The con­struc­tion phase of UTC’s Inno­va­tion Cen­tre will be com­plet­ed in 2013.The ques­tion now aris­es ‘what will front-line inno­va­tion actors find there? The Cen­tre’s Direc­tor, Bruno RAMOND, describes the instal­la­tions and some of the future possibilities. 

As we approach the inau­gu­ra­tion of the 5 000 m², we can clear­ly see the over­all scheme. The UTC Inno­va­tion Cen­tre will def­i­nite­ly be project-inten­sive, evolv­ing round 3 major poles: research, inno­va­tion and entrepreneurship. 

How will the poles oper­ate and what are their objec­tives? The Cen­tre has been designed to attract stu­dents, stu­dent-engi­neers, enter­pris­es, financiers, lec­tur­ers and research sci­en­tists, there­by build­ing up a locus or focal point to exchange, to enhance cre­ativ­i­ty, to gain in efficiency … 

The Cen­tre will be equipped with some inter­est­ing “struc­tur­al” set-ups, e.g., the vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) room that enables visu­al immer­sion in a pre­de­fined world. “We shall be able to pro­pose VR vis­its to new build­ings or to analyse in slow motion, for exam­ple, how car com­po­nents react in a crash sit­u­a­tion”, details the Direc­tor RAMOND. A rail­road net­work sim­u­la­tor will also be avail­able as well as a pro­to­typ­ing workshop.

The first few projects of the Cen­tre are pro­gress­ing well, while await­ing the deliv­ery of the Cen­tre facil­i­ties. “We are cur­rent­ly test­ing project typolo­gies that will, when vet­ted, be admit­ted to the cen­tre. Sev­er­al start-ups are also in the pipeline”, adds Bruno RAMOND, with obvi­ous sat­is­fac­tion.   As far as the eco­nom­ic actors are con­cerned, this oper­a­tional mode will offer an oppor­tu­ni­ty to col­lab­o­rate with pluridis­ci­pli­nary teams in the work-con­ducive spaces of the Cen­tre, designed as they are to enhance exchanges and mature projects, from blue-print design stages to prod­uct or ser­vice mar­ket­ing. “What we do not aim to do is com­pete with exist­ing indus­tri­al lab­o­ra­to­ries, but rather bring togeth­er var­i­ous skills to help make inno­va­tion progress”, stress­es Bruno RAMOND.

The indus­tri­al group Das­sault Avi­a­tion is a part­ner, as are the two French Regions of Picardie and Haute-Nor­mandie, sup­port­ing the Glass Val­lée project that start­ed 2 years ago. Stu­dents will be able to pro­pose inno­v­a­tive bot­tling solu­tions for the SMEs that work in this lux­u­ry mar­ket sec­tor, based in the Bresle Val­ley and cur­rent­ly faced with stiff com­pe­ti­tion from Asian coun­tries. When the Cen­tre opens offi­cial­ly, more activ­i­ties will be launched. 

Each project will inte­grate course cred­it pos­si­bil­i­ties — in this way the UTC under­grad­u­ates can meet and exchange with the Cen­tre res­i­dents”, under­scores Bruno RAMOND. “We shall also offer spe­cial rooms that guar­an­tee con­fi­den­tial­i­ty of pri­vate con­ver­sa­tions, plus office-space that we feel will stim­u­late cre­ativ­i­ty and intel­lec­tu­al emulation!