Competition for a Master's degree in Automation & Mechatronics

1. Presentation of our establishment and the CERIS center

The Institut Mines-Télécom

The Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT), a major institution within the meaning of the Education Code, is a public scientific, cultural and professional institution (EPSCP) under the primary supervision of the ministers responsible for industry and digital technology. It is the largest group of engineering schools in France, with 11 public engineering schools throughout the country, training 13,500 engineers and PhDs. The ITM employs 4,500 people and has an annual budget of €400M, 40% of which is made up of its own resources. The ITM has 2 Carnot institutes, 35 industrial chairs, produces 2,100 A-level publications annually, 60 patents and carries out €110M of contract research.

IMT Mines Alès

Founded in 1843, IMT Mines Alès currently has 1,400 students (including 250 foreigners) and 380 staff. It has two campuses in Alès and is also located in Montpellier and Pau. Its students are general engineers, specialized engineers (through apprenticeships), doctoral students and students in masters or specialized masters programs. It also welcomes 500 trainees in continuing professional education. The school has three research and teaching centers of high scientific and technological level, which work in the fields of materials and civil engineering, environment and risks, artificial intelligence and industrial and digital engineering (CERIS). These entities bring together approximately 85 permanent teacher-researchers (half of whom are HDR), 40 research support staff, 100 doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows, who produce more than 130 A-rank publications each year and €3M in research contracts, one third of which are direct contracts with companies. These research staff contribute to 6 research units, including 4 UMRs. IMT Mines Alès is accredited to award doctoral degrees in 4 doctoral schools. It has 12 technology platforms and 1,600 partner companies. Creativity is a strong characteristic that permeates all its activities. The school was the first to create an incubator in 1984 (200 companies created to date, 1000 jobs). The school offers rich and varied career paths: the teachers-Researchers have opportunities for professional mobility within the various ITM schools and can also take on responsibilities within the school's functional departments (studies, research, international, economic development, etc.) if they wish.

IMT Mines Alès has established structuring partnerships with the CNRS and the universities of Montpellier, Nîmes and Pau. In particular, the school's centers have developed strong scientific collaborations with the HSM, LMGC, IPREM and EUROMOV research units to form joint research units.

Center for Education and Research in Computer Science and Systems (CERIS)

The person recruited will be assigned to the Center for Teaching and Research in Computer Science and Systems (CERIS). CERIS has two research teams, ISOAR for Systems and Organizations Engineering for Risky Activities and I3A for Computer Science, Image and Artificial Intelligence, two teaching departments, 2IA for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and PRISM for Industrial Performance and Mechatronic Systems, as well as two technological platforms, AIHM for Alès Imaging and Human Metrology and the PFM for Mechatronic Platform. Within the PFM, she will conduct research, teaching and technology transfer activities in the field of automation and mechatronics applied primarily to the sciences of movement and health or to the engineering of complex systems, depending on the team to which she is attached.

The first ISOAR research team, Systems and Organizations Engineering for Risky Activities, operates within the Risk Sciences Laboratory and proposes a transverse and systemic vision of the management of complex situations in order to develop an interdisciplinary risk science. The teachers-researchers of this team work on the assistance to be brought to a collective of multidisciplinary actors when they have to carry out the engineering of complex systems. This engineering focuses on risk activities applied to technical and socio-technical systems, or "systems of systems" such as critical infrastructures. This engineering essentially emphasizes the activities of design, verification and validation at the earliest stage, i.e. during design, development, operation with maintenance in operational conditions, and end of life of the system of interest. The members of the team have acquired an expertise in System Engineering, both in terms of modeling, simulation, analysis and evaluation of complex systems, as well as preparation, training and deployment of the latter in situation. 

The second team, I3A, Computer Science, Image and Artificial Intelligence, has joined forces with the European Centre for Research on Human Movement to study the etiology of human movement in the UMR Digital Health in Motion, under the joint supervision of the University of Montpellier and IMT Mines Ales. Health and Movement Sciences are largely based on the analysis of heterogeneous data and on taking into account professional knowledge, especially medical knowledge. They are therefore an ideal sandbox for data scientists. But not only that, the understanding of learning and motor control mechanisms in humans, for example, can be seen as a source of inspiration for the formulation of innovative approaches in AI, particularly in relation to reinforcement learning mechanisms for motion planning or imitation learning.

The "Industrial Performance and Mechatronic Systems" department (PRISM)

The Industry of the Future field of excellence is a new way of thinking and organizing the company, relying heavily on principles, means and key technologies whose impact is as much organizational as methodological and technological. The PRISM department offers students the opportunity to specialize in the engineering of industrial and mechatronic systems to meet the challenges of the digital transition for performance. It is built around strong skills in complex systems engineering and is divided into three tracks:

• Mechatronic Systems Option (SYM): Train engineers capable of adopting a mechatronic approach to lead a team in the design, optimization and implementation of a high-performance and innovative mechatronic product. Engineers capable of developing the company's tools and solutions to enable it to optimally deploy the intelligent and connected tools necessary for its transformation.

• Industrial Engineering and Digital Transition option (GITN): Train engineers capable of adopting and mastering an Industrial Engineering culture to improve the design, production and maintenance activities of a company's products and services. Engineers capable of developing information systems, uses and evaluating the impact of new technologies on these activities.
• Mechatronics Specialty Engineer by apprenticeship (MKX): To train specialty engineers capable of implementing a systems approach and interdisciplinary resolution of technical, managerial or organizational problems. Engineers with the profile of architect of mechatronic systems, capable of designing, producing, developing or operating complex systems.

The mechatronics platform (PFM)

Attached to the PRISM department, the PFM is a technical platform for the realization of projects carried out with partners: students, company founders, industrialists, research teams to develop technical products meeting their needs (https://www.imt-mines-ales.fr/entreprise-entreprenariat/developper-vos-…).

PFM allows an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to design problem solving thanks to its ability to cover the entire product development cycle, from the analysis of the need to the validation of an operational prototype.

The strength of the PFM is to gather on the same platform (460 m2) a multidisciplinary team (currently 3 engineers and 3 technicians) and equipment (machine tools: 5-axis milling machine, 2.5-axis lathe, plate milling machine; 3D wire printers; cobots; 3D measuring machine, printed circuit board manufacturing workshop; test benches...) necessary for the development of complex technical systems by covering all the phases of engineering from the expression of the need to physical prototyping and by relying on competences in :

Its missions cover three areas: