Altran Foundation for Innovation
Encyclopedia
The Altran Foundation for Innovation is one of the key vehicles of the societal action of the group Altran Technologies. Since its creation in 1996, it thrives to promote technological innovation for human benefit. Its action focuses on an international scientific competition with a new theme every year, rewarding leaders of innovative technology-oriented projects.
The Altran Foundation offers a one year technological support from its top consultants to the winner of its Award. This support can value up to €1 million. Besides, the laureate is offered a financial grant of €16.000. This technical support covers all of Altran Technologies’s areas of competence, in terms of research and scientific innovation: technological development, design, industrialization, cost optimization, project management, market studies, marketing, partnership searches, fund raising, communication, multimedia, corporate strategy ...
Led by Yves de Chaisemartin and Christian Le Liepvre, the Altran Foundation is efficient mainly as a result of the voluntary work done by the Altran teams. Every year, more than 400 consultants and managers take part in the different stages of the Foundation Award. They help in finding potential candidates, coaching project initiators, short-listing files, auditing finalists and supporting the winner.
system of Professor Jonathan Wolpaw aims to facilitate the communication of patients with locked-in syndrome. It enables patients to move a cursor on a computer screen, dictate a text or control a robotic arm. The Foundation support has overcome issues in helmet development, in work on data acquisition – electrical signals of only a few microvolts - and has allowed evaluating the market for the product. Thanks to the support provided by Altran consultants, fifteen patients are now using this system and are able to send mails in a completely autonomous way.
of Professor José Sahel and his team at the Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital Centre aims to allow people with degenerative retinal disease, numbering 1.5 million in 2008, to accomplish everyday activities. Placed under the existing retina, it directly stimulates the neurons, replacing defective cells. These implants should eventually allow patients to recognize faces, read large print and move independently in a restricted environment. The challenge for the Altran teams was to find solutions to produce artificial retina
in series, in order to bring solutions to the widest number of patients. After an initial diagnosis of the project and a contextual analysis, Altran consultants worked on the creation of a simulation tool enabling to study the implant / neuron link and to define optimal implant shape; they also proceeded to the modelling of the complete electrodes / neurons system and to the experimentation on ex-vivo retina. Hand in hand with Professor Sahel’s team, Altran consultants have succeeded in launching the realization of first implants for test and in decreasing from three months to fifteen days the time necessary to obtain experience results.
’s façade, the great door of Milan Cathedral, Munich Frauenkirche
cathedral and the statues of Valentine of Milan and Laura de Noves in the Jardin du Luxembourg
in Paris...
of brackish or sea water. The proposed distillation
process is based on the principle of multiple-effect dripping film plate evaporators. The innovation lies in the horizontal transfer of vapour to the condensation
zone. From a socio-economic point of view, thanks to its human-scale dimensions, its modular construction and its ease of assembly, the system has the advantage of being usable by unskilled operators in developing countries. The process also has political value: it enables a number of countries to end their dependence on their neighbours for their drinking water supplies. Thanks to Altran’s support, problems of watertightness have been solved and the process optimized. At the end of the support, the system produced its first water drops.
, Latin America
and Asia
, and at the same time fighting against deforestation and climatic changes. The solution? Biomass charcoal - source of renewable energy - patented and developed by Pro-Natura International. Biomass charcoal produces domestic energy from non-upgraded biomass, other than wood, in particular agricultural residues non-consumed by animals. By reducing the dependence on wood, biomass charcoal protects forests and as a consequence fights against desertification. Moreover, the energy produced by biomass charcoal is equal to that of wood charcoal for a sales price per kilo 50% cheaper. The aims of Altran’s support were to double production capacity of the machine, to reduce its cost of production from 50 000€ to 20 000€ and to reduce the temperature of the biomass charcoal from 500 to 40°C in the end of the process. This project has materialized with the first implementation in Senegal in 2007 of a machine produced in France.
Presentation of the Award of the Foundation
The Altran Foundation for Innovation promotes technological innovation for human benefit. Through the action of its foundation, Altran Technologies wishes to promote the development of creative ideas, help and ensure project development and finally guarantee achievement of these ideas. The action of the Foundation focuses on an international scientific competition, rewarding leaders of innovative technology-oriented projects. The theme of the Award changes every year.The Altran Foundation offers a one year technological support from its top consultants to the winner of its Award. This support can value up to €1 million. Besides, the laureate is offered a financial grant of €16.000. This technical support covers all of Altran Technologies’s areas of competence, in terms of research and scientific innovation: technological development, design, industrialization, cost optimization, project management, market studies, marketing, partnership searches, fund raising, communication, multimedia, corporate strategy ...
Led by Yves de Chaisemartin and Christian Le Liepvre, the Altran Foundation is efficient mainly as a result of the voluntary work done by the Altran teams. Every year, more than 400 consultants and managers take part in the different stages of the Foundation Award. They help in finding potential candidates, coaching project initiators, short-listing files, auditing finalists and supporting the winner.
Brain-powered remote control for paralyzed people
The Brain-Computer InterfaceBrain-computer interface
A brain–computer interface , sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface , is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device...
system of Professor Jonathan Wolpaw aims to facilitate the communication of patients with locked-in syndrome. It enables patients to move a cursor on a computer screen, dictate a text or control a robotic arm. The Foundation support has overcome issues in helmet development, in work on data acquisition – electrical signals of only a few microvolts - and has allowed evaluating the market for the product. Thanks to the support provided by Altran consultants, fifteen patients are now using this system and are able to send mails in a completely autonomous way.
Artificial retina
The artificial retinaRetina
The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
of Professor José Sahel and his team at the Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital Centre aims to allow people with degenerative retinal disease, numbering 1.5 million in 2008, to accomplish everyday activities. Placed under the existing retina, it directly stimulates the neurons, replacing defective cells. These implants should eventually allow patients to recognize faces, read large print and move independently in a restricted environment. The challenge for the Altran teams was to find solutions to produce artificial retina
Retina
The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
in series, in order to bring solutions to the widest number of patients. After an initial diagnosis of the project and a contextual analysis, Altran consultants worked on the creation of a simulation tool enabling to study the implant / neuron link and to define optimal implant shape; they also proceeded to the modelling of the complete electrodes / neurons system and to the experimentation on ex-vivo retina. Hand in hand with Professor Sahel’s team, Altran consultants have succeeded in launching the realization of first implants for test and in decreasing from three months to fifteen days the time necessary to obtain experience results.
Pain-treatment based on cell micro-encapsulation
In 1998, the Altran Foundation prize was awarded to the Toulouse-Rangueil University laboratory, and to the company Kappa Biotech for their pain-treatment project based on cell micro-encapsulation. The micro-encapsulation process stops the organism from rejecting these cells by protecting them in a sphere, thus preventing the immune system from recognizing them. The process involves creating biocompatible micro-membranes which are implanted using in-vitro fertilization technology. Until recently, the implantation posed a number of major productivity problems, making the entire Kappa Biotech team wonder if they would ever actually get out of the laboratory and start marketing the technique as it was taking 15 minutes for one micro-membrane to be implanted. Altran teams stepped in to help solve precisely this problem. Their studies demonstrated that the automated implantation option, using a laser optical guidance system, was the most promising approach. With the cooperation of Tarbes E.N.I. students, Altran consultants developed a robot to automate the microcapsule filling operation using a dual-needle system. Thanks to Altran’s support, the robot is now commercialized.Test patch for child food allergies
The team from DBV Technologies has developed a patented innovative process, the E-patch, which is used to determine allergies of children. The ready-to-use standardised patch tests are highly reliable and conserve the allergic agents in their best state of allergy. This innovative technique uses the principal of freeze drying and electrification to retain the allergic agents on the patch, without using solvent or glue. The E-patch is then conditioned so that it remains air and water tight. Once applied to the child the allergic agents are rapidly hydrated by body transpiration and liberated from the patch. They enter into contact with the skin and create, if positive, a reaction which can be seen by the doctor 48 hours later. To help this project become a saleable product, Altran teams have solved production problems, have finalized product development, have looked into patent stakes, have designed a running industrial pilot and have conducted different market surveys. Thanks to Altran’s support, the test patch for child food allergies, which was only a project at the Award ceremony in June 2003, is, since June 2004, available in French drugstores!Economic solar panel
The project of MAXXUN was to develop an innovative system of disruptive solar cells based on the luminescent solar concentrating (LSC) technology, in order to lower the investment for a solar energy system by more than half. Altran Technologies consultants have worked during a year with the award winning team to increase the surface area of the panel from 2.5 cm² to 10 cm²; to apply an absorbing and dispersing layer on this extra surface area; to optimize light power under different conditions; to build a demonstration model and to identify potential partners.Ecologic system of soil decontamination
The Altran Foundation jury awarded the first prize 2001 to Julien Troquet, a young research engineer and founder of the start-up company Biobasic Environnement. His project consists in developing a decontamination process for soil using bioremediation. This process allows for a complete decontamination using a gentle "alternative" method, so the excavation of the site is not necessary and the ecosystem is preserved. It is five times less expensive than competing techniques and can also be used on many different types of pollution. Altran’s support contributed to having this biological process go from laboratory to industrialization.Laser restoration of historical monuments
The companies Jaulard and Trivella (companies from France and Italy respectively), together with the laser specialists Quantel (France) and Unilaser (from France and Portugal) have developed the LAMA project of a laser that can be carried by hand and used to clean the facades and sculpted ornaments of historical monuments. The process makes it easier to select the area to be cleaned without damaging "the outer skin" of the stone and outperforms all other existing systems at a fifth of the cost. Thanks to Altran's technological support, the LAMA process found several interesting commercial opportunities. These include the 150 statues of the Brussels Grand PlaceGrand Place
The Grand Place or Grote Markt is the central square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guildhalls, the city's Town Hall, and the Breadhouse . The square is the most important tourist destination and most memorable landmark in Brussels, along with the Atomium and Manneken Pis...
’s façade, the great door of Milan Cathedral, Munich Frauenkirche
Munich Frauenkirche
The Frauenkirche is a church in the Bavarian city of Munich that serves as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and seat of its Archbishop. It is a landmark and is considered a symbol of the Bavarian capital city.The church towers are widely visible because of local height...
cathedral and the statues of Valentine of Milan and Laura de Noves in the Jardin du Luxembourg
Jardin du Luxembourg
The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris (224,500 m²...
in Paris...
Desalination of sea water
The work by Viviane Renaudin has led to the development of a new type of multiple-effect plate evaporator, which can be used for the desalinationDesalination
Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...
of brackish or sea water. The proposed distillation
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
process is based on the principle of multiple-effect dripping film plate evaporators. The innovation lies in the horizontal transfer of vapour to the condensation
Condensation
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....
zone. From a socio-economic point of view, thanks to its human-scale dimensions, its modular construction and its ease of assembly, the system has the advantage of being usable by unskilled operators in developing countries. The process also has political value: it enables a number of countries to end their dependence on their neighbours for their drinking water supplies. Thanks to Altran’s support, problems of watertightness have been solved and the process optimized. At the end of the support, the system produced its first water drops.
New generation fuel
The aim of Guy Reinaud's project is to reply to the needs, in renewable domestic energy, of a population of 2 billion individuals living in the tropical regions of AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, and at the same time fighting against deforestation and climatic changes. The solution? Biomass charcoal - source of renewable energy - patented and developed by Pro-Natura International. Biomass charcoal produces domestic energy from non-upgraded biomass, other than wood, in particular agricultural residues non-consumed by animals. By reducing the dependence on wood, biomass charcoal protects forests and as a consequence fights against desertification. Moreover, the energy produced by biomass charcoal is equal to that of wood charcoal for a sales price per kilo 50% cheaper. The aims of Altran’s support were to double production capacity of the machine, to reduce its cost of production from 50 000€ to 20 000€ and to reduce the temperature of the biomass charcoal from 500 to 40°C in the end of the process. This project has materialized with the first implementation in Senegal in 2007 of a machine produced in France.