Companies Day at the Computer Science Department of École polytechnique

On December 5th, École Polytechnique's Computer Science Department (DIX) organized a companies day for its students. The event allowed the School's computer science students to meet with a panel of companies, most of which are partners of the Department and its Laboratory (LIX). The companies presented their activities as well as the major operational and research challenges they face.

05 Dec. 2022

Education, Ingénieur Polytechnicien, Master, Informatique

As part of the École polytechnique's industrial relations program, the Computer Science Department (DIX) and the Computer Science Laboratory (LIX) of the School organized a companies day on December 5th with some twenty partner companies. The event enabled students from the Ingénieur Polytechnicien Program and masters’ students to meet and exchange ideas with major industrial players in research and development in various fields of computer science.

After the introduction of the day by Sonia Vanier, researcher in the OptimiX team of the LIX and responsible for industrial relations at the DIX and the LIX, Marie-Paule Cani, professor at École Polytechnique and president of the DIX, presented the department and the computer science laboratory. This was followed by presentations by five of partner companies (Médiamétrie, EDF, SNCF, Orange and Société Générale), who presented their research activities, the major technological and scientific challenges they face, and the strategic issues to come up in computer science in the near future.

Médiamétrie was represented by its chairman and CEO Yannick Carriou, EDF by its scientific director, Etienne Brière and its director of Information Services and Technologies, Stéphane Tanguy, SNCF by its director of research, David de Almeida, Orange by its director of research program in security and transactions Adam Ouorou and Société Générale by the CEO of Société Générale Forge, an in-house start-up of the French bank that carries projects related to the blockchain.

The participating students were then able to exchange directly with the speakers as well as with representatives of other companies or organizations present such as Crédit Agricole, Capgemini, Nomadic, Agence du numérique en santé, Engie, Amazon, Google, RTE, Dassault Systèmes, Thalès, Doshas Consulting Dynergie, and Fintica AI.

The DIX aims to provide all future graduates of École polytechnique with fundamental knowledge and skills in computer science, as well as to prepare some of the students for specialization in key areas: fundamental computer science, artificial intelligence and data science, mathematical programming and optimization, cybersecurity and networks, computer graphics and computer vision, bioinformatics and formal methods, etc.

The Dix academic team teaches computer science to the X Bachelor's program and the Ingénieur Polytechnicien program students. In addition to participating in all of the IPParis master's programs in computer science, the DIX is also responsible for three of École Polytechnique's Masters of Science & Technology (MScT), which are specialized programs based on a strong industrial partnership: Cybersecurity, Internet of Things: Innovation and Management (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Visual Computing (AI-ViC), a joint program with the Department of Applied Mathematics (DMAP).

Research at the DIX is based on its laboratory, the LIX, a CNRS UMR, of which 5 of the 14 teams are also shared with Inria. Its research activities are divided into five areas: computer mathematics, proofs and algorithms, secure and efficient communications, modeling and simulation, data analysis and learning.

Strong links with the industry

In addition to numerous industrial partnership contracts and the supervision of CIFRE theses, the LIX and the DIX have held several chairs at École Polytechnique in recent years.

For example, the Complex Systems Engineering Chair, headed by Eric Goubault, is supported by Thales, Dassault Aviation, the Direction des Constructions Navales (DCNS), and the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA), and also includes academic partners: Télécom ParisTech and ENSTA ParisTech.

The Blockchain Chair, headed by Julien Prat, CNRS research director at the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST*), and Daniel Augot (LIX) research director at Inria, is supported by Cap Gemini, Nomadic Labs, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation and the Ecole Polytechnique Foundation.

The Internet Technologies and Engineering Chair is supported by Cisco and held by Thomas Clausen, professor at X and head of the LIX Networks team. The On Integrated Urban Mobility Chair is held by Claudia d'Ambrosio, CNRS research director at LIX and lecturer at DIX.

Finally, the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, of which the École Polytechnique is one of the founding Schools, and HEC launched in September 2020 the interdisciplinary research center dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and Data, Hi! PARIS. Supported by seven sponsors (L'Oréal, Capgemini, TotalEnergies, Kering, Rexel, Vinci and Schneider Electric), the FX and the HEC Foundation, it aims to become one of the leading international centers in these fields. Hi ! PARIS funds part of the research carried out at the LIX in the field of artificial intelligence.

*CREST : a joint research unit CNRS, ENSAE Paris, École Polytechnique - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, GENES

Back