Alumni party to celebrate UTC’s 50th Jubilee Anniversary
UTC Alumni celebrated their alma mater’s 50th Anniversary on Saturday November 18 in Compiegne, the event culminating in a gala dinner. The program for this event was very rich and in keeping with UTC’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.
The UTC Alumni association, in partnership with UTC and the UTC Foundation for Innovation, organized a festive day to celebrate the engineering school’s 50th anniversary. The event benefited from the invaluable support of the city of Compiegne and the Agglomération de la ville de Compiègne [Greater Compiegne]. «The program had been planned from the start of the year 2023 and culminated in a wide range of activities on November 18. The festivities began at 9 a.m. with breakfast and lasted far into the night. Many of the graduates of the very first class were present. The Denielou class was looking forward to this event,» points out Céline Keldenich, General Delegate of the UTC Alumni association, founded in 1978 and boasting some 28 000 alumni.
After welcoming speeches by Professor Claire Rossi, Executive Director of UTC and Amine Smahi, President of UTC Alumni, at the Daniel Thomas Innovation Centre, a round table discussion took place on the theme of «Rethinking the role of the engineer in the face of the ecological crisis», moderated by Hugo Leroux (GP 2010), an independent scientific journalist, under the watchful eye of Clémence Blot (GM 2014), an illustrator specializing in comic strip communication, who, accompanied by her felt-tip pens, was able to capture the various exchanges graphically. «The round table speakers were Eric Bertin (GM 1995), ecological transition trainer and founder of Jardins & Compagnie, Sacha Bourguet, UTC design student committed to societal transition, Isabelle Cailleau, Director of ecological transition and societal commitment at UTC, Laurence Monnoyer-Smith, Director of sustainable development at CNES and Fabrice Girard (GM 1981, founder and chairman of the Sofren Group.»
A ‘chic meal’ and a grand opening fanfare
After the inauguration of the «On monte une exposition temporaire» project in the presence of Arielle François (DEA UTC 1981), deputy mayor of Compiegne and Emmanuel Pascual, Compiegne town councillor, guests had the opportunity to discover various UTC platforms, including the «Halle Numérique» of the Costech laboratory, the GEC (Enzymatic and Cellular Engineering) laboratory’s «Food Science» platform, the BMBI (BioMechanics and BioEngineering) laboratory’s «Technologies Sports Santé» platform, the TIMR (Transformations Intégrées de la Matière renouvelable) and Roberval (Mechanics, Energy and Electricity) laboratories, and the UTC FabLab. Then it was time to get ready for the chic gala dinner held at the Domaine de Mercières, with a fanfare provided by UTC’s Capharnaüm association, and the launching of the UTC Foundation for innovation fund-raising campaign by Patrick Dupin, President of the UTC Foundation for innovation CEO of the Saint-Gobain Group.
Entertainment and surprises punctuated the evening, accompanied by gypsy music from the Boris Pelosof Trio. «The grand finale was the arrival of the dessert offered by one of the day’s partners, Chocolaterie Bellanger, namely a 1.50-high chocolate sculpture equipped with a pyrotechnic system on the theme of UTC and its 50th Anniversary. We’d also like to thank our other UTC partners, members of the UTC Alumni Business Club: Elia Medical, OJC Conseil, J2S Conseil, MentalWorks and Sofren Group”. Over 300 guests attended the event, which was expertly organized by the association’s volunteers and operational team.