Chairs
Research chairs allow the Henri Fayol Institute to coordinate its scientific activities with high-level academic and industrial partnerships. They aim to strengthen both academic excellence and innovation by combining advanced research and training.
Since 2011, the French National Research Agency (ANR) has also offered an industrial chairs scheme, designed to bolster the competitiveness of French companies. This programme is based on three pillars:
- the establishment of excellence-driven training through research in strategic fields;
- the mobilisation of expertise from renowned professor-researchers;
- and the co-construction of research strategy with partner companies, following a logic of transfer and innovation.
Multidisciplinary thematic workshops
Since 2022, the Henri Fayol Institute has organised multidisciplinary thematic workshops to mobilise the expertise of its four departments around cross-cutting issues. Two initial workshops were conducted between 2022 and 2024: one on creating a building digital twin (DataBat), and the other on digital sobriety (BENUR). A third workshop, dedicated to circular economy and innovation, began in 2025.
Context
Implementing a building digital twin opens up a wide range of practical and scientific challenges. For owners, landlords, or tenants, it provides a better understanding of the thermal behaviour of the building within a framework of energy efficiency. Academically, it serves as a field of exploration for themes such as low-tech innovation, statistical modelling, image analysis, machine learning, cybersecurity, privacy, data and system interoperability, and distributed equipment management.
The DataBat project involves developing an interactive visualisation platform integrating the IFC model (Industry Foundation Classes), an object-oriented standard for building modelling. The web interface displays both historical and real-time data from sensors deployed in the building (temperature, humidity, etc.). Via an administration interface, the user can also control certain equipment, such as heating.
A prototype of the digital twin for the Henri Fayol Institute building, the first experimental site, is currently under development and accessible via a web interface.
Implementation
The developments carried out within the DataBat workshop are deployed on the Territoire Platform, the Henri Fayol Institute’s experimental infrastructure dedicated to interdisciplinary projects.
References and publications
ANR CosWot Project
Intelligent and decentralized applications on constrained objects using Semantic Web technologies for smart buildings and sustainable agriculture.
Website
Spring Hackathon 2021
A digital twin project for a building on the Saint-Étienne campus, Espace Fauriel, for the Territoire platform.
Article, News.
Sébastien Natchez, IMT – MINES Saint-Étienne – Henri Fayol Institute – LIMOS UMR 6158
Thermal Modeling of the Fauriel Building.
Arun Raveendran Nair Sheela M1 – CPS2 Student
Digital Twin of a Smart Building
Deng, Menassa and Kamat (2021)
Building Digital Twin Maturity Levels.
Thesis prepared by Zehor Thilleli Hounas
A hybrid approach of semantic modeling and co-simulation for better consideration of physical phenomena in a smart building.
Towards more reasoned artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years, scientifically, economically, and politically. Driven by an ambitious national strategy—representing an investment of €1.5 billion over five years—researchers and companies are mobilising to develop new uses within a dynamic of innovation and competitiveness.
This enthusiasm is largely explained by recent advances in machine learning, made possible by the development of digital technologies and the massive availability of data. AI raises many hopes, particularly regarding process optimisation and improving living conditions.
However, this rise raises major environmental questions. The deployment of AI technologies requires significant computing and data collection infrastructure, the carbon footprint of which is far from negligible. While some argue that AI can help improve energy efficiency, it could also generate rebound effects, as observed in other sectors: efficiency gains can lead to increased usage and therefore, paradoxically, increased impacts.
In this context, it is essential to rigorously quantify the environmental impact of AI and produce analyses to guide its development towards more sober and controlled uses. The goal: to encourage reasoned artificial intelligence, reconciling technological innovation, performance, and sustainability.
The circular economy: a strategic axis for the Henri Fayol Institute
Faced with environmental and economic challenges related to resource management, the circular economy is emerging as an essential strategy for rethinking production and consumption patterns. Based on principles such as sobriety, reuse, recycling, and territorial industrial ecology (TIE), it calls for profound transformations—technological, social, and regulatory.
The Henri Fayol Institute of Mines Saint-Étienne is actively committed to this field through an interdisciplinary approach combining environmental engineering and management sciences.
In engineering, the Institute develops tools and methods to evaluate, plan, and manage sustainable territorial solutions, particularly regarding the valorisation of waste-resources and the assessment of practice sustainability. This work relies on the Territoire platform, which offers decision-support systems adapted to multi-scale and multi-stakeholder issues.
In management sciences, research focuses on the synergies between circular economy and sustainable innovation, with the ambition of designing models that combine economic performance and environmental efficiency. The Institute is also interested in the dynamics of interaction between stakeholders—companies, public authorities, civil society—within a framework of shared governance.