Masters internationaux EPITA

Webshell to Silicon Valley


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As part of an innovation competition, three EPITA students will travel to California, from June 2  to  8  in order to develop their plans for new computer language. Interview with Thibaud Arnault (EPITA Class of 2012), the project leader.

Thibaud Arnault, Arnaud Richard & Tibor Vass, three students in their fifth year of the major Media and Information Technology (MTI) and Mehdi Medjaoui (INSA Lyon) will travel to Silicon Valley early June. After winning second prize in Innovact Campus Awards, Webshell was selected to join the French Tech Tour, which consists of a series of appointments with companies in Silicon Valley and coaching while in the US by Ubifrance, San Francisco.

Webshell is an open innovation and communication project (PLIC). It is the development of a new computer language facilitating the development of web and mobile applications from existing APIs (application programming interface allowing interaction programs with each other). At stake:  time saving and ease of implementation!


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Why has your project been rewarded?
We have an innovative patented technology, a complementary team, a recognition by a public incubator and a good educational presentation in which we were able to understand both the technological and commercial issues and show our motivation to create our company. After deliberation, the jury found that our project was worthy of winning amongst the 150 submissions and we thank them. These awards mean to us a real appreciation and provide further motivation: we could see the other projects that competed for Innovact Campus Awards, many were very innovative and  high levels. Finally, the French Tech Tour allows us to take our first steps into the Silicon Valley.

What is Webshell?
The idea is to create a powerful language for querying any Web service in the same manner and to make available the language through a very simple service. In our jargon, we call Web APIs such service. With API, sites or applications can exchange data and modify their respective information. For example, when a social network asks you for permission to share your data with a third party application, it uses the APIs of the social network. It is expensive for a developer today to use more than three API. Nonetheless there are over 5800 different APIs and that number is growing exponentially. So we need a way to standardize them, make them interoperable, easily and quickly find them. We believe in open innovation brought by the mixture of these services. We call such a mix, a mash-up of API. Our project is to address this issue. We want to implement all language API Webshell collaboratively so that developers can easily make mashups. On our platform, everything is done to create a community of developers and allow API providers to easily reach this community.

What assessment and what future does there exist for Webshell?
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Today, we are still in private beta and we have already over 150 registered developers on the platform. The early returns are good and the users come back! We do everything we can to deliver the best possible navigation. We will have more returns in the coming weeks. We intend to improve the tools around APIs to become the reference on APIs. We will also organize hackathons with partners to publicize Webshell to more developers. Finally, we intend to be more active on the forums, and various networks. We seek also a passionate community manager. We will export the French technology to Silicon Valley, while continuing to develop partnerships with companies in France.

Discover EPITA's Air Radio

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Interview with Quentin Sanglier (EPITA Class of 2013), treasurer of the Association Air Radio.
 
Air-Radio is the web-radio of the IONIS campus in Kremlin Bicetre. It broadcasts several styles of music from its website and programs, live performances and podcasts on various topics ranging from computer news to commentarie on soccer & rugby games. Its members thrive to continually improve this meeting point for students, both through the media and technically. 
Quentin Boar (EPITA Promo 2013), its treasurer, gave us this interview on the association and its projects.
 
How is life at Air Radio?
 
The local association, which contains a large amount of computer hardware and sound, is a gathering point among all members, including office, as show hosts. When we find ourselves in the local association, talks about life in school subjects and information are rapidly forming at times to become future subjects. Indeed, each student can be part of the association, they can come and discuss or make a little passionnate address on a theme for our listeners.  Air Radio  offers a perfect way to express oneselfs and to share knowledge on what might interest other students.
 
We aim to reach a maximum of listeners and make sure to talk about various topics of interest to reach the largest student base. As we are a public radio Web-accessible by anyone from the site, we intend to promote other organizations and their events. Via the scheduling of  "advertising" messages in collaboration with other associations, we offer other students to participate in the life of the radio via broadcasting their jingles and their sponsors.
 
What skills do you use as part of this association?
 
Programming is a very useful tool in this association. We have several machines allowing us to work on the shows and especially a server that manages the their distribution. The program intervenes to make our job easier and to automate all that airs on the radio. An intranet allows us to easily manage playlists, replay broadcasts, different musical genres, etc..
 
Some operations are still done manually (eg broadcasting a specific music genre) but for this to become automatic, it's only a matter of time: just a member of the radio handles the development of the application or script allowing automated functionality.

What are your plans for the association?

Thanks to programming skills acquired during our studies, we plan to automate the radio, and give as much listening time as possible to the listener. During programs, there is a chat available for listeners where they can participate and give their opinion during a live. We would like to give their speech, by attempting communication software on computer (eg Skype), to participate in the program.
 
Improved management of musical genres is being set up, allowing listeners to know the different time slots during which their favorite artists will be released. In addition, we intend to link a voting system that will allow them to interact much more with us in certain programs.
 
What was your latest biggest success?

he live program "Beatles vs. Rolling Stones" was undoubtedly the greatest achievement of the semester. We are fortunate to have associates in all genres of music, resulting in a large number of ideas and facilitate the organization of programs of Air-Radio. We intend to organize a special Radiohead soon and various commentaries lives of rugby games, soccer tournaments and even online games! In short, the radio is promising and we are quite confident about its future and the loyalty of our listeners.

Apple's Day 2012

This day dedicated to the Apple universe will take place on the school campus Friday, June 1, from 10:00am to 6:00pm.

Organized by EpiMac, EPITA's Mac student association, the event will alternate lectures and workshops for students and professionals alike.
 
On the IONIS Campus of Kremlin-Bicetre, this event will offer the opportunity of participating in multiple activities designed to help discover more and more Apple's universe. You will have the opportunity to attend several conferences on various topics, equally addressing the developer , the user and the enthusiast's scopes of interest. There will also be various booths available throughout the campus. 

On Apple Day both organizers and partners will be pleased to present their activities and to answer participants questions. Finally, you can sign-up in the afternoon for the training Objective-C. Whether you are learning from scratch or hold advanced  knowledge, the trainers will be happy to mentor you.
 
If you would like more details on this event, or already register, please visit the page devoted to it! To keep up to date on the Apple Day and any events EpiMac, follow the association's progress live on Facebook and Twitter.

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At the Heart of Business & Entrepreneurship


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Hubert de l'Estoile (EPITA Promo 1994), Secretary General of the MEDEF, talks about his career, his years at school and projects of the employers for the new generations.
 
Can you trace back your career at the MEDEF?
 
Previously Director of Information Systems (DSI), I switched to Director of Human Resources (HR) in January 2010 before becoming general secretary in September of that year. Between the first two trades, which can seem so different, there are actually several common characteristics. The two main ones are listening and servicing either users or employees.  There is also a strong commitment to the service because in both cases we must find, develop and implement permanent solutions satisfactory to all stakeholders in the interest of the MEDEF. Finally, there is in both cases some technical skilles that require quick learning and daily acquisition of new skills.
 
I do not have any overlap with the previous HRD who was had left several months prior to my arrival. My first task was to meet first the HR team and later their managers and their teams, to listen and make an inventory of expectations. At the same time, I took charge of employee representatives (DUP and HSC). Then came the definition and formalization of a new HR policy, based on equity, personal and professional development and benchmarking, which resulted in an action plan now being implemented.
 
How were your years at EPITA determining?
 
After two years of preparatory course at ESME Sudria, I spent my three years of engineering studies, from 1991 to 1994, EPITA, the "Titian." It is in this building, we called as the "Cruiseship" located Boulevard Hospital, that I discovered the Internet through the exclusive use of email, because at that time the first WWW browser did not yet exist. So I had my first email address in 1992 EPITA! I did not realize the extent of development this new communication technology was going to undergo. We were so few to have an email that it was a challenge to have a penpal and if possible at the other end of the world, the must was a contact in California!
 
I had taken as an option "System & Networks." We worked a lot on IP networks as NOVELL networks were in their infancy. EPITA had and still has I believe a great advantage: access to machines 24H/7. I was appreciative of the confidence that the school gave its students. This freedom and flexibility of work was really appreciable. In return, the projects were very interesting but laborious and I discovered the joys of nights spent by project team to finalize the developments! This has been very rewarding and eye opening: it is through these experiences that I learned teamwork and understood the solidarity needed for a project to come to its  end.
 
EPITA's teaching was so avant-garde and so professional that it allowed me to be chosen to go on cooperation in Southern Africa in order to implement messaging and networks in commercial services of French embassies in the region.

How can the spirit of entrepreneurship can be fostered into the younger generation?

The MEDEF serves business and the entrepreneurship spirit. Its president, Laurence Parisot, has established a commission dedicated exclusively to entrepreneurship. The commission, chaired by entrepreneur Charles Beigbeder, aims to put entrepreneurship as a third career path. A set of tools and actions are proposed and sponsored by MEDEF to develop entrepreneurship, especially among younger generations. First through the transmission of knowledge required of the company. Two comics were made for junior highschool students: "What is Business?" and "Discovering the Company;" a book entitled "The Company: A Key Player in the Company" was released to the attention of highschool students; the game" Journey to the Company's Heart" was created for college students so that they are capable, in three hours and a half, to better understand the business environment.

Follows a more concrete action, for junior highschool and highschool students, the "mini-business" partnership between MEDEF and the association "Investing in Learning." A mini-company gathers a group of young volunteers around an entrepreneurial project. Supervised by a teacher and a professional advisor, the mini-company operates as a limited company and is develops a product or service for marketing. Once a week, mini-entrepreneurs come together to build their project. These sessions include notions of investment, price or cost, community life and citizen ... Students also have the possibility of donating a portion of their profits to a charitable cause. The mini-company allows to introduce young people - 14 to 20 years - in the economy and more particularly to create their business venture in the future.

The Internet: Between Freedom & Security

The anonymity, transparency, freedom and its limits, and internet neutrality were in particular central at the conference on ICT and Geopolitics organized by EPITA last March.  Current issues relating to the evolution of the Internet have been reviewed and analyzed from a social and political angle. Between opening and closing, tolerance and restraint: the question of borders and boundaries was more than ever at the heart of the subject.
 
Topics such as the Arab Spring, the Anonymous or Piracy  were discussed during this conference at EPITA on March 22. Two round tables were on the agenda: the first dealt with the security problems posed by the issues of transparency and the protection of freedoms, the second focused on the challenges posed by the rise of cloud computing, the open source and  open data to businesses and governments and more generally to security professionals. Back on the first debate with fellow guests Pascal Herard, journalist at  www.reflets.info, Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net, Frederic Bardeau, founder of  LIMITE for responsible advertising, co-author of "Anonymous" (FYP Editions) and Lionel Auroux, with EPITA's Safety Laboratory System (LSE).

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Lionel Auroux, on the Internet Culture

Internet: a Culture of Freedom
 
Lionel Auroux reminded that Internet conveyed its own culture, after that of the first hackers, "the concept of security does not exist initially. The business of securing the canvas was inconsistent with the original intent. Hence the reaction of the hacker community, technology enthusiasts interested in preserving their identity. Today, the Internet is a haven for freedom of expression within a media system increasingly locked. "  He continued:" The Internet is related to the imaginary adolescent transgression. It is a natural weapon for Generation Y ". For Jérémie Zimmermann, "citizens have appropriated and transformed the Internet into space policy. It is now a question of preserving this area of ​​freedom. The potential outrage created by the Internet is proportional to the violence against freedom of expression. "

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Jérémie Zimmermann, on Freedom of Expression

Internet Under Surveillance?
 
This spirit of freedom consubstantial to Internet hinders governments, particularly draconian and authoritarian governments. Herard Pascal reminds us that "in Tunisia, the authorities in place have not hesitated to resort to censorship, filtering and further to the arrest and torture of cyber protestors, using as scapegoat terrorism, child-pornography, pornography, and defamation. "
The symbol of this policy in Tunisia is the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), with to its avail hardware and software that can scan and analyze everything that goes over the network. "Such devices were also in place in the Libya of Qaddafi and in Syria. Hackers have in turn provided themselves with devices to detect rumors and verify their validity,"says Pascal Herard.

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Pascal Herard, on the Tunisian Revolution

A Cyberspace Policy
 
The fact remains that the freedom available on the Internet poses real societal issues. "Too much liberty kills liberty"? The absence of truly effective management of the Internet allows counterfeiting to flourish and threatens the rights of authors and media neutrality. "In response, governments establish legal frameworks such as laws SOPA PIPA and the United States, ACTA and Hadopi in France, and interception technologies," says Zimmermann.

The strategies used by Internet users to fight against the influence of policy and power in the network range from the action of militant bloggers in dictatorships to those of the Anonymous in democracies. Frederic Bardeau describes these as "hacktivists" (to hack, to pirat): "they have no voice, face, structure. They are heirs to a culture of anonymity to own a part of activism, but also the basis of cyberculture, and bearer of tolerance, freedom of expression and meritocracy. Anonymity, liberating and empowering, cannot be judged on its appearance. "

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The actions of the Anonymous recall on those of traditional activists transposed into cyberspace: we can relate the blocking of website such as the suffered by Facebook's  blackout on March 7  to a sit-in or the occupation of a factory for example. Conversely, a spokesman for Greenpeace was able to identify the intrusion made by militants in the Flamanville Central  in physical hacking.
 
Overcoming Conflicts
 
How should the Internet evolve to overcome the debate between control and freedom? Control of Internet remains a critical issue that faces a structural deadlock, identified by Frederic Bardeau: "Internet is a problem of territoriality. Internet is a transnational space in which the Balkanized .com replaces the geographical area."
 
A number of suggestions were made by politicians such as the control end of the chain, parental control, to avoid breaching the private liberties, the concept of open Government, open data, to integrate the political universe in the Internet ecosystem or supervision of service providers to ensure neutrality. Reflection is still far from complete.

Laurent Letourmy (class of 1996): Multi-successful Entrepreneur

Interview with Laurent Letourmy (EPITA Promo 1996), manager and founder of several companies dedicated to the Internet.

Ysance, founded in 2005, is an IT consulting firm in ebusiness, cloud computing, data and big decision making. Novao, founded in 2007, develops and financse companies in the IT and social networks. IsCool Entertainment is the leading French social gaming. Wipolo, social companion and dedicated service by Facebook at the global launch of the Timeline in January 2012, was born in 2008. Milky, agency of record for brands in social media was born in 2012. These companies all have one thing in common: Laurence Letourmy (EPITA Promo 1996) was among their founders or leaders. Interview with a multi-contractor that chains successes.


Can you introduce yourself in a few lines?
 
I'm 38, I am married with four children. I am a computer enthusiast and developer since a very young age. I had one thing in mind: to do my job. EPITA allowed me to accomplish this dream by adding entrepreneurial spirit thanks to my meeting with Thibault Viort (EPITA, Promo 96), which I have been associated with for the last 15 years. We created our first two companies in 1996, performed two initial public offerings (IPO) in 10 years and now head the Novao Company, which employs a hundred people in the IT and social networks.
 
Why becoming an entrepreneur?
 
From the beginning of my career, I enjoyed myself so much on issues combining technologies and new uses. Moreover, it is still my passion. Periods of technological breakthroughs contribute to new production methods, transfer organizations and motivations. The creation or development of projects in the phases of disruption are fascinating. The challenge is everywhere and permanent ...
 
How did your school prepare you for these challenges?
 
The richness of encounters, the organization of education, access to technical means, the density of topics and projects are a good preparation for what awaits us when we  EPITA alumni create companies. We do experience academic stress, which in itself is one of the best preparations ...
 
How is the life of an entrepreneur?
 
You mean the quiet evenings, e-mails that never occur at midnight, hosted services that never send alerts, business plans that are always respected?  It is difficult to go over an hour without thinking about the business and it is not always smooth sailing, but the final balance family / personal / professional is essential. It's one that I favor and which allows me to be ready for any situation.
 
How would you describe the performance or the success of your projects?
 
Our projects are entirely innovative. We measure their performance, not only turnover or results, but also the quality of teams and the strategic positioning of products or services in their market and relative to competition.
 
Which projects trends for your business?
 
Through Novao, my ambition with my associates and our strong financial partnerships (with OSEO) and educational, with the IONIS Education Group, to create the largest ecosystem in technologies and social media in five years. This takes place via strong organic growth at first, but also external and the creation of new activities. Novao is also preparing its presence in the Silicon Valley with a particular interest in Plizy, the latest project from Jonathan Benassaya, founder of Deezer.

President Nicolas Sarkozy Visits EPITA's Digital Campus

Visit of Nicolas Sarkozy and NKM on Digital Campus Education IONIS GroupLe April 14, the President and Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, former Secretary of State in  Digital Economy, came to meet students.

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Nicolas Sarkozy with the students.

April 14, late morning, the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, preceded by the Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, spokesman of the candidate and former Secretary of State  Digital Economy, came to the Digital Campus of the IONIS Education Group of the Kremlin-Bicetre, which, with 7,000 students, hosts the largest group of students training in the different areas of digital expertise.  EPITA, Epitech, SUP'Internet, e-artsup, ETNA and the web @ academy were represented as IONIS Education Group members.  The Melty Network, media company founded by Alexandre Malsch, Epitech graduate and vice president of the National Council formed a Digital cluster, arises as a dynamic example of digital success.

Nicolas Sarkozy, hosted by Executive Vice President of the IONIS Education Group, Fabrice Bardeche, and Alexander Malsh, could interact with students and was interviewed by the editor of Melty, Pascale Erblon, about his view on education and the digital field. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet spent some time on the projects presented by students of the Campus.

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Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, attentively taking part in student projects.


During his interview, the president focused on the passion displyed by the students and the importance of digital technology in the companies. He first noted that the digital accounted for 5.5% of national wealth and remains promising sector, resistant to the crisis, with 70,000 jobs unfilled, then continued: "The lesson of life is think in terms of passion. The adventure you live in the digital realm is extraordinary. I see where you mention that you are passionate about. (...) Those who work there are new inventors, new promoters, the strong men of tomorrow. (...) The numerical values ​​of what is shared is like America, a society where everything is possible. (...) For young people, the digital is an accelerator of empowerment and responsibility."

EPITA's 2012 Edition of the International Week


During the International Week, from 10 to 13 April, conferences, workshops, cultural demonstrations and our international education fair will be held on EPITA campuses, to give students in the second year of their Engineering Degree tools and tips to study & work in an international context and thus be able to flourish in today's multicultural world.

Below our featured program:
April 10: Opening Round Table with Partner Universities from 10:00am to 4:30pm (Campus of the Kremlin - Bicêtre)
April 11: Conferences and Country Workshops from 10:00am to 7:00pm (Campus of the Kremlin - Bicêtre)
April 12: Demos and Cultural Exhibition from 1:00pm to 4:30pm (Campus of Villejuif)
April 13: Conferences, Cultural Workshops, Assessment & Closure of 10:00am to 4:30pm (Campus of the Kremlin - Bicêtre)

On the evening of April 13th, the Student Bureau has organized an International Party that will feature multicultural activities in addition to night long music & dance from 8:00pm until dawn).

We thank our partners from China, Canada, the UK & Ireland who are coming to Paris for this special event.

EPITA International Master @ IECHE

EPITA International Master will proudly participate in the 3rd Edition of the International Exhibit & Conference on Higher Education held from April 17th to April 20th in the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyad.

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IECHE is organized by the Saudian Ministry of Higher Education.  Its first two editions welcomed over 270 000 visitors and 350 international institutions of Higher Education were present.

Since 2006, France supports King Abdallah's educational reform and currently has 60 cooperation agreements in fields such as Science, Medicine, Liberal Arts, Business, Law, etc.  Our country hosts 1000 Saudi students who benefit from scholarships.

CampusFrance & the French Embassy of Riyad will be present at the event.

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For the its 2012 edition, IECHE counts 460 exhibitors including several EPITA's prestigious partners.


If you are in the region, don't hesitate to come and meet us at our table!

 


LRDE Participates in National Project « TerraRush »

The «TerraRush» project has been selected together with 18 others (including the project « eTourism Augmented Reality » you have read about in our February Newsletter) among over 70 applications. This is the result of the first call for proposals «Scanning technologies and enhancement of cultural, scientific and educational content » within the framework of the Investment Program for the Future launched by the French government.

 

« TerraRush » aims to produce a platform with technological solutions able to:

•   execute complex searches in an important volume of video data ;

•   carry out editing tasks as well as selective and automated transcoding in order to produce new contents that are exploitable for broadcasting, with adaptive formats according to the network capacity and the constantly changing multimedia terminals (from HD to the simplest smart phone videos) ;

•   integrate innovations on the web in terms of new distributed services and applications.

 

This platform will allow us to industrialize the process of indexing video files from digitized rushes (original audio and video documents, that are raw and unedited) thanks to a semi-automated process that facilitates to place new services on the market:

•   sale of extracted program sequences;

•   sale of stock footage;

•   repurposing.

Without this platform many of those rushes (over 150 000 hours) will be destroyed for lack of economic solutions allowing using them. Their holders want to make room for their new HD digital productions. Nevertheless the rushes, witnesses of the years 1970 - 2010, represent a rich heritage and great potential.

 

The new platform will include implementations of sophisticated innovations such as:

•   multimedia search techniques by content (namely based on object recognition and automated classification of sound characteristics and visual features of audio and video data stream);

•   techniques for massive data processing on parallel and distributed architectures;

•   development of innovative Web services intended for content management and broadcasting.

 

The project will last 24 months and brings together the following partners: Capital Vision [http://www.capitalvision.fr/main/?lang=en], Itaapy [http://www.itaapy.com/?language=en], Resonate MP4 [http://www.resonate-mp4.com/], ETIS [http://www-etis.ensea.fr/] and the LRDE [http://www.lrde.epita.fr].

Within this project the LRDE will carry out text extraction in image sequences in order to enrich the databases of rushes. The automatic extraction of text helps indexing the rushes. In the same time, the LRDE will work on removing text from the sequences allowing restoring the original image. This functionality is useful when you want to erase the subtitles for instance, and recover the video sequence.



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About EPITA

With its inception in 1984, EPITA (Graduate School of Computer Science and Advanced Technologies) is the Engineering School training the best experts who design, develop and improve the future Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The pedagogy of the school focuses on giving students both the fundamentals of Engineering and the highest expertise in the fields of Computer Science and ICT. The International Master's degree delivered by EPITA is accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research as a "Diplôme National de Master".

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