INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

the entrepreneurial adventure at ensait

ENSAIT wishes to strengthen the place of entrepreneurship and innovation in engineering education, and to devote greater openness to future sectors. The entrepreneurial spirit is linked to qualities such as long-term vision, creativity, the ability to take risks, etc., qualities that are essential in all professional situations.
It is therefore important that all engineers are made aware of this and are able to develop it in their training. In the same way, it is more particularly a question of imbuing students with the culture of innovation on a daily basis, in particular by developing more teaching activities involving situations linked to the research activities of the School’s teacher-researchers.

Educational activities related to innovation and entrepreneurship in the engineering curriculum

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

1st year: "Corporate culture" module

Students approach the company from a human perspective by identifying its organisational mode, its decision-making mode and the interactions between teams and employees with a view to adopting the appropriate professional posture.

2nd year: "Business strategies" module

This course helps the student engineer, as a future manager, to be able to collect and exploit relevant financial information to help him/her in his/her missions, in particular as a decision-maker.

3rd year: Parallel course "Business creation and entrepreneurship" at Ecole Centrale de Lille

Several 3rd year engineering students (4 to 5 per year) participate each year in this parallel course. This inter-school training aims to give the managerial keys to the creation of innovative companies and to develop the students' propensity for entrepreneurship as well as their leadership.

3rd year: End-of-studies project | Company creation

A pedagogical contract is offered to entrepreneurial students who wish to work on their business creation project as part of their final year project. The timetable and location of the end-of-studies project are adapted for these students, as well as the methods of pedagogical supervision

innovation

2nd year: "30 hours to innovate" project

In the "30 hours to innovate" project that 2nd year students follow, they must, in teams of 5 or 6, define an innovative application on the basis of scientific contributions in several fields

3rd year classical training: "SPRINT" project

This is a 100-hour project for groups of 4 people whose educational objective is to design a product in an innovative context. Each person must show initiative and great organisation to manage the project from start to finish and, in particular, to order the material, plan an economic model, meet the specifications, and convince people during fund-raising.

3rd year apprenticeship: "Textile Innovation" project

The 3rd year apprentices carry out the Textile Innovation Project, the aim of which is to develop an innovative functional textile

incubation : EURAMATERIALS

EuraMaterials, the North European cluster for new materials processing industries, has defined, among other missions, that of reinforcing the competitiveness of companies through innovation, but also of supporting project leaders in their progress and the structuring of their concept by giving them the necessary keys to entrepreneurship and company creation.

Close links and regular collaboration on these two strong pillars of EuraMaterials exist with ENSAIT.

EuraMaterials is currently hosting several young ENSAIT engineers with innovative projects who wish to create their own company in its “Un Cube Axel” incubator.

In line with the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” option offered in the 3rd year of the ENSAIT engineering course, EuraMaterials helps to raise awareness of business creation among the school’s students and doctoral candidates and then assists them in evaluating and developing their projects. In the technical development of the proposed innovation, the establishment of relationships with relevant industrialists and partners and the mobilisation of adequate resources within the framework of its accelerated incubation offer.