What if drones could save lives?
At ISAE, students use the infinite experimentating opportunities of 3DEXPERIENCE to imagine and develop drones with ever more unexpected missions, which may be at the heart of our daily lives… as soon as tomorrow!
As one of the world’s top aerospace engineering schools, the French Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) has been supporting the development of one of the most cutting-edge industries for over 100 years, training their engineers to the highest level of scientific and technical skills.
Thanks to their close relationships with aerospace actors and companies worldwide, ISAE-SUPAERO plays a major role in the sector's development, offering over 33 training programs designed to specifically answer the industry's current and future needs. The school also partners with leading universities in Europe (Cranfield, TU Delft, KTH Stockholm, ETSIA Madrid, TU Munich, Pisa) and North America (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley, etc.).
Addressing the challenges of a fast-changing industry
In order to maintain their international reputation and high level of excellence, ISAE must constantly innovate to meet the fast-evolving technological, environmental and human challenges of the sector. In a world of transition, the aerospace industry demands creative engineers, scientists and professionals who will be able to step back and master increasingly complex techniques and systems, some of which have yet to be invented.
And what better way for the industry's future experts than to use virtual worlds to train, re-train, collaborate, acquire new skills and experiment their ideas over and over? Out of 1,900 students, 350 are already working regularly with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform!
Such is the case of Thomas Zamolo's class, administrator and systems engineering instructor at ISAE. In 2022, Thomas decided to create a module around drones: what if these gems of technology could meet new needs? He formed 6 groups of 5 students, and trusted them with a mission over several months: create the virtual twin of a drone that would demonstrate public utility. From a "fire-extinguishing drone", to a "carrier drone" capable of deploying a swarm of 22 smaller drones, to a "life-saving drone": the team had plenty of ideas!
While training them to master the state-of-the-art tools used daily by industry players, such as the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, this educational method enabled the future engineers to improve their skills in systems engineering, mechatronics and simulation, but also to develop their collaboration and teamwork spirit, and to tackle the management of a project from start to finish.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform of Dassault Systèmes is the key tool for cross-curricular teaching in a collaborative environment.
In the end, it took 90 hours of lessons spread over several half-days to complete this module. The students even 3D-printed their projects and used the virtual reality feature available on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to offer their peers a virtual dive into the depth of their idea!
Thomas is already looking forward to the arrival of the next class to add a little more complexity to his brief and come up with even more innovative drone models (and why not deploy them on a larger scale?).
To be continued...
ISAE-SUPAERO | Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, FRANCE
As one of the top aerospace engineering schools, the school delivers a unique, complete range of high level science and engineering degree programs.
ISAE-SUPAERO is developing a research policy that is very much oriented towards the future needs of industry in the field of aerospace engineering or high technology.
This proximity to the industrial world is also characterized by the development of a policy of sponsorship agreements in strategic areas and by the participation in teaching of many professionals who present to students the latest technological innovations and the best industrial practices.
At the international level, ISAE-SUPAERO cooperates with the best European universities (Cranfield, TU Delft, KTH Stockholm, ETSIA Madrid, TU Munich, Pisa) thanks to the Erasmus+ program, and North American (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley...) universities.