Presentation
Cars, cakes, medicines, toys, locks, airplanes, furniture, telephones...the list is endless. Industrial products are everywhere in our daily lives, without us even realizing it.
Over the last century, industry has generated some of the most incredible innovations, and has always played a leading role in the development of new technologies and their dissemination throughout society.
At Les Ponts, we are fortunate to have a large number of comrades active in the various branches of industry, in France, Europe and the rest of the world, as far afield as Asia and America. If you consult our directory, you'll find that some of our comrades work in research, others in production, purchasing and engineering, and still others in marketing and sales of industrial products. Certainly, few sectors of the economy offer such a wide range of opportunities and such exciting and varied careers.
Like the rest of the economy and the world, industry is nevertheless undergoing significant change, and is in the process of adapting to the transformations of our times. Take sustainable development, for example: our sector has realized that it needs to revisit its consumption of resources and energy; it needs to invent new modes of production, undoubtedly closer to the end consumer, and sometimes substituting recycling for total manufacturing. Studies show that customers want products that are more sustainable, yet still affordable, without compromising quality. This new squaring of the circle is a real headache, a real challenge for the industry. It will have to learn to do better, with less. Another upheaval, perhaps the most significant since Fordism, is what is known as Industry 4.0: a set of new ways of organizing the industrial workshop, technologies (3D printing, robotization, sensors, the Internet of Things...) and artificial intelligence enabling customized manufacturing, in smaller series and closer to demand...in any case, that's the ideal goal set by this industrial movement. Thanks to its flexibility and high degree of automation, it's a safe bet that it will help relocate certain industrial activities in France! In 1970, industry accounted for nearly a quarter of our country's GDP. Today, it accounts for just 11%... By way of hope, we can note that the decline has been halted in recent years. This is all the more crucial if we consider the following fact: do you know that one industrial job creates 4.5 indirect or induced jobs in the rest of the economy? Let's hope for a rebound of industry in France very soon!
At Les Ponts, the Industry Club is one of the largest in France, with around 2,675 members. It's a wonderful breeding ground and a remarkable collection of talents and points of view for exchanging ideas and contacts, and helping industry move forward. In addition to our alumni, we hope that the school's students, particularly those in the Industrial Engineering stream, will also be interested in our discussions and events. What would you like to see happen? Here's the list of meetings and conferences we'll be striving to organize on a regular basis (if health conditions give us a break!):
- Evening discussions with experts and academics
- Conferences with "captains of industry
- Plant tours
- Networking events
We hope to see many of you at future meetings, and of course welcome your suggestions for enriching the program.
Franck Avedissian (95), Emmanuel Bergerot (95), Ponts Industrie animators
Ponts Alumni professional groups are back in session!No fewer than 7 conferences are scheduled for October, some of them in conjunction with other alumni associations of grandes écoles and/or Ponts pour le Climat label holders:*-*-*🏗"Les galeries urbaines multiréseaux" with Michel GERARD and...
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