École Polytechnique sponsor of the astronomy festival “Explor’Espace”

École Polytechnique is sponsoring the Explor'Espace festival for the general public, through the Chair “Science and Video Games” and the education sponsorship “Space: Science and the Challenges of Space”. The event, organised by the French Association of Astronomy (Association Française d'Astronomie) and Ciel & Espace, will take place on 3, 4 and 5 November 2023 at the Beffroi de Montrouge.

A stand will be run jointly by the two teams, along with the student associations Réseau and AstronautiX. AstronautiX, which is heavily involved in the preparations for this event, regularly organises conferences, meetings and events around astronomy. The school's student community is particularly involved here, as the Réseau association will also be providing essential material support for the activities.

This interactive festival will be an opportunity for the general public to discover the spacecraft developed by students over the years: nano-satellites, rockets and models of current projects. Video game enthusiasts will be able to try their hand at a selection of space-related games, or preview the as yet unpublished game “Reveal” being developed by the Chair “Science and Video Games”.

Explor'Espace offers a rich programme, with the participation of several science and space institutions, including the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD*). The event is free upon registration. Full programme and bookings on the official website.

*LMD: a joint research unit CNRS, ENS - PSL, Sorbonne Université, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91120 Palaiseau, France

About the Chair "Science and Video games"

Organized as a gamelab and supported by Ubisoft, the “Science and Video Games” Chair aims to enhance the realism, gameplay and accessibility of video games through science, and also to use this medium to spread scientific culture. Held since 2019 by Raphaël Granier de Cassagnac, this Chair, which is interdisciplinary in nature, aims to facilitate the integration of models (physical, economic, social, etc.) into video games, and covers a wide range of techniques such as 3D modelling, sound spatialization and artificial intelligence. Teaching is another innovative aspect of the Chair, with the aim of familiarizing engineering students with industry methodologies and developing a pool of video game professionals.

About the education sponsorship "Space : science and challenges of space"

Supported since 2019 by Thales Alenia Space and ArianeGroup, the “Space: the science and challenges of the space sector” teaching corporate sponsorship overseen by Pascal Chabert aims to train the aerospace professionals of tomorrow. To this end, the corporate sponsorship’s teaching programmes, which are relevant to careers in the space sector, are based on two pillars: firstly, space projects undertaken within the Student Space Centre or the laboratories of the École Polytechnique and its partners, and secondly, high-level courses in physics, mechanics, applied mathematics and computer science.