Research news - November / December 2024

Yoletty Bracho is a contract lecturer in political science at the Laboratoire des sciences Juridiques, Politique, Économiques et de Gestion (-JPEG).

His thesis work focuses on institutional militancyIn other words, the way in which mobilised actors make strategic use of public structures and goods to advance the causes they are defending.

She is now interested in democratic revolutions, and in particular the way in which dissidence is built up within authoritarian regimes. She is developing these themes on the basis of a long-term field study in Venezuela.

>> Discover her portrait

Sylvain Bertschy is a Junior Professor of Contemporary History at the Centre Norbert Elias (CNE), and holds the chair of "Toxicités et Citoyenneté (ToxCit): Rethinking the protection of populations in the light of environmental crises".

His research questions, on the one hand, the transformations of the medical field and health policies in the XXᵉ century and, on the other, the way in which the toxic colonisation of the world is recomposing socio-territorial inequalities in health.

They aim to understand how historical changes in work and production, particularly their chemical intensification, have contributed to the process of toxification of ecosystems and bodies, and how, in turn, this process puts the historical forms of social and health protection to the test.

>> Discover her portrait

The Implanteus team had the pleasure of taking part in the student trade fair Go Abroad in Utrecht on 29 and 30 November, the largest event in the Netherlands dedicated to promoting study abroad opportunities for Dutch high school and university students.

The event provided an excellent opportunity to present EUR Implanteus to potential future students, and was full of promising encounters and contacts!

The ebook entitled "Origin, conservation, and restoration of the threatened European grassland ecosystem in the Anthropocene" has been published. It is a special issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution as part of the Professor Grégory Mahy from the University of Liège (Agrobiotech) will be in residence at the UMR IMBE. on the premises of the Avignon IUT in 2022. This issue contains 16 articles, seven of which were written by authors from the two laboratories and two in total collaboration. This publication is just one example of the many contributions (conferences, seminars, co-supervision of theses and masters degrees, etc.) resulting from this long-term stay, made possible thanks to the support of the University of Avignon.

Mahy G., Dutoit T., Kiehl K., Bischoff A., Török P. 2024. Origin, conservation, and restoration of the threatened European grassland ecosystem in the Anthropocene. ebook, Lausanne : Frontiers Media SA.

>> Further information

A look back at the Fête de la Science 2024 at Avignon University

The Fête de la Science 2024 once again demonstrated the commitment and enthusiasm of Avignon Université and its partners for sharing science with all publics. Thanks to an exceptional turnout, this year's event offered a rich and varied programme that attracted and captivated a wide audience.

On Saturday 5 October, the Science Village set up on the Place de l'Horloge welcomed between 2,800 and 3,000 visitors came to discover the 35 stands run by researchers, students and partner associations. At the same time, the Café des Sciences organised at Chez Françoise brought together 60 participants for fascinating and convivial discussions. The scientific workshops for schoolchildren, held at the Institut AgES, were also a great success, with more than 1,300 pupils attending over two days.

This year's Fête de la Science has confirmed that it's much more than just an event: it's a unique opportunity for scientific exchange, discovery and mediation, where curiosity and sharing take pride of place. A huge thank you to all those who contributed to its success!

Christophe Asselin, creator of the YouTube channel "Chroniques chaotiques", met researchers from UMR ESPACE to find out more about the FR-ALERT system and its effectiveness.

FR-ALERT is a multi-channel alert platform for reporting an ongoing or imminent danger or threat.

In this video, Johnny Douvinet, Professor of Geography at Avignon University (UMR ESPACE) and project coordinator, and his research team explain how the FR-ALERT platform works.

>> Find out more about the FR-ALERT project

ALERT-KNOW project: Results of the IPSOS survey: "Alert culture".

As part of the Alert-kNOW (2023-2025), co-funded by Avignon University, the UMR ESPACE 7300 CNRS, the MAIF Foundation for Research and the French Association for the Prevention of Natural and Technological Disasters (AFPCNT), a survey on the "whistleblowing culture" was conducted by the IPSOS polling institutebased on a representative sample of 3,197 people aged 18 and over in mainland France and the French Overseas Departments and Regions (DROM), surveyed online from 8 to 18 October 2024.

The aim of the survey was to take stock of people's knowledge, needs and expectations in the area of risk warning, and to identify the pillars needed to instil this culture of warning in people's minds and bodies.

>> Full results online here
>> Discover the Alert-kNOW project

The aim of this project is to democratise the use of artificial intelligence in the medical field. The two-year project brings together 32 partners, including research laboratories, healthcare establishments (public and private) and companies.

PARTAGES aims to develop large language models (such as ChatGPT) specifically adapted to the healthcare sector. These models, offered as open source to encourage widespread adoption, will serve as the basis for a wide variety of generative AI applications in healthcare. In this way, the project aims to contribute to improving the French healthcare system by enhancing the quality of the work done by carers and the patient-carer relationship.

>> Find out more about the "Digital Commons for Generative Artificial Intelligence" call for projects
>> See the Health Data Hub press release

On 13 November 2024, Avignon Université hosted the 5ᵉ edition of the IA Festival, an annual event organised by the LIAvignon chair and the Avignon Computer Science Laboratory (LIA). This edition was dedicated to the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare, with a particular focus on mental health and new medical practices.

Throughout the day, researchers, experts and professionals took part in conferences and round tables open to the general public.
The event enabled the various speakers to delve into the practical applications of AI in medicine, while also addressing the ethical and social challenges it raises.

The day before, on 12 November, the members of the Chair met for the LIAvignon Chair Council and took part in workshops organised by the Chair.

The IA 2024 festival received extensive regional media coverage.

>> Find out more about the LIAvignon Chair
>> See the press article in the Dauphiné Libéré - 15/11/2024
>> See the article in La Marseillaise - 14/11/2024

• The GeEAUde Chair is delighted to announce its first scientific publication as part of Houssne Bouimouass's post-doctorate fellowship. This is a worldwide analysis of coastal and underwater freshwater sources: spatial distribution, control factors and probability of occurrence.
  
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• The GeEAUde Chair Steering Committee was held on 4 October, bringing together some forty representatives of the GeEAUde Chair's partner members.

• Since 10 April 2024, the ESAIP engineering school is a partner member of the Green and Sustainable Plant Chemistry Chair.
• The Chair was delighted to welcome Aya Kamoune (Morocco), a doctoral student at Cadi Ayyad University, in the "Water and Energy" laboratory (Marrakech), for one month. Her thesis topic is: "Evaluation of the effect of irrigation with urban wastewater, treated wastewater and well water on the physico-chemical composition of mint essential oil". She worked on the objectives related to the thesis: "Physico-chemical analysis of the composition of the various essential oils obtained".
• The Scientific Advisory Board of the UNESCO Green and Sustainable Plant Chemistry Chair was held on Thursday 21 November. It was an opportunity to present the comic strip: "The incredible adventure of oils".produced in collaboration with Avignon University's APUI unit. This comic book accompanies the essential oil extraction kit, a dissemination tool.

GIF Chair - Geodata Immobilier FOncier

• Pierre Le Brunmember of the GIF chair who is defending her thesis on property development on 16 Decemberspoke on Monday 2 December in a France Culture report on the replacement of sports facilities by residential developments.
  
  >> Click here to listen

• The board meeting of the GIF - Géodata Immobilier Foncier chair was held on Friday 13 December, bringing together around twenty representatives of the partners.

When academic expertise and industrial needs meet

Skilit, a young company based in Aix-en-Provence, has just been awarded the trophy for the most promising academic collaboration in the context of its collaboration with the Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon (LIA). The prize was awarded by the AKTANTIS competitiveness cluster (formerly SCS) on 19 November 2024.

Towards a better understanding of language by machines

SKILIT stands out for its innovative hybrid technology, combining symbolic and connectionist AI (i.e. based on neural networks) with meaning reference systems based on human expertise.
This approach enables machines to better "understand" natural language, thus offering more reliable and explainable solutions, which are imperative criteria for industrial applications.
SKILIT's research and development is based on two licences with SATT Sud Est, accompanied by co-maturation programmes on technologies developed by Pierre Jourlin (LIA). In addition, half of SKILIT's staff are researchers, including a CIFRE contract with the LEST/CNRS laboratory at AMU - Aix Marseille University.

>> Read more