Chris­tine Kerdel­lant, Edi­to­r­i­al Direc­tor of Info­pro Dig­i­tal and Manuel Mor­agues, Edi­tor-in-Chief of Indus­trie & Tech­nolo­gies, togeth­er with part­ners, unveiled the four 2020 win­ners of the 17th edi­tion of the Tro­phies for Engi­neers of the Future. After hav­ing been “a favourite” at the 2019 edi­tion, Mohamed Soli­man, 23 years old, won this year’s prize in the “Inno­va­tion” cat­e­go­ry with his elec­tri­cal­ly assist­ed rollerblade project: AtmosGear. 

Atmos­Gear was cho­sen in the Inno­va­tion cat­e­go­ry of the Engi­neers of the Future 2020 Awards. It is the world’s first elec­tri­cal­ly assist­ed, self-con­tained and con­nect­ed rollerblade mod­el. A high­light at the 17th edi­tion of the Engi­neers of the Future Tro­phies held on Decem­ber 1st in a 100% dig­i­tal for­mat. Organ­ised by the edi­to­r­i­al staff of the review Usine Nou­velle, they reward engi­neer­ing stu­dents in four cat­e­gories: Inno­va­tion, Research, Tech For Good and Dig­i­tal. Mohamed Soli­man, a 23 year old engi­neer, is a UTC stu­dent. In 2019, this entre­pre­neur cre­at­ed a start­up in the field of elec­tric urban mobil­i­ty. Its flag­ship prod­uct, Atmos­Gear, aims to be the first eco­log­i­cal mobil­i­ty alter­na­tive that is at the same time intel­li­gent (no need for a joy­stick), prac­ti­cal (no need to take off your shoes) and fun (chal­lenges and com­mu­ni­ty social network). 

Mobility, an everyday issue

“Our ambi­tion is to change the trav­el habits of the French by democ­ra­tis­ing soft mobil­i­ty. Whether it’s to go to work, to class, or on a walk, Atmos­Gear pro­vides the ben­e­fits of a sport­ing activ­i­ty while reduc­ing your efforts to help you find plea­sure in your dai­ly jour­neys,” empha­sis­es the young com­pa­ny direc­tor for whom mobil­i­ty means being able to move where you want to, when you want to and how you want to. “And what we want above all is to link our users to each oth­er so that they can exchange and even chal­lenge each oth­er via our con­nect­ed appli­ca­tion,” he con­tin­ues. “This com­mu­ni­ty of enthu­si­asts is called AtmosRiders”. 

Five technological solutions for an innovative system

Atmos­Gear are rollerblades equipped with motorised wheels with intel­li­gent assis­tance that will under­stand the user’s move­ments and adapt to them auto­mat­i­cal­ly. Result: no need for a joy­stick and no need to take off your shoes because the retractable frame adapts to your size. “With Atmos­Gear, we will recov­er the ener­gy from skat­ing and reuse it in two ways. When going down­hill, free­wheel­ing, with regen­er­a­tive brak­ing. And when the bat­tery is dead, if you skate long enough, you regain more auton­o­my,” explains Mohamed Soli­man. Final­ly, thanks to the AtmosRid­ers appli­ca­tion, users will be able to exchange with each oth­er and chal­lenge each oth­er on cours­es that they them­selves have created.” 

A project supported by the of the utc innovation and territorial development department 

Mohamed Soli­man imag­ined these skates of the future, which are very real today, at the UTC Daniel Thomas Inno­va­tion Cen­tre. This high­ly skilled engi­neer did not wait until the end of his stud­ies to become an entre­pre­neur. It is thanks to the DIDT’s Inno­v­a­tive Project and Entre­pre­neur­ship Scheme, and then the ITer­ra incu­ba­tor that he over­came var­i­ous tech­no­log­i­cal pit­falls, one by one: sen­sor agili­ty, minia­tur­i­sa­tion of the pow­er unit… “The engi­neers of tomor­row will also be the cit­i­zens of the future. It is impor­tant for us that our stu­dents are able to envis­age and adapt to this chang­ing world. This is some­thing Mohamed Soli­man has already under­stood for a long time,” says Pas­cal Alber­ti, the school’s Direc­tor of Inno­va­tion and Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Development.