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Centenary Challenge “Imagining the Transport of the Future”

15 April 2025

To mark its 100th anniversary, ESTACA launched an internal challenge on the theme of “Imagining the Transport of the Future” for all 3rd and 4th year students. Objective: to suggest innovative approaches to low-carbon, intelligent, connected and autonomous transport. From the 6 finalists, 3 projects received prizes from the challenge’s partners: Dassault Aviation, Safran and Akkodis.

« We were delighted to be able to count on the creativity of our students for this challenge. ESTACA has been supporting innovation in the transport sector for 100 years. Our students once again demonstrated their ability to innovate and project themselves into the challenges of tomorrow by providing concrete, ingenious and original solutions. »
Denis Bertrand
Director of ESTACA

Twenty-five academic projects awarded the Centenary label

Since this challenge was launched last October, 1st and 2nd year engineering students were invited to do a project in teams of 3 to 5, focusing on the transport of the future in a variety of ways: research, industrial partnerships, business start-ups or associative projects… Until January, the School collected and analyzed 25 “ESTACA Centenary” projects representing all its options: aeronautics, automotive, naval, rail and space, at its sites in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Laval and Bordeaux.

« The Centenary, as a backdrop to project-based teaching, offers a great opportunity to step outside the simply technical aspect and mobilize all the skills of a future engineer. These projects are learning opportunities for strategic vision, collective intelligence, environmental responsibility and concrete innovation.  »
Philippe Guibert
Director of Training

Six teams selected for challenge final

An initial selection was made in March, taking into account the innovative nature of the project in terms of sustainable development issues, its maturity and market potential, as well as the quality of the work submitted. Six finalist projects were invited to present their work to a jury of professionals on April 10:

  • Black Gold Sailor, design and commercial deployment of an autonomous robot for harbor and coastal cleaning
  • E-Dolly, design, production and development of an electric robot designed to assist gliders in their movements on the ground
  • NavSight, development of an autonomous navigation solution for a fleet of GPS-less drones
  • Formula Team, design and manufacture of an electric single-seater racing car to take part in the Formula Student challenge
  • CHAPAS, design and construction of a railway test vehicle to facilitate experiments and research to meet the needs of customers involved in the sector
  • CubeSat-Terrarium, modeling, design and fabrication of a terrarium housing pod to demonstrate the viability of self-sufficient ecosystems in space.

Three prize winners honored by the event's corporate partners

The final jury was made up of representatives from the École and transport industry professionals, partners of the event: Safran, Dassault Aviation and Akkodis presented 3 awards:

  • The Sustainable Development Prize was awarded to the project Black Gold Sailor, represented by Tom Baudrin, Baptiste Brieu, Rémi Hangard and Mahé Limousin.
  • The New Mobilities prize was awarded to the project Bluesmart Robotics, represented by Jeanne Reynaud, Antoine Masson and Halil Devret.
  • The Innovation prize was awarded to the project Navsight represented by Clémence Sabot, Maxime Le Clair, Sasha Contrepois and Quentin Landon.

Members of the jury appreciated the quality of the projects presented, some of which directly echoed technologies that manufacturers are currently working on for the future.

« We at Akkodis, a technology leader and driver of industrial innovation, are delighted to be able to support the centenary challenge of ESTACA, a school with which we have strong ties. The projects presented perfectly illustrate our shared vision of the challenges of sustainable mobility and autonomy in the future, and further underline the relevance of ESTACA's training courses in meeting the market's need for innovation. »
Amel Kefif
Director of Partnerships, Akkodis France
« As an international high-technology group operating in the aerospace and defense sectors, Safran supports ESTACA because of its central role in training engineers specialized in mobility. Together, we are committed to meeting the challenge of decarbonization in aeronautics. ESTACA shares our vision of a future where mobility must be sustainable, and prepares students to imagine and design solutions that respect the environment. We'll be building tomorrow's aerospace with them.  »
Pascal Castoriadis
Head of Digital transformation, Safran
« Dassault Aviation works with ESTACA on a number of projects, but this centenary challenge seems particularly interesting to us, as it puts the spotlight on innovation. Being an engineer means inventing what doesn't exist yet, getting together teams and finding the right partners. All the students we listened to made remarkable use of these skills. They're ready to join our companies! »
Christian Lucius
Technical Director, Aircraft and Emports Engineering, Dassault Aviation
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