In the world today, where innovation (technology-intensive innovation especially) occupies an ever-growing position, the skills and know-how of PhDs specialists in engineering sciences, notably the double degree PhD-Engineers can be seen as increasingly important strategic players. UTC intends to prepare its PhD students to fit in with this new role and associate responsibilities.
UTC today has matriculated some 330 PhD students, 60% of whom are non-French nationals and awards between 60 and 80 PhD diplomas each academic year. The policy aim of the university is to strengthen this pool of PhD students and to increase the number of its graduate engineers who choose to pursue HE studies with a doctorate, whether it be at UTC-Compiegne or at another university. In a knowledge-based and increasingly globalised economy, faced with some major challenges (climate change, depletion of natural resources, etc.), research and innovation have become an unavoidable driving force to create added value. In this context, PhD students and graduates are (and will continue to be) key players.
“PhD students represent the main driving force in academic laboratories”, underlines Dr. Bruno Bachimont, Executive Director of Research at UTC. “They alone, practically, are in a position to commit themselves 100% to research activities and to carry out long and in-depth investigations. In every university of technology that has engaged strongly in research activities, the PhD student’s represent at least 20% of the institution’s student population. At UTC, currently the figure is less than 10% hence the importance for us at UTC to reinforce our research capacity”.
An increasingly valuable passport for enterprise
Once a PhD student graduates, he/she discovers that job openings and opportunities in university and public research laboratories are limited, but not negligible, and in France and elsewhere in the OECD countries, it often takes several years before a stable, tenured position is secured. But the importance now of innovation should encourage enterprises to open their premises to more and more PhD recruits, in particular recruiting specialists in engineering sciences. “If you want to innovate, you must be able to identify and implement original solutions to as yet unsolved problems by mobilizing your knowledge, know-how and with off-the-shelf tools,” explains Prof. Olivier Gapenne, Cognitive Science/Psychology and Head of the Doctoral School at UTC. “This statement in fact summarises quite well the training engineers receive. But again, the PhDs must increasing be able to address problems where existing solutions/tools are inadequate and therefore new tools and new knowledge are needed. This is an area of skills that PhD student acquire when they work in research activities”.
In the opinion of experts, in France where the prestige attached to the engineering schools’ diplomas masked the interest of going for the university’s highest degree, viz., the PhD, things are now beginning to change. “Increasingly, the major industrial groups are recognizing the specific skills of PhD graduates and requesting their input”, notes Vincent Mignotte, director of the l’Association Bernard Gregory (ABG), a structure for over 40 years now has been assisting the world of PhDs to move closer to that of the entrepreneurial world. “What is new here is that SMEs are also recruiting PhDs and very often these small companies are faced with innovation challenges in a world where ruthless competition rules and they need staff capable of ‘thinking diagonally and not traditionally. Today most thesis offers and job openings we post on our web-site come from the’ SMEs. The major Groups, who were our mainstay customers 15 years ago, now forward their requests directly to the ‘doctoral schools’”.
This observation is also shared by Clémence Chardon, Head of the recruitment service of Adoc’ Talent Management, an agency that specialises in recruiting PhDs. “An increasing number of companies are recruiting PhDs today. Those that contact us are mostly SMEs or start-ups and their business lies mainly in advanced scientific and technical areas, such as aeronautics, biotechnologies, data sciences …”.
Moreover, a distinction to be made with engineering diplomas, some of which are not recognised elsewhere, is that the doctoral PhD degree is accepted round the world. It represents a precious passport for a high level international career. “In some counties, it seems ludicrous to entrust a managerial post to someone without a PhD, even if the person has been awarded a prestigious engineering diploma”, says Vincent Mignotte. “This is one reason why French multinational groups are recruiting more and more PhDs”.
Initiating future engineers to research activities
The trends we observe benefit especially to PhDs who already have an engineering degree. For example, we find those who were recruited in the context of the “Young PhD incentive” where a tax relief (reformed in 2008) was conceded to companies that recruited a freshly graduated PhD to a researcher post on a no-time limit contract basis*.
Today, only 4% of graduate engineers from UTC pursue doctoral studies at UTC. In order to increase this fraction, our University is considering an action plan to make UTC students more aware of the research world as and when they start their engineering courses – for example, giving them some small research projects or encouraging them to do one of their one-semester placements in a research laboratory (internal or external). “The challenge”, underlines Olivier Gapenne, “is to forearm the students who do not pursue their studies beyond their engineering diploma. As the situation evolves, it is important toady to have them understand that the professions of research scientist and engineers are naturally different but not contradictory, nor exclusive one form the other. And if the engineers are working on a project with a company, it is in their interest to put themselves in the position of a research scientist, if only to be able to discuss matters with the PhD colleagues (or other academics) and to become involved themselves in the process of advancing our knowledge-base”.
In order to attract more PhD students, including candidates from other HE institutions an d to provide a better visibility for recruiting officers as to high quality of training these PhD students will receive, the University has also implemented a quality policy programme over the past few years in regard to its PhD degree award, putting it on a par with the UTC engineering diploma. As is the case for other doctoral schools, UTC’s school for example has set up training modules that are design to reinforce the ‘employability factor’ of its PhD graduates. The objective notably is to provide a clear insight into the entrepreneurial world, but this now a standard approach. Where UTC proves original is that we try to make them aware of the need – whilst being experts in their specialist fields – to build up and possess a solid scientific and technological culture in their specialty.
“Whether they move towards the entrepreneurial world or to the public research sector, most of our graduates are not in fact recruited in their thesis specialty, but into a nonetheless close area of expertise”, explains Bruno Bachimont. “They must therefore show their capacity to adapt rapidly to new subjects. Moreover, they will be increasingly expose to complex problems for which no single approach proves satisfactory. Last point here: private companies need experts to find solutions for specific technological obstacles, but they also need ‘visionaries’ capable of anticipating changes in their specialist areas and to enhance innovative products and processes. In other words, as far as PhDs are concerned more professionalism means more science”.
Zero unemployed among UTC’s younger PhDs
The high quality policy thrust of UTC also calls for valorisation of its PhDs. This is embodies in the Guy Deniélou Prize, the most recent edition of which took place on April 7, 2017. Every year, this Prize sheds light on the work of its younger research scientists population, selecting 4 recent graduates whose achievement were of special interest to a jury of experts.
As you read the experiences of these UTC PhDs in the next few pages, you will no doubt agree that the quality of their work deserves the recognition they get elsewhere: most of them were recruited very rapidly, often before they have made their public thesis presentation and this is confirmed by our polling enquiries. Globally speaking, the graduates, over the years 2010–2015, took between 2 to 3 months to secure their first job and it was noted, 3 years after graduation, that none of the PhD graduates (for years 2010, 2011 and 2012) was unemployed. 46% are currently employed in public service positions, 46% in the private sectors, the majority as lecturer-research scientists, research workers (as scientists or engineers) and all enjoy a stable job position. n
[Ministerial assessment of the impact of the “Young PhD » incentive in the Government’s tax rebate programme — Report to the French Ministry in charge of HE and Research (MENESR), October 1915].
Professional prospects for PhDs in France
A clear-cut added value of the PhD with respect to the Master’s degree 2.
France awards around 14 000 PhDs per year, 40% of whom are non-French nationals. The most recent enquiry of the CEREQ (French national agency for analysis of qualifications) looking at the 3 year horizon mark of French national PhDs living in France, particularly the 2010 graduates (not including the health sector).
In 2013, the unemployment level, independently of the specialist area, was still relatively high: 9%. Nevertheless, it has dropped by 2 % over the decade. And of special note, the level is now below that of the Master’s 2 degree, around 12% since 2010 but only 7% in 2007.
In contrast, however, it is higher than the comparable figures for graduates from the engineering schools (4%). However, the situation is highly contrasted depending on the specialty of the PhDs.
Advantage in computer sciences and applications, electronics and engineering sciences
PhDs in in computer sciences and applications, electronics and engineering sciences are those for whom the access to a first job is shortest in lead-time and who – 3 years after their graduation — have the lowest unemployment rate and the less employed under CDD (time limited) contracts. The fraction of those who are unemployed or under CDD contracts is higher than those with an engineering diploma but this can be explained by the difficulties inherent to securing a job in public research (for those who have chosen this career path). But they are almost all considered as being at management level and in terms of their median salaries can vie with the engineers.
Engineering diploma + PhD – the winning hand
PhD graduates who also hold an engineering diploma can access the employment markets easier than PhDs in the same specialty field but without an engineering degree. In 2013, three years after graduating, only 5% of the double degree category were still unemployed and 17% were engaged under time limited contracts (CDD). In the second single degree category, 12% were unemployed and 40% under time limited contracts.
Sources :
• 3 year Job horizon for PhD graduating in 2010 – Enquiry for Generation 2010, interrogation for 2013, CEREQ, Dec. 2015.
• Scientific employment status in France – joint report 2016. HE and Research Directorate General, Research and Innovation Directorate General.
Sector Group is a consultancy company that specializes in the field of risk identification management. It is an SME with 120 staff that employs 4 PhDs and is also recruiting a PhD students in the framework of a CIFRE contract (industrial agreement to train via research) with the UTC Heudiasyc laboratory. Their Chairman, Jean-François Barbet, spoke with our reporters.
Why are the specific skills of PhDs of interest to you at Sector Group?
I myself am not a PhD. I was initially trained as an engineer and as a research scientist: I began my professional career at the R&D Division of EDF (French electricity utility), to study various probabilistic ways to measure security factor in the domain of nuclear power production. That early career experience and my professional follow-on convinced me that if we want to develop activities that integrate innovative products and process, then the appropriate path is via research. And, given that PhD graduates are trained in research protocols, the PhDs possess a primary asset: the capacity to dare propose breakthrough solutions and to explore paths that are not yet covered in teaching courses or in industrial reference texts; in contrast, young graduate engineers has not been prepared to adopt this sort of attitude.
To what extent is this important for your company’s activities?
Our work is spread over a wide range of activities: energy, railroad, automobile, aeronautics … one half of our projects relate to existing installations (for example, reinforced measures for nuclear power stations, integrating return on experience (ROE) and the other half on new subjects such as increased autonomy in road vehicles. In our fields it is important that we deploy considerable efforts on R&D to better meet our customers’ needs and expectations today and to ensure our own future: we must learn all the time what the market-place is saying, today and tomorrow. Remember that the culture of research is doubt and this is primordial when you work in the field of risk identification and management.
What will be the area of work assigned to your CIFRE PhD student?
The answer here is predictive maintenance maths models, aids to decision to enable fine analyses when we are required to intervene in an operational system, therefore necessarily taking real conditions in to account. We are constantly working on research projects in partnerships signed with the universities: recruiting a PhD student is another way to build strong links with the academic world to enhance our R&D. But our objective must also be to recruit the graduate after his/her thesis years. This is all the more important that SMEs find it difficult to attract high level scientists, who indeed often prefer to join a major company structure.
After presenting his thesis on driver-aids, Clément Zinoune joined a special team at the Renault research and development division working on the theme of driverless cars.
Clément gained his UTC degree majoring in Mechanical Engineering, with the elective specialty of Mechatronics and System Robotisation, plus a Master’s degree (in parallel) on, flight dynamics and drone control systems at the University of Cranfield (UK). He could have stopped there (in terms of his qualifications) but, having spent a semester on a research topic, that convinced him that a PhD would also be in order – this turned out to be a very wise decision.
In 2011, he was accepted on a CIFRE contract with Renault to do a thesis on driver aids, under the academic supervision of Prof. Philippe Bonnifait, UTC-Heudiasyc. “At the time, Renault was orienting its product policy in favour of driver aids that made good use of the data provided by the vehicles on-board navigation system: for example, warning a driver when he/she takes a road bend too fast (as seen on a road map). The fact is that navigation systems do contain errors. My research was therefore focus on setting up a methodology to identify errors and correct them accordingly: when a vehicle passes the same spot several times, the system compares the real trajectory with what the nav.sat is indicating – this allows you to correct the cartography and make the driver aids more reliable. I did not want to commit myself exclusively to ‘blue sky’ research, i.e., 100% in a laboratory, but preferred to work on innovative subjects with a connection to industrial concerns. For me the CIFRE contract represented a perfect balance”.
An efficient bootstrap
Clément Zinoune defended his PhD thesis in 2014 and was immediately recruited to join Renault’s R&D Division, in a newly created unit on a highly strategic subject: driverless cars. “In the beginning, we were two and my role was to develop the cartographic data for the vehicle (directly in connection with my thesis) but also to study what form, what level, of intelligence to add to the navigation on-board system and his was quite novel for me. Today the team has 15 members and my job is to coordinate the development of the various bulldog blocks that constitute the vehicle’s intelligence, each brick having its own pilot system”.
For some of the bricks, in particular vehicle localisation and perception of its environment, Renault is working with UTC-Heudiasyc Lab for whom the driverless vehicle is a flagship research subject. This represents a collaboration which, in March 2017, led to the creation of a joint lab (SIVALab, cf.intra p.2). Young graduate as he is, Clément Zinoune is obviously an active participant.
Michel Boussemart’s thesis in applied mathematics relates to aeronautics. For the past 10 years he has been working for the DCNS (naval defense systems).
Michel first gained an engineering degree in computer sciences and their applications and a DEA (advanced diploma, equivalent to today’s Master’s 2 degree) in system control at UTC and then did his PhD under the CIFRE contract formula at Snecma (one of the companies in the Safran Group) under the academic supervision of Prof Nikolaos Limnios, UITYC-LMAC Lab.
Michel defended his thesis in 2001, the subject being development of theory and stochastic computations and methodology, plus aids to decision, in the area of aircraft jet engine regulation processors. “Very often, when we prepare for an engineering diploma, the aim is to rapidly integrate the entrepreneurial world. At that stage we are not necessarily, aware of what PhDs do and we tend to imagine them totally isolated from the world in their laboratory. Personally, I was fortunate inasmuch as Nikolaos Limnios dealt with concrete industrial applied maths projects in his lectures at UTC. It was this applied facet to research activities that I found interesting. That encourages me to register for a PhD under the CIFRE arrangement and this way I learned to use rigorous mathematical methods to identify and develop novel responses for industrial problems”.
A profile that makes all the difference
This methodological skill was not put to use immediately. When his thesis was accepted and the PhD awarded there was a crisis situation in aeronautics in the aftermath of the Sept.11, 2001 attacks in New York. This also led Michel Boussemart to widen the scope of his activities and redesign his career path. For several years, he was recruited to various engineering posts in a number of different companies.
In 2007, he moved to the DCNS Group. “I was recruited as an SLI architect (integrated logistics support), and my role was to design the full maintenance programme for a submarine and I think I was hired more as an engineer than as a PhD. Over time, I was able to add the extra research dimension to my work as I in, fact wanted to do. Since 2013, I have been in charge of a confidential project with a high software content, and for which my PhD background was clearly an advantage for me compared with the other candidates for the position. As the recruiters saw things, there was an advantage here in terms of architecture optimization and system maintenance programmes. But I also make use of my research scientist background to speak at international conferences on industrial issues such as operational safety factors and assessment. It also helps increase the notoriety of the DCNS Division and allows us to keep a watch on development of new knowledge that can trigger or enhance innovation”.
Lénaïk Leyoudec presented his PhD thesis in computer sciences and their applications under the academic supervision of Professor Bruno Bachimont, in the framework of a CIFRE contract associating the UTC laboratory and a start-up. Today Lénaïk is a consultant with this start-up company.
Perfect Memory is a start-up founded in 2008 by a UTC graduate Steny Solitude. Its field of business activities is that of data management. The company has developed a technological platform to collect raw data which are’ transformed into ‘digital capital assets’, i.e., knowledge that can be used in numerous domains (marketing, trade, document management …) and has customers in divcerse sectors (media, distribution, banks and insurance, defence …).
Lénaïk Leyoudec discovered the start-up in 2012 when he was doing a Master’s degree in history and the history of art, with the elective specialty in valorization of cultural heritage. “I chose to do my degree dissertation on valorization of private audiovisual heritage. At that time, Perfect Memory was also working in the same area and had designed a tool to manage family-related information: “Famille®”. I did my end-of-studies placement with them”.
When semiotics fosters technologiocal reserach
It was at this occasion that the idea came to be to do a CIFRE contract PhD on how to edit family films, using a unique approach close to the research philosophy of UTC-Costech Lab work: bringing in social sciences and especially semiotics : to generate editing and ergonomic recommendations to improve the Family® service offer.
“The objective is to provide users with an interface that enables them to annotate AV archives to enhance circulation of souvenirs in family circles”, explains Lénaïk Leyoudec. “For this purpose, I studied a corpus of 20 or so films, sequence after sequence, identifying recurrent ‘markers’ which I decomposed into signs which I analyzed to propose new functionalities in the Family® Web app. To illustrate there is the face-camera position (the person filmed is looking straight at the camera)”.
“My research provided the scientific basis for Perfect Memory which will, lead on to registration of patent claims,” underlines Steny Solitude. “The issue of how we can annotate archives – which the PhD student Leyoudec studied – is also valid for B2B operations (Business to Business). When this question is analysed, comparing the work for ‘silent’ family films and the solution for a major industrial group, a large fraction of the question has been solved”.
Building up the ‘employability’ factor
Lénaïk Leyoudec – who presented his PhD dissertation in January 2017 – was recruited on a no-time limit contract (CDI) basis as a semiotic and user experience consultant to design the solutions developed by the start-up. “To a large degree, I built up my employability during my CIFRE contract, inasmuch I had already received operational missions on behalf of Perfect Memory. This was not easy: the corporate world is not at all comparable with the academic world and in a start-up nobody really has any spare time to help you adapt to a professional context. But it was this experience that enabled me to clearly find my heading: I was able to continue working in my specialty area, whereas as often social science graduates orient themselves towards sectors other than those of their original specialty”.
Mohamed Sabt is one of the 4 laureates of the annual Guy Deniélou 2017 Prize for UTC’s PhDs. His research work has already led to practical fall-out applications, throwing light on the loopholes in the security of two systems (one of which is Android) and opened the way for him to join a start-up company.
Mohamed Sabt hails from Bahrein and came to Compiegne. He first followed intensive French language classes for 6 months, studied for his engineering diploma majoring in computer sciences and their applications, a Master’s degree on ‘smart’ transportation systems … Then, in 2013, he joined Orange Labs (Orange’s R&D Centre), doing a CIFRE contract PhD, under the academic supervision of Prof. Abdelmadjid Bouabdallah, UTC-Heudiasyc Lab.
He presented his thesis in December 2016, on smartphone security for sensitive apps such as on-line payments. “To begin with, I studied the limits of today’s technologies using a proven security protocol – a sub-branch of applied maths which enabled me to determine if a system is “safe” or not and to identify its loopholes. With this method, I was able to identify several vulnerabilities in two largely used systems – the key warehouse of Android (which houses the cryptographic keys for the OS) and the SCP secret protocols of GlobalPlateform, a consortium of smartcard leaders. Six months before I published my results – I informed the Security Team at Android so they could fix the loophole(s) and also contacted and GlobalPlatforme, who immediately set up a task force to take my analyses into account”.
A profile that makes all the difference
It nevertheless remains true that proving the safety factor (or lack of) for a complex system using only mathematics is a time-consuming operation. Again, modern mobile phone technologies evolve very fast. Mohamed Sabt therefore chose to explore a complementary path. “In order to offer better protection for some of the smartphone’s sensitive apps, it is possible to run them on a TEE, short in English for trusted execution environment), implemented on a specific component and which runs in parallel with the main OS (for instance, Android). In this way, if the main system comes under attacked the parallel system is not and the data/functions are preserved. To optimize the process, I proposed a methodology based on a very advanced cryptographic protocol which enables the users to make “apps” running in a TEE to be even more secure”.
So, what did Sapt learn from this work? “Gaining new in-depth knowledge, of course but more than that: doing my PhD is a way to have a go at a problem nobody before you has done; managing a first big project lasting 3 years; building up a critical cultural outlook by analysing numerous and often contradictory scientific papers on the subject; learning to draft one’s own high-level articles”. These are among the skills that Mohamed Sabt chose to offer to a star-up founded by some former employees of Orange Labs: Dejamobile, developing secure on-line payment protocols. “My mission with them is to offer an expert’s eye on short term apps for Dejamobile and to anticipate technological progress in the field to preserve our lead in security issues and solutions. In a business company context, you cannot afford to do just basic research. And, for the time being this is what I wanted to do – applied research, with the advantage that this is exactly what start-ups do, viz., they take risks to rapidly deploy innovative solutions”.
Questions to Professor Abdelmadjid Bouabdallah
Professor Abdelmadjid Bouabdallah, Director of UTC’s Computer Science Department and research scientist at the UTC-Heudiasyc Lab, answers our questions
From UTC-Heudiasyc’s standpoint, what was the challenge of Mohamed Sapt’s PhD thesis?
Cybersecurity is a strategic theme where UTC-Heudiasyc scientists have a set of world-class skills that have been recognized over the past 15 years. The research team has designed several innovative solutions in this field, one of which is currently under development with a start-up project. Mohamed Sapt’s thesis (which covered several challenges in a new domain) reinforced our team’s expertise and the importance of our collaboration with Orange Labs, a partner with whom we have been working since 1998 and who recruit PhD graduates, notably from those we have trained at UTC.
How can you encourage student engineers to become interested in pursuing their studies with a doctoral thesis?
My belief is that they should be induced to look at research activities far before envisaging to sign up for a PhD. In this light, Mohamed Sabt is a good example. To begin with, we proposed that Mohamed take on a small research project on smartphone transactional security in the framework of a collaboration with Orange followed by an in-house placement with Orange. And to the extent that he displayed a high degree of interest for research activities, we drew up a thesis subject with Orange Labs that we thought would interest him. This is an approach we have employed with several of our obviously talented students.
Florent Bouillon, an engineer with the Safran Group, 45 years old, chose the VAE path to prepare and defend a PhD this under the academic supervision of Prof. Zoheir Aboura, UTC-Roberval Laboratory.
Why did you choose to do a PhD?
After gaining my engineering diploma, I decided to join Aerospatiale, attracted as I was by programmes such as Ariane V – and from that point on, I was always engaged in R&D activities. Today my position is in structural programme development with Safran Ceramics – Safran’s “excellence’ centre for research on very high temperature resistant materials. The subject chosen for my PhD came through discussions with my colleagues: foreigners who are not familiar with the French engineering diploma were surprised that I did not have a doctorate, and indeed many people in France thought that my work was more akin to a PhD research scientist than a ‘classic’ engineers working hands-on, so to speak. And the idea sort of grew me and as I saw the VAE scheme developing, I decide to join in.
What is the procedure leading to the VAE diploma?
I authored a dissertation (170 pages) with the title “Contribution to methodological development when justifying and certifying composite materials for use in aeronautic structures”, which I shall present and defend in June. It is a standard synthesis of research and work carried out during my professional engineering career. The aim was to present methods developed top assess and certify the behaviour of structures assembled with a new composite material to ensure that it complies with the operational service constraints and the specific safety regulations that are specific to the aeronautic sectors. Another objective was to demonstrate that the work I had accomplished in my professional environment was at the same level of quality as that of a classic PhD student. However, a VAE dissertation has an extra feature, compared with the classic PhD thesis. VAE candidates are invited to analyse their previous experiences, over and above the scientific results and achievements. Taking the time needed to analyse one’s own track record is not at all easy, but is amazingly enriching.
When all is said and done, it is a demanding exercise. I thought I would need a year and a half (max) but in fact I took three years remembering that at the same time I was in charge of a project at Safran, Ceramics (with a topic related to my PhD thesis): to manage the certification of a ‘world first’ part with a composite on a ceramic matrix to be installed in a civil aircraft.
Why did you choose UTC-Roberval to write your dissertation?
I had already worked on research topics that associated Safran and UTC-Roberval, and I was in charge also of some PhD students who were dieted by UTC-Roberval academics. What you have here is a university laboratory whose vision I share, all the more so that it does not erect walls between academic research and innovation-intensive activities. At the Safran Group, R&D is part of our DNA. Our place on the podium for patent claims is a significant marker. To make a difference with our competitors, we must innovate constantly and in this respect conduct research with necessarily applied finalities, notwithstanding some basic science questions and issues to be solved. Our progression runs to-and-forth between research and innovation. UTC is totally in line with this vision. My choice also depended on the relationships I built with members of the Roberval team, and especially with Professor Aboura. With colleagues and a supervisor like these, I was confident I could successfully complete my research assignment.
What personal benefits do you think you will draw from a PhD award?
Above all other considerations, there is my pleasure and pride, and these constitute the first source of my motivation. Secondly, the title “Dr” is recognised internationally. Moreover, in order to enhance innovation, the Safran Group has set up a family of experts, with three levels – corporate experts with one of the Group’s companies, experts for and with the Group and emeritus experts. I myself am a corporate expert and, even if it is not an ‘open-sesame’ key, a PhD is a form of proof that can help me become a Group expert. But I must add that my personal objective – shared by the Safran Group – is to be able to work in an interaction with the academics and not just sub-contract research projects on a customer/supplier basis. By investing time, efforts and energy to gain my PhD, I, in fact, gathered the assets to progress even further and this is enriching for me, for the Group, and for the partner laboratories
You are now recruiting PhDs yourself – what profiles are you looking for?
Safran Group likes PhDs and recruits a lot of PhD students under CIFRE contracts. Often, in research clusters we mostly find young PhD students who already have an engineering diploma, to the extent that a ‘double degree’ (PhD + engineer) is an advantage and after defending their dissertation thesis, many are recruited by the Group. But it is not always obvious to find candidates here.
Benoît Dylewski is one of the laureates of the Guy Deniélou 2017 Thesis Prize. Benoît did his thesis work at UTC-Roberval in a project theme that involved the RATP (Greater Paris Public Transport consortium); the RATP recruited Benoît Dylewski after his PhD award.
With increased train passenger capacities and, consequently, their increased loads, the issue of rail cracks by fatigue has become more acute. How can we prevent this risk leading to a rail catastrophic break? This was the core question of Benoît Dylewski’s thesis, a major issue for rail transport companies (as well as for UTC with its numerous projects in this field and its role as founder member of the “institute for technological research” Railenium, one of the institutions created by the Government under its incentive programme “Investments for the Future”.
This thesis is part of the Railenium framework initiated by the UTC-Roberval Lab and Cerfiver and was supervised by two Roberval research scientists, Salima Bouvier and Marion Risbet. “My job related to a Cerfiver project directed by the RATP (as the industrial partner)”, explains Benoît Dylewski. “I carried out experimental analyses on rail segment samples provide by the Paris Region rail services, with the objective to characterize the microstructural, physicochemical and mechanical changes that accompany increased load factors. I then compared the experimental data with digital modelling results. This approach enabled me to improve our understanding of gradual deformation and cracking of rails – which was the main objective – but also to issue some recommendations to improve predictive maintenance and to avoid catastrophic rail failures”.
A real added value
The three years were especially rich for Benoît Dylewski: “Over and above the expertise I gained in this specialist field, I also acquired the mastery of experimental analytical tools and methods more than when I was doing my engineering diploma studies. I also enjoyed an in-depth experience of partnership research between an academic research laboratory and an industrialist. I was able to take part in international conferences and I taught too at UTC, which allowed me to disseminate my research results. That was a real added value in respect to my engineering diploma”.
Before presenting his thesis, in December 2016, Benoît was recruited by the Test & Metrology Lab (LEM) of the RATP consortium. The LEM Lab has three specialty sectors – mechanical engineering, electricity and physico-chemistry – and carries out a wide and varied range of tests and measurements for all the ingredients of urban transportation (rolling stock, infrastructures, equipment, stations: lab experiments to assess, for example, parts provided by suppliers to ascertain that they comply with technical specifications, or analysis of failed parts … but there are also in situ tests to certify new rolling stock or to measure air-quality in the Paris underground system. Benoît Dylewski is a QA test engineer specialist of metallic part failures who works in the mechanical engineering division of LEM. “When I began my PhD, I did not know whether I was going to look for a job in industry or prefer to be a lecturer cum research scientist. Finally, after 3 years in a lab environment, I decided the industrial world was more attractive. But I don’t exclude the possibility of returning later to academic research activities.
Rémy Foret, Executive Director of the RATP-LEM Test Laboratory, answers our questions
We saw that end-2016, the RATP-LEM lab (which employs 70 staff) recruited 3PhDs, not counting Benoît Dylewski. Is this a deliberate policy decision?
In fact, we do not have any specific desire to recruit PhDs rather than engineers, but it is not by chance that we do recruit them. They display technical aptitude and skills in terms of analysis, abstraction, and their capacity to frame questions … all of which is of interest to us as employers. We definitely need people capable of analysing complex data generated via our test protocols. Moreover, in order to preserve the legitimacy of our company, we must necessarily innovate, identify and implement new methodologies, new test protocols and equipment and this presupposes that we possess a state-of-the-art technological review, feasibility studies, development programmes. Tasks like these are akin to research activities and it is here that the skills of a PhD are very important.
What specific profiles are of special interest to you?
When we consider hiring people, we have them fill in a questionnaire to assess their scientific and technical skills, and to evaluate their managerial potential. Our scientific and technical criteria are very stringent and an engineer who has only had project management eXperience may well not fit the bill. But there again, a PhD with a ‘pure’ lab scientist profile, no special talents for management and no experience at all of the industrial world will not a priori comply either. What we prefer are the PhDs with an engineering diploma who did their thesis in a CIFRE contract or who have had some previous industrial experience.
A large fraction of UTC’s PhDs look for a first appointment in the academic world. For instance, Baochao Wang, who presented a thesis on non-renewable energies, under the supervision of Professors Manuela Sechilariu and Fabrice Locment, UTC- Avenues Laboratory.
In China, as is the case in France, the number of PhD graduates coming onto the market-place largely exceeds the number of positions offered in HE and public research establishments, hence more and more young PhDs are looking to the entrepreneurial world for a first job. Baochao Wang, as soon as he had successfully presented his thesis in 2014 was recruited as lecturer cum research scientist at one of China’s best universities, the well-known Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT).
His passport to China was the doctoral degree in the framework of a programme associating the Chinese government agency supporting university student and staff mobility, viz., the China Scholarship Council (CSC), and the French networks of Universities of Technology (UTs) and the INSA engineering institutes. “In the beginning, I prepared for a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at HOIT and had not then thought about doing a thesis”, says our young PhD. “But my Father advised me to pursue to the doctoral degree to widen my career prospects. I applied and went for an interview at HIT and discovered that the CSC could award me a doctoral degree scholarship, for other Chinese students who wish to present themselves for a PhD in one of the French UTs or at an INSA.
A strategic subject: “smart” electric micro-networks
In the framework, of this international mobility programme, UTC’s Avenue Laboratory proposed a thesis subject in one of their mainstream research areas – smart electric micro-networks integrating (at the scale of a building: a renewable electric power generator (notably PV solar panel arrays), a power storage system and a classic power back-up generator. The challenge here is to produce electricity, manage production and consumption in such a way as to feed the building at the lowest cost and privilege, wherever possible, the renewable power source.
And Baochao Wang adds: “Renewable energies represent a strategic field and I found this highly interesting. The very idea of doing a 3 1/2 year PhD in France (where it usually takes 4 to 5 in China) also attracted me. I sent my application to UTC-Avenues and they selected me. But, before leaving for France I signed a contract with HIT authorities who pledged to hire me on my return to the extent that Chinese universities hold in high esteem the quality of French HE institutions selected by the CSC to send Chinese nationals abroad.
All of this represents a highly demanding set-up with discovery of a new language and a foreign country … my experience in France was sometimes hard, but very rewarding for me. “Of course, not only did I acquired a lot of complementary in-depth knowledge in electrical engineering, but in addition too learned how to organise research assignments and how to draft a paper for a scientific review. In France you enjoy have a culture for organization, going as far as (and including) how to write correctly which I must admit is not the case in China!”
