Among the high­lights of Equal­i­ty Month, one day was ded­i­cat­ed to sec­ondary school stu­dents from Ressons-sur-Matz and Nogent-sur-Oise.

On March 19, 2026, 4^e and 3^e sec­ondary school stu­dents were accom­pa­nied by Indi­ra Thou­venin and Domi­tile Lour­deaux, research sci­en­tists at the Heudi­asyc lab­o­ra­to­ry and were able to ben­e­fit from an intro­duc­tion to com­put­er sci­ence and vir­tu­al real­i­ty. The morn­ing began with a tour of the centre’s facil­i­ties: pro­to­typ­ing, motion sci­ence, and the dig­i­tal hall. The stu­dents then attend­ed a lec­ture by Flo­rence Sedes, a pro­fes­sor and researcher in com­put­er sci­ence at IRIT and a spe­cial­ist in data sci­ence, a pre­sen­ta­tion that pro­vid­ed a con­crete look at what a career in research entails. The after­noon was devot­ed to dis­cus­sions with three UTC fac­ul­ty researchers: Anne-Vir­ginie Sal­sac (UTC-BMBI lab­o­ra­to­ry), Miri­an Kubo (UTC-GEC) and Indi­ra Thou­venin (UTC-Heudi­asyc).

Building Confidence

“We’re work­ing at the grass­roots lev­el to try to build girls’ con­fi­dence in sci­ence and help them dis­cov­er all the pos­si­bil­i­ties. We had pre­pared ques­tions in class to bet­ter under­stand not only the work of women sci­en­tists but also their impres­sive career paths,” says Damien Leban, a physics teacher at Col­lège de la Val­lée du Matz. “We were also very impressed by the facil­i­ties at UTC. Know­ing that at our French uni­ver­si­ties, just a few kilo­me­ters from the school, our stu­dents might one day have access to degree pro­grammes and train­ing where the resources are avail­able — that was a very pos­i­tive first impres­sion. Final­ly, as a cit­i­zen, father, and teacher, I rec­og­nize the impor­tance of encour­ag­ing young peo­ple to embrace the sci­ences, at a time when, due to social media and mis­in­for­ma­tion, only sci­ences pro­vide the truth.”

KD