The Orano Awards 2024 reward six employee projects
Orano is closing its fourth edition of its Awards, the objective of which was to highlight projects carried out by its employees. In the “Sustainable Business” category, a project was rewarded for the valorization of co-products with a view to competitive European production of scandium. The category “Growing business” distinguished an initiative exploiting Americium 241 for terrestrial and space uses. In terms of performance, an anti-corrosion protection process was praised, while the price “Committed and collaborative company” rewarded a project aimed at integrating participatory clauses into calls for tender. Furthermore, the Orano Days forum, designed to promote the group’s professions and innovations, was awarded an award in the category “Human wealth”. Two special prizes were also awarded: an ergonomic prosthesis project to improve the working conditions of an employee and an educational journey around the atom cycle, selected by employees.
Microsoft launches a generative AI program within the Belle de Mai Incubator
Microsoft announces the creation of its GenAI Studio Sud during the 25th anniversary of the Belle de Mai Incubator in Marseille. This program aims to raise awareness of generative artificial intelligence among local businesses. Scheduled for January 2025, it is structured around four themes: discovery of AI, responsibility, security and project deployment. With this program, Microsoft wants to reach 150 regional companies, ranging from startups to SMEs, through support sessions. At the end of the program, three companies will be selected for specific three-month monitoring in collaboration with technology partners such as Nvidia, Mistral AI and GitHub. The initiative, carried out in partnership with the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, is part of a broader plan to promote AI on a regional scale, and aims in particular to facilitate the adoption of AI technologies. artificial intelligence in a context where their use is still emerging for many structures.
Quobly partners with STMicroelectronics to industrialize its silicon qubits
Quobly, a startup from the CEA and the CNRS, enters into a partnership with STMicroelectronics to develop its silicon qubit technology in order to make possible the industrial production of quantum processors using the 28 nm FD-SOI process. A first chip with 100 qubits should see the light of day in 2026, before increasing capacity with a million physical qubits by 2031. The choice of silicon, already mastered by the semiconductor industry, aims to reduce costs and simplify mass production. Unlike superconducting technologies, silicon qubits offer greater miniaturization potential, which facilitates their integration into existing infrastructures. Quobly also plans to offer remote access to its qubits via OVHcloud from 2025, to allow companies and researchers to test applications on its processors.
Hub France IA: a 2025 map of startups dedicated to AI and the ecological transition
The France IA Hub announces the 2025 edition of its mapping of French startups and innovative suppliers in artificial intelligence. This new edition will include a specific section devoted to the ecological transition, in collaboration with institutional and private actors specializing in this area. The initiative is part of the objective pursued for two years to promote more responsible AI, in particular via a partnership with the Ecolab of the General Commission for Sustainable Development and the development of a general framework for frugal AI. A committee of experts composed of ADEME, the think tank The Shift Project, the Banque des Territoires and the Métropole du Grand Paris, among others, will be responsible for evaluating the applications. This committee will analyze the solutions proposed by the startups taking into account ecological and economic issues. The project is also part of the broader framework of DeployAI, a program supported by the European Commission aimed at deploying a map of AI actors in the 27 member countries. The map will be unveiled in April 2025 during a public event, and applications are now open for companies wishing to be included.
