ESTABLISHMENT STRATEGY

This Chair has not been applied for by any research organization.

HOST LABORATORY STRATEGY

This Chair is a priority project for the development of the laboratory and will receive specific support

TEACHING PROJECT

Teaching in multiscale modeling and numerical simulation, from quantum chemistry to processes, AI, deep learning and intelligent design of porous materials with specific properties (membranes).

In line with the research project, the teaching duties at the UM School of Science, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier and Polytech-UM will form the pedagogical base of this Chair within the University of Montpellier (UM). The international Master's degree in Membrane Engineering for Sustainable Development (MESD) is one of the examples of training that will directly benefit from the multi-scale modeling expertise provided by this Chair. The MESD Master's program has been selected by the European Commission and will welcome its first class of students in September 2023. It offers an unparalleled international interdisciplinary teaching program in membrane science and technology. It aims to train high-level students in the various professions related to this theme including the design of materials and processes and their implementation from the laboratory to the industrial scale, but also project management. MESD is built through a combination of institutional academic cooperation between seven higher education institutions, HEI, from six European countries: University of Montpellier (France, project coordinator), University Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France), University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (Czech Republic), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal), Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain), University of Twente (Netherlands), Lund University (Sweden). MESD offers a curriculum entirely dedicated to membrane engineering and oriented towards sustainable development and environmental protection. To date, there are no other specific master's programs dedicated to membrane engineering in European higher education institutions (HEI) nor in the world, while the need for well-trained R&D membrane engineers is increasing very rapidly in parallel with the exponential growth of the membrane market in Europe and worldwide.

The primary mission of an engineering school such as ENSCM is to train high-level chemical engineers under apprentice and student status, possessing, in addition to a thorough knowledge in all fields of chemistry, a solid scientific and general culture enabling them to adapt quickly and to reach positions of responsibility. The ENSCM engineer is therefore a generalist chemical engineer with scientific expertise covering all the sectors of activity targeted by our establishment and a full range of complementary skills such as team spirit and collective intelligence. He or she is also capable of interacting in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments to propose sustainable and responsible technological solutions, making him or her a rapidly operational executive in a company. Facing a constantly evolving world, ENSCM training has not only diversified but also integrated innovative teaching approaches. As such, the school has been awarded the Apple distinguished school label (2021-2024). With nearly 1300 partner companies, more than 120 industrialists participating in the training and 72 foreign partner universities, ENSCM also has the label of the Commission des Titres de l'Ingénieur (CTI). The ENSCM training program will strongly benefit from the expertise of this Chair through aspects of numerical simulation techniques (AI, deep learning, modeling) and the "intelligent design" of materials with specific properties). It will be an opportunity to bring together some of the UM components (Polytech, Master) and ENSCM in joint courses on the first theme.

The candidate will also be able to contribute to the Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Montpellier - Polytech Montpellier (which holds 6 engineering degrees) at the crossroads of the water, water and civil engineering and materials fields and thus bring a competence in the urban physics field. This original subject will also feed the school's ecological transition courses. Indeed, a body of knowledge and skills has been set up in 2021, allowing all engineering students to learn about different issues of sustainable development. Thus, the candidate will have to integrate this training module and will have to participate in the evolution of the teachings. He or she will also contribute to the implementation of common pedagogical projects between the ENSCM and the FDS on these issues. Finally, the ENSCM and Polytech Montpellier (with the Institut Agro de Montpellier) share a common pathway, a research pathway in sustainable development engineering in the framework of the graduate school of the University of Montpellier (IDIL project). Finally, he will also be able to participate in the international summer school FLOW led by Polytech Montpellier in collaboration with ENSCM. This school will receive between 30 and 50 international students, with the aim of awarding them an institutional diploma in the field of ecological transition.

SCIENTIFIC PROJECT

Research program in multi-scale modeling of porous materials (membranes) in the urban environment, including water, air, energy and health issues. Global understanding in an approach involving deep learning (AI), for a resilient and sober urban infrastructure

Water plays a key role in the urban environment that can be described along an axis coupling science and engineering dealing with urban materials such as those involved in soils, infrastructures, fresh water and sanitary management or energy storage and distribution. All the materials concerned, clays, cement, asphalt, wood, materials for thermal insulation, water and air treatment (membranes), or energy storage are by nature or design porous and multi-scale. In this project, the aim is acquiring a global understanding linking physical-chemical processes, transport and thermo-mechanics (including degradation mechanisms accentuated by climate change weather conditions) in an optimization approach eventually involving deep learning. This is a multiscale modeling research project based on extensive use of numerical simulation methods derived from statistical physics, from the molecular scale to that of engineering, for a resilient and sober urban infrastructure in the face of the climatic constraints specific to the region of Montpellier in a first step. The global approach developed could then be applied to other metropolises in southern countries. The economic and societal aspects are naturally to be considered simultaneously in order to facilitate the implementation of realistic solutions to current and future problems.

Keywords: multi-scale membranes and porous media, resilient and sober urban infrastructure, numerical simulation, performance optimization.

Structure’s description

The European Membrane Institute is a joint research structure of the University of Montpellier, the CNRS and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier. It is composed of about 50 researchers, 20 research support staff and about 120 students. The research project concerns the science of membranes, systems with controlled porosity and permeability for separation and controlled diffusion. The work focuses on applications in the fields of health, sustainable energy and the environment (water and air).

RESOURCES PROVIDED

- 200K€ allocated by the ANR, among which 60% at least should be dedicated to payroll expenditure

- As part of the research support policy of the University of Montpellier, aid of up to €100K may be provided by the I-SITE Excellence Program (PEI)