We are glad to announce that Christophe Rouvrais, the head of the international office at EPITA with his team, are participating in the 8th APAIE Conference & Exhibition that will be hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in HK between the 11th and 14th of March 2013. This exhibition will offer extensive opportunities for the international educators like EPITA to exchange ideas and learn about new initiatives in the field.

Aligned with our vision, to achieve international distinction for originality, innovation and excellence, participating in this event will be the starting point of our international efforts in 2013 to diversify and enrich our international programs by welcoming more multinational students on campus in the next couple of years.

During this week, students who are interested in obtaining International Master's degree in Information Systems Management, Software Engineering, or Computer Security, please meet our team at this exhibition and consult the program. In addition, you will have the chance to get more information on EPITA's Summer School in its second edition that will start this June and will last for 6 weeks. For more information on our international programs, please visit International Master's and Summer School on our website.

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This year, the Green IT conference organized by EPITA concerned software ecodesign. While computer hardware is becoming more and more efficient in terms of performance and more and more ecological, software paradoxically requires ever more resources, which results in an ever-increasing ecological footprint. What are the issues involved in developing lighter software? How to achieve it? Those are the problems that were covered during the conference held at EPITA on October 25, 2012.

Current situation

Frédéric Bordage, the Green IT expert who led the debates, was the first speaker. He presented an initial assessment of the issues of ecosoftware development. He emphasized the paradox between Koomey's law, which states that the quantity of energy required for machines to run is halved every two years, and Wirth's law, which establishes that the speed of software decreases more rapidly than the speed of hardware increases. But this process is not inevitable: software can be developed intelligently, with the aim to find a balance between the level of performance to achieve and the resources required for the software to run properly. IBM, Microsoft, Facebook... are examples of companies that have made significant savings by establishing ecodesign systems.

What life cycle for ecodesigned software?

In order to be efficient, ecodesign has to apply to all phases of the software life cycle. Erwan Bouvier, co-founder and technical manager of Blueight, went back over the different stages, from design to end of life. The first phase, functional and technical design, is also the most important. At this stage, engineers need to define as well as possible the functionality to be included in the applications to be developed and the technical choices to make. They then need to make maximum reuse of existing resources (in order to avoid redundancy), to optimize the use of new resources and to define sustainable solutions. During the development phase, developers will reduce their resource requirements and will establish methodologies to perpetuate their work. During the operation phase, users will need to respect the software's logic by using all of its abilities (to date, about 45% of the capabilities of software applications are not used). In parallel, developers in charge of updating the software will continue to apply the principles adopted during the development phase. And at the end-of-life stage, care must be taken to make the close-down of the application definitive (for example by deleting servers to gain space) and to reuse hardware and technical infrastructures.

The Green Code Project

Thierry Leboucq, founder of KaliTerre, joining forces with the Green Code Lab, formed the Green Code Project, which aims to list and validate good practices for ecodesign. The application "Green Pattern" was developed for that purpose: it takes into account a dozen (out of around 200) rules to measure, it checks the quality of the code of any given piece of software and assigns a grade to it. According to the result, the application may then be modified in order to make it faster and more ecological.

What new management?

Pierre Carrio and Yann Azoury, of BeVeod, looked into the matter of people and skills. The increase in skill requirements related to the large number of computer languages has resulted in an increase of the number of dedicated servers. This escalation of needs has led to a slowdown and a certain rigidity of the development chain. Thanks to FaVeod, BeVeod's application creation tool, writing and maintaining code can be automated, and hardware requirements are therefore much lighter, with a much lesser impact on the ecological footprint of companies. Developers thus have more time to create new algorithms, and therefore added value.

What market for ecodesign?

The day ended with a round-table talk on the market for ecodesign. Since it is an emerging practice, all participants recognized that there are not many clients for the moment, all the more as clients do not necessarily like to lose control of the development process. Companies are however beginning to show some interest as they realize that ecodesign can be a factor of differentiation on the market. In addition, while there are not yet any strong rules and regulations to promote software ecodesign, texts are being written to encourage companies to adopt it.

Finally, each speaker insisted on an essential point concerning ecodesign: the need to give serious thought to the requirements specification before embarking on actual development; the need for assessment before taking action and to put oneself in the position of users (for example by using hardware considered to be obsolete); the need to fight against planned obsolescence and to put engineering back at the heart of development. And all participants concluded that software ecodesign is a way to the future.

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Joël Courtois, General Manager of EPITA, is among the 100 people who contribute to the advancement of the digital field in France, according to the weekly magazine 01 Business & Technologies, in the "Institutional and Political" category.

In response to the Louis Gallois report, which evades the issue of the digital field in France (although this sector creates jobs and shows growth and innovation), 01 Business & Technologies has established a list of the 100 French personalities who make the country move forward in this area. Joël Courtois, General Manager of EPITA, features alongside Rafi Haladjian (pictured on the cover - an entrepreneur in a variety of businesses, co-founder of Violet, the company that created the Nabaztag, and contributor to TIC 2025, a book about ICT in 2025 published by EPITA), Fleur Pellerin (minister in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation and the digital economy) and Loïc Le Meur (organizer of LeWeb). Pedagogical innovation and matching the syllabus to business needs are the strengths of the EPITA graduate school, which "does not produce machines just capable of learning and repeating, but creative and innovative young engineers".

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Next January 25th and 26th, EPITA will host the French edition of the Firefox OS App Days, two days dedicated to the development of applications for Mozilla's new operating system.

Mozilla - known above all for its work on the Firefox web browser - is currently implementing an HTML5-compatible open-source operating system for mobile devices: Firefox OS. This new OS, which is still under development, will enable developers to easily create applications based on pre-existing Mozilla APIs.

The launch of the operating system being scheduled some time in 2013, the various Mozilla communities around the world are invited to develop applications specific to the OS and intended to feed the Firefox MarketPlace during the Firefox OS App Days, which will also be held on January 25th and 26th at other locations all over the world. EPITA is hosting the French edition of the event.

After a presentation of Firefox OS on Friday evening, all day Saturday will be dedicated to workshops and above all to a hackathon, during which participants will create all kinds of applications in HTML5. If you can develop in HTML5, Javascript or CSS and are interested in this project, register here. The only requirement will be to bring your computer and an Android smartphone.

The Firefox OS App Days will take place in EPITA's facilities at Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne, on the outskirts of Paris). They will start on January 25th at 6pm and will end on the 26th at 10pm.

More information here

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Definition

The Research & Innovation Projects of EPITA's International Master's program consists of developing an innovative project by a group of second year masters students, over a period of two months, in collaboration with a company or a research laboratory. Each team consists of 3 to 4 and is supervised by the representative of the company or research laboratory mentoring the project. The project is developed over a period of two full-time months equating to 240 hours per student.

Aim

The model of the Research & Innovation project is a win-win agreement between the students and the companies. The students will be exposed to the corporate environment and will have a chance to work on real projects and establish a "proof of concept". The companies will be granted an opportunity to research ideas that normally they do not have the resources to achieve and to acquire an international point of view on their ideas and the technology they are using.

Implementation

The projects ideas are suggested by the company or the research laboratory wishing to assess the possibility of introducing a new product or a new system. Once the ideas are accepted by the EPITA, the school provides students with the essential resources to develop the project. The project undergoes the following milestones:  selection of the topic, specification writing, client acceptance on the specifications, list the needed resources (hardware, software...) and schedule, design, development, and validation of the prototype, and finally the deliverables presentation.

Examples

Below is a snaphot of the R&IP that are executed so far:

- Green IT Simulator

- E-CRM a Solution That Can Think

- Auto-Adaptive System Control Platform

- EPITA International Master Students Digital Guide 

- SFR Cloud Computing Qualification Tool

Please click on the below link to watch a short brief on Research & Innovation Projects

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The 15th edition of the Forum for Companies in the Engineering & IT Sector has been held on the Technological Campus of the IONIS Group October 10 and 11, from 1.30 pm to 6 pm.

As every year, the companies from the engineering and IT sector met on the technological Campus from IONIS Group for the FEMII organized by EPITA. These influential actors from the sector presented their projects to recruit students and future engineers.

As in previous editions, the companies presented employment opportunities they offer on different stands put up for that occasion.



52 companies and community stakeholders will report on business opportunities, including Capgemini, Thales, Bouygues Telecom, Hewlett-Packard or AXA. SSII, consulting firms, major software companies, banking and insurance will be represented, as many different opportunities for students.

The Technological Campus brings together over 6,000 students on the sites of Kremlin-Bicetre, Ivry-sur-Seine and Villejuif. The 250 students from EPITA in last year of engineering and International Masters are directly concerned by this forum.

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Friday, October 5th, at the invitation of the IONIS Group, students from EPITA, ESME Sudria and IPSA, were able to attend a lecture by Joe Justice, CEO of Wikispeed. In front of a packed house (over 200 attentive people in the audience) the founder of Wikispeed spoke. The keynote of Wikispeed is to develop an open source, secure and reliable car, able to travel 100 miles with only a gallon of gasoline (or 2.35 L per 100 km), and cheap ($ 25,000, with an ultimate goal of $ 17,000 per vehicle). Today Wikispeed gathers together nearly 150 members in 18 countries and focuses just on the automotive industry. Through its innovative work methods (Agile, Lean, Scrum ...) and responsiveness Wikispeed has interested many industries. These are the methods that the American entrepreneur presented.

                          Joe Justice speaking to the Engineering students from IONIS Group

Genesis Project

Given the fact that industrial development times were extremely long (a new car model on sale today has sometimes been conceived there over 20 years) in a world where innovation is going at full speed, Joe Justice first stook it into his head to establish a renewal cycle of seven days. Thus, he was able to quickly see the qualities and defects of its construction and adapt quickly to the needs of the moment.
In order to apply this reactivity  to a car, he started on a car model composed by eight interchangeable structures and little or no dependent from each other (chassis, engine, body ...). Thus, the owner of a Wikispeed car must, if want to, change the engine of his car - to go from an engine fueled with bio-ethanol to an electric motor, for example - using as much time as it takes to change a wheel.

Methods applied to the computer industry

To make this possible, Joe Justice was first inspired by Agile, Lean and Scrum methods. These practices mainly prevalent in software design (Joe Justice is primarily a computer engineer), are based on simple principles as a better distribution of labor, advanced planning to avoid hidden delays (Kanban), sharing knowledge through work in pairs (one teaching techniques, other learners), the ability to see very quickly (within seven days) the impact of his work ... Moreover, thanks to a battery of simulations and tests before, during and after construction, the team Wikispeed ensures the safety of its vehicles. Another efficiency factor: the good mood. Maintain a pleasant and cordial social relations at work increases productivity and innovation; common sense brought back into fashion.

From the shoebox to the race car

Wikispeed is the first car out of the private garage of Joe Justice in 2010. After three months from conception through the first mile, it became the gasoline vehicle the most efficient in the world, making the bet to travel 100 miles on one gallon of gasoline. A year later, the design of the body has been studied in more detail. Through
international collaborations, a shaped curve car was born. The vehicle is not only more efficient and less polluting, it is also more beautiful. This allowed him to be presented in August at the biggest automotive exhibition of the world, the Detroit Auto Show in Detroit, USA. The car on display at the convention was assembled in three hours by a group of 23 people, 19 of whom had never heard of the project before.

                                      Evolution of Wikispeed car design

The open source car

Most plans of the car and all the components are freely available on the Internet. Also, any individual interested in the project may propose additions, or make his own Wikispeed car . Currently, the project staff is working on a Wikispeed truck or van.

Exchanges are made through social networks and through collaborative tools like Skype, Dropbox, Skydrive ... These tools did not exist ten years ago. From a managerial point of view, these developments are of paramount importance: while the technical power has grown exponentially in the last 20 years, industrial profits have only decreased. The audit firm Deloitte explains this paradox by a difference of industrial culture.

Where a company will buy very expensive equipment to make mass-produced cars , the team Wikispeed will provide a tool with similar efficiency, but at a cost 50,000 times less. In addition, the use of equipment that has been used or given is at the heart of the model Wikispeed.


This new industrial culture has called to mind larger and older structures than Wikispeed. Among them, we can count John Deere (farm vehicles), Boeing (aircraft) or Tait (radios). During visits in these companies and workshops with teams, Joe Justice was able to present the Wikispeed methods. Because if you can not change suddenly decades of corporate culture, the weekly questioning can lead to significant improvements.


                           Application of Agile, Lean and Scrum at the Detroit Auto Show (USA)

Wikispeed, a project in constant evolution

With these devices, Wikispeed think it can put an end to planned obsolescence, through the instant update. Quickly, the media have been interested in the project. This interest has allowed Wikispeed to raise funds through the Internet. Today Wikispeed is also working on construction projects of clinics or low-cost ways to efficiently transport vaccines against polio. Always putting into practice the Agile, Lean and Scrum methods.
After this presentation, Joe Justice invited the students to join his project, provided an involvement ranging from two to four hours a week. Many of these aspiring engineers were enthusiastic.

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