News

The second edition of the Nice Entrepreneurship Festival was held at the EDHEC campus, bringing together students from EDHEC Entrepreneurs and EURECOM. The event highlighted innovation, entrepreneurial leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration, offering 200 students the chance to engage with a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem and discover exciting opportunities.

An event full of learning and networking

The event kicked off with a series of thematic booths hosted by EDHEC Entrepreneurs, where participants engaged with experts, entrepreneurs, and investors. These booths served as platforms for students to initiate future projects, connect with mentors, or even secure internships.

The first panel discussion, "Leadership and Entrepreneurial Mindset: The 3 Mistakes I’ll Never Make Again!", captivated everyone. Seasoned entrepreneurs shared personal stories of failure and growth, offering valuable insights on cultivating a resilient and innovative mindset.

Next, Sibyle Behaghel led an interactive talk about GENERATIONs, an investment fund powered by EDHEC and managed by Ring Capital. The discussion centered on the critical role of investment in nurturing ambitious entrepreneurial initiatives.

Innovation and AI: shaping the future

A key highlight of the festival was the panel "AI for the Common Good?" moderated by Michelle Sisto. The panel featured Prof. Maria Zuluaga from EURECOM, who recently secured €2 million in ERC funding for her CARAVEL project, and Pablo Fernández, CEO of ArtinLeap. Together, they explored how artificial intelligence can drive sustainable, impactful projects.

Building synergies between EURECOM and EDHEC

The collaboration between EURECOM and EDHEC brings valuable synergies for students seeking to pursue ambitious entrepreneurial and technological endeavors. A prime example of this partnership is the “Engineer-Manager” dual degree program offered by EURECOM. This program allows students to combine their engineering studies with EDHEC’s Grande École program, earning both a degree from EDHEC’s PGE and an engineering degree from EURECOM.

The involvement of incubators such as EDHEC’s TechForward, IMT Starter, and EURECOM’s own incubator further highlights the commitment of both institutions to supporting the growth of promising startups.

Inspiring the future

Beyond the insightful talks and workshops, the festival provided a valuable platform for enriching connections. The Nice Entrepreneurship Festival underscores how combining complementary expertise can create a dynamic environment for innovation. The ongoing collaboration between EURECOM and EDHEC is paving the way for a future where technology and entrepreneurship come together to address tomorrow’s challenges.

We look forward to an even more inspiring third edition next year!
 

© Lucie WERNER 

EURECOM, a leading European engineering school and research laboratory in the digital field, announces the creation of CIRCALIS (High-Performance Computing for Collaborative Research in Learning and Artificial Intelligence – Région Sud), a computing center dedicated to AI, in partnership with Région Sud. This strategic project, backed by a €3 million investment over two and a half years, will enable EURECOM to acquire powerful computing equipment, including state-of-the-art GPUs, to support its educational offerings and applied research in AI.

CIRCALIS: A Driver of Training and Innovation at EURECOM

As part of its AI roadmap, defined in spring/summer 2024, Région Sud is committed to fostering an environment conducive to AI development through strategic actions in training, business integration, and infrastructure enhancement. The CIRCALIS project aligns with this vision by accelerating two complementary objectives:

• Developing high-level educational programs in AI, tailored for engineers and doctoral students.
• Advancing applied AI research, including R&D collaborations with the industrial ecosystem in areas such as AI for healthcare, automotive, digital security, and future networks.

The CIRCALIS center, dedicated to artificial intelligence, will be hosted at EURECOM, an institution with an international reputation in digital sciences and data science. Thanks to its engineering programs delivered in English and its research initiatives in collaboration with industry, EURECOM plays a key role in strengthening regional expertise in AI. Each year, around 170 students graduate from EURECOM’s programs at the engineering, Master of Science, and PhD levels, which place a strong emphasis on AI and data science.

High-Performance Computing for Education and Research

CIRCALIS will enhance EURECOM’s existing computing resources, developed through European projects, ERC initiatives, and its co-founding role in the interdisciplinary 3IA Côte d’Azur center. This expansion will be carried out in partnership with Région Sud through equal co-funding from EURECOM’s own resources and regional public subsidies.

The new computing infrastructure will provide students and researchers with privileged access to high-performance computing resources, essential for exploring advanced AI technologies while ensuring data confidentiality. The goals are to:

• Train the next generation of talent (researchers and engineers).
• Support companies in meeting their recruitment needs for AI experts.
• Foster the development of new-generation concepts through R&D programs with partner companies.

Resource Sharing for Collaborative Innovation

The CIRCALIS center’s equipment will not only benefit EURECOM but will also be accessible to:

• Academic partners, particularly through European (Horizon Europe), national (ANR), and regional projects such as 3IA Côte d’Azur.
• Industrial partners, including members of EURECOM’s consortium (BMW, Orange, NortonLifeLock, IABG, the Principality of Monaco) and over 40 other major players in the digital sector. The computing capabilities of the CIRCALIS center will be pivotal in advancing collaborative industrial research activities.
• Local start-ups, supported by the Techforward incubator in partnership with EDHEC and Institut Mines-Télécom, which benefit from EURECOM’s technological expertise, particularly for their AI-related projects. CIRCALIS will facilitate access to GPU computing tools to support their development within the framework of specific collaborations.

A Sustainable Project with a Shared Vision for the Future

The launch of CIRCALIS coincides with the commissioning of the SUNrecom solar farm on EURECOM’s campus. This network of solar panels, spanning several hundred square meters, will supply one-third of the computing center’s energy needs, contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly use of computing resources. CIRCALIS represents an innovative approach, promoting the use of renewable energy to meet growing computing demands.

For more information about the CIRCALIS project and EURECOM’s AI programs, please contact:

EURECOM is proud to announce that Prof. Maria A. Zuluaga, from the school’s Data Science department, has been awarded the prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This €2 million grant, distributed over five years, will support her groundbreaking project CARAVEL, which aims to revolutionize the analysis of neurovascular images at multiple scales using fundamental AI methodologies developed at EURECOM. Collaborating with neurologists and researchers from King's College London and Nice University Hospital, the ambitious project is set up for success, enhancing EURECOM’s leading role in artificial intelligence, including for medical applications.

Advancing neuroscience with CARAVEL

The CARAVEL project seeks to develop the first population-level multi-resolution spatiotemporal atlas of the ageing vascular architecture of the brain. By addressing the critical methodological challenges in extracting, modelling, and analyzing the brain vessel tree, CARAVEL promises to unlock new insights into the mechanisms of ageing and neurological diseases onset. This initiative leverages cutting-edge advancements in AI, computer vision, statistics, and medicine to map cerebral blood vessels with unprecedented precision, robustness and reproducibility.

CARAVEL’s openly accessible atlas and tools will empower the scientific community to explore new hypotheses, gain deeper insights into the neurovascular system, and better understand its interaction with the brain. The project’s broader impacts include accelerating health research, uncovering vascular contributions to diseases, and shaping new clinical applications for society’s benefit.

AI for brain health

CARAVEL will enable physicians and researchers to test hypotheses about the brain’s vascular network, contributing to innovations in diagnostics, treatment, and preventative medicine. Its focus on creating reproducible and robust methodologies ensures that the tools developed will have lasting and scalable benefits for both research and clinical practice.

Professor Maria A. Zuluaga explains the significance of CARAVEL: “Despite huge progress in brain research, much about the brain’s vascular system remains a mystery. With CARAVEL, we aim to shed light on this hidden architecture and its role in health and disease. This ERC grant gives us the resources to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

Recognition for EURECOM and Sophia Antipolis

David Gesbert, Director of EURECOM, highlights CARAVEL’s alignment with the institution’s mission: “We are thrilled to see Maria’s vision materialize into a project of this scale. CARAVEL reflects EURECOM’s dedication to combining cutting-edge research with impactful societal contributions. It also strengthens our role in training future engineers through exposure to school projects in the rapidly growing field of AI for health.”

About Maria A. Zuluaga

Maria A. Zuluaga joined EURECOM in 2019 and, since 2021, she is also a Visiting Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. Her academic journey spans electronic engineering, computer science, and signal and image processing, with BSc and MSc degrees from Universidad del Valle and Universidad de los Andes, respectively, in Colombia, and a PhD degree from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France). Before EURECOM, she had a brief experience as a researcher in industry and was a Senior Research Associate at University College London.

Maria’s work is an inspiration for young women in STEM, showcasing that scientific innovation is accessible and essential for addressing global challenges. As a research chair holder at the Institut 3IA Côte d'Azur, she actively fosters AI research in France while inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Contact Information

For further details on CARAVEL and EURECOM’s research initiatives, please reach out to:
Prof. Maria A. Zuluaga
Professor, Data Science Department, EURECOM

Hats off to Professor Raymond Knopp for being elevated to IEEE Fellow for his contributions to multi-user diversity and open radio access networks. Raymond Knopp teaches graduate courses in "Digital Communication" and "Signal Processing Theory and Technologies". He also participates in continuing education programs for industry, on behalf of EURECOM, on specific topics of interest to wireless communication systems.

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the world's largest technical professional organization, with over 400,000 members in more than 160 countries. Election to the rank of IEEE Fellow is one of the highest honors the Institute can bestow on its members in recognition of their technical, educational and leadership achievements.