Entre le chercheur de l’IRCCyN, Jean-Jacques Loiseau et les élèves du Lycée Livet une correspondance est née depuis la rentrée 2013 où les mots échangés sont en anglais sur fond de quotidiens, d’expériences et de sciences. Voici l’une des lettres, une sorte d’introduction à toutes celles qui ont suivi.

 Lettre des élèves.

Nantes, lycée Livet, Wednesday, October, 2nd

 Hello M. Loiseau

Let’s introduce ourselves :

Our group is composed of 28 students (with only 1 girl) and we are 15, 16, or 17 years old. We study in Livet highschool in première STI 1 and 2 in group SIN. STI  means  industrial sciences and technology. We  study engineering, electronics, computing (programming). For example, we are fixing a protoshield on an arduino card. A  new specificity has arrived : the STIDD and DD means sustainable development. Most of us live in Nantes and around, the pupils who live far from Nantes are boarders.

We would like to learn more about you and your work :

What does IRRCYN stand for ? What is your job ? What do you like in your job ? How much time did you study ? Where were you when you were our age ? Did you already know, when you were 16, that you wanted to become a scientist ? And the more curious would like to know : what are your hobbies ? In our class, a lot of boys like handball. We support the HBCN team. We also enjoy music : some of us play the drums.

 We have met a man from the « Athenor » theatre. He is called Frédéric Béchet. He explained what we will see on Friday October 11th. We are going to the theatre to watch a play written by Pierre Meunier. This artistic creation is going to mix art and science. The actor will talk about his experience : living 20 seconds without gravity. Would you like to come to the play ?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely,

1ère STI  1and 2, group SIN, lycée Livet.

La réponse de M. Loiseau recue le 10 octobre 

Hello everybody,

I am very glad to hear from you. Since this is the first time for us to exchange, this is a great event that we considered some weeks ago with your prof. Mrs. Amanda Crimé. I plan indeed to attend the spectacle « Chute libre », friday evening. I am curious to see the real orientation of that performance, it is announced to be behind the aim of mixing Art and Science, and this is a large program me and a difficult task, and frankly I have no idea of the result, and am quite interested of watching the result, and in particular trying from that to identify what the the artists think about science and the mix of art and science. I know their imagination is free and I hope they will give me some good ideas on this subject. I am going to answer your direct questions.

 IRCCyN means `Institut de Recherche en Communications et Cybernétique de Nantes’. It is a common laboratory of the CNRS (the `Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique’, as we say in French), the University of Nantes (UN), the Ecole Centrale de Nantes (ECN), and the Ecole des Mines de Nantes (EMN). It means that the laboratory researchers are either from the CNRS (it is my case), or professors at the UN, the ECN, or the EMN. Actually, the permanent researchers of the lab are in these situations. The lab also includes engineers, technicians and administrative workers, and non-permanent researchers, in particular a lot of PhD students, who are preparing a doctoral thesis for 3 years, and postdoctoral fellows who are there for one year in general. Cybernetics is a old term which meaning isn’t very clear; in our mind it is the science of automatized systems. There are ten different research teams in the lab, that are involved in automatic control, production systems, real-time and embedded systems, robotics, signal and image processing, as well as cognitive psychology, to study the semi-automatized systems, when an operator remains present in the loop.

My job is that of a CNRS researcher. I conduct researches in the general them of automatized systems. In practice, I have plenty of different activities. I pass night and days thinking in my research problems, that look like mathematical problems for almost everybody. Actually, I am interesting in the modeling of systems and how to use mathematical models to conceive automatic systems and the controllers that make them behave like is prescribed. It applies to plenty of fields, like in robotics and others, but personally, I am rather interested into theoretical concepts. Basically, when I studied a question and solved a problem, using original ideas, I wrote a report on the question, that is published in scientific journal, or I participate to international scientific conferences, where I will explain the obtained results to my colleagues. I can also prepare some projects with partners who can be researchers or industrials. I give also lectures to master classes, on subjects that within my specialitie (namely discrete-event systems and time-delay systems). I supervise the work of some Ph-D students, actually it consists in working with them on some precise research subject. I also head a research team of IRCCyN. It means both some scientific animation of the team, and some administrative work for the team (from accounting to represent it in meetings at IRCCyN, or elsewhere). I pass also many time as a scientific editor, reading and evaluating scientific reports that are submitted by scientists to journals or conferences. I also participate to some administrative commissions, that evaluate the quality of research projects, or evaluate the activity of research groups. I have also in charge the external communication of IRCCyN, which, one thing leading to another, is at the origin of our discussion. I hope that it will help us to better explain what we do.

 I like my job mainly because I am entirely free. I define myself what I do, and how I do it. The CNRS hired me because it was interested by my researches, I am not working there to obey to anybody. In addition, I have plenty of occasions to travel worldwide, I have very nice colleagues and am not obliged to respect horaries. Of course, I also have some horrible colleagues, but well I try to remain polite with them, it is easy since not any of them has a real power on my life. Even when I pass the night working to finish an article or a research report, or prepare a conference, of course I could regret not having horaries, but in some other sense, I organize myself like I want, working when I want, on what I want, and this is extremely satisfacting.

 I was born in Lorient, but live in Nantes since the age of six. A part of my family were originating from Nantes. I did my studies at the school Jean Jaurès, the junior high school Victor Hugo, and the high school Jules Verne. At your age, I was there, in Jules Verne, to prepare the baccalauréat. I passed the section D (that was oriented to sciences, including natural sciences), and then continued at the university, studying physics and mathematics. After two years at the university, I decided to try to enter an engineering school, and passed the so-called ENSI exam, which permitted me to enter at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes. Three years later, I got the engineering diploma, and a master in mechanics and automatic control. During the preparation of the master, I got a first experience of research. I was very enthusiast, and decided to continue a doctoral thesis. It takes three years more, and is indispensable to find a job as a researcher or professor at university. Personally, I was not much interested in teaching, so that I worked during 5 years in industry, before reaching the CNRS.

 When I was 16 of course I dare not dreaming to become a scientist. Even when I was at bac +2, I was not sure to be able to do such studies. Actually the problem is not to be able, I learnt meanwhile that when you work, you can obtain the results you want or dream. The main thing is to do exactly what you want to do, to have the energy to work enough, the difficult point is to choose the right orientation.

 My hobbies are sport (I practice gymnastics up to 10 years ago, and now I practice cycling), lecture and my family life. I practiced photography but actually do not practice anymore. I like watching the TV, and working manually at home, which is most relaxing with my job.

See you on friday !

JJ