Jordan Mcrae from Ultrascope, some DIY at a planetary scale, during his keynote. © Nicolas Barrial
Dassault Systèmes is launching the 3DExperience Lab, a start-up accelerator. Axelle Lemaire, deputy minister for digital economy, came to foster this program that is ogling in the direction of makers and fablabs.
Dassault Systèmes did things big on November 9 to present the 3DExperience Lab, its brand new aid program for start-ups in the digital economy located at the heart of its campus at Vélizy-Villacoublay, in the Paris suburbs.
Project exhibits, conference in the presence of Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systèmes and, cherry on the cake, a short speech from Axelle Lemaire, the deputy minister for digital economy. It should be noted that this was about Dassault Systèmes displaying its expertise in a strong innovation trend: collective intelligence, crowdsourcing. What Bernard Charlès brought together under the heading “experience economy” during his introduction.
“All entrepreneurs” one could read on the leaflets. Dassault Systèmes is offering to act as one of the facilitators of this movement. Its 3DExperience Lab claims to be an opportunity for start-ups to join the Dassault ecosystem for one year, renewable. The teams, chosen according to their projects, will benefit from an entourage of specialists, international partners, as well as meeting and work premises.
Although the “lab” terminology can appear misleading for an acceleration program, the world of labs is not missing from the proposition, far from it. It is even a hand extended towards the maker movement, cited as an innovation driver, in the speeches of both Axelle Lemaire and Bernard Charlès. In fact, a brand new fablab is at the disposal of residents for small prototyping.
And if that isn’t enough, Usine.io is a partner of the program to dispense mentoring. Finally, when strolling through the hall where drones, 3D printers and robots stood alongside, one easily perceived the “lab culture” color Dassault wanted to give to the program.
However, it is not enough coming with your project under the arm to walk through the doors of this sophisticated campus. There are a number of criteria to meet that Frédéric Vacher, in charge of the program, listed during the presentation. Namely a prerequisite common to all acceleration programs: “scalability”. A term for which one is still seeking an appropriate translation into French but that means that supply needs to adapt to a growing demand.
To put it simply, we are looking for ambition and we are not lacking it at Dassault, with its software that simulates entire cities or, as Bernard Charlès reminded us, the Boeing 777, first plane to have been entirely designed virtually with Dassault Systèmes technologies. The same high performance software that will be at the disposal—training included—of those who will take part in the program.
DIY telescope and organs printed in 3D
One can see the funny side of this promotion of everything virtual in the light of a return to materiality from the maker world. But in digital fabrication there is digital, and at Dassault, we know how to make platforms that allow fast increases in workload. This was pointed out by Thomas Marchand from Biomodex, a project already member of the “3DX Lab”, and who was invited to join Frédéric Vacher on stage.
The start-up strives to reduce surgical accidents by allowing people to train on organs printed in 3D. The Dassault lab was involved in the creation of a project management platform and also in the establishment of a model in mechanics of materials to echo the fragility of organs. According to Thomas Marchand, 3DExperience Lab helped Biomodex to mechanize all the processes, saving precious engineering time.
Then it was Jordan McRae’s turn from Ultrascope to get on the stage. This American maker entrepreneur experienced in the keynote offer nothing less than observing collectively the asteroids that are threatening the Earth through a DIY telescope. So, ambitious projects but also altruistic. The image conveyed undoubtedly counted in the selection. Actually, in exchange for the good offices of Dassault Systèmes, the later has, according to our sources, full rights on the communication of projects.
Finally, each of the two project leaders were asked: “Where were you last week?” And each one of them to name a different place on the planet. This famous worldwide network that Dassault lays claim on and constitutes one of the strong points of the accelerator.
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