From biomolecule to energy

Research in field of bioenergy has suggested that  production of biogas from organic matter will be an important part of the green energy of tomorrow.

Invited by the Association for the Development of Scientific Animation in Auvergne (ADASTA), Pierre FONTANILLE, Research Professor at UCA – Institut Pascal - and Scientific Officer of the BIO-VALO platform, will give a lecture on the theme "From biomolecule to energy, what place for the production of biogas in the energy mix of tomorrow ?", Wednesday, March 20th, 2019 at 17:30 at the Nelson Mandela space in Clermont-Ferrand.

Can we guide the surgical procedure by computer ?

Endoscopic surgery significantly limits the trauma compared to open surgery. The incisions allow, in many cases, to introduce surgical tools and the endoscope, a camera allowing the surgeon to visualize the organ.
One of the main problems is the identification of hidden anatomical structures, such as organ tumors. This raises a fundamental question: can a computer be used to modify the endoscopic image in real time to guide the surgeon's gesture, for example by indicating the optimal incision to find a hidden tumor ?

As part of the Wednesdays of Science, Adrien BARTOLI, Professor at UCA - Institut Pascal - will give a lecture on the theme "Can we guide the surgical procedure by computer ?"

Coop. with Facebook

Cooperation with Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR)  

Numerical optimization consists of finding the best computational solution to a problem by testing prototypes.

With Facebook AI Research, researchers of Photon work on the optimization of light-interacting structures. For Morpho butterfly, the structure of the wings deduced by algorithms is compared to the real one.

On the base of case studies, the performance of different algorithms are compared and leads to the improvement of optimization algorithms ... . By this way, Institut Pascal has contributed to library Nevergrad liberated by Facebook which includes a wide range of optimizers.

https://code.fb.com/ai-research/nevergrad/

Visit to the Institut Pascal

This Friday, the 08th of March 2019 the Institut Pascal received an official delegation from the CNRS visiting the place of the Clermont University, composed of

• - Alain SCHUL, Director General for Science;
• - Virginie BONNAILLIE-NOEL, Director of Support to Public Partnerships;
• - Jean François GERARD, Deputy Delegate for Regional Science for the Clermont site;
• - Frédéric FAURE, Regional Delegate;
• - Aurélie DE SOUSA, Regional Delegate Deputy;
• - Sébastien BUTION, Regional Communication Manager;
• - Vanessa PREVOT, Chargé de mission at the Regional Delegation for Clermont.

Three Minute Thesis

Amélie Tribot, PhD student in 3rd year at Institut Pascal (GePEB axis) wined the public prize in Clermont-Ferrand during the regional final of "My thesis in 180 seconds". Its thesis is nommed "Valorisation of the lignin part of forest biomass pretreatment effluents: development and characterization of agrocomposites".

She is qualified for the national semi-finals which will take place from April 4th to 6th in Paris.

ANR CAPTAIN project : good flight !

On 7 December 2018 held the scientific start-up meeting of the PRCE project "CAPTAIN" selected by the ANR CES 4 "Scientific and technological innovations to support ecological transition" as part of the 2017 AAP. This project is dedicated to the development of innovative optical transduction microsensors exploiting microstructured surface plasmon excitation for the monitoring of air quality.

It involves the expertise and skills of:
- University Jean Monnet, Saint Etienne, Laboratory Hubert Curien, Team Micro and , the coodinator of the project ;
- University Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, Laboratory Institut Pascal, Axis PHOTON,
- SILSEF (Archamps - 74),
- ENVEA (POISSY - 78) via its CAIRPOL Sensors division.