SPIE Innovathon 2023: for a more attractive, digital and efficient nuclear industry

Paris, February 16, 2023 - SPIE Nucléaire and SPIE ICS, the French subsidiaries of the SPIE Group, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, organized the fourth SPIE Innovathon on January 26 and 27, 2023, dedicated this year to the nuclear sector. This innovation challenge enabled players in the sector to work together to propose innovative projects based on the challenges of skills and knowledge transfer.

Two days to innovate in the nuclear sector

The nuclear and digital edition of the SPIE Innovathon is an innovation challenge initiated by SPIE France and two of its subsidiaries, SPIE Nucléaire and SPIE ICS. For two days, seven teams made up of students (from Epita Lyon and lNSA Lyon) and SPIE employees worked together to devise and prototype innovative solutions for the nuclear industry.

The teams worked on four challenges related to skills and knowledge transfer:

• Developing the 4.0 operator
• Boosting digital transformation
• Innovating in the development of skills
• Attracting talent

The personalities who accompanied the teams as mentors, juries and partners were representative of the entire nuclear sector: EDF, CEA, Orano, GIFEN, Nuclear Valley, SPIE as well as Leyton, Ioga and Aptiskills. Their objective: to contribute to the development of the industry by helping teams in the field in their daily work, sharing best practices and promoting the transmission of knowledge.

"Nuclear power is a future-oriented, low-carbon industry. As the nuclear program in France is relaunched, our priority is to modernize and develop the skills of those involved. This year's Innovathon 2023 comes at a crucial time and aims to bring together new talent from different backgrounds to find the most appropriate solutions," explains Frédérique Weber, Technical Director of SPIE Nucléaire.

3 teams rewarded by key players in the nuclear industry

The winning teams were selected on the basis of several criteria: the innovative nature of the solution, its quality, its reliability and its suitability for the markets of SPIE and its partners.

The jury particularly appreciated the motivation and maturity of the candidates, who, in less than 48 hours, created a dynamic of collective intelligence. Three projects were selected:

1. "Totally SPIE": the project aims to optimize the productivity of central preparation staff, with digital content adapted to the type of field operations
2. "Covo", which guides workers with intelligent and adaptive voice assistance
3. "Safesight": a simple, effective solution that interacts with the installation or equipment to alert the operator to hazards in the field

For SPIE France, the complementary nature of the expertise of SPIE Nucléaire and SPIE ICS has enabled us to come up with initial solutions in several major areas: developing skills for the future and transferring knowledge from one generation to the next through more accessible, interconnected and secure technologies.