Advanc­ing teach­ing at UTC-Com­pieg­ne by re-exam­in­ing its cours­es from a unique per­spec­tive, ques­tion­ing long-estab­lished prac­tices, intro­duc­ing a new approach to con­tent and redefin­ing the very mean­ing of tech­nol­o­gy… Since 2025, the course “Explor­ing the Poten­tial for Sus­tain­able Engi­neer­ing in a Course” (course code IS21/22/23) has been offered to all engi­neer­ing stu­dents start­ing in their sec­ond semes­ter (oth­er course code name TC02).

As UTC ‑Com­pieg­ne pre­pares its stu­dents to become agents of socio-tech­ni­cal inno­va­tion aimed at achiev­ing eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion, the uni­ver­si­ty is com­mit­ted to ful­ly play­ing its role in this field, includ­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. “Today we no longer speak of ‘last­ing engi­neer­ing,’ but of ‘sus­tain­able engi­neer­ing,’” notes Hugues Choplin, a fac­ul­ty researcher at the UTC-Costech lab­o­ra­to­ry and coor­di­na­tor of the course “Explor­ing the Poten­tial of Sus­tain­able Engi­neer­ing in a Course Unit,” which aims to devel­op a col­lec­tive approach ded­i­cat­ed to inte­grat­ing envi­ron­men­tal and social issues through­out the entire UTC cur­ricu­lum. This cross-dis­ci­pli­nary tool, intro­duced at UTC-Com­pieg­ne for engi­neer­ing stu­dents since 2025, “aims to help stu­dents inter­nal­ize the socio-eco­log­i­cal chal­lenges of an engi­neer through a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry approach and group activ­i­ties.” The five depart­ments at UTC (Bio-Engi­neer­ing, Urban Engi­neer­ing, Mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, Com­put­er Sci­ences and Engi­neer­ing and Process Engi­neer­ing), the Core Cur­ricu­lum and the TSH cours­es (Tech­nol­o­gy, Soci­ety and Human­i­ties) are all involved.

“This collective effort has few equivalents in France”

With sev­en out of nine plan­et Earth’s lim­its exceed­ed, we are jeop­ar­diz­ing the sta­bil­i­ty of ecosys­tems and favourable liv­ing con­di­tions. To pro­mote sus­tain­able engi­neer­ing and achieve the Euro­pean goals set for 2050 [a prin­ci­ple aim­ing for an econ­o­my that is neu­tral in terms of the envi­ron­ment, cli­mate and ener­gy, ed.], it is nec­es­sary to equip stu­dents with knowl­edge of envi­ron­men­tal and social issues. “About forty stu­dents and lec­tur­er inter­est­ed vol­un­teered to sign up dur­ing the first semes­ter of the course (spring 2025) for this col­lab­o­ra­tive ini­tia­tive,” explains Hugues Choplin. “For stu­dents, this involves devel­op­ing the con­tent of a course based on the con­cept of sus­tain­able engi­neer­ing. Fac­ul­ty mem­bers see the val­ue in reimag­in­ing their cours­es from an orig­i­nal, inno­v­a­tive, unique, sup­port­ive, open and con­struc­tive perspective.

The goal is to evolve the entire teach­ing approach at UTC and inte­grate this into stan­dard prac­tices. It also allows us to gain insight into the stu­dent per­spec­tive on cours­es and the teach­ing meth­ods as applied. This col­lec­tive effort has few equiv­a­lents in France.” Dur­ing the course’s launch semes­ter, stu­dents and pro­fes­sors were able to exchange ideas over five ses­sions cov­er­ing 11 cours­es. “Stu­dents appre­ci­ate this new approach, which gives them a cer­tain amount of free­dom,” notes Hugues Choplin.

“It challenges our practices to date, our contents, our convictions…”

Almost all cours­es can be involved. In chem­istry, for exam­ple, devel­op­ing this con­cept involves work­ing on ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion (a decrease in pH, ed.), which affects the sur­vival of cer­tain species such as plank­ton and corals. In math­e­mat­ics, the focus is on math­e­mat­i­cal mod­el­ling and its inter­ac­tion with ecosys­tems. Del­phine Brancherie, lec­tur­er-cum-research sci­en­tist in the Depart­ment of Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing and at UTC’s Rober­val Lab­o­ra­to­ry, has been involved in this ini­tia­tive and men­tored Mai­wenn Dor­ange and Maëlys Luc, who imple­ment­ed IS21 in a spe­cial­ized mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing course. “They analysed the course con­tent, teach­ing for­mat and deliv­ery meth­ods,” explains Del­phine Brancherie. “For exam­ple, in order to take the MQ01 course (Strength of Mate­ri­als), which is giv­en at the Daniel Thomas research cen­tre, 200 stu­dents trav­el there. The two stu­dents took their reflec­tions on sus­tain­able engi­neer­ing so far as to ques­tion this aspect. Mai­wenn Dor­ange and Maëlys Luc pro­posed work­ing on the repara­bil­i­ty of an assem­bly of struc­tur­al parts, where­as I address this aspect.” In the lecturer’s view, the two stu­dents thor­ough­ly exam­ined the aspects of sus­tain­able engi­neer­ing and its impact.

“They pro­posed rethink­ing exer­cis­es so that, for exam­ple, intro­duce the issue of the repara­bil­i­ty of assem­bly solu­tions, as well as ele­ments to add to my course. They also pro­posed exer­cis­es that allow for com­par­ing dif­fer­ent solu­tions regard­ing mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion. They con­duct­ed life cycle analy­ses to intro­duce a new dimen­sion relat­ed to envi­ron­men­tal impact. Until then, only aspects relat­ed to siz­ing (the sub­ject of the course) were addressed and dis­cussed dur­ing tuto­ri­als. Their analy­ses proved to be rel­e­vant, detailed and advanced. In their pro­pos­als, they took into account the course’s edu­ca­tion­al objec­tives.” Del­phine Brancherie admits that this inno­v­a­tive approach has advanced her own vision of sus­tain­abil­i­ty: “It chal­lenges our prac­tices, our con­tent, our con­vic­tions…” This spring, as part of course NF04 (Numer­i­cal Mod­el­ling of Engi­neer­ing Prob­lems), the pro­fes­sor is expect­ed to men­tor two stu­dents who have approached her to explore ideas relat­ed to sus­tain­able engineering.

IL