students.

What made you choose a scientific career and pursue it (at ISAE-SUPAERO)? Why a career in science?

The choice of a scientific career is linked to the ability to create through this type of work. Obviously, there are several forms of creation. My source of motivation is the creation of technological objects that can be useful to society.

The choice of a career as a teacher-researcher was guided by my taste for sharing knowledge and by the scientific challenge provided by research projects. These projects generally last 2 or 3 years and regularly raise questions about current technological or methodological issues, which is very stimulating. What’s more, doing research means that you can continue to train yourself to better train your students. So, in my opinion, the job is very complete.

Why ISAE-SUPAERO?

My first motivation for joining ISAE-SUPAERO was to teach in a high-level institute offering a wide range of courses. I am in contact with students of several nationalities on a variety of training courses (engineering training in French or English and sandwich courses). The exchanges are very rewarding.

My second motivation is linked to the conditions offered at ISAE-SUPAERO for carrying out research activities. In addition to industrial contacts for working on research projects with concrete problems, ISAE-SUPAERO has high-performance testing and manufacturing facilities managed by technical teams who work with researchers to produce demonstrators to test and validate concepts. These are rare and precious working conditions for a researcher.

What should be improved or demanded to increase the proportion of women in these scientific professions?

Respect equal access to positions of responsibility and equal pay in these professions.

Academic excellence: ISAE-SUPAERO ranked 4th by L’Étudiant!

Publication Date

27 February 2023

Category

Institute

Tag

Ranking

L’Etudiant’s assessment of academic excellence is based on 3 indicators: average baccalaureate score of those admitted, proportion of teaching-research staff and number of doctoral students.

The 4th place obtained by ISAE-SUPAERO confirms the school’s great attractiveness to students after the competitive entrance exams, also underlined by the 5th place obtained by the Institute in the Génération Prépa ranking in 2022.

Discover the full Génération Prépa ranking: https://generation-prepa.com/classement-ecoles-ingenieurs

Génération Prépa is a media outlet run by Grandes Ecoles students and aimed at students in preparatory classes. In 2022, the team published a ranking that reflects students’ actual choices as closely as possible, based on data from the Service de Concours Ecoles d’Ingénieurs (SCEI), which compiles admission statistics for all engineering entrance exams for all streams. To establish the score for each school, Génération prépa has based itself on 5 factors:

the competition in which the school is placed
its average rank
the number of entrants
the number of places
the number of students who have entered the school

At the end of 2022, Les Echos Start | Change Now ranked ISAE-SUPAERO 2nd in its ranking of schools most committed to the ecological and social transition, which takes into account, alongside traditional criteria of excellence, the extent to which schools take environmental and social issues into account.

The L’Étudiant 2023 ranking of academic excellence is available here: https://www.letudiant.fr/classements/classement-des-ecoles-d-ingenieurs/excellence-academique.html

The Les Echos Start ranking is available here: https://start.lesechos.fr/apprendre/universites-ecoles/decouvrez-le-classement-2022-des-ecoles-les-plus-engagees-dans-la-transition-ecologique-par-changenow-et-les-echos-start-1875227

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